Offering you specialist training in Children’s Ministry

Would you like to receive training in the quickest possible time?

Then you should consider either attending or hosting one of our Children's Ministry Seminars.

In each Children's Ministry Seminar, David Goodwin covers five essential subjects for all children's teachers, ministry workers and religious education teachers.

Effective training in the quickest and least expensive way

David Goodwin, the International Director of Kidsreach, is a leading children's pastor who ministers in leaders seminars and conferences in different countries of the world - across many denomination.

About David Goodwin
Dip Couns. Grad Dip Min. Cert IV in AWT

David Goodwin is the Director of Kidsreach, an International organisation that has as its mission to train, resource, encourage and equip those who work with children. Kidsreach has offices in Sydney (Australia), Paraparaumu (NZ) and Kandy (Sri Lanka). David is a pastor, counsellor, lecturer and trainer and has written extensively on children’s ministry and counselling subjects and trains leaders in many countries of the world. David can be reached on davidgoodwin@kidsreach.org.au

David has a passion to motivate your church and workers to see the importance of reaching children. If you want to save the world, you have to save the children

Children’s Ministry Seminars are an innovative idea to help Churches and workers who find organising training programs either too expensive or just too difficult to get busy people committed to attending.

In one six-hour training program, five subjects are covered in a format that is fun and easy to listen to, yet highly productive training. Most 'Seminars' are held from 9am to 4pm Saturday.

Children’s Ministry Seminars are planned well ahead. See the panel to the right for details. Or you could invite Kidsreach to send David Goodwin to your church or town and you could easily host your own Children's Ministry Seminar. You need to provide a venue, refreshments (delegates provide their own lunch) and advertise it in your town. More details by contacting Kidsreach.

More subjects are added from time to time, so please ask if you have a request that is not included in the list. Seminars are held in New Zealand, Australia and Sri Lanka. They could also be held in other countries.

Topics to choose from:

You choose the subjects - five subjects each CM Seminar

• Active Listening
• Class-room control
• Child Development: Faith Development
• Child Development #2 Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs.
• Teaching with object lessons
• Teaching with stories
• How to get the best out of your curriculum
• Counselling: Helping children in grief
• Counselling: Introduction to counselling children
• Counselling: Working with children who have ADD or ADHD
• How to be a great teacher
• Working with special needs children
• Leading children to salvation.
• Follow up: Leading children from Salvation to Discipleship.
• Discovery Teaching
• Pastoral Care of Children
• Theology of Children
• Safety and Protection Protocol - Duty of Care
• Running a Children’s Camp
• Holiday and After School Outreaches.
• & in NZ or NSW - Teaching Religious Education in State Primary Schools

Topic Descriptions

Active Listening

The leader-child relationship should be built on trust, respect, and sharing and above all, attentive listening to the child. This is sometimes called Active Listening or Empathetic Listening. Active Listening empowers the child who is doing the talking by helping them understand their situation better and often opens their thinking to other and better choices they can make. In this workshop you will learn how you can develop active listening skills.

Child Development: Faith Development

The development of faith is closely connected to the natural processes of human growth and development. Faith is interwoven with these so we should look for faith characteristics appropriate for children at different stages in their development. This will take account of emotional as well as intellectual maturing.

In this workshop we look at a number of clearly defined stages as we grow up. Each stage has its own characteristics and builds upon the previous ones. John the busy bouncy 2 year old will become John the 7 year old who loves stories, who will become John the 9 year old who enjoys being with his friends, who will become John the 13 year old who wants to be ‘in’ with his mates.

Child Development #2 Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

According to Maslow, every child has four levels of needs and three higher levels of growth. These needs are in a hierarchy, starting with basic needs such as food and drink and lead to higher needs such as need for knowledge and understanding. In this seminar we look at how an understanding of how we can meet the needs of children at each level in order to lead them to know and grow in Christ.

Teaching With Object Lessons

In this workshop you will learn how an object lesson uses familiar objects to teach spiritual truths. They are more than a visual aid. They use an object the children are familiar with and use it to draw out spiritual truth. Because the objects are real and understandable, they make learning come alive. They can be used in small and large groups and are an effective counselling tool.

Teaching With Stories

With the use of modern visual technologies such as television, movies and computers, it might be thought that children no longer respond to simple story telling. Nothing could be further from the truth. The rapport and connection with a live storyteller is what makes the story a wonderful tool. Listeners can feel and respond to the passion of a live speaker which is not possible to the same extent with other mediums. In this workshop you will learn how you can be an effective storyteller and develop your story telling skills.

How To Get The Best Out Of Your Curriculum

A curriculum is a teaching tool that some teachers can make exciting, relevant and inspiring. Other teachers may use the dame material but it comes across boring. In this workshop we look at how you can take any curriculum and use it to be an effective and lively teaching tool.

Counselling: Helping Children In Grief

Christians have not been encouraged to grieve, many have never seen a dead body and death is still a subject to be avoided. Tears are perceived to be a sign that the person is lacking in faith. The Bible does not teach it is wrong to grieve or to weep, quite the reverse. The Bible gives many examples of weeping and mourning over death of a loved one. Childhood is a time of great change due to normal and abnormal events. In this workshop we talk about how to recognise symptoms of grief and how to help children through difficult times in their life.

