Sharing Resources

Just wanted to share some resources that we use on a regular basis in our children's ministry.

Internship Program Guidelines

Background Check Application

Children's Ministry Program Handbook

All free for your use to adapt and utilize for your own church.


 

Toy Box Tales - Beatitudes

Last night, we held our annual Toy Box Tales video competition. The theme for this year was The Beatitudes from Matthew 5. Our wonderful youth judges selected 2 winners.

Winner #1 - Kristin Jenkins with The Peace Man



Winner #2 - Annalise Goodwin with God On The Side



We had 5 other videos that were all really amazing too!

Crazy Commercial by Kristen
Hot Wheels B Attitudes by Matthew
Bee Attitudes by Kara
Baby Food Fight by Chloe and Shelby
Trigger Cheese by Elayna

Each Toy Box Tale shares a special lesson about the different Beatitudes. Our kids worked very hard designing sets, writing stories and choosing characters.

We hope that you will enjoy these videos!

 

Fun Arts Human Video

Practice this song at home! Make sure you learn the words and can mouth them to the music.

Next practice, Sunday, March 4!

 

Fun Arts Parents Info!

Fun Arts Festival

April 28, 2012 

Columbus Convention Center 

“Relentless” 

Fun Arts is for kids in grades 3rd – 6th. It is an event that gives kids the opportunity to use and develop their talents and abilities for the glory of God. This event allows kids to have practical ministry experience in a place where they will receive positive feedback and encouragement. And, it is a lot of FUN!!!

Event Details: Fun Arts families to report to the Convention Center by 9am on April 28th!!

9:30am – Rally
10:30am – Breakouts and Presentations
2:00pm (tentative time) – Closing Session

Cost: $45.00: Includes Kid’s Rally, 4 entries, breakout sessions and a t-shirt
*if you are interested in staying at the Drury Inn (connected to the convention center. includes dinner and breakfast) for Friday night, there is an additional $115.00 charge due with your registration money
*Non festival participants, (parents, and children not participating), pre-registration is $5.00 per person, on-site is $10.00 per person. Children under 5 are free.

Events: Please talk to the contact person of that event for specific guidelines!

Kayla Vice – Human Video Group
Pastor Jay – Short Sermon, Gospel Illusion, Object Lesson
*Make an appt with Pastor Jay ASAP to work out the details of these events!
Jenilee – Art, Photography, Short Story, Poetry, Vocal Solo/Group, Instrumental Solo/Group, Puppetry Solo/Group, Clown Solo/Group, Drama Solo/Group

Registration Deadline is March 11th. All money/registration forms due at that time.

Practices: Individual events must be practiced at home as well as during our scheduled practice times. You must be at scheduled practices to participate in group events!

Saturday, February 18th from 9:30am – 10:30am
Sunday, March 4th – 6pm (during the evening service)
Every Saturday, March 17th until Fun Arts, 9:30am – 10:30am

Performances: TBA

THANK YOU!!!

Jam Fun

Faith... It's Fearless.

Hi! I'm Hope, and this is my first post on here. I've been wanting to contribute to this blog since... wow... sixth grade I think. I am currently thirteen years old and in the eighth grade. One big thing about me is that I am fiercely in love with music--- my favorite Christian bands are Tenth Avenue North, Sanctus Real, Relient K, Fireflight, and Deas Vail. I always do the music categories in Fun/Fine Arts. I have a few blogs: my main one (YOUR BLOG...), a school one, a gymnastics/Olympics/cheerleading one, a 4-H one, and upcoming Beauty and pro-life blogs. You can check the blogs out by seeing my profile somewhere down the page, but for now, let's get this thing started!
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What does it mean to be FEARLESS?
Fearless can mean so many things. To me, it means taking that leap of faith (*winkwink* my name is Hope and I'm blogging about faith... oh, did I mention that's my sister's name? And I have another one named Charity, so... yeah. Wow I'm wasting time... half of you already know me!) no matter how afraid you are. It's being stronger in the end, getting yourself to do it even though you're scared out of your mind. This is essential for any faith, most importantly the Christian faith.

