Apex Kids & Student Ministries Updates
If you are the parent of a child or student (birth to 8th grade) or volunteer with Apex Kids or Student Ministries here are some things you NEED to know!
Updated: Apex Kids/Student Ministry Calendar for Birth to 8th Grade
January to April Trimester
Mar. 12 Studio 34 Pajama Purity Party - Same schedule as Feb 5
Mar. 21 Deadline for Summer Camp Deposit of 50.00
Mar. 26 March Manliness: Rescheduled to include grades 3 to 6
April 3-4 Easter: Guest David Cain shares Christ as he Juggles.
Apr. 17-18 Deadline to turn in Camp Scholarship Applications
Apr. 23 Partnering with Parents Event: “School Options for your Child”
May to August Trimester
May 7 KIDS TALENT SHOW!
May 8-9 Parent-Child Dedications during the Gatherings
May 22-23 Bump Weekend – Kids promoted to next class or grade: Special presentation about Courage from:”Phil and Friends”
May 23 Mandatory meeting about Camp 11am; Also Payment Deadline
May 29-30 Memorial Day-Begin Summer Schedule for Apex Kids & Students
June 14-18 Centri-Kids Camp for Grades 4 to 6 (Grade attended this past year)
June 19-20 Baptisms on Father’s Day weekend
JUNE 21-25 FIVE DAY FEST! (VBS) “High Seas Expedition” The Kickoff of our Summer “Growing” and “Going” emphasis for Kids in our House Church Regions:
SHINE: “SHARING HIM IN NEIGHBORHOODS EVERYWHERE”
1) Watermelon Parties: One day Backyard Gospel presentations in our House Churches from June to August.
2) Five Day Clubs: Week long Backyard, Park, or Playground Gospel presentations – at least one per region July and August.
July 19-23 M-Fuge Camp for Grades 7 & 8 (Grade attended this past year)
Aug. 28-29 Back to School Weekend at Apex
Preview of September to December Trimester
September Shoe Box Kickoff this month
October Parent-Child Dedications during the Gatherings
November Operation Christmas Child & Thanksgiving Family Service
December Community Outreach to Needy and Homeless
Apex Kids and Students: Parent Help Team (PHT)
Dear Parents: We are honored to minister to your children at our weekend Gatherings. We are glad to contribute to your efforts to “grow” your children spiritually- a partnership we willingly invest in and prepare for every week.
To enhance that partnership we are creating the Parent Help Team. The PHT includes all parents of children/students from Birth to 8th Grade who DO NOT CURRENTLY serve within Apex Kids-Student Ministries. Apex leadership is now requiring that you or your spouse serve in one of the following ways:
Guides:
Register and escort visitors to proper rooms-areas from Check-in desk
6 times a year or 4 times in one month
Gatekeepers:
Provide information and security in and around children/student hallways.
6 times a year or 4 times in one month
Helpers:
Assist teacher/leader in classroom or ministry area.
6 times a year or 4 times in one month
Inn Keepers:
Help clean rooms and sanitize toys
6 times a year
Registered Nurses:
Available during Gathering if needed
6 times a year
Why are we now requiring that parents who are not serving help?
1) To maintain and enhance a “Growing” environment that is consistent.
2) Provide needed help to those who are more fully committed to this area.
3) To more fairly involve families benefiting from Apex Kids Student Ministries
Go here to register, in the coming months a new church management system we are installing will also bring a new Kids/Student check in system with it. For security reasons, your child will not be in our system unless you have signed up to serve.
To all of those volunteers who are currently serving . . .
Dear Volunteers: Thank you for ministering to Kids/Students at our weekend Gatherings. We appreciate your contribution to the spiritual growth of our families and enjoy working with you on a regular basis here at Apex.
To acknowledge your consistent contribution we are identifying and organizing you as part of Apex Kids and Student Ministry Team. (AKSM) Very simply you are the people that serve our families on a regular basis.
Apex Kids and Student Ministry Team : AKSM
Ministry Team Serving Calendar:
1) Trimester One: January to April
2) Trimester Two: May to August
3) Trimester Three: September to December
Ministry Team Serving Level: Gold
1) Once a week all year
2) Once a week for one trimester
3) Once a week for two trimesters
Ministry Team Serving Level: Silver
1) Once a week for a month: Serving month on and month off
2) Once a week for a month: Serving 1 month in each trimester
3) Once a week for a month: Serving 1 month in two of the trimesters
Ministry Team Serving Level: Bronze
1) Every month 1 to 3 times
Please know that we have appreciated your service and only seek to acknowledge your faithfulness through the identification of service levels. The creation of the Parent Help Team is to let you know that we respect your effort by requiring all of our parents to more fully invest in our ministry.
Apex Kids and Student Ministry Leaders
Understanding Apex: How Does Leadership Work in the Apex Network?
Since our initial planting as a church, Apex has seen our leadership and oversight evolve alongside our ever-morphing ministry. While the Lord has blessed us with godly people to shepherd our local Body for years, the need for more clarity in our oversight structure as we continue to grow has become apparent to our elders. Near the end of 2009, final approval was given for a new leadership policy. Though some of the policy has yet to be realized (HC shepherd covenants, for example), it does provide a framework from which we hope to move forward.
Below is a link to that document in our online resource library. We strongly encourage all Apexers, especially those who have assumed any sort of leadership role, to watch the above video prior to reading the document. It provides a basic overview of the document. If you want to further examine the details of the policy, feel free to visit the link below, and do not hesitate to contact Apex leadership if you have further questions at that point.
“And God placed all things under [Jesus'] feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, 1:22-23
Leadership in the Apex Network Document (PDF)
Apex Kids: Simplify and Serve in 2010
An important letter from Kevin Bowman, Apex Kids Director:
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Simplify and Serve in 2010!
Please take the time to read this detailed and helpful plan for ministry in Apex Kids for 2010. “Simplify and Serve” will be our guiding theme for next year. It is explained in this post in 6 parts, and we ask that you fill out the provided form after reading!
Simplifying Volunteer Scheduling: Currently we need 86 people to fully staff our weekend Gatherings. The weekly effort to schedule those 86 volunteers has been exceptional and unnecessarily difficult. Changes in the way we will schedule our volunteers reflect our desire to serve in a manner that is more consistently staffed, better prepared and very intentional in the building of relationships between children, their families and those who serve them.
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Part 1: Trimesters
Our plan will be framed within three trimesters:
First: January – April
Second: May – August
Third: September – December
It is our goal to coordinate the ministry of our workers with events and life schedules common to most, if not everyone, within the Apex family.
This approach also represents a realistic view of the unique transitions, choices and priorities that all families and churches encounter throughout the year, and especially during the summer months of May to August.
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Part 2: Accommodation
Our plan must be able to accommodate at least 400 children each weekend during the 3 Gatherings. All three of our Gatherings are equally important, but the greater number of children at our 9:30 service make its staffing a priority.
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Part 3: Stewardship
Although we will always need to recruit additional workers, it is just as important that we are good stewards of the volunteers that already serve.
Apex has a unique demographic of young families, college students, busy professionals and military personnel. That blend of people within the context of a thriving House Church vision presents both opportunities and challenges when trying to build and maintain a level of excellence in our ministry.
Our intent is to provide opportunities for service that work with our church demographic rather than working around it. That said, we will be asking that our people “adjust,” to meet the needs of our children.
We realize that many of you who faithfully serve do not have margin in your schedules to do more or alter how you serve. We are asking those of you who do have margin in your schedule to reconsider “how” you serve.
For example: if you now serve 12 weeks throughout the year, we would ask to consider serving 8 weeks in 2 one month blocks. In this case LESS is MORE. These scheduling options will be explained more in the next part.
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Part 4: Priorities & Options
One more time… Every person presently serving within Apex Kids is important!
Under our current system, even if we retain 100% of our volunteers on our database, we would still need to add an additional 50 to 60 people to properly and effectively staff Apex Kids. Given that scenario, please examine our planning priorities and serving options to which you’d like to commit:
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***Apex Kids Planning Priorities for 2010:
a) 9:30 Gathering: Greatest number of Children
b) Sept-Dec & Jan-April trimesters: Most consistent attendance pattern
c) May-July trimester: Most inconsistent attendance pattern
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***Apex Kids Serving Options for 2010:
a) Those who wish to serve every week for the entire year
b) Those who wish to serve every week for an entire trimester
c) Those who wish to serve for an entire month at a time (something that many of our volunteers already do.) Many serve a month on and a month off. Serving one month per trimester would also be very beneficial to our scheduling as well as our mission. (Especially during May – August.)
d) Those who wish to serve two weeks every month
e) Those who wish to serve an entire weekend
f) Those who wish to serve as part of a House Church project
g) Those who wish to serve in a manner not listed above
Encouraging note: If we simply add 4 or 5 “every week” volunteers or “entire trimester” volunteers we stretch our existing volunteer database by more than 80 people. If you don’t understand how that works, please contact me! I would be happy to explain that to you, and help you sign up.
Let me restate: Please understand why it is important for Apex Kids to prioritize our scheduling of volunteers by those that will serve the most often. It helps everyone serve less often!
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Part 5: For ALL Parents
For the purpose of being qualified to serve in a classroom if need be, we need to create a true sub list. As a sub, you will not be asked to serve more than 4 times per year. That is a promise.
We are asking ALL parents whose children attend Apex Kids ministries during our weekend Gatherings to go to our website and do the following:
- Download a Volunteer Screening Form
- Fill it out and turn it in at the Apex Kids Lobby Desk (Check-In Center)
These forms can be downloaded at:
http://apexcommunity.org/how-to-connect/kids/
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Part 6: Final Thoughts
Final thoughts on why we are changing the serving schedule
1. To build better relationships between our workers and the families they serve: we want to put forth a more consistent face on our teaching staff. Most would agree that having the same teacher(s) as much as possible, is better for the kids, especially with our youngest children.
2. To improve the impact of our teaching: most of our curriculum is set up as an 8 week unit and teaching for a four week period of time allows a teacher to refer back to previous weeks material and link it with lessons that will follow. (And yes… we believe that is important, even for a two year old!)
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Now, if you are a parent and do not volunteer, please follow the instructions in Part 5.
If you are a volunteer, or wish to begin regular service with Apex Kids, please use our 2010 Scheduling Feedback Form to let us know how you’d prefer to serve. You can either pick-up and return a printed form at the Apex Kids Lobby Desk, or you can fill out the form online by visiting this link:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGJSWHdGVVVkVnNYNVNFZGtZbExwVnc6MA
Thanks again, for all your service… and you’re willingness to read all of these planning thoughts! Feel free to contact me with questions.
Kevin Bowman, Apex Kids Director
kevin.bowman@apexcommunity.org or 432-9022 x208
What are Teenagers Asking about God?
A peak into Apex’s Student Ministry… Jason Wing asks Chad Osborne, one of Apex’s student ministry directors, an impromptu question about the questions that teenagers are asking about God. Both serious and funny.
2009 House 2 House Conference
House 2 House Conference
This weekend, a handful of Apex elders and staff are in Dallas at the 2009 House 2 House Conference. We are enjoying a sweet time of sharing with other brothers and sisters who are part of the house church movement in America and overseas.
Please be in prayer for us that our time is fruitful. We hope to build more relationships with those in the house church movement… as well as share what God is doing within Apex in Dayton.
If you’d like to learn more about the conference, visit the house 2 house website.
Or, you can see much of the conference streamed live on livestream when it is in session! Not sure how much they are able to show, but feel free to check it out.
-Drew
New Apex Beta Site Launch
Today we launch an entirely new Apex website! It’s been a long time coming (we appreciate your patience!) but I hope you’ll find that it was worth the wait. Today’s launch is Beta (meaning we’re still tweaking some things), and we plan for the full launch to come in early September.
We’ve been working hard to create a site that reflects our house church network mentality. We want this site to be a forum where your house church ministry is at the forefront. That’s why we have the “what’s happening” information right on the front page. When you have ministry going on in your house church (or HC region) that you want to let others know about, all you need to do is get it posted to the “what’s happening” section of your region’s website hub. It will then automatically show up on the apex website front page!
We’ve also put a big stress on resources and staying in the communication loop on this website. You’ll find a more robust resource library with sorting, searching, and media capabilities that will allow us to post our gathering sermons, like we’ve always done, as well as other resources such as conferences, articles, music, and reading lists. The blogs will allow you to learn more about the various ministries going on within the network straight from your leadership. Other features such as email subscriptions, RSS feeds, Facebook integration, and Twitter should give you your Apex fix whenever you want it!
Be sure to check out the handful of explanatory videos embedded on some of the top-level pages as well. We pray that they will be a help in educating about Apex’s values and purposes to new-comers and longtime Apexers alike.
All-in-all, we just hope this website will be a continuation in our growth of opportunities for you to get connected, stay connected, and be the church.
If you have questions or feedback about the site, feel free to contact me.
-Drew Clemens
Connecting & Communications Team Lead
drew.clemens@apexcommunity.org