A rare opportunity - Input into Course content

If in two field ed courses you could introduce 12 topics (six per course) for children and family‘s pastors, what would those topics be?  Or at least what would you think absolutely must be included in those topics?

Imagine being asked this - how would you feel? I can tell you I was and am very excited. It's an amazing opportunity to possibly influence the development of a training opportunity for Children & Family Pastors / Leaders / Workers. As you can imagine I took hold of this chance with both hands. And here's what I've just sent in response with special thanks to Rosalea Cameron, Kathy Eddie, Amanda Mitchell, Viona Schulz and Kathryn Smith for their input and thoughts. The fantastic thing about all this input was how similar all our lists were.

But please don't ask me where this course is being developed because I'm not allowed to tell you yet. I will tell you as soon as I can

Blessings

Pastor Pete

Topic	Covering ...
Leadership / Mentoring others / partnership / team building	What does it mean to be a leader? Leadership styles and which are most effective in  different contexts. Team building - stages of team building, how to  deal with the stages, e.g. conflict. How to recruit, develop and work with a team of  volunteers.
Administration	Legal issues of child protection, disclosure etc., OSH; Writing & review of safety policies etc. Keeping rolls, recording leaders and children  details etc
Reflective Practice	Using professional frameworks that give insight  to the reciprocal nature of our interactions.
Strategic Planning	Developing and implementing vision
Pedagogy	Basic pedagogy Working with children, Teaching (preaching) techniques, Working with special needs, disabilities,  mental illness etc
Theological basis for ministry to children and the family.	Including a focus on the need for  transformational learning
Prayer and worship	Introducing children to prayer and teaching  children to pray Prayer during home visitation Personal prayer life as an essential  element of pastoral care The importance of praying for the children  and your team Teaching children to worship
Child Development	Developmental stages Child psychology Spiritual development of children What a child can comprehend at each  stage and the implications when planning  activities, programmes, teaching biblical  principles and spiritual truths.
Learning styles of children	Practical opportunities to design specific  lessons using each of the different learning  styles; Practical opportunity to evaluate learning  based upon the range of learning styles
Evangelism	How to evangelise children Nurturing the faith of children Discipleship
Ministry development including curriculum, resources	Mapping ministry rather than planning  programs (How to really consider and reflect  on how best to meet ministry goals and  how that might affect the volunteers required  to run it, including whether people in the  church's demographic can realistically be  asked to give that much (do we destroy  families to create "church"?) Developing the skills to evaluate/adapt/design  curriculum, resources etc designed specifically  for the unique needs of a local setting Practical experience through attachment to a  CEC Chaplain  or as part of a Bible In Schools  type programme
The family context	What to do in visitation etc Ministry to children in the context of the family. How to support families as they disciple their  children.