What is FEARLESS FAITH?
Fearless faith is standing up for what you believe. It's not being ashamed of the gospel. Not being afraid to worship God. Not just the singing kind of worship, but that's fine, too. Not being afraid to shine your light. In childrens' church and preschool, most of us have said "This little light of mine... I'm gonna let it shine..." The question is: How do you know if your little light is shining?

I was homeschooled my whole life until this year. When I entered my tiny two-year-old school of 300-something students, I thought I'd be afraid to show my faith. But then I realized there was no reason to be afraid. The eighth grade is divided in halves, and everyone in my half that travels to class together is Christian or raised the Christian way except for a few atheists, one Jehovah's Witness. So I'm not afraid to speak out about my faith because I know if anyone tried to tear me down, someone else would be able to help me defend my faith, not that I wouldn't do it on my own.

I'm not afraid to talk about God at school. Not at all. I bring Jesus into a conversation like fried chicken and mashed potatoes. Perfect combination, perfect timing. Not too "preachy". I invite people to church left and right. Do they come? No:(. People are shocked that I actually look forward to going to church on Wednesdays. They'll be like, "Today is terrible" and I'm like, "It is... wait, no--- I'M GOING TO CHURCH TONIGHT!" They look at me like I'm a crazy woman. I'm also one of the only kids in class that don't "cuss". And yes, I'm talking about EVERYBODY--- even the majority of the Christians. People literally have to trick me into saying a bad word, because they think I'm too... I don't know... good, I guess? I'm not, but alright.

Point is: I love God too much to put Him on a shelf. That would just be... weird-feeling. Something would be missing. People literally come up to me and ask me why I'm always happy and making personalized Christmas cards for all twenty-seven kids of our half of the eighth grade in the middle of November. I don't exactly know why I'm like that, but I think it's possible for me to find joy because I know my sins have been forgiven and I don't have to hold onto yesterday.

What can you do with FEARLESS FAITH?
You may wonder: How can I become fearless in my faith? Or, maybe you've used this excuse (I know I have): "I'm homeschooled, I'm surrounded by Christians... I ain't got no one to reach out to." FALSE!

Faith without action is DEAD. You need to have fearless faith. There are many easy ways to be fearless. Go buy yourself a shirt that has a Bible verse on it or make your own. Bring a fancy Bible to school (where people can see it, like a pocket in your bookbag... not buried under papers in your locker). Sing hymns while walking down the hallway... I've done it, it's not hard. Offer prayer to Christian friends when they need it to start out and maybe a non-Christian will hear... again, I've done it, it's not hard.

Christian Families and Halloween: A Student's Perspective

Before I start, let me say a few things. My name is Hope and this will be my very first blog post on the JAM blog! Yay!!! It hasn't been long since I was a JAM kid myself, so I'm more than happy to finally be able to post on here! So, let's get it started! Yes, I know I am a little late on this. However, I'm glad that I waited until after Halloween to post this, and you'll see why in a little bit (yes, it involves candy).
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I have quite a few memories of Halloween. Some are good, others are bad. Mostly bad, though. Being raised by Christian parents, my mom and dad have been really strict on one thing: No "Trick-or-Treat"ing--- EVER.

I was born to a Military family, so we lived in Utah for quite some time. The good Halloween memories happened then--- hiding from Trick-or-Treaters in the basement, eating pizza (best part!), inviting friends over to escape the Trick-or-Treaters (hereafter: ToT-ers) with us. But after we moved to Ohio, I had to make new friends (not hard, I was four) and that meant:

1. All (well, most) of our friends were way down in the dangerous, ashy, risky, outrageous mountains of Utah (don't worry, it ain't that serious).
2. Hiding from ToT-ers was going to get old. Old, old, old.

I'm probably wasting time telling my life story, so let's get to the point.

