Start A Club
Whether you're ready to start a club or just curious about incorporating an intellectual disability (ID) 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 any church grounded in the Gospel to 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 intellectual disabilities.
Starting a Jesus Club is simple
You don’t need a large team or a ready group of members.
Most clubs start with only one or two members and grow over time through word of mouth. More important is your love for people with ID to know Jesus Christ, and we will provide the rest.
01
Train with seasoned coordinators
To give you the best start to your ministry, we provide orientation workshops for all new leaders and coordinators. Covering everything from types of intellectual disabilities, Safety & WWCC, as well as relating to members and ... This workshop gives you the foundation you need to run a successful Jesus Club program.
02
Be equipped with 100+ Biblical teaching materials
All Jesus Clubs get access to our growing library of over 100+ biblical resources specifically written for adults with intellectual disabilities. Comprehensive and gospel-centred, each lesson includes clear instructions, worksheets and craft & games activities to take your meeting from start to finish.
03
Grow with annual professional training
We are committed to ensuring your club thrives and grows ongoingly. We do this through several professional development opportunities each year, including a Coordinators' Conference, a monthly coordinators' email, and other online training sessions throughout the year.
What is involved for you?
Aside from a genuine love for people with ID, all it takes to start a Jesus Club is a team of committed volunteers and the ability to meet basic meeting costs.
Meeting cost
A Jesus Club program held at your church is inexpensive to run. A cover charge of $5 per member per meeting usually covers cost to purchasing afternoon tea, craft and other supplies.
Membership
We are a non-profit organisation funded entirely by donations. Therefore we encourage participating churches to make a regular monthly or annual contribution to help meet our ongoing cost of training and resourcing your Jesus Club. 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. The coordinator should be a mature Christian with leadership experience. Disability experience is not necessary, just a heart for seeing people with ID come to know Christ.
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
Keen to find out more about starting an intellectual disability ministry at your church? Our Jesus Club trainers are available to speak to you.
More from our coordinators
"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."
