By Sharon Mager
COLUMBIA, Md. — Kris Buckman joined the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware (BCM/D) staff on Feb. 1 as the children’s ministry and VBS consultant, succeeding June Holland, who served in the position for over 20 years.
Buckman is excited about assisting, training, and resourcing churches with their children’s and VBS ministries in her new position.
A Maryland native, she has been a member of Tri-County Baptist Church in Damascus, Maryland, for over 17 years. She has taught Sunday school for children of all ages, directed VBS, planned and coordinated special events, served as AWANA Commander, traveled with kids to summer camp, and, as she says, “cleaned up lots of glitter over the years!” She has also worked with June Holland at children’s ministry events, leading breakout sessions.
As a child, Buckman attended Mt. Airy Baptist Church in Maryland with her family for more than 15 years. She made a profession of faith in Christ as a child while at a Backyard Kids Club and was baptized as a young teen. She graduated from the University of Baltimore with a degree in communications.
While filling in as a preschool Sunday School teacher when her oldest son, Ben, was two, she realized that God was calling her to children’s ministry.
Looking ahead, Buckman says one of her emphases will be encouraging children’s leaders to help parents to disciple their children.
“A lot of parents know they need to disciple their children at home, but they don’t know how — many don’t know where to start,” Buckman says. She wants to provide encouragement and resources in that area.
She also wants to continue to bring children’s ministry leaders together to meet and to encourage and learn from each other. “We’re all doing the same jobs for the same purpose,” she says. “We can share ideas, learn to go to each other, and bounce ideas off one another.”
Buckman says she loves event planning for kids — VBS, Trunk or Treats, and other fun events where children will hear the Gospel and have opportunities to choose to follow Jesus.
She and Todd, her husband of 22 years, are both lifelong residents of Mt. Airy and have two sons, Ben, 17, and Jake, 12. In her spare time, she enjoys reading and vacationing with her family. She also has a passion for writing children’s ministry curriculum.