As I got older, living in the MidWest, I started to wonder: What's wrong with Halloween? Why can't I get candy and dress up in costumes? I mean, sure, I dressed up for a few Harvest parties, but man were those costumes embarrassing... let's just say I would not wanna dress up as Bible Man again.

SO, ANYWAY (one thing you'll learn about me through my posts on here and my blogs: I have trouble staying on topic)! I just felt completely left out. It didn't seem fair that my friends (who at this point were ALL Christian kids from church and homeschool group because I wasn't involved in sports yet and was homeschooled) had this HUGE stash of candy come November that lasted until Spring (dude, I'm not even kidding) and all I had was a few Tootsie Rolls and Twizzlers because my mom is a total glutton when she has those candies with her. So as I'm stuck with bogus candy my mom devours, these kids have a six-month supply of it. Sickening, come to think of it.

I didn't understand why we couldn't Trick-or-Treat. Every Halloween it was the same discussion/arguement.

Finally, something clicked. My parents never told me the full story about Halloween until I was eight. After that, I stopped complaining about it because now I knew why it was called "the Devil's day". I haven't really thought about Halloween since, with the exception of Halloween 2011 and November 1st.

I am in eighth grade and just started attending public school this year. My school is fairly new and was just established in 2009 (my first blog is older than the school in itself), so we only have grades 7-11 and will add grades 6 and 12 next year. The school has always been really small with about 50 freshmen the first year, 180 eighth graders, freshmen and sophomores the second year, and 382 seventh and eighth grade, freshmen, sophomores and juniors this year. As you'd expect there's only 27 kids in my half of the eighth grade and we travel to every class except for Advisory together. Over-stimulating, especially when you and a certain girl are not friends... at all. And you keep. Getting. Put. In. The Same. Groups.

So, what does population have to do with this? It means that even though the majority of our class is Christian (many kids came here from Christian and Catholic schools), only three kids didn't celebrate Halloween. Three.

So, these kids are rolling in the deepness of candy in school on November 1st, talking about who they were for Halloween. My friend Steve was a banana. There are "Angry Birds" costumes out there. My friend Kailani was a celebrity, but that lady (the celeb, I mean) has some issues so I'm not saying the celebrity's name.

"Carson (fake name), who were you?"
"Omena (real name), who were you?"
"Hope (me), who were you?"

We all had the same response. Now, Carson just plain doesn't celebrate any holidays like Christmas, Halloween, or even birthdays because his religion has beliefs similar to Christianity but a lot of major differences that I will not talk about. However, we all weren't celebrating Halloween for the same reason--- "Devil's day". I was talking to Omena who goes to a church just down the street from me, and we were talking about this situation. "I gotta admit, I feel kinda left out about this thing," I admitted and Omena agreed.

Sometimes, being a Christian is hard and your faith will often be put to the test. Whenever I talk to this kid about my beliefs, which he's a strict athiest whose mom is Christian and he wrote an entire essay about how the US shouldn't be "one nation under God", he always comes up with a way for me to not know how to answer. It's hard, because I feel that no matter what I say, even going to church every Sunday hasn't changed his mind. He's nearly impossible to reach out to. Good to know our God can do the impossible, right?

While being a Christian, sometimes you have to give up the things you love. Sure, candy may be in our mouth and out the other end a couple days from now, but giving up the holiday can help you find new ways to reach out, using the only day of the year the whole neighborhood is outside.

Like in the previous post about Halloween, you can give children tiny devotional books, maybe sneak in a small Bible every now and then. Just remember to attach the candy! And hot glue it... don't tape it, glue it. You want the candy stuck so that the kids have no choice but to keep the book!:)

So what do you say??? We don't have to wait on the world to change, instead we have to act now now, because the world is waiting on us.

JAM Christmas 2011

and our 2011 Singing Christmas Card that raised over $140 for BGMC!

Christian Families and Halloween

This is the time of year for this topic to come up.

A time of year when parents make a decision about how their family is going to approach the subject of Halloween.

It is not an easy discussion nor is it something we can ignore.

