No doubt, there are a LOT of places to interact and get help today on the Internet. Forums and Facebook groups and other places to ask for help and ideas and get resources abound. Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Four Square, Path, and so many other “places” allow us to ’social network’ and get instant help, ideas and keep in touch.
So why contribute and discuss on Kidology.org?
In a world of “I need it now” – Kidology.org takes a long term approach to helping Equip and Encourage children’s workers. We know that the same questions are being asked over and over again. What you are struggling with is not new. Others have struggled before you, and others will after you. In fact, the help you recieve, on whatever website you use, you will soon be able to pass on to others.
This is what makes Kidology.org different. The help given and shared and submitted to Kidology.org has a longer life-span than anywhere else. A question asked and answered on a Facebook wall gives immediate help, but quickly passes down the ‘river’ of the wall, and is gone forever. That wisdom is washed away by time. The investment of time and expertise and sometimes links and uploads are washed away never to be seen again. The same help, asked and answered on Kidology.org becomes part of a massive database of help that will help others again and again.
That is why when people ask me a kidmin question via Facebook I say, “Ask me in the Kidology.org forum, and I’ll answer you there.” It isn’t to push my website – it is because I want to invest my time and energy in a way that will help more than just that one person. I know that when I answer on Kidology.org, that post will have a life that will extend after that one day, it will continue to be read by others, and continue to help others for years to come.
People are constantly thanking me for help I gave them in posts and articles that I wrote on the site – many written years ago. If I had posted that info solely in a Tweet or a Facebook wall or on a site where it disappears after a short time, think of the many who would never have benefited.
And this is not only true of the things I write. This is true for you too. Your questions and answers are equally valuable! My words are now only a fraction of Kidology.org as the site has grown since 1994. And I know that after the Lord calls me home someday, it will live on to continue to fulfill it’s Mission of Equipping and Encouraging Those Who Minister to Children.
So let me invite you. Be active all over the web – as I am – it’s important. But be sure you are taking time to invest in the growing content of Kidology.org, for you will be helping others in a multiplying fashion, perhaps even long after you are even in ministry, or walking this earth! As long as the Lord Jesus shall tarry.
I’ve always called it giving a tithe of your ministry time to share what you are doing. Whether you are asking the questions, or giving some answers, content, ideas, or curriculum – everything helps us continue to build the Internet’s largerest source of Kid’s Ministry help on Kidology.org
I’m often asked by our members and visitors, “How do you find things on Kidology.org?” Like Emily just did at CPC this past week, “I know you have vast resources, but sometimes I struggle to find things because there is just so much.”
It’s a GREAT question!
Part of the issue is knowing what you are looking for, and the other part is knowing where to look on the site.
Because we have literally tens of thousands of zone posts, forum posts, and other types of content that have been growing daily for nearly twenty years, simply starting at the search engine at the top of the site is only scratching the surface.
That is why we divide the content up into category Zones and various topical Discussion Forums to attempt to guide you to where you can find the specific help you are looking for.
However, let me give you a few tips on using our search engine.
If you start at the top of the site and enter a phrase such as “love and faith” it will look like this:
The results will look something like this:
However, if you scroll down, you will see that you will get pages of random results nicely generated by Google:
Google does a great job of indexing the site and quickly creating a list of pages that have the words “love” and “faith;” however, it doesn’t categorize them at all.
You can page through those results and see if you see something that fits what you are looking for, but it is best to then turn to the ADVANCED SEARCH which you will see is at the TOP of the Search Results Page:
THIS is where you have MUCH more control over your search then just entering something at the top of the site.
NOTE: Entering something in the top “Search All of Kidology” is the same as entering something in the search box at the top of the site.
It is the fields which follow that give you more control: the “Zones & Store-Specific Search.” This will search ONLY the Content Zones and the Store for your key word AND divide the results into two separate areas, Zone Results and Store Results so you can see what is Content (free to Premium Members) and what is a Product (for sale).
IMPORTANT: Our search is an EXACT MATCH SEARCH. It is NOT an “and/or” search. In other words, if you search for “love and faith” it is going to search for posts that have the EXACT PHRASE “love and faith.” It is NOT going to search for posts that have “love” or “faith” or posts that have “love” and “faith” or posts that contain the words “love” and “faith” somewhere in the post. You will be searching for “love and faith.”
