Home Archive by category "Teaching" (Page 10)

Category: Teaching

Launching a Whole New Kids Church!

This past Sunday was exciting! It was the culmination of a summer of prayer, dreaming, planning, networking, recruiting and team building – but we launched our ALL NEW kids church program for this fall called The Outpost. Launching a new theme is exciting! But it also is strategic. As a ministry, our leadership team established four aims for our children’s ministry: 4 AIMS: Engage Children (Themeing generates excitement and captures the imagination.) Delight Parents (Parents will enjoy seeing the excitement in their kids!) Excite Volunteers (Enthusiasm and quality programming makes recruiting easier.) Bring Visitors Back! (We desire to create an experience that kids want to return!) We are driven by the vision of Church becoming the highlight of a child’s week – because when kids encounter God, their lives are changed, and eternity is impacted! When I was pitching this overhaul to our kids church to the leadership, volunteers and parents, I presented a vision for our ministry: OUR VISION: We want every child who comes through our doors to feel loved, come to know Christ and find a place where they can grow through fun and life-changing experiences. Then, to narrow it down to a simple mission everyone could…

Continue reading

SHAKE TO ASSEMBLE?

This morning at camp I showed the campers a really cool blue Lego Race Car Kit that I bought. I told them that my plan is to assemble it by shaking it in the box and demonstrated several shaking techniques. I even passed it through the audience letting the kids help me assemble it through shaking. I’m hoping by the end of the day it will be fully assembled inside the box so that I can just take it out and show the kids the completed car. But some think I’m crazy. They are telling me that the car had an inventor who first envisioned the car – then designed it – and that the box contains detailed instructions on how to put it together. Sounds superstitious to me! I let them know that sounds great, but I heard that our world came together randomly and by chance. It couldn’t be that Someone invented it, designed it, assembled it and made instructions on how we should then live! It just took millions of years of randomness for all this order to finally appear. So, by the same logic, if I just shake the Lego box enough times it should assemble…

Continue reading

How I Write Entire Teaching Series at Once

I wanted to take you behind the curtain a bit, and share a little about how I create complete curriculum units in a short amount of time—as I’m often asked for “my secret” or for help when friends find they need to crank out an entire series in a short amount of time! I’m heading to another week of camp speaking, and I’m excited about the theme: What a FUN theme for a week of helping kids to “BUILD” their lives on the Word of God! So many applicable verses come to mind, like: You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. I Peter 2:5 I’ve done a Kid’s Church unit in the past where we looked at our “Connections” to God, Family, Church, Friends, Neighbors and the World. But I had 8 chapels to write and that series was only 6 lessons—and while I could do an intro and a review—the creative in me said, “Time to do something new and fresh!” rather than rehash something old. I did look through them for “lego ideas” that would be transferable. Then the…

Continue reading

Ask for Guesses, Not Answers

Years ago in an inner city ministry, I had a little boy in my class named Trevon. No matter what the lesson topic or Bible story, any time I asked a question his hand shot up and he was eager to answer. The only problem was, no matter what I asked, he always answered with an enthusiastic, “Moses!” Some teacher must have hit it out of the park telling Trevon the story of Moses. Feeling badly for him always being wrong, one Sunday I thought I’d be smart and “rig” the Q and A time for little Trevon. Though it had nothing to do with my lesson, I asked, “Who did God give the Ten Commandments to?” Of course, Trevon’s hand shot up again! I smiled as I called on him knowing he would finally be right! Instead, he hesitated and then timidly answered, “Jesus?” I was as dejected as Trevon when I had to say, “No, Trevon, it was Moses.” I felt terrible. I thought I had set this little guy up for success, but instead, I had caused him to fail yet again. I shared this story with a mentor that week who told me, “Karl, that’s because…

Continue reading

¡Hola! Karlos is Back!

As I mentioned awhile ago, I enjoy the honor of contributing to Entre Ninos, a wonderful ministry for the Spanish speaking segment of the Kingdom that ministers to children. I want to encourage you again, if you know of anyone who ministers in Spanish to send them to www.entreninos.com so that they can download a copy and benefit from all that this incredible resource features. The current issue features an interview with Yancy (not Nancy) who has a new Spanish language CD out! I often hear how “there is nothing for Spanish children’s ministry workers” and often it is only that they don’t know where to look. Entreninos is a wonderful way to discover the resources available for our amigos!

Continue reading

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...