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kidswise.com.au - Children's Ministry Resource ::
LOREN BECROFT takes a look at some new resources for kids …
Source: Perspective Vo11 No1-4 © Perspective 2004
Article in PDF format: 
With the preparation that’s needed to prepare a Bible talk to give each Sunday, there’s often not a lot of time left for ministers to think about what to say in a children’s talk. Many churches don’t have someone dedicated to children’s ministry or someone who’s able to give children’s talks each Sunday. This is where Kidswise can help.
Kidswise is a website which aims to provided quality material for children’s ministry at affordable rates. The theological aims of Kidswise are:
- to teach children from the Bible the good news about Jesus, so that they can become wise for salvation (2 Tim 3:15); and
- to teach Christian children God’s truth, so that they can grow in making wise and godly decisions (2 Tim 3:17).
The resources produced/distributed by Kidswise include children’s talks, units of work (children’s talks and group time activities), training papers on various aspects of teaching children, books and CDs for use in children’s ministry. The web site is a dynamic one and continues to grow as resources are written, tested and edited—there are currently 72 children’s talks online including some Christmas ones.
To gain access to the Kidswise programmes (in particular the talks and programmes) churches need to pay an annual membership fee. This fee is dependent on the material that you want access to and the number of children in the church.
The majority of Kidswise material is written by Sandy Galea. However, it also includes a number of talks and units written by other members of her church (Multicultural Bible Ministry, Rooty Hill Anglican).
Sandy is a trained primary teacher who has over twenty years experience working with both high school and primary aged children in public and private schools. She has a passion to see children come to know Jesus as their Saviour, and to grow in love and obedience to Him as their Lord.
For the past thirteen years Sandy has been writing her own material for use in her local church. Her programmes follow her church’s sermon series. As a result, she has written and edited over five hundred children’s talks!
The basic structure of Sandy’s teaching style centres on a children’s talk, which is done in church. This enables the parents to see each week what their children are learning. After the children’s talk (and a possible song or memory verse) the children move to their various age groups (Preschool—3 to 4 years old, Infants—5 to 7 years old, and Primary—8 to 10 years old) to further explore the point of the children’s talk.
As someone who isn’t directly involved in children’s ministry I can’t comment on what it’s like to use the material. However, from reading some of the talks, the content seems to be easy to follow and understand, for the children, and easy to use for the leaders. I believe that both are important in children’s ministry!
There are examples children’s talks and programmes on the site that you can download and trial before becoming a paying member. Two of these are available here:
The site can be found here: www.kidswise.com.au
Loren Becroft is part of the evening congregation at the Ann Street Presbyterian Church, Brisbane.
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