THEREFORE: It is best to search for single word phrases, one at the time. Search for “love” and then search for “faith” rather than at the same time in the Advanced Search.
Also, note the options you have in the drop down menus to narrow your search. In the Zone Search you can narrow it down to a specific Zone, or search All Zones. (Many posts appear in more than one Zone.) In the Forum Specific Search you can search all forums or narrow it down to a specific forum, or the title of the discussion, the body of the messages, or even a specific user. This is the same search located in the forum, by the way.
Searching on Kidology.org sometimes takes some work, but it is like research. When there is a LOT of content, it sometimes takes a little digging. Some folks pick a Zone topic and just page through reading the descriptions and then click on the ones that sound interesting and find treasure. But there is treasure to be found!
If there is something you are looking for, you can always ask in the Forums, and others will help you find it. I created a new thread for that purpose. Don’t be lazy and just ask – search first. But if you get stuck, don’t hesitate to ask for help. If we don’t have something, often that’s just the suggestion we need to create it!
We are here to serve you and help you find what you are looking for, whether it is on Kidology.org or somewhere else on the Internet. I’ve often said, “Kidology is like a train roundhouse. You come in, and we will point you in the right direction to get what you need!”
Because Jesus Loves Children,
Pastor Karl Bastian, the Kidologist
Founder of Kidology.org
It’s the month of LOVE… and to show our appreciation and deep felt LOVE for our Premium Members who support our ministry, Kidology will be rolling out a super-duper special deal each and every week of February.
You’ll need to be a Premium Member on Kidology.org to benefit from these incredible deals, so if you are still hesitating on upgrading to Premium… now is the time to avail yourself of ALL the incredible resources on this vast website because we will be spreading the love around this month with some incredible deals for premium members only!
Instead of a Christmas Letter this year (December was just to crazy this year!) I opted for a more electronically savvy method, and created a video to reflect on 2011. Besides, it was too hard to choose which pictures to put into a letter – we started one, and which pictures to choose, was so hard!
This year included a trip to California to see my childhood best friend, Andy, get married, (and a trip to DisneyLand while there) and another trip back later in the year to perform my first wedding for his little sister, Lindsay!
We enjoyed many visits from friends coming to enjoy Colorado and stay with us (when are YOU coming?) and enjoying this beautiful state ourselves as we still discover its vast beauty!
Luke turned 5, and wanted a “real Jeep” for his birthday, so I rented a Jeep for the day! I started “Dad School” a mini-home school to focus on the areas he needed help, and also “Family Pit Stops,” our evening family devotional times as he got old enough for intentional spiritual input from Dad.
Sara is a table leader for MOPS at our church and I continue to write a children’s church curriculum called DiscipleTown in addition to leading Kidology. I wrap up a two year column in Children’s Ministry Magazine after being named one of the Top 20 Leaders in the past 20 years, which was a pretty big surprise and honor. We added three new employees this year, with new VP of Operations starting January 1st, so we are pretty excited about what God has in store for our little ministry.
In addition to my fourth Yosemite Summit, I also got to take Luke and Sara this year – and seeing Luke discover my favorite place on earth, and show him all my “secret places” the tourists walk right past was a real treat, and watching him find his own, “secret places” that he wants to come back to someday. And extra bonus, after speaking at two camps this year, was being invited back to one on short notice (a previously scheduled speaker got called to heaven on short notice) I took my dad with me and we added on a trip to Yosemite, just as father and son – yet another highlight of the year for me personally.
So 2011 was a busy year, but a good year. In 2012, I hope to find a slower pace and perhaps some more margin, but am still eagerly excited to see what God has in store for my family.
Thank you to everyone who calls us family, friends, and who supports us in prayer. If you are not a part of my personal prayer support e-mail list, it’s called the Kidology Champion Prayer Supports List, and you can subscribe here. Just update your Kidology Newsletters to include that list.
I hope you had a Merry Christmas, and we wish you a Happy New Year from our family to yours!
