Trinity Kids and Youth Ministry Training Day 2025

Topic

Blurb

Using Sensory Activities for people with disability: how to engage all the senses to teach the Bible.
Presenter: Bec Baines -
Disability Ministry Advisor from YouthWorks College, NSW

What else can we do to help people with disability have a concrete understanding of what the Bible is teaching us and to remember what they have learned? This workshop will help us come up with creative ideas to engage the senses that will benefit all the people you are teaching and interacting with throughout the whole program or service.

The Body is diverse, and stronger for it.

Presenter: Dave and De Brown -
Adelaide church planters, building a church that has disability inclusion at its core

How should we think about disability and accessibility in our churches? Typically, most Christians will acknowledge that inclusion is good… but we also struggle to make it a priority. It can seem like a lot of work for just a few people, when we already feel stretched and overloaded. But what if inclusion was not just a good thing to do in principle, but part of God’s plan for us? And what if the Bible teaches us that we are weaker as a community when we fail to include everyone?

Too often, we follow the world’s lead in valuing strength and capacity rather than recognising the image of God and the Spirit at work. Starting with 1 Corinthians 12, this seminar will offer a concrete and applicable vision for the church and its ministry where our strength and maturity are found in trusting God’s promise to work through all believers together as a whole.

Helping kids and youth to think global mission
(repeated in both time slots)

Presenter: Tamie Davies -
CMS South Australia

Come and hear great ideas to help kids both engage meaningfully in mission, as well as raise their thinking to the possibility of serving in mission on day

Fostering healthy group dynamics

Presenter: Adam Jolliffe -
Kids Ministry Advisor from YouthWorks College

Group dynamics are a vital factor in any children's ministry - either for good or for bad. In Fostering Healthy
Group Dynamics you will consider how the teacher, the environment & the children contribute to the
dynamics of your group, and explore ways to manage each of these effectively.

Music and kids - Using music to teach a point

Presenter: Thea Maxwell -
Music Therapist working in the Adelaide area. currently attending Trinity Cambelltown

Can music help us teach God's word and help young hearts grow to love Jesus? Yes! Do you need to be a professional musician to do that? No! You don't even need to be able to hold a tune. Come along and think about the what, why and how of using music in kids ministry. We'll get practical too, so you can walk away with tools and ideas for using music in your ministry context.

Apologetics - Help youth answer hard questions from a gospel framework

Matt Bartlett -
Youth Ministry adisor from YouthWorks College, NSW

We want youth to have confidence in their faith within a world that objects to Christ. This course will explore different objections to Christianity that youth face. Participants will practice answering these objections within the framework of the Bible, worldview, doctrine and the life of faith.

Nurturing Faith in young people (part 1 & 2)

Adrian from Converge Youth -

The vision of Converge is to support and equip the church in Australia & New Zealand to continue to reach and disciple young people.

The faith stories of over 400 young Australians has given us a clear understanding of how the church can best support them on their faith journeys. Through the Your Story research project, we have identified factors that support young people, and factors that aren’t helpful, as they explore faith and spirituality.

These workshops will explore the idea that faith grows in the context of relationships and ecosystems. Together, we’ll reflect on what young people have shared in the research, and explore how we can create environments that are spiritually healthy and life-giving, where they can encounter the love of God in ways that are both personal and communal.

We’ll dig into the heart of relational discipleship with a focus on A.B.O.U.T. relationships—those marked by Acceptance, Belonging, Ownership, Understanding, and Trust. This framework will help you assess and strengthen the relationships at the core of your ministry.

Finally, we’ll engage with the practical side of discipleship: What actions are actually working? Which ones aren’t?And how can we tell the difference in ways that lead to deeper growth rather than just more activity?

These workshops will be an invitation to step back, listen, reflect, and reimagine how you can be a faithful presence in the unfolding faith stories of your young people.

Session 1: Who is Rhoda?

Faith has a narrative. It’s an ongoing story of which you are a part. How might you accompany your young people in healthy, life-giving ways?

Faith grows in a relational ecosystem. What is going on around a young person meaningfully impacts their faith as much as whats going on inside them. What are those factors, and how you strengthen them?

Help young people start Bible studies in their school

Presenter: Sarah Burnett from Mustard -

Mustard is a schools ministry organisation that exists to see lives transformed by Jesus, through students leading other students to Him through student led Bible studies at their own school.