Counselling: Introduction To Counselling Children

In this workshop you will learn skills and techniques for counselling children who suffer from grief, neglect, abuse and trauma. We look at the counselling process including: the counselling relationship; listening skills; counselling techniques; bringing counselling to a conclusion.

Counselling: Working With Children Who Have ADD or ADHD

ADD/ADHD is a medical condition but it is also a label that implies psychiatric illness and abnormality. Most children hate the label because it gives no hope. Others hide behind the label as an excuse for their behaviour. ADD is often associated with badly behaved or naughty children. In this workshop we define ADD and learn how to remove the label that ADD children are abnormal or sick and instead see that they have strengths that can be assets

How To Be A Great Teacher

Children are not satisfied with teachers who simply use the lesson time to fill them full of facts and demand nothing more than strict attention and a listening ear. The lesson time is an exciting opportunity to present God’s Word with children. The word of God is dynamic and life-changing. It is his message to the world.

In this workshop we will learn how successful a teacher is in communicating this life changing message, comes down to three things:

• Personal preparation
• Planning the lesson
• Making the lesson meaningful.

Working With Special Needs Children

Children who are handicapped or have learning disorders, may not appear to have the brainpower of other children, but locked inside their bodies, are all the feelings and emotions of ‘normal’ children. They need to be exposed to the love of God.

In this workshop we learn how to react to the person - not their handicap. Touch them, share with them! The disabled child wants to be loved, accepted and to succeed. A handicap does not lessen the need for the personality or emotions to develop. Every child needs to be able to love and to be loved.

Class-Room Control

We have all had children who take us to the very edge, try our patience, and challenge our authority. They disrupt the class and any rules or controls we put in place are ineffective. These children have no fear of any consequences with which we threaten them. Our dream to lead these children to Christ and disciple them, instead becomes a nightmare. In this session, we look at the subject of Classroom control and how the ultimate aim of ‘Discipline’ is to lead children to ‘Discipleship’.

Leading Children To Salvation

There is no experience compared with seeing a child really come to know Jesus and to see the security and happiness that comes as a result to that child's life.

In terms of a person's life and calling, there is no more important time to receive Jesus than as a child. In terms of the ongoing ministry of the church, there is no more important work than leading children to Jesus The responsibility of the church is to evangelise children before it is too late for them.

In this workshop we demonstrate a simple yet effective method of leading children to Jesus and what are the pitfalls that need to be avoided.

Follow Up: Leading Children to Discipleship

Children need follow up after they have made a decision for Christ to ensure that have every opportunity to grow to discipleship. In this workshop we look at the most important things a child needs to leant and how to mentor the child in their new found faith.

We also do a brief look at how to use the Follow up With Foxy - a new Follow up system using the Foxy Cards developed by Kidsreach.

Discovery Teaching

Children learn best when they discover truth for themselves. The teacher is no longer primarily the instructor. They are primarily a motivator.

In this workshop, you will learn the three Steps to learning which are:

• Ideas: Understanding what is taught – cognitive. You know it you can repeat it. Know the rules
• Actions – Skills Psychomotor.
• Feelings – Affective. Do I like the game?

You will also learn what it means to coach the children so they can learn by experiencing the lesson.

Pastoral Care of Children and Families

A pastor is responsible to God for the spiritual welfare of the church (Acts 20:28). The word pastor emphasizes the responsibility of caring for the church, as a shepherd cares for the sheep and implies the nourishing of and caring for God’s people. In this workshop we learn about your important role to care, nurture, mentor, feed and counsel children.

Theology of Children

In this workshop we look at what the Bible says about children and children's ministry and give you a brief look at some significant historical events that have given rise to the modern evangelical Sunday School or Children's Ministry as we know it today. This subject will have a profound affect on the way you do children's ministry and why you do it.

Safety and Protection Protocol - Duty of Care

It is our responsibility to ensure the safety and well being of all the young people and children in our care and to safeguard them from any danger of abuse. We also need to safeguard workers from allegations that can arise from careless and unwise behaviour.

This will start with developing a mission statement that promises all will be done to ensure children are cared for in an open and safe manner.

We cover these subjects in this workshop as well as recruitment of workers, how to run a children’s program in a safe, open and protective environment as well as what to do if a leader suspects children have been abused. We also have a brief look at how to recognise signs of abuse.

Running a Children’s Camp

Camp ministry offers a unique opportunity to reach children. They offer a different dimension to outreaching children and ministering to Christian children that is not possible in a 1 or 2 hour program.
In this workshop you will learn how to use a camp to provide positive experiences for children and young people to counter the many negative influences children face in society, how camp should be an adventure but it must be safe as well as fun, challenging and enjoyable.

Holidays and After School Outreaches

After school and holiday programs, offer an opportunity to reach un-churched children, with the gospel. In this workshop you will learn how to build an effective program with the workers and facilities you have available.