Children’s ministry planning can be challenging.  There are many different areas to consider to help bring kids to know who God is, what He’s done in history and ultimately how He has revealed Himself in Jesus.  This brief document on Children’s Ministry Planning may give you a running start on how to think through the options and prepare for the year.  The PowerPoint slides include:

• Starting point: A list of the key Bible texts about training children that guide all decision making
• Overview: Visual representation of the four elements of children’s ministry including the key questions of what to teach, how to teach, who teaches and who it’s taught to guided by the goal of maturity in Christ
• Goal: Explanation of what maturity in Christ looks like across knowing, being and doing with example milestones.  The know, be, do framework starts with learning (transforming the mind), which then changes our heart through the work of the Spirit and then results in action (Ephesians 2:10)
• Children: Brief profile of children so that they are taught at the right level.  For example, kids that are in Christian homes or attend Christian schools will have a very different level of understanding than others who have no Christian influence outside of church.  As a result, different curriculum and teaching method will be employed for different sets of students
• Curriculum: Comparison of facts about each curriculum under consideration.  This could easily be further fleshed out into a more complete assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each
• Curriculum (continued): Components of the curriculum to consider include how it deals with systematic, Biblical and practical theology along with the spiritual disciplines and church history
• Pedagogy: Questions to consider about how the lessons are delivered and based on the learning styles and needs of the children
• Delivery: Questions to consider about who teaches and how to monitor that the material is delivered

One other article to review is teaching techniques to improve learning, which provides you with ideas for how to make the lessons stick better.