{"id":10785,"date":"2022-05-24T10:30:01","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T10:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/?p=10785"},"modified":"2022-05-24T10:44:36","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T10:44:36","slug":"hitting-the-refresh-button","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/hitting-the-refresh-button\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitting the Refresh Button"},"content":{"rendered":"

24 May 2022 | Dublin, Ireland [Heather Keough and Petar Popivanov with ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you ever considered co-parenting with God?\u201d A question Karen Holford, director of Children\u2019s Ministries for the Trans-European Division (TED), asked as she opened her presentation to with Dublin Children’s Ministries leaders. Holford and Dr Linda Koh, Children\u2019s Ministries director for the General Conference (GC), were visiting Ireland to lead an April 23-24 training session. The purpose – to empower leaders to develop a \u201cchild-orientated, Christ-focused, and grace-based ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Praying the Lord’s Prayer with actions [Photos: Courtesy of Karen Holford]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Peter Popivanov, IM Children’s Ministries sponsor planned this event under the theme \u201cTime to Hit the \u2018Refresh\u2019 Button\u201d, his aim was that Grace should be the not just the golden thread running through the training sessions, but be the paradigm for Children’s Ministry.<\/p>\n

Holford presented an eye-opening seminar entitled \u201cUnderstanding the Teenage Brain\u201d, which generated rich conversation that carried on long after the training was over and inspired Banbridge member, Joan Muldrew. \u201cThis workshop was \u2018spot on\u2019 about how teenagers behave, and what we can do to support them and make those years as good as we can for them.\u201d Holford pointed out how the teenage years can be difficult for both teenagers and parents. However, \u201cwe can always be guided by Jeremiah\u2019s insight into God\u2019s love for us: I<\/em> have loved\u00a0you with an everlasting love;\u00a0I have drawn\u00a0you with unfailing kindness<\/em>. It\u2019s God\u2019s love for us that inspires us to show everlasting love with unfailing kindness to our children and teenagers.\u201d Holford concluded stating that teenagers need this kind of loving grace the most, especially when it seems they least deserve it!<\/p>\n

Koh presented an informative workshop on \u201cRaising Emotionally Healthy Children\u201d, noting in particular the importance of modelling healthy emotional relationships to children; staying connected; listening and accepting their feelings; spending time with them; teaching them how to handle negative emotions; allowing them to make age-appropriate decisions; and giving them age-appropriate responsibilities and independence.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Neidi, from Ranelagh church, expressed her gratitude for the workshop and said she was \u201ceager to implement these new ideas in her family and church life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another workshop on \u201cIntergenerational Worship\u201d was also popular. During this presentation Holford explored ways to make church services appealing to all age groups, while allowing all to understand the spiritual concepts and themes presented at church. \u201cThis involves changing how we do traditional church, by enabling every age group to feel included in the worship service,\u201d Holford shared. At the end of the workshop, these ideas were put into practice as leaders got involved in preparing \u201cBags of Hope\u201d for children attending the Dublin Day of Fellowship and the Northern Ireland Evening Fellowship. With bags full of multiple activities for 2 to 5 year-olds and 6 to 10 year-olds, based on the theme of the sermon,\u00a0 the aim is to help children remain connected with worship. As positive feedback was received about these resources, the Irish Mission is committed to further exploring the concept of intergenerational worship in the coming months.<\/p>\n

Participants described the weekend as \u201cvery positive\u201d, \u201ceye-opening\u201d and \u201ca celebration\u201d because they felt refreshed and excited about newly discovered\u00a0 ideas and values. For one person at least it was described as one of those \u00a0\u201cexplosion of Kingdom moments\u201d a succession of opportunities to \u201ctaste and see that the Lord is good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much appreciation and gratitude was expressed to the organisers and the speakers for their contributions, particularly to Dr Koh, as this was her last overseas event before her retirement at the upcoming GC Session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Children\u2019s Ministry Training in Ireland is an \u201cexplosion of Kingdom moments\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1577],"tags":[533,1095,89,567,290,1094,289],"class_list":["post-10785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-organisational-updates","tag-childrens-ministries","tag-dr-linda-koh","tag-dublin","tag-ireland","tag-karen-holford","tag-petar-popivanov","tag-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10785"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10825,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10785\/revisions\/10825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}