The Bible is God’s Big Story! A story of love, failure, rescue, redemption, grace and promise. It's a story that goes before us, includes and invite us, and a story that goes beyond us. In the Bible we see lives transformed through encountering God and following Jesus. However, the world of our kids can be so different to the places, the experiences and the contexts of the stories we share. How do we engage our 21st century kids with the Bible in real, relevant and life-changing ways?

Several recent studies reveal why some kids become disengaged from the church or why faith doesn't seem relevant for them. We will delve into some solutions which are adaptable for every church context. Everyone can make a difference in a church community to help kids feel engaged. This elective is designed for all kids ministry volunteers as well as those who lead the ministry. You will leave with very practical ideas to help you increase the impact of your ministry. Tracy is passionate about ensuring we create thriving church communities where children feel loved and feel they belong as they grow in their faith. She has been a Kids and Families Pastor for 15 years and Lectures in Kids Ministry for the Queensland Baptist Theological College, Malyon.

Arguably, your early years ministry is the most foundational and critical ministry in the life of your church. Join us as we unpack the 'why' we provide a ministry space for young children and explore how to create an engaging and exciting space/program that will see preschoolers’ hearts set on fire for Jesus.

Understanding some of the factors that cause behaviour is a beginning step in shaping appropriate response strategies for helping children to manage their behaviour and keep you in control. Practical components of the session include some first step strategies, preparatory checklists and a 10 Point Discipline Plan to help you help a child to navigate through their challenging behaviours to bring positive results.

When it comes to spiritual conversations, Jesus was a true master. In this session, we will explore 7 tools that Jesus used to amazing effect in his conversations and apply them to the issues and concerns facing today's young people.

A brief look into the current state of mental health in Australia and exploring how this is affecting children, young people, and families.  Building on this we will look at some beginning strategies that participants may find helpful in their contexts.

A facilitated discussion between three Christians, of African, Asian and Australian decent, about their experience in life and ministry in Australia. God made all people in his image, and sees us all as beautifully made, equally in need of a Saviour and saved by grace, and each with unique gifts, perspectives and resources needed in his body, the church. In this session we will laugh and maybe cry at some of the stories that our minority-culture brothers and sisters find in our Aussie churches, and explore the challenges and opportunities that lie before us in our increasingly multicultural country.

The success of any ministry relies heavily on the health of the leadership team. There are many challenges to maintaining a healthy team. Everything from taking the right steps to form a team through to keeping a team focused, motivated and passionate over the long run. This elective will give you practical insight and tips into starting a team well and maintaining the health of a team over many years so that your ministry will last and have true kingdom impact.

Sometimes families struggle with anxiety, fear, and uncertainty. Drawing on her experience of working with families, and principles from her books Comfort in the Darkness and the upcoming book Comfort in Times of Uncertainty, Rachel will discuss some key principles in empowering parents and carers to coach their children spiritually through the common difficulties families face.

A brief exploration of some of the important keys that will help you to match your expectations of what children can understand and do with the diverse and creative range of learning experiences available. Unlocking this process by using these keys will empower your communication and build deeper connections.

Music can shape cultural identity, build community and help young people to feel a sense of belonging and being understood. During this session we will explore how to use the tool of music to engage young people better, build stronger relationships and help develop fun and inclusive communities.

This session will give you an understanding of the Connect B cycle (B1 and B2), taking a bird's eye view of this curriculum. Tim will focus looking at the curriculum over the whole year, then term by term, giving helpful advice along the way for delivering these lessons effectively to students.

In 2024 GodSpace Yellow invites children to Explore what life with God is all about. GodSpace is a curriculum for 4-12 year olds designed for SRE/RI and beyond. This elective will introduce the theme, lessons and resources for GodSpace Yellow 2024 and provide tips to encourage children in your context to discover what a life of faith might look like for them today.

Helping young people discover their identity in Christ is a key goal of youth ministry. However, while we might know a lot about what it means to be ‘in Christ’ we often know very little about identity.
What is identity? How does identity form? How does our personal identity relate to our spiritual identity?
This workshop will help you to understand the science of identity development and how a youth ministry can help young people thrive as human beings as well as members of God’s family.

Neurodiverse people think and operate a little differently. This term is used when describing people with autistic spectrum disorders, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and others. Neurodiverse youth often struggle fitting in at church and school. This session will provide some practical ideas on how to help them.

So you find yourself with a young but passionate bunch volunteers. How do you develop them into more competent and more capable leaders that will support and then out-lead you? How do you make them into a team that is humming along and kicking goals? In this session we’ll discover some way to intentionally develop your team in a Christ-like way.

Visual, creative, exciting ideas to encourage your children to pray. Fun and effective ideas for families, church, RE, camps, bringing an understanding and acceptance of prayer into their everyday experience.

How can you hold an audience without a rope? Come and discover the key elements in the art of storytelling that will help to connect with your audience, maintain their attention and create a special space for God to touch people’s hearts and minds. Such is the power of story and it is as easy as A, B, C & D.

This exciting session will help you think through how you can ask questions in a way that encourages students to think more deeply about what they are learning, and give more reflective answers as they engage with God’s word.

Whether a Professional muso or someone who can't hold a tune, using and teaching memory verses and music are 2 of the most effective ways of teaching kids God's truth. How do you do it well? This is relevant for any children's ministry, including Religious Instruction in schools, Kids Church, Kids Clubs, Church services, etc...

Sexual and gender diversity and identity diversity continues to grow and become more complex, and historically, some Christian individuals and faith communities have found this difficult to navigate. This workshop will provide the opportunity to compassionately explore this as a personal and societal matter, give some insight to language often used in the dialogue, and explore ways that Jesus engaged with people around contentious topics, so that people who want to follow in the way of Jesus can implement similar principles and seek to love ourselves and our neighbours with integrity.

With so many young people losing their faith and leaving the church a crucial leadership skill is helping young people when they have doubts and questions concerning their faith. Too often we are quick to talk and slow to listen. This workshop will unpack a really helpful framework to help you to feel confident working with young people as they navigate the hard times in their faith.

As a leader, some of the changes you need to make a relatively straightforward. Other changes are more difficult – and tend to require changes in people's attitudes, values, and behaviours. This session will address those more difficult changes and provide you with a framework, tools, and ideas to be more effective in leading adaptive changes in ministry.

It's amazing how hard it can be to talk about your faith authentically and simply. In 1 Peter 3:15, we are encouraged to always be ready. This workshop will help you hone your communication so that other people understand the Good News you're sharing.