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Month: March 2010

Do You Need Seminary To Succeed?

I received a Facebook message today from a children’s pastor with an interesting question. His church was encouraging him to pursue a seminary degree, but he wasn’t convinced it was necessary. As he looked over the landscape of ‘successful’ children’s ministry professionals, he saw many (including me) whom he didn’t think had seminary degrees, and that didn’t seem to hinder their success in ministry. I won’t list those he mentioned, because he was wrong in assuming that I don’t have a degree, and I wouldn’t want to make the same mistake by stating publicly that someone else doesn’t have a degree if indeed they do. I actually have a Bachelor’s Degree in Bible Theology from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois, and a Master’s Degree in Children’s Ministry from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, but that isn’t the point. The point is that this children’s pastor poses a great question. I wanted to share here some of what I shared with him, in case others are wrestling with that difficult decision. Getting a degree is difficult when you are in full-time ministry! As one who has pursued my education while in ministry, I know it is very hard…

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CPC 2010 is Over

I’m always bummed when CPC is over. I’ve lost track of how many IN A ROW I’ve been to – but it’s over 30! Since 1995 I’ve not missed a single CPC at any location! So that’s at least 30, but for awhile there, they had 3 a year so its well over 30! It doesn’t matter whether I’m speaking, exhibiting or “just” attending, I’m there. CPC is THE place to be. Don’t get me wrong – there are a LOT of other great conferences. I’m not knocking any of them! Go to them if you can. Each had a unique focus and purpose and I like the intimacy of small conferences. Some I still want to get to and have been unable to. But I don’t skip CPC to go to them. I go to them only if I can go in addition to CPC. But I’ll leave it at that, if you want all the reasons I attend CPC, read this post. It was a great conference, and I’ll be posting more pictures in the weeks ahead, but tonight I just want to post the funnest moment. (Yes, I know that ‘funnest’ isn’t a word, but my parents…

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The Great Adventure Cards Are BACK!

The Great Adventure Cards Are Back! I can not even begin to tell you how EXCITED I am to announce that the Great Adventure Cards ARE BACK on Kidology.org! Created by our own board member and children’s pastor Dan Huffman, these amazing Bible trading cards are a wonderful way to get kids to participate at church. They are more than just Bible cards, they are a complete FUN Bible trading game! There are 25 sets of 80 cards with a variety of series, each is a Bible story, and each is a different number of cards, depending on the story. The artwork is very cool. Each card has a question and a Bible reference. The questions were carefully written so that they are hard enough that most kids (and adults!) aren’t going to “just know the answer” but easy enough that by looking up the answer they can find it in that one verse. The kids collect the cards by coming to church, bringing their Bible, a friend, participating, answering questions, etc. and when they complete a series, AND can answer all the questions (from reading their Bibles and working on them with Mom and Dad at home!) they give…

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LIVE from CPC Plus Kidology Gathering

UPDATE AFTER CPC: The Kidology Gathering was a great time of fellowship! Thank you to everyone who dropped by! It is always nice to put faces with e-mails, see old friends and meeting new folks. It was also nice of the restaurant to unlock the doors for us, since starting this year they closed early! Probably the greatest moment was when Barney Kinard got to meet the mother of a child he led to Christ over 16 years ago and she gave him a big hug and a thank you in the center of the circle! What a reminder that we never know when we will get to see or hear about the fruit of our efforts! BACK TO ORIGINAL POST! Well, I have arrived in Sunny Southern California! And am ready for CPC 2010 San Diego! After LIVE TWEETING from CPC Nashville, INCM has given me an All Access Pass here in San Diego so I can expand my coverage here in San Diego to include General Sessions, so if you were not able to come to CPC this year, be sure to follow me on Twitter so you can get even more inside access to the happenings here…

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That’s a Lot of Agains!

I’m doing the final editing for the next DiscipleTown unit, “How to Make Good Choices” due out March 15th. Hard to believe I’ve written six of these! (and that I have 18 more to go!) I always marvel how each and every unit convicts me and how each unit seems to be exactly what I needed to review in my own walk with God and how much I enjoy developing a four week spiritual journey for children to explore as so that they can grow closer to Jesus and become better disciples. Let me share one of my favorite elements from lesson three, it is a routine I use with my puppet, Gus. Of course, in the curriculum Gus’ name gets dropped (Sorry Gus!) so that teacher’s can replace him with their own puppet, I remember this routine fondly for both the humor and yet the poignant impact this routine has made many times on children. It’s a description, not a script, but you’ll get the idea: Puppet has a black eye, a broken arm, and bandages all over his body. Leader asks what is wrong and says, “I hope you didn’t try to fight sin to the death like…

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