RICHMOND — This spring when Anna Kissne entered the Virginia Baptist Mission Board's certification in children's ministry program, she was taking another step in answering God's call to minister to children.
Anna's faith journey began in her native Romania at Balla Baptist Church, where she accepted Christ as a child and was baptized. When the era of communist rule in Romania ended, she immigrated to Hungary.
It was there at a Hungarian Baptist Union summer camp that Anna first felt God calling her into ministry. During the day she worked in the camp's kitchen, but in the evenings she would join the children for worship. “One night I came forward,” Anna said, “and I said ‘yes' to God. Here I am. Send me.”
Students in the spring 2007 certification in children's ministry course at the Virginia Baptist Resource Center. Below, right: Anna Kissne, who is earning the certificate to equip herself for ministry at a Callao church.
Three years later, in 1992, Anna enrolled in the International Baptist Lay Academy in Budapest to study English. She also became involved in children's ministry at the International Baptist Church in Budapest and worked as a translator for the partnership between the Hungarian Baptist Union and the Baptist General Association of Virginia. She met her future husband, Kornel Kiss, at IBLA, and in 1995 they married and moved to Prague, Czech Republic, to study at the International Baptist Theological Seminary.
Virginia Baptists helped support Anna and Kornel at IBLA and IBTS and provided a full scholarship for Kornel to enroll at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond in 1998. Anna continued to feel a calling to children's ministry and became actively involved at Hunton Baptist Church in Glen Allen, directing the preschool choir, organizing and leading a TeamKid program in the summer, and teaching Sunday school and Vacation Bible School.
ALICE RUSHER
Anna Kissne, who is earning the certificate to equip herself for ministry at a Callao church.
When Kornel was called as pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Callao, he and Anna soon noticed a lack of children and young families in the church. “It was at that point when God placed a burden on our hearts to reach out to young families with children and create a place within the church where they would be nurtured and cared for spiritually,” said Anna.
The result of their effort, along with a team of dedicated helpers, was a discipleship ministry called “Kids for Christ”, which has brought more than 30 children into Bethany's Wednesday night activities, started preschool and children's choirs and engaged the children in missions. Anna's desire to develop KFC from a child-oriented program to a family-focused ministry led her to pursue further training.
According to Diane Smith, VBMB children's ministry strategist, the VBMB's certification in children's ministry program began in 2005 as a way of equipping lay leaders like Anna who are filling a growing number of children's ministry positions in congregations.
The certification in children's ministry curriculum consists of five two-part courses, one of which is offered each fall and spring on a rotating basis, and a church-based practicum. Students who complete the entire program are awarded certification by the VBMB.
The certification in children's ministry instructor is Janice Haywood, a preschool and children's ministry specialist who has been with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina for more than 30 years. Haywood developed the curriculum with the assistance of Bruce Powers Sr., Langston Professor of Christian Education at Campbell University Divinity School.
“One of the main goals of the program is to prepare ministers to have effective preschool and children's ministries in their churches,” said Haywood, “not just a series of activities or programs. We want them to know how to guide the faith formation of preschoolers and grade-schoolers, as well as their parents.”
For Haywood, the most rewarding aspect of the certification in children's ministry program is watching the students grow. “They enter the program because of an interest in teaching children, but they leave with a passion and mission for reaching and ministering to those children,” she said.
Anna Kissne already exhibits that passion for ministry as she remembers something someone once told her: to love children as Jesus loved them. “That's my ministry goal,” Anna said, “to show Christ's love to them in tangible and concrete ways and to help them find their ways to following Jesus as their Lord and Savior …. It is an awesome and humbling experience to have a calling where little children are led to him.”
Information on the VBMB's certification in children's ministry program is available at www. vbmb.org or by calling 800.ALL.BGAV (255.2428), ext. 2256.