Alerts Sign-up
The Love of Children ministry has launched a new website aimed at providing easier access to resources for children’s ministry leaders and families. The site, developed with support from a 2023 Lilly Foundation grant, features an extensive resource library organized by audience, topic, and setting.
Rev. Trayce Potter, minister for Children & Youth Engagement at the United Church of Christ, expressed satisfaction with the project. “One of the major things with the new website is an extensive resource library that has been tagged with different categories as far as audience, topic, and setting, such as Sunday school camp, board meeting, wherever someone is going to use it. We have a team that is regularly reviewing new resources there so that we can keep updating it,” said Potter.
“I am very excited to be able to offer to our local churches and ministry partners a useful tool in our website,” she shared. “It will help them better serve the children in their lives. As a parent, I know what it’s like to pour over websites and information looking for the best resources, ideas and research, and still coming up short. Our new Love of Children website will be a reliable place to come when looking for ideas and resources rooted in truth and faith.”
The website also hosts details about the Love of Children cohort program. According to Potter: “One of the things that we did in 2025, we wanted to see what would happen if we took a small group of individuals in children’s ministry in the local church, and have them walk together for a whole year. They have spent this year learning together, doing site visits, participating. And now our application for the 2026 year is available as well.” The program runs for twelve months and aims to provide education experiences while fostering community among participants.
A webinar series presented through partnership with the Yale Youth Ministry Institute has also been introduced this year. Potter noted: “We have contracted with the Yale Youth Ministry Institute to provide six high quality webinars. So far we have had four this year. We also offer suggestions about how to implement the learnings after people have watched the webinars.”
In October 2025, children’s ministry leaders will gather in Alexandria, Virginia for an event called Hatch-a-Thon—an initiative designed to develop innovative approaches for engaging children more deeply in worship settings. The Hatch-a-Thon receives funding from Lilly Endowment as well.
Rev. Amber Neuroth of Hope UCC commented on hosting responsibilities: “We are thrilled to host the UCC Hatch-a-Thon at Hope UCC because we believe that cultivating good ministry tools for children and youth is essential. That ministry is the heart of who we are at Hope, where our tagline is Welcome, Nurture, Transform. We are glad to see the UCC leading this ministry in such innovative ways.”
Potter added about event plans: “On the last day, we’re going to model it after the TV show ‘Shark Tank,’ where a group of children and youth are going to be like the judges on that show, to say if they think the ideas brought forth are good ones.”
Content from ucc.org remains under copyright by its National Setting.