Every organization is limited by its leader. I’m keenly aware of that. I’m a visionary leader. I love vision. I teach it, and hopefully live what I teach. But I also realize that I can limit my own organization by my own limitations. Kidology has seen exciting growth every year since we began in 1994, back when me and Al Gore invented the Internet. (LOL) I’ve chronicled the history of Kidology in other places at other times, so I won’t do that here – but to say that in the past few years we have reached yet another juncture where the strain on me has become intense personally, as I seek to both lead the business side of Kidology and serve as the creative force behind the product development and ministry side of Kidology.
The range of products and services we offer our visitors and members now is breath-taking! And I oversee all of it.
It’s a little schizophrenic at times, and my staff are very gracious as I shift roles constantly, but its rough on me, my family and our organization. I also serve on the board of several other organizations and serve as a consultant to other kidmin ministries in our market helping them to succeed and improve behind the scenes. But it has spread me very thin. I have known for years that I needed a full time “right hand man” but have lacked the combination of the timing, funding and the right person for the job.But the time has come.
So we are taking a step of faith – it seems all three have come together. I have hired today a Vice President of Operations and will be shifting out of my current role of running everything at Kidology, moving into a Chief Creative Officer role, and working with a new full time VP of Operations who will work with me in the oversight and coordination of Kidology. Certainly, it will take some getting used to – but he seems to be the man for the job and it is definitely the time for it.
This is one of the times where we are stepping out in faith!
I would ask for your prayer as we head into 2012 for wisdom, insight, the mind of Christ, discernment and unity as a team as we make the needed changes and adjustments in order to take Kidology to the next level of ministry.
Do you know the IMPACT of Kidology.org?
When we combine all levels of members of Kidology.org, both Basic and Premium, as of right now, it is around 17,000 churches. Let’s be conservative and estimate that each of those churches represent only 100 children.
That would be 1,700,000 kids impacted by Kidology.org each and every week.
I believe it very well could be many more. We are accessed by users in over 70 countries.
God is using our website to make a difference in individuals, in families, in churches – and best of all – in the lives of kids.
OUR MISSION: To Equip and Encourage Those Who Minister to Children.
That’s why I am so thrilled to announce that starting January 1st, 2012 Kidology will have a new Vice President of Kidology. His name is Mark Maestas.
Mark has an Mdiv in Leadership from Denver Seminary. He has served as a Family Pastor, College Pastor, as an interim Children’s Pastor, but most recently also in business leadership at Target Stores here in the Denver area. Sorry, Target, but the Kingdom needs him more.
We look forward the leadership and management experience that Mark will bring to Kidology.org and ask that you pray for him as he prepares to begin in the New Year.
When I was a young boy my dad had a framed sign in his office that he had made himself. It read:
I do.
You watch.
I do.
You help.
You do.
I help.
You do.
I watch.
It summarizes the process of discipleship or training it a nutshell. This summer I volunteered at my church to teach the preschool Bible stories for our churches sports camp because my son was attending. (I knew that fit my skills better than volunteering to coach sports!) I used props and objects to illustrate the Bible stories. For my own self-training purposes I video taped the sessions with my flip camera. (I like to watch and learn to improve.) One of the leaders had to teach the same Bible stories a few weeks later for the second week of sports camp when I was off to teach at a camp and couldn’t volunteer. I boxed up all my props and spent a little time coaching her on how to do it and gave her copies of the flip videos to watch and study. She did great!
This week she is on a mission trip to Nairobi and I just got this picture posted on my wall via Facebook:
Imagine my joy to see my “student” using the same technique so many miles away! It brought tears to my eyes! I had used action figures in a boat to teach about Peter walking on water and given all the kids “waves” and had Peter walk out among them “on the water” – and here is Shelly doing the same lesson on a mission trip.
I did.
She watched.
Now she did!
I watch.
That is what equipping and encouraging is all about. I live for this! It is why my LIFE MISSION STATEMENT since I was age 19 has been:
To reach and teach as many children as possible with the Good News of God’s Love and in the process to Enlist, Equip and Encourage others to do the same.
