Sessions - in the name of God

Even the Federal Constitution invokes the name of God. Why should not a Jungschar or KIDS TREFF session also begin in the name of God? 

If your team is still young in composition, it is a good idea to do something for team building. 

The opportunity to shape both the team and what is to be discussed is not to be missed by a meeting leader. As with so many things, getting started is key: for example, in a newspaper article, storytelling, non-fiction book introduction, sports lesson, etc.

Here we give you some ideas on how to gently lead your staff into the subject of preparation. 

1. Spiritual entry

As a team leader, it is a great privilege and a task not to be underestimated to also shape the team spiritually. You can lead the team into the evening with an input or prayer time

• The teaching of Jesus Christ is examined in an ongoing way using the Sermon on the Mount.
• The Epistle to the Romans is actually a summary of Christian doctrine and thus the foundation of any team in a church. Derive principles for your ministry from it.
• The 1st letter of John or the epistles of Peter are especially suitable to be discussed in a team (dealing with each other). Consider what this means for the practical life as a Christian or for the leadership of your group.
• A time of prayer, praying for concerns of the children and the tasks in the team welds your team together.

2. Personal Reports

In order to grow together as a team, it is important to get to know each other better.

• Sharing personally about your joys and concerns, followed by prayer time with and for each other, helps you become a strong spiritual team.
• Each staff member draws their most important experiences from the day on a piece of wrapping paper. A round of prayer concludes this part.
• In groups of two or three, employees share their concerns. In the small groups, the intentions are brought before God and laid down.
• Team members share their experiences with God in everyday life. These do not have to be great adventures. Small joys keep friendship alive
• Each person writes down requests for thanks and petitions on a folded A6 card. These cards are completed, collected, shuffled and distributed before each session. All leaders pray for that person with the intentions on the folded card until the next session.

3. Thematic Listening

Often employees arrive at a meeting with little idea of what is actually being discussed. Perhaps the agenda or the quarterly programme is consulted shortly beforehand - but often not even that. If the topic is taken up in the introduction to the meeting, this helps the employees immensely to orientate their thoughts.

>

• The Bible passage for the following devotional/lesson is discussed by the leader in charge as a team. Share about your discoveries.
• The theme of the afternoon or devotional/lesson is taken up figuratively: Wedding at Cana - serving wine; Parable of the Sower - distributing seeds and guessing what plants will grow from them;David and Goliath - measuring out 2.8 m on the wall of the house

4. Team building

If your team is still young in composition, it is a good idea to do some team building. This doesn't have to be just at the first meeting. Even if you already know each other a bit, a suitable game will add variety and fun to the teamwork. Even if you have to spend fifteen minutes, depending on the game, it's worth it. Because who is in a good mood, is in the vast majority of cases also motivated to perform.

 

Ideas

In classic team-building games, several people must work together to solve a task that alone is not or so not solvable.

• In a race between two sub-teams, the task is to build a load-bearing structure across a ditch (two tables, about 1 m apart) using only newspaper.
• The whole team has to gain a foothold on a single garden slab during ten seconds.
• As a variation of the last idea, a quartered military sheet (halved or even unfolded for large teams) can also be chosen. This must now be turned over without anyone touching the ground with feet or hands.

• Content and image: Forum Child Issue 4/05, page 16. Tackling the session and so his team and the work in the name of God is what the author advocates. © Copyright www.forum-kind.ch
• Author: Lori Keller