Maranatha Children's Ministry Leadership

A Bigger Picture

thegraffams — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:11:35 +0000

Every once in a while we like to post some random numbers on the blog that give you a look at a bigger picture of the ministry that you are a part of. Sometimes it is hard to believe how many children actually attend the services at Maranatha. This should help you understand how many children’s lives are being impacted, whether you ever get to serve them personally or not.

Below is a list of the amount of children each age group had in their care in the month of September.

Nurseries: 25 different babies and toddlers

Preschool: 22 different preschoolers.

Elementary: 80 different elementary age students

Middle School: 37 different middle schoolers.

If you don’t have a calculator handy that is 164 different children that had an opportunity to connect with Jesus at one of our services. If you had the privilege of serving these children you were 1 of 57 different leaders that served this month in the Children’s Ministry. We hope that we were able to help these children grow in a relationship with Jesus and learn His word. Thank you.

Great work!

New Shirts

thegraffams — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 18:30:13 +0000

Hey everyone! We have some new shirts available that we want to make you aware of.

First, we have our new Children’s Ministry Leadership volunteer shirts. These are the black polos that everyone wears when they serve on the Sundays. The shirts are new, but they are pretty much the same… black polo, with blue print. If you would like a new shirt, they are free and can be picked up in Lee Hall (C103) on Sunday morning. You can grab one if you need a new one, want a new one or don’t currently have one.

Second, we have new SuperClub shirts for the elementary age kids on Wednesday nights. These shirts are very new, new. They are not like any children’s shirt you have ever seen at Maranatha. The shirts are free this year and they can be picked up tonight at SuperClub. Children will earn points for wearing them on Wednesday nights from here on out.

That’s all for now. Have a great week. See you tonight (Wednesday) and Sunday!

We Serve. We Connect. Why Grow?

thegraffams — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:57:38 +0000

At Maranatha Church we believe that if you are going to live for Jesus, there are three things that you should be doing. These things are grow, connect and serve. At a recent meeting we had with our Student Leaders, as we were connecting, we discussed the importance of growing in our relationship with Jesus. We wanted to share the discussion with you.

Obviously we all serve, we are the Children’s Ministry Leadership Team.

When we serve together we connect with one another (unless there is a secret age group we don’t know about).

When it comes to growing, God makes it very clear that as we grow, we become more effective in the other 2 areas. Check it out. 2 Peter 1:5-7 (NIV) tells us that we need to “make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, Godliness; and to Godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love”. Basically, God is saying that once we put our faith in Jesus, we need to grow.

The part of growth that we focused in on with our Student Leaders was in our knowledge, with the goal of becoming more like God (godliness). Each of them were given a journal with verses to look up over the next several weeks. We want them to spend time reading The Bible 4 times a week and really focus on what God might want to speak to them. They have been given a little outline for how to do quiet time and are expected to reflect and take notes along the way. God wants them to grow and so do we. But why?

The very next verse tells us EXACTLY why. 2 Peter 1:8 (NLT) “The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our lord Jesus Christ”. It blows my mind to think that God would make it so clear. The more you grow, the more productive and useful you will be at serving Him. I hope to be as productive and useful to God as I can possibly be. I can’t think of anything else that is more important.

If you would like one of these journals, let us know. We would love to help you grow.

Student Leader Link

thegraffams — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:15:59 +0000

Any 5th – 12th grade student that volunteers in the Children’s Ministry is invited to a Student Leader link this Sunday, September 12 from 5:00 pm -7:00 pm. Student Leader Link will be held at Than and Megan’s home (we have recently moved). If you have any questions or need their address feel free to email Megan at mgraffam@maranathachurch.org.

It is going to be a great night of:

Food

Fun

Team Building

Don’t miss out! Can’t wait to see you there!

Be there…

thegraffams — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:03:18 +0000

Every Sunday at Maranatha is an important one. It is a time of the week we can all come together to grow, connect with and serve one another. We believe that without this environment in our lives, from week to week, it can be really easy to get distracted and forget about the plan and purpose that God has for each one of us.

The next 2 Sundays (August 29 and September 5) at Maranatha just might be a little more important than usual. We will be talking about some key parts of our spiritual life and development. It will be a great time to learn more about God’s plan and purpose for your life and for our church.

Because of the powerful impact these messages will have on your life and the life of our church as a whole, we are asking that all Children’s Ministry volunteers attend a service for the next 2 Sundays (August 29 and September 5). As usual, if you are serving this week or next, just be sure to be in the Worship Center for the service that you are not serving in. If you are not serving for the next 2 weeks please be at church, on time, ready to hear and participate in a life changing message.

Thanks for all you do. We love you. See you Sunday! http://maranathachurch.org/

Wednesday Nights

thegraffams — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:45:06 +0000

We are passionate about seeing families grow, connect and serve here at Maranatha. One great way that we provide opportunities, for every member of the family, to do this is through our Midweek small groups and classes. A few times a year we offer 6 week classes that will help any person grow in their relationship with Jesus. We also have small groups of men, women, young adults, etc. that are always meeting. We believe that if you are on a spiritual journey and you open yourself up to one of these settings, you will Grow.

In the children’s ministry we provide some great classes for children. Our classes are not simply babysitting or childcare for parents attending a group. We have two great opportunities (plus nursery care) for children to grow as well. SuperClub is for children 4 yrs old through 4th grade. We also have MidPoint, a group of 5th, 6th and 7th graders. Both of these environments are set up with growing, connecting and serving in mind. We often times find that children learn much more about The Bible and about their faith on Wednesday nights than they do on the weekends.