Let’s suppose you had to pack for a week of teaching and ministry and all you could pack was a small “Kidmin Toolkit” – what would you pack into YOUR travel kit?
A Bible? Naturally. An iPad? Perhaps. A yo-yo? A small puppet? I’d pack a bag of jolly ranchers and a sling shot! Some action figures? Remember, this is ALL you will have for a WEEK of ministry. What will you need?
I’m gonna mail the best responses in COMMENTS a prize and then I’ll post what I’d put in MY Kidmin Toolkit – and then I’d encourage you to PACK YOUR OWN Kidmin Toolkit and have it READY TO GO, because you never know when you might just need it!
UPDATE:THE $50 PRIZE PACK Very soon… someone in comments, is going to WIN this prize pack I’ve assembled:
(Note: It all packs flat to fit in your Kidmin Toolkit!)
UPDATE: I was overwhelmed by the response to this blog post. Everyone submitted Great Ideas! However, I could pick but ONE winner, and the Kidmin Toolkit Winner is: Joan Eppehimer
SEE ALL THE RESPONSES & COMPILE YOUR OWN KIT!
We have compiled ALL THE RESPONSES into a single list so you can create your own Kidmin Toolkit! Download as a PDF or Word Doc:
O.K. – fess up! You’ve been a Basic Member of Kidology.org for awhile… lurking in the forums reading and not posting… coming every to the site every day to see snag the latest free post… but never joining. $.16 a day is just too much to slap down in this economy, I know. Times are rough.
So for all you bean counters out there who have been waiting for a deal, HERE IT IS!
In the next 52 hours, if you JUMP and take advantage of the ONLY144.com sale, you will get a TOP SECRET CODE that will give you an EXTRA THREE MONTHS FREE to a Premium Membership to Kidology.org! It’s the deal you’ve been waiting for.
PLUS – you’ll get all the goodies below! Keep reading, it’s just our way of partnering with the good folks at Only 144.com as we try to lure you, er, I mean, equip and encourage you in your children’s ministry!
We know Kidology readers are always looking for a great deal. Here’s your chance to turn $97 into $1,074 worth of children’s ministry resources for your ministry.
Hop over to Only144.com… but there’s not much time left.
The good folks there help keep Kidology tools and resources affordable, and they’ve put together this epic bundle sale by partnering with over 15 resource providers we know you’ll recognize. Plus, if you aren’t a Kidology member, this deal includes 3 FREE months of Kidology Premium Membership (an additional $24 value!)
Take a look at some of this resources included in this bundle:
Children’s Pastors Conference Coupon (14.4% off)
River’s Edge iGo Green Kids Camp/VBS Curriculum Files ($99)
River’s Edge Elementary and Preschool Curriculum ($95)
Kidzmatter Coupon ($50)
Children’s Administrative Forms Bundle ($19)
Yancy Worship Videos ($60)
High-Voltage Kids Resources ($40)
Timbuktoons Animated Videos ($120)
PreteenMinistry.net Curriculum ($88)
Gameshow ScoreKeep from Digital Stache ($25)
Orange Conference Registration Coupon ($100 off)
Jim Wideman Leadership Resource ($20)
Kidz Graphics ($50)
Name It PowerPoint Games ($34.95)
President Bush Volunteer Appreciation Videos ($34.95)
Kidology 3-Months Premium Membership ($24)
Volunteer Training Audio from Church-Volunteers.com ($198)
All these resources for just $97!
However, the clock is ticking on this special deal. There are only a few hours left. Don’t wait. Click on over to Only144.com and save your church some bucks as you prepare for the fall!
I’m currently speaking at Camp Timber-lee, and posted on Facebook that I got to share the Gospel with flying chickens this morning!
Gave me the idea… I wondered if anyone might like to take a stab at guessing how one might share the Gospel with flying chickens! For the BEST “Gospel Presentation with Flying Chickens” provided in comments, whether it is the one I used, plain funny, or another great original idea – I’ll mail you one of MY flying chickens!
I’m teaching this week on Spiritual Climbing, a topic I have done here many times, so I wanted to a take a totally new approach (my past series is available on Kidology) so I am going through the Awesome Adventure Series (gave a copy to each camper) adding an object lesson with a piece of hiking equipment I use when I go hiking and comparing to spiritual growth, but for the game, I created 12 games with these flying chickens I got on sale at an outlet store! The store couldn’t believe it when I took every chicken in the store up to the counter!
