The Explorers Group

For the last couple of years I (Ben) have been the coordinator of the Childrens Church program for 1st through 5th graders at church. Together, Christina and I have started a ministry called the Explorers, which is a student leadership group within the Childrens Church group. This group has been meeting about twice a month for over a year, and it's better than ever!

The purpose of the Explorers is to train new students for future ministry by instilling teamwork and leadership skills. All of our meetings include a game, such as Ultimate Frisbee, that lends itself to discussion of teamwork or leadership during snack time. During the meetings we also work on a supplement to the Childrens Church lesson for the following day: perhaps a skit, a poster, a puppet play, or leading a small group activity. In addition to this, each Explorer has a personal responsibility to help the Childrens Church program run smoothly, such as taking attendance, distributing Bibles, cleaning up the supplies, running the CD player, or anything else that the teachers need to be done.

It has been very encouraging to see the growth in these students during the past year. They have grown closer as a group and seem to have a healthy level of respect for us and for each other. They take their weekly responsibilities seriously and do them without having to be asked. Finally, they have come to really take ownership in the activities that we do. For example, in our most recent meeting, we were going to do a puppet play. Even though Christina had thought of a great premise for the play, three of the Explorers immediately had suggestions for the premise of the play, as well as several ideas to make it funny throughout the play.

Although we borrowed the idea for the Explorers from another church, we have developed it significantly. We have recorded the steps that we took in order to get the ministry started and kept records of the activities from each meeting. If you would be interested in starting a similar ministry at your church, you can contact us for advice on starting up a group. Please e-mail us at bcmalan@yahoo.com.