Topic - Teacher Training

Youth Lesson Preparation and Presentation

This seminar will include ideas for organizing your preparation, structuring your teaching time, and encouraging student understanding. This seminar is primarily directed at those doing the teaching of the youth curriculum, but can also be beneficial to those assisting, small group leading, or overseeing a youth classroom.

Preschool Teaching and Small Group Leading

This seminar presents an overview of preschool ministry with biblical foundations and ideas for structuring the Sunday school hour. The seminar will also include focused time on leading small group application time with preschool age students.

Preschool Lesson Preparation

Teaching preschoolers is a unique privilege and challenge. Come to this hands-on presentation to learn how to prepare and present a preschool lesson using CDG curriculum.

The Importance of Biblical Literacy for the Next Generation

We have the tremendous responsibility and privilege as parents and teachers of giving our children a thorough knowledge of the Bible. This seminar will focus on the importance of Bible literacy, as well as age-related goals and expectations, and practical tips for achieving these in the classroom and home.

Helping Children Develop a Biblical Worldview

We are living in an increasingly postmodern culture that is hostile to absolute truth, especially the truth and authority of God’s Word. This seminar will focus on the necessity of giving our students and children a biblical worldview, so that they would see and interpret everything in life through the truth of Scripture.

Introduction to CDG Curriculum and Sequence

Are you puzzled by CDG’s curriculum options and components and how all the pieces fit together? Come to this session to learn how the CDG curriculum sequence intentionally builds towards theological understanding and spiritual growth. An overview of all the CDG curriculum will be included: Nursery & Toddler, Preschool, Elementary, Midweek, Youth, Intergenerational, and Backyard Bible Club.

Why Small Group Application?

If WHY is your favorite question come and learn WHY application time is essential to effective Bible training and discipleship. If "help me get started" is what you are thinking, an overview of the entire application process will be presented with an emphasis on personal preparation and Holy Spirit guided conversations.

Towards a Biblical "Relational Youth Ministry"

God’s design for Christian relationships far surpasses simply “hanging out.” He has brought us together in Christ for so much more. He desires for us to be powerful means of grace to each other. We must lead those we shepherd toward the depth of relationships necessary to fulfill Jesus’ "one another" commands, and point them to his pathway toward astounding blessing. Come grow in your appreciation for God’s gift of and design for biblical fellowship, and find practical ways to help students and families understand, experience, and crave it.

Leading Students to Feast on God's Word

Oh, that we as parents and youth leaders—along with the students we shepherd—would delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it day and night! Come increase your appetite for the Word, and learn how to help young people take in its rich nourishment. By God’s grace, our times with Him in the Bible will be increasingly grounded in biblical doctrine, propelled by prayer, marked by a right handling of the Word, and aimed at seeing and savoring the person and Gospel of Jesus Christ, culminating in humble reception and real life application.

Nursery and Toddler Ministry

We will be discussing and discovering together: 1) the essential importance of foundations laid in nursery ministry; 2) the intentional, Godward purpose for each nursery; and 3) the components that will ensure the laying of a Christ-centered, Bible-saturated foundation of truth on which our children can securely stand.

Small Group Leading: Nuts and Bolts

This seminar will highlight the practical “nuts and bolts” of small group leading, including preparation, the use of workbooks, directing conversation, and logistics.

Truth-Drenched Youth Ministry

How can we breed a ministry full of students who set their hearts to study, live, and teach the Word (Ezra 7:10), treasure the words of His mouth more than food (Job 23:12), delight in the law of the Lord (Psalm 1:2), desire God’s Word more than gold, and have the Word of Christ richly dwelling in them (Colossians 3:16) all to the praise and glory of King Jesus? We can’t! But God can! Come find out how God graciously seeks to create this kind of Bible-saturated breeding ground in your ministry to young people, for the fame of Jesus’ name in this generation!

Elementary Lesson Preparation and Presentation

Teaching children is a privilege from God. Teaching them well is dependent on heart preparation, studying the lesson before teaching, and effective presentation. This seminar will include ideas for organizing your preparation, structuring your teaching time, and encouraging student understanding. Both new and seasoned teachers will benefit from this seminar.

Effective Teaching Strategies

Effective teachers are growing teachers. Learning and developing effective teaching strategies is part of the growth process. This workshop will highlight how to avoid some common teaching errors in an effort to help you make the most of your classroom time with students.

Teaching the Difficult Doctrines in Children's Ministry

The goal of this seminar is to help teachers and ministry leaders understand the importance of teaching the “difficult doctrines” to children and to suggest some practical ways of teaching these doctrines. Doctrines to be discussed include: sovereignty, sin, law and grace, fear of God, suffering, election, and hell.

Small Group Leading: Maximizing Spiritual Influence Through Relationships

Relationships of trust foster opportunities to be a spiritual influence on students. This seminar focuses on practical suggestions for fostering healthy Gospel-oriented relationships, maximizing opportunities to be a spiritual influence, and getting beyond surface conversation to draw out heart issues.

