Resource Children's Workers

Model Children’s Workers need transformational Bible teaching materials that can help them connect the Word of God with the real life of children in their communities. Each EGM National Ministry Team develops thoroughly biblical, developmentally and culturally appropriate and economically relevant teaching materials for children’s workers in local churches. These are distributed in print and through other media. We work hard to put great transformational teaching materials into the hands of Model Children’s Workers.

The development of leaders is closely linked to the ministry resources that are available to those leaders. Leaders are hampered in their ministry development by lack of basic resources that are essential to effective ministry. Essential then to the EGM ministry strategy is resource development. We believe that effective leaders need to be equipped with quality resources in order to develop their entire ministry potential. EGM’s resource development ministry focuses on two major areas: the actual production of resource material and its subsequent distribution to those who need it for their ministries.

In most countries, there is a serious shortage of resources for children’s ministry. Frequently, children’s workers lack basic resources for ministry and are severely handicapped in their effectiveness. Therefore, our National Ministry Teams seek to develop and provide these much needed resources. These resources are produced with three guiding criteria:

• Quality: Our National Ministry Teams are committed to producing only the highest quality resources. We believe that quality reflects on the Lord, our commitment to ministry leaders and the value we attach to young people.
   
• Heart Language: We believe it is essential that materials be produced in the language spoken in that country. Our desire is to communicate in the heart, or native language of ministry leaders and children. Therefore, we publish our resources in their heart language.
   
• Felt Need: The selection of resources for production is based on the felt needs of those who are actually involved in ministry to children and youth. Resources are not selected based on popularity in other cultures or funding potential, but rather on the basis of needs within a country. Our National Ministry Teams seek to gather information from a wide variety of experienced children’s workers in order to establish the actual resource needs.

The International Curriculum Initiative began to provide these kinds of materials for children’s workers around the world that would emphasize the five qualities of a Model Children’s Worker. A 351 unit scope and sequence was developed on three age levels (ages 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12) and for each lesson, two of the five qualities (Truth and Experience) were developed, providing an international skeleton curriculum. These two elements were created by a team of writers and editors in the English language. After delivery to our participating partners, this skeleton was translated and the other essential elements of the lesson (Discussion and Response) were added. These additional elements were completely developed in the country along with the other auxiliary elements such as Bible verse activities, activities for families, crafts, etc. The graphic design and publishing work is completely done by the partners.

The result is a comprehensive biblical children’s ministry curriculum that is both developmentally appropriate AND culturally relevant. For more information on what curriculum resources are available in the various languages, contact the EGM office.

The final phase of this project will be to make these materials available on the Internet.