Community Connections

Connect 2 Communities

A partnership between CEF and area churches

The mission of Connect 2 Communities is to establish a partnership between CEF of Lone Star Prairie Chapter(LSP) and area churches in a combined effort to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ through a Good News  Club (club), offer the church group an opportunity to serve area children and their families in a meaningful display of Christ’s love, and provide school or facility administrators with a resource to handle issues that need a community solution.

A well defined plan for establishing this partnership gets everybody on the same page working toward the same goal.

 Assembling Your Team

  1. Bring the plan before the church body to choose to partner with CEF of Lone Star Prairie.
  2. Select an Administrative Coordinator for the following responsibilities.
  3. Establish a prayer team.
    • Pray for an open door to the place of your choice.
    • Encourage church members to pray for the Good News Club while it meets.
    • Pray for salvation of the children & families to be touched.
  4.  Help Recruit workers to fill all GNC™ positions.
  5.  Conduct periodic team meetings with team leader.
    • Pray for the club, the children, the school, GNC team members and families of the children.
    • Help team members be accountable for assigned tasks.
    • Plan promotional activities to reach more children. If 10-20 children are  present, there are hundreds who are not!
  6. Encourage and support team members.
    • Promote a sense of common purpose and unity among team members.
    • Build a sense of family in your core team.
    • Encourage team members through acknowledgement of work completed, encouraging notes, phone calls and recognition before the church congregation.
  7. Recruit workers to expand the ministry.
    • Encourage GNC team members to invite others to meetings.
    • Provide CEF® brochures that they may distribute to others.
    • Challenge everyone on the team to look for opportunities to share about this ministry with  others.
    • Recruit 5‑Day Club® hostesses.
    • Recruit 5‑Day Club missionaries (CYIA).
  8.  Act as a liaison between the church and the GNC team.
    • Report on club activities and presents prayer requests periodically to the congregation.
    • Arrange a dedication or commissioning service for the GNC team since the  GNC  is a missionary outreach of the church.
    • Plan for public recognition in the church of the GNC team at the end of the club year.
  9. Select an Action Team composed of:
    • GNC Team Leader
      • All workers report to Team Leader.
      • All directions and materials are received from the Team Leader.
      • Maintains a list of all who are willing to be involved in this ministry.
    • Teachers & helpers
      • Participate on the Hostess Team.
        1. Purchase refreshments/snacks.
        2. The Hostess Leader will seek out individuals to purchase, serve, prepare and deliver snacks for club.
      •  Be a Shepherd of 8 to 12 children.
        1. Establish a personal connection for each child in your group.
        2. Monitor and direct the children in your group.
        3. Encourage and support the children in your group.
      • Listen to memory verses.
      • Greet the children as they come in to club.
      • Escort children to their parent at curbside at the end of club.
      • Club reporter
        1. Records attendance.
        2. Sends out postcards for absent children.
        3. Encourages attendance thru stickers or prizes.
        4. Passes on the club’s prayer needs to the church.
      •  Bible teacher- need at least
      • Memory verse teacher.
      • Missionary Story teacher.
      • Song leader.
      • Game leader
  10.  Have a sign up list with jobs people can do as part of this ministry.
    • Everyone needs 6 hours of training to work as a leader, coordinator, teacher or helper.
    • Background checks are required for everyone who works with children.

Church Support and Commitment

  1. The church agrees to use the CEF materials and songs developed specifically for this ministry.
  2. All CEF work is faith based locally& has only the support of donors. Training is free except for extension courses from Children’s Ministry Institute. We would ask the church to evaluate our service to see if you consider it worth supporting financially.   Our policy is to ask God and tell His people our needs.
  3. The church will provide for the hands on ministry to facilitate the needs of the children in Good News Club and their families. It could include teachers and workers in the facility where the club is held.

CEF Responsibilities and Commitments

  1. CEF plans training days for all involved.
  2. CEF makes arrangements for the church to serve in the school, day care, B&G club, apartment complex, or other designated place of ministry.
  3. CEF provides training and support covering the curriculum.
  4. CEF clears all workers through background checks required for everyone who works with the children.
  5. CEF provides a large insurance policy to cover every club and worker.
  6. CEF will continue to provide guidance in growing the community outreach and spiritual aspects of the ministry to the church and it’s chosen place of ministry.

