Working at a church that takes great strides in making sure their facilities are pristine, I was often questioned when I had an object lesson that was messy. Not that I didn’t take extra time to make sure the room we used was as good or in better condition than when we started, because sometimes I even had to get out the carpet extractor and clean the carpet. I have the mind set that if it needs to be a messy object lesson to make a point with kids, the extra time to clean it was well worth the investment.

Not one to purposefully put a stick in the hornets nest, this was sometimes a hard balance in my mind. Did I really want to the building administrator after me for bringing ketchup and mustard in and squirting it on a clean white sheet? (even though there was a roll of plastic laid out to catch any stray splats) The times I used fire of any sort was always a concern to this guy. My gut instinct was to teach the kids with the methods that would have the most impact. So sometimes the stick did get put into the hornets nest with an apology and assurance of clean-up soon following the quizzical eye.

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What a funny thing to think about. As the EvangeKid Chef I sometimes write lessons that are in character. Using cooking themes and how it can relate to building a relationship with Jesus is really a lot of fun. Think of all the different ingredients that go into so many yummy recipes. How can those be related to discipleship? That is my goal as The Chef.

Last year I was invited to speak at a retreat for 4th and 5th graders. So many ideas were flowing through my mind about how to present to the kids. What topics to write on and challenge them with. I knew one aspect of the weekend had to include the Chef – building a lesson around a recipe that the kids actually made as I taught. In preparing the rest of the weekend’s lessons I realized that I should include what things we needed to have to be considered a child of God. My mind was swirling around chocolate chip cookies. Maybe I was just hungry? As I thought out the process of which characteristics to talk about, which were important to 4th and 5th graders, I listed out the ingredients for the cookie: (more…)

I have been challenged several times to do a research project with all the different versions and varieties of Children’s Bibles. This project excites me because I have found such a wide difference in the way people think about how kids learn and study the Word. Knowing that some of those differences have to do with age level of the target audience is definitely a key factor in this research.

In order to get started I would like some help. If you could tell me the Children’s Bible you currently use and ones that you think are the best it would really help me get my feet dug into this project. As time goes on and the ball gets rolling I will need more help but for now this would be huge.

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Hello there Kidmin1124!

I am so happy to be included in a great team of kidmin authors! As a introduction I thought it would be good to let you know a little more about me than what my bio says.

My family and I live in Cadillac, MI. It is north of Grand Rapids by about an hour. We are just outside what most people call the “snow belt” the area that receives lots of lake effect snow (think cold north winds blowing over warmer lake waters). Both my wife and I grew up just north of here where our families still live. Close to home, but far enough away.

We have 4 kids, 3 boys (14,12,10) and a girl (8). We enjoy our 5 acres, animals and all the beauty of MI. It really is a blast to be a dad and live where we do!

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