One of the major goals of the Love of Children ministry this year was to put together a new website to offer a user-friendly site with easy-to-find resources. The Rev. Trayce Potter, minister for Children & Youth Engagement at the United Church of Christ, said she is pleased with the recently launched website that was funded by a 2023 grant from the Lilly Foundation.
Rev. Trayce Potter leads the UCC Love of Children ministry.
“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.”
2026 Cohort application now available
It’s there where you’ll find information about the Love of Children cohort program as well. “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,” said Potter. “They have spent this year learning together, doing site visits, participating. And now our application for the 2026 year is available as well.”
The 12- month cohort is designed to provide educational experiences, nurture a supportive community of practice, and create opportunities to apply shared learning directly to specific ministry settings.
Potter is also excited about a webinar series in partnership with the Yale Youth Ministry Institute. “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.”
Hatch-a-Thon will hatch new ideas
Another exciting event coming up quickly is the Love of Children Hatch-a-Thon from Friday, Oct. 3 to Sunday, Oct. 5. A group of UCC children’s ministry leaders from throughout the country will gather in Alexandria, Virginia to incubate new ways of engaging children more meaningfully in worship and prayer. The program, also funded by the Lilly Endowment, is designed to center children more intentionally in churches, and to provide congregations with replicable models for nurturing children and their families.
Rev. Amber Neuroth and children of the Hope UCC in Alexandria, Virginia.
Rev. Amber Neuroth, pastor of Hope UCC, said she is looking forward to it. “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 said the Hatch-a-Thon will be a lot of fun. “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.”
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