Word Art: Word Pictures in Gospel Teaching

Jesus, the master teacher, used both visuals and word pictures to convey and clarify truth. As concrete learners, young children can more easily grasp deep spiritual truth when presented with verbal and visual pictures. We will examine biblical word pictures and learn the basic principles for crafting them for our teaching.

God-Centered Teaching in a Child-Centered World

The book of Proverbs is an account of a father teaching his son to walk in the way of wisdom and embrace it in his life. In a world where various learning styles are promoted as breakthroughs in helping teachers teach and children learn, it is fascinating to see what the Holy Spirit inspired as a model of teaching. This seminar aims to equip teachers to teach in a God-centered manner using a God-Centered approach to teaching and learning.

Leading Application Time

Understanding the value of application time will assist the leader to properly prepare, lead and engage students in life response to the Word of God. This seminar will provide that understanding along with guidelines that will equip leaders to increase their effectiveness in guiding and learning from application time.

Choosing God-Centered Resources

How do we, as teachers and parents, evaluate these resources in a way that is discerning concerning the centrality of God? This seminar will focus on practical, clear guidelines for evaluating Christian books, music, and visual media developed for children.

Expanding the Expectations of Parents and Youth Workers

What radical, Christ-exalting things are you expecting Jesus to do in and through the young people you serve? The Bible and church history reveal that God’s expectations for teenagers are much higher than ours. Our expectations as parents and pastors can be the greatest stepping stone or stumbling block to the fulfillment of God’s glorious kingdom purposes in the lives of the teenagers we serve.

Mining the Word—Scripture Study Skills for Adults

Would you like to increase your depth of insight and gain greater passion and momentum for the Word? Join us as we examine several simple, helpful Bible study tools together. Bring a Bible!

Owning the Word—Teaching Youth to Study Scripture

Would you like to transfer your love of God’s Word to your students and equip them to feed their own souls from the Word? Join us for this seminar designed to motivate and equip you to study the Bible more effectively with youth. Bring a Bible!

Implementing CDG Curriculum in Your Church

Implementing the CDG curriculum in a church flows from a vision for the next generation. This seminar presents principles and questions that need to be considered as well as tools to develop a plan for your church.

Starting CDG Curriculum in a Small- Medium-Sized Church

Practical tools for using CDG curriculum in a small church: How do I combine classes? How do I get enough teachers? How can I assist my leadership and our congregation catch the vision and support change?

Teaching to Reach the Heart

Teaching truth is the first step to building children who are strong in the Lord. We also must aim our teaching to engage a heart response in children. Learn how to shepherd a children's heart to respond to Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Making Your Point: Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

Do your children leave knowing the main point of each lesson? Preparing and teaching a lesson is a lot of work—this seminar will present techniques to ensure the students know what the lesson was all about.

Teaching Youth: Watch Out for Your Method

This session is aimed at giving practical direction in making the instruction of youth effective and fruitful.

Intergenerational Teaching

This seminar gives a theology and a philosophy of intergenerational teaching, followed by many practical suggestions. It also includes a testimony from a leader of a successful intergenerational small group.

How the Truth is Caught: Leading Application Time

Applying truths of the Bible lesson to the everyday life of children is essential. This seminar will help you learn how to ask questions, how to engage children in spiritual conversation, and how to encourage children to respond to the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Involving Students in the Learning Process

Are your students active participants in the learning process or passive listeners? This seminar presents tools to make them active participants and explains why this is such an important factor in Bible teaching.

Developing Bible Skills in Children

The Bible is the foundation for all truth. As parents and teachers, it is our responsibility to diligently teach our children the scriptures. In this workshop we will set goals and give practical ideas for building Bible skills in children, nursery through the elementary years.

What's New About All-New Curriculum from CDG?

Teaching Preschoolers: Why and How?

Introduction to Children Desiring God Curriculum and Sequence

How Can a Young Person Keep Their Way Pure? Helps for Encouraging Teens in Godliness

Teaching the Whole Counsel of God

Training Children Toward Holiness

By Design: Youth Ministry in the Local Church

Leading Students to Feast on God's Word

Laying Foundations in the Nursery for Infants and Toddlers to Know a Holy God

Great Expectations: Embracing a Massive, Christ-Exalting Vision for the Young People that You Serve

Youth Lesson Preparation and Presentation

Elementary Lesson Preparation and Presentation

Reaching the Heart: The Importance of Application

Teaching Children the Fear of the Lord

Preparing the Littlest Ones to Stand on the Truth

Join Joyce as she lays out a vision for praying for, blessing and teaching the littlest ones that they might stand on the truth of Jesus. Joyce provides an overview of various components of ministry for infants and toddlers. This powerful vision embraces the truth that little ones can know and understand deep spiritual truths from a very young age.