Start A Club
Whether you're ready to start a club or just curious about incorporating an intellectual disability ministry into your church, we’d love to talk to you and get a conversation started.
About Us
Jesus Club Ministries (JCM) is a Christian organisation that helps local churches establish their own ministry for adults with intellectual disabilities (ID).
We focus on an inclusive church culture filled with people of mixed abilities to create Jesus Clubs that are a place of fun, friendship and for learning the Gospel message, for adults with and without ID.
how
we work with you
When you take the first step to start a Jesus Club, you begin a partnership with us to start and grow your own disability ministry. Your church provides a team of volunteers to lead and coordinate, and we provide the support, training and Biblical resources to run the program.
What we provide
Training
Initially we organise an orientation training with your church volunteers to give you the best start to begin your ministry journey.
Ongoingly, we provide annual professional development opportunities including Coordinators' Conference, monthly coordinators' email, and other online training throughout the year. We are committed to providing the mentoring and support you need to minister to adults with intellectual disabilities at your local church.
Resourcing
We equip clubs with a growing library of over 100+ biblical lessons specifically written for adults with ID.
These comprehensive and gospel-centered materials become available to you when you start a Jesus Club. All you need to do is download the instructions and worksheets.
See a sample lesson plan.
What is involved for you
Costs
Meeting cost: A Jesus Club program held at your church is inexpensive to run and any costs are usually covered by charging members $5 per meeting.
Membership: Being a non-profit organisation, entirely funded by donations, JCM encourages participating churches to consider making a regular monthly or annual contribution to help us meet the ongoing cost of training and resourcing your Jesus Club ministry. Our operational costs are around $5,000 per month.
Volunteers
You will need a team of leaders and one coordinator to run your Jesus Club program. They do not need any disability experience, just a heart for seeing people with ID come to know Christ.
The coordinator should be a mature Christian with leadership experience in your church. Other volunteer leaders will be trained and guided by the coordinator.
A typical schedule
Most churches host their Jesus Club program every fortnightly for 2-2.5 hours.
A typical Jesus Club program begins with games and songs, followed by a Bible lesson and Buddy group, and ends with refreshments and other activities.
get started
Whether you’re ready to start a club or just curious about incorporating an intellectual disability ministry into your church, we’d love to get a conversation started. Our Jesus Club trainers are available to present at your church.
what our clubs say
"What we love about this mission is that people with intellectual disabilities are so keen to come to church. In fact, most of the people who came to the first Jesus Club when it opened in 2006 are still attending today!"
"The highlight of Jesus Club for me is seeing our members recall the bible stories they've been taught. Just last meeting, a girl from our club recalled the story of the good Samaritan in great details and completely wowed us!"
This ministry is so worthwhile and its great that I have the opportunity to build the capacity of church to support people to share the gospel with vulnerable people within our community."
