After almost two years on the air, we will be airing the final Kidmin1124 Radio Show from 9:00 to 10:00 PM EST tomorrow night, Thursday October 4, 2012. We are bringing back as many past panelists as we can find to talk about the radio show and chat children’s ministry one last time.
We will all miss the radio show and the chance it afforded us to talk children’s ministry and share those conversations with you. I hope you will join us by tuning in tomorrow night here.
This article was also published yesterday at Dad in the Middle, but I wanted to let our readers here on Kidmin1124 know about the special discount on this conference being offered from now until August 15. See below for details.
I don’t get to go to a lot of children’s ministries conferences. Between finances and, oh yea, my other full time job, the opportunity just doesn’t present itself very often. That’s why I was excited earlier this year when Michael Chanley told me that the International Network of Children’s Ministers [INCM] was planning on bringing a brand new conference to Columbus, Ohio. Well, finally the time has come, and INCM announced the inaugural:
Whether you have been serving for 6 months or 6 years (or more!), you probably have had moments when you questioned why you ever started serving in the first place. Maybe it was that staff member that kept asking you, or maybe it was because you saw the overcrowded classrooms. Maybe you’ve always loved working with kids, and you were eager to serve at the new church you joined.
In any case, the ultimate reason why you serve is because God has called you to do so. Never forget this.
My friend Julia recently told the story how she started serving, and what she experienced over the years. And God reminded her that she was called for a purpose, much like the prophet Isaiah.
Hear her words: Continue Reading…
A friend of mine lost a bunch of weight not too long ago. It was the little things, like being sure to exercise 3 days per week, not just two. And he started watching meal portions, and deciding to not eat that afternoon cookie. And within a year, he lost at least 25 pounds.
And a recent study indicates that in order to reduce obesity rates, children need to eliminate an average of 64 calories per day. That means eating one less chocolate chip cookie (90 calories) or drinking less Kool-Aid (4 oz = 60 calories), or it means physical activity for an extra 15 minutes per day. Small choices can add up to big effects.
Please join me this coming Thursday, June 14th, from 9:00 to 10:00 PM EST for Kidmin1124 Radio on the CMConnect Radio Network. I hope you will tune in as we welcome a very special guest:
We all experience it. A rough day at work, the kids are misbehaving, the car has trouble, you name it, you’ve had a rough day. Things don’t seem to go right and you’re not in a good mood. Then you realize that you are supposed to minister to children and show God’s love to them.
Sometimes it is a short term problem, other times something may really throw you for a loop and get you out of sync with things you might normally do.
How do you really bring Spiritual conversations into the home? Is there a way to do it without piling more things and ideas into the already overwhelmed home? Parents are extremely overwhelmed with busy schedules, getting dinner on the table, homework done & back to it the next day. How do you really help them to fit God into their lives all week long? I understand that parents need to make it priority but until they are fully invested they will not. So we start small & let them know we are with them every step of the way.
We decided to take on a challenge that would change our church families forever. How can you really get parents and kids talking at home without putting so much pressure on them? We first had to understand that each family will be different. Some may really use the info you give them, some will trash it or find it months later under a pile of papers. There are a few things us as volunteers & leaders must remember
Continue Reading…
The end of the school year is an opportune time to remind your volunteers that you appreciate them. Receiving a heart-felt expression of gratitude is an encouragement for those who are serving.
A few years ago, a staff member of our church asked me for ideas for volunteer appreciation gifts. The gifts needed to be thoughtful, simple, and inexpensive, since we had well over 100 volunteers in children’s ministry.
I was blessed this year to be able to attend the OC12 Conference in Atlanta, GA for the first time. Wow, what an amazing conference! With 100+ workshops to choose from including eight that help us to minister to children who have special needs or learning differences! As the Special Needs Facilitator for Skyline Church in La Mesa, California I was excited to learn new ways to serve these families more effectively.
One of my favorite workshops was Meaghan Wall’s “How to Create a Special Needs Ministry Environment”. In this workshop Meaghan gave us great ideas and concepts to make our classroom environments a place where the children are safe, sensory needs are met and where they are able to learn about the love of Jesus. She helped us to learn and consider everything that a family with child/children with special needs encounters from the time they drive onto the church property to the time that they leave.
Welcome once again to our series of things volunteers think but don’t necessarily want to tell their children’s pastor or children’s ministry director. For a complete listing of posts in this series, see the listing at the bottom of this article. Last time we started to look at issues related to shepherding and growing volunteers – in other words Volunteer Development. Today we continue in this, our largest category, with:
