The Children’s Ministry Director of The Church of Pentecost, Pastor Prof. William Otoo Ellis, says the introduction of the Jethro Initiative (JI) by his outfit will serve as an alternative way of increasing engagement between Children Ministry’s teachers and the children.
“The membership of the Children’s Ministry is currently more than a million. However, our engagement with our children is mostly on Sunday mornings, and in this dispensation where services have been further reduced to two hours due to COVID-19. This means, we spend less time with the children. It has, therefore, become important to have the JI meetings as an alternative way of engaging children,” he said in a documentary that was shown at the launch ceremony yesterday.
He explained that the Jethro Initiative, which has “Nurturing unto Godliness” as its slogan, is not meant to replace the Sunday Morning meetings.
“JI aims to complement and strengthen the activities of the Children’s Ministry in building the foundation of the children in Christ and His word whiles making their walk in the Faith exciting through intentionally designed extra-curricular activities,” he stated.
He further noted that unlike Sunday morning classes, JI meetings are not restricted to only members of the Children’s Ministry but must be opened to all in line with the Church’s “Possessing the Nations” agenda.
The initiative was officially launched yesterday by the Chairman of the Church, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, following a successful pilot of the project in selected areas of the Church in Ghana.
Among other objectives, the initiative seeks to raise godly transformational future leaders, promote team work and unity among children, make the study of the word of God fun and innovative, inculcate a high sense of civic responsibility and patriotism in children, promote holistic growth and development of children, introduce children to role models, coaching and mentoring, create an opportunity for effective evangelism among the children in their community, encourage children to learn social skills, resilience, resourcefulness and empathy, as well as nurturing and maintaining the love for church attendance and participation in children.
The JI requires that children of ages 7 to 12 years in a particular assembly (local church) are broken into smaller groups. These groups, named after the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), should each comprise of 10 to 20 children. Members of each group would appoint two of its members to serve as a Group captain and assistant. The assembly would then appoint an overall JI Prefect and Assistant to coordinate the activities of the various JI groups. That notwithstanding, each group, must be supervised by at least one Child Worker (teacher).
The preferred day for JI meetings is Sunday afternoon. Saturday afternoon may be considered as a second option based on geographical or peculiar reasons. Although JI meetings are to be held for a maximum duration of one hour and 30 minutes, the acceptable time range is 2pm and 5pm.
Some of the special activities of JI include Character Studies in the Bible, Christian Family Values, My Environment, My Responsibility, Leadership Day, Talent Exhibition, Talk Shows, Civic Education, Reading Club, Family Day Out, Games, Learning to Serve, Music and Drama, Quizzes, Debate, Sword Drill, My Community My Treasure, and Bible Recitation.
In line with the operational guidelines of the Jethro Initiative, no JI meeting is to be held on Lord’s Supper Day.
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