We have two opportunities for you.

#1 Get involved in a grow/connection opportunity as a part of Maranatha Midweek. Groups start this Wednesday (August 25th) at 7:00. Check out some classes and/or sign up here: http://maranathachurch.org/ccg.htm

#2 Serve God by serving the children as a part of Maranatha Midweek. This is one of the easiest ways to serve in the children’s ministry. It is only an hour and thirty minutes and you pretty much just have to show up and love the children. Anyone can do it.

If you would like more information or would like to step into one of these opportunitieslet us know by commenting right here on the blog or by shooting us an email: tgraffam@maranathachurch.org

Back to School Challenge

thegraffams — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:52:21 +0000

It has been such an amazing summer for Maranatha’s Children’s Ministry. We have had some great camps, a lot of middle school volunteers step up and encouraging support and participation by our leaders (that’s you). As you know, all good things come to an end though… and here it is. Summer is ending and it is time for our children to head back to school.

As we launch into a new school year in the Children’s Ministry we hope to be more effective than ever in our efforts to reach families in our community. In order to do so, we ask that everyone on the team remain committed, focused and passionate about Growing, Connecting and Serving.

Commitment: The only way that we can effectively serve the children and families of our community is as a team. No one person can do it alone. As a part of the team many people rely on you each week. Maranatha Church relies on you to be there for our children. Than and Megan rely on you to serve God by serving the children. Your care leader relies on you to be in position and ready to serve when it is “your week” to do so. Other volunteers rely on you to lead or assist them in the classroom. Finally the children rely on you to be there, prepared and ready to teach them, making the love of God obvious as you do so. Please meet these expectations with a strong sense of commitment and community.

Focus: What we do takes focus. It would be great if the only thing anyone had going on in life was loving their family and serving God by serving children. That would make things really easy for us and for you. Unfortunately I think that we all know life has a lot more going on than that. Many times, life get’s busy and our focus is pulled in many different directions. If you find yourself in this situation this school year, we are here to support you and to help you in any way that you can. We hope that as life gets busy, you can continue to focus some of your energy on what God has called us all to do in serving Him. We hope you can continue to serve the children and share the limited “focus” that you have, with them. We believe that God will honor your commitment and focus on His work.

Passion: is defined as a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything: Basically, when we serve the children we need to do so in a strong, extravagant (going beyond what is deserved or justifiable) and enthusiastic way. We are serving God, by serving children. If we can’t do it with passion, it probably isn’t worth doing.

Let’s be committed and focused, as we serve with passion this school year, in everything God has called us to do.

Great Work!

thegraffams — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:21:34 +0000

We just wanted to thank everyone that participated in serving our community last week. Volunteers from Maranatha helped the Cabana Colony Youth Center give away 150 backpacks to neighborhood children. It was a long and hot day, but I believe that our efforts in making the love of God obvious to our neighborhood were part of a great work that God is doing. Thanks again for coming out.

If you missed the event, there will be more chances to get involved in the future. Be listening for your next opportunity to give back to the community!

There are a few pictures of the event posted on our facebook page. Check them out http://www.facebook.com/#!/MaranathaChurch

A chance to serve our community…

thegraffams — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:35:06 +0000

Hey. We just wanted to let you know about a great chance to serve our community, coming up, this weekend. We are partnering with the Cabana Colony Youth Center, to provide a back to school event for the children of the neighborhood. We will have games, activities, a bounce house and lunch for the kids. Also, every child that comes will receive a free backpack full of school supplies for the upcoming school year.

We were wondering if you would be interested in coming out this Saturday, anytime from 9:30-1:30, to help make this fun day a success for the children of our community. If you are interested in serving with us or have any questions please let us know.

Thanks everyone!

Growing Up

thegraffams — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:40:08 +0000

We are really excited about this next school year in the Maranatha Children’s Ministry. One of the most exciting parts about a new school year is seeing our kids move up into new age groups. We just wanted to take a moment and let you know who will be moving into a new classroom.

Children going into Kindergarten will move up into the elementary age group. This age group meets in Building C. They can be dropped off in C 101 on Sunday mornings. We are really looking forward to welcoming these new children to this ministry. We are confident that they will absolutely love to come week after week for fun times of learning and exploring God’s word.

Children going into 5th grade will move up into Middle Church. Middle school ministry meets on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights upstairs in building C. They are in C 201. This room is set up just for them and they will love the environment and the discussion based teaching that they will recieve on their level each week.

Children going into 8th grade will be moving out of the “Children’s Ministry” and into our “Student Ministry”. Kathy and Spencer Rogers do a great job connecting with teens and encouraging them to build strong relationships with others as well as with God. They meet for a bible study type setting on the weekends (C-206) and for various activities and discussions on Wednesday nights (Building A).

Children who will be moving up will attend their new age group for the first time on Sunday, August 15th. This will be a really exciting weekend. We will be having special services that day, which will include a time of special prayer over every student in attendance. We are really looking forward to the new school year and believe that God has MORE great things in store for our children. Feel free to contact us or comment here on the blog if you have any questions about your child movin’ on up.

(Children also move up from Nursery to Preschool when they turn 3. Please contact us about this change, when your child is approaching their 3rd birthday)