 Contact Information

Web:  www.lonestarcef.com
Address:  P. O. Box 8161, Greenville, TX 75404
Phone:  903-455-4297
Email:  cefoflsp@gmail.com
Amber Pitts, Director: phone 903-453-5599  Email:  amberpitts63@gmail.com
Sharon Hogan, Ambassador: phone 903-456-1224. Email: dannysharon2442@gmail.com

Ideas to Build Relationships with School Personnel

  • Provide special snacks in the teachers’ lounge for school staff several times a year.
  • Provide free popcorn or snow-cones at open house or parent-teacher conferences.
  • Ask to set up a booth at a back-to-school night/open house, with a table where parents can sign up their child for GNC.
  • Ask the principal what the school needs most and raise necessary funds to provide the materials needed.
  • Invite school personnel to a GNC kick-off meeting.
  • Invite the principal and teachers to CEF’s annual banquet for special recognition.
  • Send birthday cards to the principal and teachers.
  • Give little gifts of appreciation periodically to all school staff.
  • Give Christmas gifts to all school staff (janitors, teachers, and assistants). Have GNC kids deliver “For all you do”notes, signed by the GNC team.
  • Let the principal and teachers know in tangible ways that you appreciate them and their work.

Ideas to Encourage All Ages in the Church to Participate in Adopt-a-School as a Missions Outreach

  • Begin a back-to-school missions project to purchase school supplies for needy kids.
  • Ask various groups within the church to have a GNC project for the school year—Sunday school classes, men’s group, women’s group, youth group, missions committee, Wednesday Bible study groups, choir, etc. Projects could include providing pizza two times a year, buying snacks for one month, providing devotional books for each child, buying Bibles for anyone who needs one, providing a treat box, etc.
  • Hold a back-to-school family night with pizza, games and a spiritual challenge. Give each family (church and GNC) attending What a God 60-day devotional book (from CEF Press®).
  • Provide Thanksgiving turkeys for needy families in the school.
  • Adopt several needy families from the school children for Christmas.
  • Have volunteers from the church help with Special Olympics.
  • Hold a Christmas carnival and invite GNC children and their friends to attend. Children rotate to different activity booths. Everything is focused on Christ. The booths include ornament decorating, icing cookies, stringing popcorn, making parents a gift, making Christmas cards for shut-ins, puppet show, etc. There could be specials by children’s groups. At the end, hear an evangelistic Christmas lesson and eat pizza.
  • Ask visitation teams to visit in homes of GNC children (especially of those children who have made salvation decisions.) Look for opportunities to meet physical, emotional and spiritual needs. (It is important that the team makes an appointment with the parents to visit and that the initial visit not last over 15 minutes. Be respectful of parents’ time. Do not call during mealtime.)
  • Invite children to special events at your church, including VBS, for continued summer follow-up.
  • Invite all clubbers and their parents to a special recognition service at a Sunday morning service.
  • List GNC prayer requests for church prayer meeting and pray for them regularly.
  • Announce salvation decisions to the congregation. Share wonderful stories of children being saved and lives being changed.
  • Keep workers encouraged by a brief recognition of group, giving statistics and giving praise to God for all He has done.
  • Send notes home about your bus ministry that will pick them up for Sunday school (if you have this ministry).
  • Hold a fall campfire cookout to promote Sunday school. The cookout could include skits, singing, games and lots of fun and fellowship.
  • Sponsor a fall harvest festival—all games with a Christian emphasis, Gospel face-painting, puppet show, free food, fellowship and a Gospel presentation.
  • Have children in the church send birthday cards to the GNC children. (They could become pen pals.)
  • Visit GNC children in hospital.

 

 

 

CEF® Lone Star Prairie

P. O. Box 8161
Greenville, Tx 75404-8161
Phone: 903-455-4297
Email: cefoflsp@gmail.com

CEF® Lone Star Prairie
P. O. Box 8161 • Greenville, Tx 75404-8161 • Phone: 903-455-4297 • Email: cefoflsp@gmail.com