Want to help your kids and youth be Christians in their schools? Mustard is a network of students who are choosing to own their faith and step out to be a leader for Jesus at school. At Mustard we empower students to start and lead Lunchtime Groups where students get to gather together, explore faith and live it out to multiply disciples at their school. Come along to learn more about how to encourage your kids/youth in being bold for Christ!

Friendships with people with disability

Presenter: Bec Baines -
Disability Ministry Advisor from YouthWorks College, NSW

What is friendship? How to we encourage friendship amongst people who are different to us? How do we help young people to love and care for others? This workshop will explore biblical insights of friendships and to consider how we can flourish in diverse community with one another.

Identifying and destroying barriers in your ministry programs.

Presenter: Dave and De Brown -
Adelaide church planters, building a church that has disability inclusion at its core

Some barriers are obvious – if we have stairs to our church, you know a wheelchair user won’t get inside. Other barriers are not so obvious. Our world is designed to be easy for able-bodied people, which means our church environments feel “natural” to many of us. But for people with a disability, our kids’ programs, youth groups and Sunday services can be difficult to access and harder still to participate. In this seminar, we will work through a “typical” youth environment and offer tools to make our programs more inclusive for all. In the second part, we will share a different model of gathering that we have been piloting, designed from the ground up to be as accessible as we can make it. Come along and be equipped to apply the lessons we’ve learned the hard way to your own context!

Helping kids and youth to think global mission
(repeated in both time slots)

Presenter: Tamie Davies -
CMS South Australia

Come and hear great ideas to help kids both engage meaningfully in mission, as well as raise their thinking to the possibility of serving in mission on day

Puppets - how to

Presenter: Stephen Urmston -
Kids and Families Pastor, Trinit Church Adelaide

Come and learn the basics of good puppetry. You will have lots of time to practice in this session too. Is it too much to say that this is really 'hands on'

Helping children own and share their faith

Presenter: Adam Jolliffe -
Kids Ministry Advisor from YouthWorks College

Faith like a child. What does this faith look like? How is it expressed? How can children be equipped to share this faith with others?
Helping Children Own and Share Their Faith gives you insight into child faith
development and how you can help nurture the child in understanding, expressing and living their faith in the context of family, church and community.

Partnering with Parents

Presenter: Ally Cranwell -
Kids Ministry Director at Trinity Church Cambelltown

The why and how families and local church partner together to raise our youngest members to know and love the Lord. Here you will hear from the Bible how the kids ministry team works best in partnership with the parents of the kids you are ministering too.

Writing Youth Bible studies

Presenter: Andy Stevenson -
Youth Ministry advisor from YouthWorks College, NSW

Learn how to write and package a Bible study in a way that connects with teenagers and helps them to understand God and themselves better.

Nurturing Faith in young people (part 1 & 2)

Presenter: Adrian Blenkinsop from Converge Youth Minsitry, South Australia

The vision of Converge is to support and equip the church in Australia & New Zealand to continue to reach and disciple young people.

The faith stories of over 400 young Australians has given us a clear understanding of how the church can best support them on their faith journeys. Through the Your Story research project, we have identified factors that support young people, and factors that aren’t helpful, as they explore faith and spirituality.

These workshops will explore the idea that faith grows in the context of relationships and ecosystems. Together, we’ll reflect on what young people have shared in the research, and explore how we can create environments that are spiritually healthy and life-giving, where they can encounter the love of God in ways that are both personal and communal.

We’ll dig into the heart of relational discipleship with a focus on A.B.O.U.T. relationships—those marked by Acceptance, Belonging, Ownership, Understanding, and Trust. This framework will help you assess and strengthen the relationships at the core of your ministry.

Finally, we’ll engage with the practical side of discipleship: What actions are actually working? Which ones aren’t?And how can we tell the difference in ways that lead to deeper growth rather than just more activity?

These workshops will be an invitation to step back, listen, reflect, and reimagine how you can be a faithful presence in the unfolding faith stories of your young people.

Session 2.

Who is Rhoda?

Its A.B.O.U.T Relationships. Effective discipling relationships offer Acceptance, build Belonging, promote Ownership, develop Understanding, and are anchored in Trust. What elements are strong in your ministry, and what can you strengthen?

Discipleship actions. What approaches are effective, which may not be, and how do you know the difference?