The CMA Mission
The mission of the Children’s Ministries Agency is to equip, connect, and resource leaders.
The mission is accomplished by:
Equipping
Empower DCEDs and children’s leaders by
equipping them through multi-faceted leadership training approaches
focused on meeting the needs of leaders no matter the size of church or
background. We will take the training to the field to ensure that
every children’s leader has access to all of the training and equipping
tools that we provide.
Connecting
Connecting people by building relationships
with Children’s Leaders, District Christian Ed Directors, Colleges,
other Headquarters Children’s Ministries Departments and other
denominations and organizations. Identify and support networks that
connect leaders on a local, district, and national level.
Resourcing
Work as the liaison between the field and GPH
in identifying and creating excellence in children’s ministries’
resources. Be available to assist churches and districts with
identifying resources that will work in their setting and help them to
deploy those resources. Represent all of the children’s ministries’
products from GPH to the field.
2009 Focus
In 2009 The Children’s Ministries Agency will focus on the following initiatives to help propel our vision and purpose.
Equip
One day training events focused on reaching volunteer children’s ministries leaders in every area of the nation.
Creation of a team of Regional Children’s Ministries Representatives.
Focus on our E-News and work to use that as a tool to equip the field.
Connect
Continue to build the CMA online forums and online networking groups.
Work to identify a Children’s Ministries Point Person in every church in America.
Continue to market and build the brand of CMA on the field to connect to more leaders than ever before.
Work to build grass root networks of local, district, and regional children’s leaders.
Resource
Re-design and update the CMA Web page.
Focus on help sheets, podcasts, and creating a website that has the latest resources available to assist children’s leaders.
Continue to build the CMA Webinars.
Partner with GPH to help create needed resources and be the face of those resources to the field.
The CMA Offers
DCED Children’s Ministries Leaders Conference
Each year at our DCED conference we offer a
specialized children’s ministry conference for you, our district
directors. At this event we focus on you—connecting you with our other
DCEDs, equipping you with the resources you’ll need, preparing you to
answer questions from the field with leadership training, and perhaps
most important of all, giving you the chance to slow down and relax
before your year kicks off with a bang!
Every other year, we want to encourage you to
invite your children’s ministries’ leadership team to join you at this
event to assist in preparing them to be the best they can possibly be.
We focus on team building, networking, encouraging, and equipping so
your team can assist you with your mission to reach all of the
children’s leaders of your district!
National Children’s Ministries Conference
Bi-annually we offer a National Children’s
Ministries Conference. In 2010, the event will be held at the Millennium
Hotel in St. Louis, MO. The focus of the event is to provide relevant,
refreshing, and meaningful resources to children’s leaders from across
the nation. This year we are asking our DCEDs to take an active part
in our conference. We are encouraging them to be a part in the
following ways:
- Free Registration
- Get To Know Your DCED Reception
- Utilize DCEDs as Networking Guides
- Provide an exclusive DCED lounge/area during the conference
Regional Children’s Ministries Conferences
Bi-annually CMA offers Regional Children’s
Ministries Conferences. Our goal is to bring all of the best elements of
our national conference to regional locations. Our regional
conferences will provide leaders with networking, refreshing, and
resourcing. Because these events are on a regional level, they are
smaller than our national conference, which provides an intimate
setting where relationships can be built and networking can happen. We
also endeavor to pick vacation destinations and provide a relaxed
schedule so that children’s leaders can have some time for physical
refreshing. Another main focus of the conference is spiritual
refreshing. These events are especially designed for children’s pastors
and their volunteer teams. More information can be found online at www.cmaconferences.com .
Children’s Leaders Retreat
We are working on putting together a
Children’s Leaders Retreat that you can bring into your district. We
will ask the district to promote the event and arrange for the location
and we will take care of the rest of the event. We’ll work with you to
come up with the best schedule and recommend ideas that will help make
this event a success for your leaders and the district. These events
are great for leaders to connect with other leaders and for you to
connect with your leaders. Please contact our office for more
information.
A Collegiate Focus
We are making a concentrated effort to
partner with our Assemblies of God Colleges & Universities in major
ways. Our focus will be networking with college leaders, students and
prospective students. Each year a CMA representative will attend each
college with a Children’s Ministries Department and will work to
connect students to churches for internships, practicum opportunities
and full-time ministry positions.
Power of 10 Networking Groups (in development)
Moving into the future, one of our goals is
to encourage networking on the local level. One of the many ways that we
will be doing this will be through our Power of 10 Network Campaign.