But when you find something that is usually over $10 for only $3 – a smart children’s pastor buys them all! Every game is now an object lesson that fits my lesson! The campers are going nuts over these flying chickens, and they even make noise after they hit the ground. You HAVE to have unique games like this when you are a camp speaker, it ends up being the high light. Of course, I have a new puppet as well, he is a monkey name Pogi, who sounds like Yogi Bear, but Pogi is a Filipino word. Go ahead, Google it.
SO THE CONTEST IS ON!How would YOU share the Gospel with Flying Chickens? Share in Comments? (or just comment for fun!)
This isn’t the “Official” report – I have thousands of photos (and video clips) to sort through and a highlight video to create for that – BUT I wanted to at least let y’all know I made it back alive and we had another great UNconference in Yosemite National Park!
Despite some negative weather forecasts, we had actually perhaps the best weather of all four years – maybe tied with year #1, though that was a bit warm, so I think the best weather of all four years for hiking. That was fantastic!
Just for fun, Pat arrived a day early to help me shop for all the food. Here he is at Costco in Sacramento:
BEFORE:
AFTER:
And that is even before the Super Wal-Mart trip for the stuff Costco doesn’t sell! It takes a lot to feed a lodge full of hungry hikers! (And we eat well!)
Soon we were all gathered and ready to head to Yosemite… all but one Californian who was meeting up with us farther South.
Soon we were off! It was a great four hour drive getting to know each other, and the guys had absolute trust in my driving abilities and attention to all the laws of the road:
(For the record, I AM parked legally, but it’s a great picture snapped
by Scott Dodson before I knew why he asked me to look!)
If you are wondering if the trip was refreshing – this next picture is proof that it is… we DRINK UP YOSEMITE:
Michael Murphy drinking from Bridalveil Falls
This place is so in-tune with God, it seemed, even the animals were praising God:
Photo by Doug McKinney
I look forward to sharing more about this years Summit after I take some time to pray and reflect and journal and soak in the impact of this fourth time of turning off my busy electronic life for nearly a week and just enjoying some time in God’s Awesome Creation for a few days. Of course, everything back home piled up and now I have some catching up to do! To make matters worse, I got some really serious food poisoning on Sunday which put me on my deathbed all through the Memorial Day weekend so I feel even farther behind than I would have been with the long weekend to unpack and do some catching up before the work week got here – but such is life!
How are YOU like a Water Fall?
While you await the full report, I’ll share one insight with you that was actually shared during the week by one of the guys in our evenings of sharing after a day of hiking. Doug noted that in the path of our life there are a lot of obstacles and problems that get in our way and cause of frustration and disappointment and can irritate us or cause us to have to reroute our path or change our plans when we would rather things go smoothly. But as he was watching these majestic waterfalls come pouring over the cliffs and down the mountainsides and crashing along the river banks – it was actually the rocks and boulders and trees – the OBSTACLES in the waters path that make the waterfall and the river so majestic to watch. Were the waterfall and the path that followed at the bottom smooth it wouldn’t be as spectacular to view. It is actually the obstacles that give the falls and the rivers their character. Interesting – the flaws are what give the character. The same is true with is. Our character is developed through the obstacles in our lives. If God were to give us a smooth life, without problems, bumps and obstacles, what would grow our character?
So the next time you see a big boulder up ahead – instead of being frustrated or complaining – realize God is just forming you into a majestic testimony of his power and grace that other might be able to point to – even snap pictures of – and say, “Wow, there IS a Creator, and doesn’t He create the most Beautiful Things!”
We called this our “Album Cover”
NOTE: All images in this post can be clicked on to view larger.
I’m often asked by our members and visitors, “How do you find things on 
O.K. – fess up! You’ve been a Basic Member of Kidology.org for awhile… lurking in the forums reading and not posting… coming every to the site every day to see snag the latest free post… but never joining. $.16 a day is just too much to slap down in this economy, I know. Times are rough.
