#3: FREE BIBLE IMAGES
As the old saying goes, A picture is worth a thousand words. I wonder how much 1,000+ pictures would be worth? You can find out for yourself by clicking HERE. The all-volunteer team at Free Bible Images is on a mission to create a visually accurate journey through the Bible as a resource for teaching all ages—available for free download by anyone, anywhere, at any time. They have a huge assortment of photo images and illustrations.
Navigation through their website is a breeze. You can search by the Bible book, character or topic, and also by contributor (wonderful people and organizations that freely share their work). One of my favorite features is that each download is accompanied by a StoryPlanner. The Story Planner file shows what is happening in each scene (so you don’t have to guess). All you’ll need to do is read the account from the Bible and then plan how you will tell the story.
I like to incorporate these images into my storytelling and also use them in review games where I divide children into teams and give each team a picture sequence based on the Bible story we just learned. Their job is to line up the posters in the correct order and later tell part of the story that corresponds to each particular poster.
(By the way, if you could use a little pick-me-up story, click HERE to read about the most unlikely and unpromising beginning of Free Bible Images. You’ll be surprised and encouraged by how God took a handful of unemployed, ill and struggling old men and turned them into a creative force that touches millions of people around the world.)
#4: I LOVE KIDMIN FACEBOOK GROUP
If you plan to be in children’s ministry for the long haul, you will need a community, a band of like-minded people to pour life, clarity, creativity and strength into you. That is what I Love KidMin Facebook group truly is—a community of children’s ministry leaders united by their burning love for Jesus and children. I belong or have belonged to 15+ different children’s ministry Facebook groups and in my experience, I Love KidMin has been the most robust, engaging, enriching and helpful group. It’s made up of more than 13,000 children’s ministry leaders of all ages and denominations. It’s a place where you can vent, rant, seek advice, offer resources, ask for prayer, share what God is doing in your midst and on, and on, and on.
I personally like that this group is not gathered around a certain product, event or personality (even though Ryan Frank is fantastic). It really feels like a peer group where we cheer each other on and help one another stand strong when the going gets tough. If we tried to add up all the years of combined experience in pastoral and teaching ministry represented in this group, I am sure we would be blown away—truly this is the gold mine of today’s children’s ministry. All the advice, direction, insight or inspiration you need is yours for the taking—all you need to do is just ask.
Click HERE to experience the awesome I Love KidMin community.
#5: SADDLEBACK KIDS
Saddleback Kids is the name of the Children’s Ministry at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. They produce their own series for early childhood and elementary age kids and share their fun and creative videos through their YouTube Channel. I like to play their music videos while children are gathering at the beginning of class and their Bible story videos as an introduction to the Bible story of the day.
