Training and Skills Recommended Resources
For some churches, those who work with children and families may have had little formal experience of teaching. Barnabas for Children is here to help resource and train this valuable group of individuals.
Recommended resources include:
- Core Skills for Children's Work
- More Core Skills for Children's Work
- The Growth of Love
- Growing Young Leaders
- Ready to Lead
- All-Age Worship
Core Skills for Children's Work
This training scheme seeks to resource all those who work with children in the church, and provides part of the foundational training for children's leaders in the Methodist Church and United Reformed Church. The material draws on the expertise of a wide ecumenical team under the guidance of the Consultative Group on Ministry among Children (CGMC). Each module is creative and interactive, making it highly accessible as one-off two-hour training programmes for children's leaders within the local church. The six stand-alone modules cover key areas of children's work:
- Child development
- Leadership skills
- Programme planning
- Children and community
- Pastoral awareness
- Spirituality and the Bible
All material has been piloted by a wide network of church traditions, drawn from CTBI (Churches Together in Britain and Ireland).
More Core Skills for Children's Work
Building on the foundational teaching provided in Core Skills for Children's Work, this complementary resource offers six key modules of extended training for children's workers and their teams of adult helpers and young leaders. The material draws further on the expertise of a wide ecumenical team under the guidance of the Consultative Group on Ministry among Children (CGMC).
Interdenominational in its approach, the material is suitable for anyone working with children in a church context. Each module fits readily into a two-hour training programme, which can be run as a one-off stand-alone session or built into a wider training scheme over an extended period of time. The six areas of learning explore specific issues, designed to deepen understanding and widen knowledge of what it means to undertake the vital role of nurturing children in the church:
- Transitions
- Special needs
- Challenging behaviour
- The global dimension
- Children's advocacy
- Young leaders
All material has been thoroughly field-tested in ecumenical pilot groups, drawn from CTBI (Churches Together in Britain and Ireland). Each interactive session is designed to build on basic skills for children's work teams at all levels of expertise and experience. To accompany the material, the CORE website offers many additional resources, web links, articles and book suggestions to help all participants expand their CORE knowledge.
The Growth of Love
Dr Keith White identifies five essential elements for child development and the growth of love, drawing on valuable insights from foster care alongside resources and experience from the Christian faith.
These elements are:
- security (a safe place)
- boundaries (a consistent moral framework)
- significance (self-worth)
- community (a sense of belonging)
- creativity (opportunities for making a unique contribution)
The encouraging feature of this book is the realisation that these five elements for the growth of love can be found in the most unlikely places and situations, and where they are present, in whatever form, love is able to grow. It is highly recommended by the Barnabas Children’s Ministry team.
Dr Keith White, together with a team of practitioners, is currently developing a study guide to accompany this book. He has also published Reflections on Living with Children: A Companion to the Growth of Love, which is a collection of true stories exploring the five themes.
Growing Young Leaders
This book by Ruth Hassall offers practical guidance for those who feel called to mentoring 13- to 18-year-olds in a faith context, with a view to nurturing them towards leadership roles. Linked to CPAS's course Growing Leaders - Youth Edition, it also works as a stand-alone resource. It defines mentoring, analyses the necessary skills and attributes of a mentor today, encourages good practice, considers the safeguards needed to meet child protection guidelines, and above all considers how to help young people identify their gifts and grow as Christian disciples.
Ready to Lead
This book by Ruth Hassall explores what it means to be a young Christian leader in all kinds of settings - at church, school or college, on the sports field, even at home. It also unpacks wisdom and encouragement from 1 and 2 Timothy, two New Testament letters written by an older leader to a younger friend.
Ready to Lead is published together with CPAS, to go alongside their course Growing Leaders - Youth Edition. As with the book Growing Young Leaders, Ready to Lead works as a stand-alone book as well as an accompaniment to the course.
All-Age Worship
This book by Lucy Moore is for those who sense that worshipping God together is probably a good thing, but are nervous of trying to lead their church towards that vision. It acknowledges that we don't live in a perfect world - or church - and that no-one has all the answers. It also acknowledges that you are the expert for the ways in which your church can best worship God, and helps you start to find those ways and adapt them for your local setting.