The Power of 10 Networking Campaign will be led by local children’s
leaders with a heart for networking. More information will be posted on
our website soon!
Children’s Ministry Departments at Headquarters
Your CMA is taking an active role in
partnering together with ALL of the departments that minister to
children at the national headquarters. These departments include: Royal
Rangers, Girls’ Ministry, BGMC and GPH Children’s Ministry products.
Point Person Campaign (In development)
We are working on identifying a point person
for children’s ministry for every church in the nation. We are currently
planning on using AG Passport to make this an online process where
churches can easily register and update information. We will be
collecting contact information and passing this information along to
our districts.
Regional Children’s Ministry Representatives
In 2009, we will be introducing a team of
proven children’s leaders who will represent the Children’s Ministries
Agency on a regional level. This team will be available to you armed
with the latest resources. They will also be available to you to speak
at your events to train your children’s leaders.
CMA Webinars
Our desire is to provide quality training for
the leaders in your district. To help facilitate training and equipping
we have launched CMA Webinars. These webinars are training events that
can be done online. Every month we will have a multitude of topics that
will be facilitated by leading children’s pastors across the nation.
The webinars are done completely with the participant’s computer and
can be done anywhere there is an internet connection. Webinars allow
leaders to train in the comfort of their homes or offices. The webinars
will be based on a multitude of different children’s ministry training
topics and are completely interactive. They will also be done in
Spanish and other languages. Webinars are scheduled for set times. If
those times don’t work for leaders, they can download the audio from
the webinar and the notes at any time. We are also working on package
prices so that a church can pay a yearly fee and have access to the
webinars for all of their leaders. For more information on CMA webinars
please go to www.shop.cmleadership.com.
CMA E-News
Bi-weekly, CMA produces an E-news focused on
leadership training, great new resources, and news from CMA. Children’s
leaders can register for this by going to www.4kids.ag.org.
One Day Children’s Ministries Training events
CMA offers one day training seminars on
multiple topics. These one day training events are done by the CMA field
staff and provide very beneficial training to your leaders. They can
be integrated into events that you are already having, or can be stand
alone events. We can also tailor these events to the individual needs
of your district. These events can be placed strategically in your
district in locations that are easy for leaders to get to. The events
can also be scheduled on a Saturday making it very volunteer friendly.
The registration fees can be collected by our office to cover all
travel and event costs. Thus, there would be no cost to your district
for these events. We also have a profit sharing plan set-up to split
any profit realized from these events.
CMA Event partnership
The CMA team is available to assist with your
district events. We can assist you with event planning, consultation,
speaking, resourcing, and much more. Our desire is to come alongside and
assist you to make your events the greatest events they can be. Please
contact our office for assistance with your events.
Placement Service
CMA maintains a list of churches looking for
children’s pastors, and we also maintain a list of children’s pastors
with resumes. If you have churches that are looking for children’s
pastors or children’s pastors that are looking for positions, please
contact our office, and we will assist you in placing them.
CMA Website
In 2009 we will be launching a new website. Some of the components will include:
- Access to Children’s Ministry networks.
- Easy access to resources
- Blogs, Picture albums, Podcasts, Message boards, and more.
- Event online registration
- Information on CMA and other headquarters departments that minister to children.
GPH Product Development
We will continue to assist GPH with the
creation and promotion of new resources for Children’s Ministry. This
will include bringing new ideas from the field, the creative process,
and networking with children’s leaders who are currently producing
effective material.
Stateside Missions Trips
In 2009, we will be re-launching Project Go!
Material. This will be a “how to” on putting together stateside missions
trips on a local and district level. We will also be launching Project
Go! on a national level with national stateside missions trips. Watch
for more details.
Overseas Missions Trips
We are planning Character Connex missions
trips for 2009 & 2010. The missions trips are a great opportunity
for children’s leaders to go overseas and see the needs first hand.
These missions trips are life-changing opportunities, in partnership with BGMC .
Children’s Ministries Resources
All of our staff are constantly looking for
great new children’s ministry resources. If you or your leaders need
assistance finding children’s ministries resources, please contact us.
GPH Resources at Your Events
If you would like great children’s ministries
resources available for sale at your events, please contact our
Children’s Ministries Resources Specialist. Depending on the attendance
at your event, we could arrange for a booth at your event to provide
your leaders with great resources to children.
KidzMax Live!
Character Connex
JBQ
BGMC
Information Hub
Podcasts
Children’s Ministry Help Sheets
Project Go!
