Stop Trying to Bear Good Fruit!

For years one of my “pet peeves” theologically has been how much I hear kids being taught to “work on the Fruit of the Spirit.” There are countless kids church series that go through each fruit helping kids to work on them, one by one. I’ve even seen sermons to adults admonishing Christians to work on being more kind or gentle or self-controlled. But there is a serious flaw in this approach! Fruit produced by our effort, isn’t Fruit of the Spirit – it is fruit of the flesh, even if the end result is good. Stick with me for a moment before you start yelling at me! I know the Bible says to produce good fruit – we should! But too often our approach is backwards. In our church’s scripture reading plan, I find my self in the book of Matthew, and was struck with this truth again as I read the following passages: By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good…

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So Long Summer Party! Break the Mold!

This past Sunday I had a gift – an extra week between the lesson series I am doing. I finished up my summer series based on Rock Solid and will be starting GO! I love when I get a chance to break the mold and do something completely different! It is exciting for the kids and refreshing for the volunteers! So last Sunday, at my wife’s suggestion, we had a So Long Summer Party! We moved outside, played games, did acoustic guitar worship, ate popsicles and enjoyed using no multi-media! What a treat to not have to set up the computer, if only for a week! I planned the whole thing on one piece of paper! I gathered all the games I could find from my house and the church, and created a fun obstacle course where several teams could play at the same time. (I did a short Facebook Live with my drone if you’d like to see it from the air!) When is the last time you broke the mold and did something completely different? Shake things up. Do something new. Try something different. Don’t get stuck in a rut!

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JOIN ME in Teaching GO! This Fall!

I’m so excited to announce the curriculum I’ll be using this fall in my own church ministry and I want you to teach it with me! It’s called GO! and if you want to teach the same thing as me, I’ve arranged a 50% deal off the first unit so you can experience this amazing curriculum with me in August! (or September, see below!) Let me tell you more about it in this short video: I’m kicking off GO! in August with the ZOOM! series. ZOOM! starts a journey through the entire Bible with an overview of the first five books of the Bible. GO! covers the entire Bible every year, with a unique focus each year, coordinates with Christmas and Easter and regularly includes the Gospel. It’s got both large and small group options and so much more. Check it out at GOcurriculum.com If you’d like to GO! with me, check out the discount code below to save BIG TIME! I hope you’ll GO! with me and consider teaching GO! with me this year. I’ll be sharing tons of ideas and training along with way, so you’ll have some extra support while using GO! For 50% off ZOOM!, the…

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Take Your Kids on a Great Adventure!

Last Saturday night I had so much fun getting ready to launch The Great Adventure Cards on Sunday. I mixed up the cards, put up the poster that shows all of them, and got ready to introduce them in children’s church. It was a HIT! Kids earn these cards these cards for coming to church, bringing their Bible, inviting a friend, and rewards for participating – answering questions, games, etc. They can compare the cards they got the poster and work to collect series. Once they complete series, they can win small prizes if they can answer the simple questions on the cards. This requires them to look up the Bible verses which gets them into the Word of God. I love visiting homes and seeing bundles of Bible trading cards on the kitchen table next to a Bible! Parents love them too. Here is a video I filmed Saturday Night that shows the cards and explains it a little more: Soon your kids will be enjoying collecting these as much as the kids at my church! Get Your Great Adventure Cards Today!

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Super Bible Bowl is Back and UPDATED!

There are nearly 24,000 Zone Posts on Kidology.org with ideas, lessons, crafts, games and more. One of the most popular for years has been my Super Bible Bowl. It is actually the 282nd Zone Post – so that tells you how far back it goes! (It was first published in 2003, but created long before that.) As I was reviewing it recently I realized it was still made up of OVERHEAD PROJECTOR slides since I created it so long ago. Who uses those anymore? So all the graphics were portrait instead of the landscape format we use today. It was time to update! I updated the images, the lesson, tweaked the rules, and even included all the Bible trivia questions you need so you don’t have to collect those to play. It includes: Illustrated lesson on sharing the Good News of Jesus, using the game of football as an object lesson. All needed graphics for a giant football playing board. Posters with the rules for easy reference. PowerPoint to go along with the lesson. Complete rules to the Kidologist’s fun, interactive game of Bible Football. A collection of PDF files to download and print for both the lesson and the…

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