We must go to God's Word. What does God think about Christians and this particular holiday?

Today, in our JAM lesson, we talked about Matthew 5:41 and the life principles surrounding Jesus' words in that passage.

It says, "If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles."

What did that mean?

Well, in that time in history, a soldier could by law make you carry his things for 1 mile. You didn't have a choice. You HAD to do it. Whether it was fair or not, whether you had time or not, whether you were strong enough or not, you had to carry his things for 1 mile.


Jesus was challenging them by saying, "Don't just do the 1 mile you HAVE to do, surprise him! Carry his things for 2 miles!"


What does that extra mile give you? An opportunity to share your faith, to show you are different and to be a light to the world.

Being different, called out, set apart is our ticket to the world around us noticing our story.

If we are just like them, how will they know we are different?

Being different takes action and commitment and a desire to follow Christ in every way.

What does that have to do with Halloween?

This holiday, that is very deeply founded in evil practices, is an opportunity to be different.

Don't choose to participate in something that will not only have you participating in a dangerous holiday, but will also cause you to be just like the world around you.

Instead, go the extra mile and choose not to celebrate this day like the world does.

Go even farther and challenge your family to be different and be visible.

On one of the only days a year when your whole neighborhood is out and about, be outside and share your faith in some way with the people who come to your home.

So, pray about what God has for your family during this holiday.

Will you be different?

Some other helpful resources:

Why we don't celebrate Halloween
Be Identified with Christ
Being Different
What do you do?
Celebration of Holidays
Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?
Waking up the American Church

Life's Not Fair

This morning, our JAM lesson was about how life is not always fair.

We can't expect everything to be fair. We can't expect that everything is always going to go our way.

Sometimes, we have to realize that life isn't fair and there isn't really anything we can do about it.

When life isn't fair, we have a choice.

It is our choice how we respond.

We can whine, complain and get an "I don't care!" attitude.

Or, we can decide to be respectful and allow God to help us keep a good attitude in the midst of the unfairness of the situation.

Pastor Jay shared about the life of Joseph. He was treated unfairly many times. He experienced the unfairness of being thrown in a pit, sold into slavery, unjustly accused and then put in prison. In all of that, he kept his eyes on God and continued to walk in a respectful way. He earned the favor of the guards and eventually all of Egypt, becoming a high ruler in the country! God was able to use him even though life was unfair because Joseph chose to respond in the right way.

We can learn alot from Joseph!

Because life's not fair!

And we can choose to respond God's way.

Welcome!

Welcome to our new JAM blog!

We are now www.betheljamadventures.com

Check back often for new updates, event info, helpful tips and more!

And, you can now like us on facebook to stay connected.

RR Camporee

Royal Ranger Camporee!

JAM this summer...

The JAM kids have been busy!

Kids Camp and Missions Extreme, fun Wednesday night activities, a church picnic and more.

In our Sunday services, we have been talking about Worship. Learning to truly worship God with our lives.

In our Wednesday nights with Pastor Jay, we are learning about having God's Wisdom from the book of Proverbs.

Lots of crazy things going on with games, skits, contests, prizes and fun lessons.

Not to mention a pie in the face contest. Someone will be getting a pie in their face on August 24th!

We also have a new missions focus for our Missions Sundays (1st Sunday of the month). The kids are learning about being Kids of Courage. Check out that link for more information!

Just a few more weeks until Royal Rangers and Bethel Girls Ministries kick off a new season of classes. Be watching for details about those exciting Wednesday night opportunities for discipleship.

Great Lakes Regionals JBQ

Bethel JBQ kids won 2 Place in Level 4! Which means, they took 17th place in a five state region! We are very proud of our Bethel team!

Excited for 2012!

Fun Arts 2011

Bethel JAM Adventures kids did AMAZING at Fun Arts this year!

We are SO proud of them!!!

Can't wait for next year!!

Easter Egg Hunt 2011

Bethel coming together to serve our community with an Easter Egg Hunt.

Kids receiving candy and the Book of Hope at the end of the outreach.