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How to Teach Sport Stacking

As I hope you know – Sport Stacking – is one of the funnest* sports and activities that you can do with kids. It is a sport that kids of all ages and athletic abilities can do. When I was a full time children’s pastor, I discovered this amazing sport and incorporated into our children’s ministry and it became not only a magnet for kids, but a super relational tool for simply playing with and interacting with the kids in my church. Parents also found it to be a fun way to engage with their kids in a fun activity that they could do with children of any age – and of course, kids enjoyed beating their parents at a fun sport. Now, Sport Stacking has become an official part of the Awana Game Time. I launched it last week with a series of games using the Jumbo Cups. My goal there was a fast, easy introduction that would get the kids excited about the sport and the concept of stacking around the Awana Circle. But tonight, it was time to introduce them to the actual sport, and provide some training the stacking techniques. The Key is to keep the…

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It All Stacks Up to FUN!

As I leaked last August when I was looking for trial churches, Sport Stacking is coming to Awana Clubs this fall! It’s no secret that I not only love Sport Stacking, but have also used it as an super duper fun outreach in my own ministry. I’ve stacked against an NFL football player, a world champion sport stacker (and won), used Speed Stacks to teach (They All Fall Down), or just for fun at birthday parties (As Angry Birds and in a Human Tower Escape). But my favorite and most effective times are when I use them at church as a way to connect with kids, getting them excited about coming to church and bringing their friends. Which is why I started nicely pestering my friends at both Speed Stacks and Awana years ago about the need for a partnership. After many brain storming meetings with the Sport Stacking experts at Speed Stacks and the Awana Game experts at Awana we have come up with some really fun games for the Awana Circle. Next, we had nearly 50 churches try them out during the last club year, and offer laboratory-tested improvements to make them even better! And now… (drum roll…)…

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The Power of a Mother’s Vision

When I was ten years old, a children’s evangelist came to our church for five days of meetings. I loved everything I saw. (I even figured out a few of his magic tricks and built them at home in our work shed.) At the end of the week, I told my mom, “That’s what I want to do when I grow up.” My mother’s response: “What’s growing up got to do with anything? You start next Wednesday.” And she put me in front of the kids at our Awana club and coached me through planning my first lesson. I’ve been teaching kids ever since. Literally thousands. All over the world. And I’ve been equipping and encouraging those who minister to children through Kidology.org – all because of a mother who didn’t think I had to “grow up first” to get started. My mom went to be with the Lord on Christmas Day in 1996. On her deathbed, she shared with me that in Bible College God had given her a vision for a worldwide ministry to children. Like David, who had a vision to build a temple that he would not get to build but that would be built by Solomon…

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Join Me at the Colorado Kidmin Ministry Conferences

EVEN IF YOU AREN’T IN AWANA! If you are in kids ministry, and if you are in Colorado, let me encourage you to JOIN ME at one of the Colorado Awana Ministry Conferences that I’ll be ministering at this fall! While there are some workshops specifically for Awana Clubs, most of the training (and all the classes I am teaching) are general Kidmin Training that will apply to ANYONE in children’s ministry! I am speaking and doing workshops of two of the Awana Ministry Conferences coming up in the Colorado/Utah Region: AUGUST 17-18, 2012 in Colorado Springs and SEPTEMBER 21-22, 2012 in Denver (Wheat Ridge) MY WORKSHOPS: Friday Evening: Making Your Class Rock (extended session training) Saturday: Workshop 1 – Teaching Lessons That Last What makes a lesson memorable? Learn how kids minds and memories work – and how you can teach lessons that last not only through the week, but into their adult life and genuinely impact eternity! Kids love to learn – but they learn best through experience! Create lessons that impact kids beyond just the brain. Get them excited about their faith and walk with God. Workshop 2 – Object Lesson Explosion! This is a fun, interactive,…

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Day 2 – Thankful For God’s Word

This is part of a series called 24 Days of Thankfulness. These posts are in RANDOM order, NOT priority order. Each is something I am thankful for leading up to Thanksgiving. DAY #2: God’s Word I have loved God’s Word since childhood. I remember being encouraged to mark up my Bible as a boy with underlines and highlights and I got so carried away with it, even illustrating it with stick figure drawings of the stories that my dad once commented, “Karl, it will be easier if you just highlighted the stuff you didn’t like.” I am thankful as well to teachers like Helen Reed and Margret Bramble and Charlie Hann and my Aunt Linda (and of course my parents) who made learning fun as well as challenging so that the Word of God was always relevant to my life. When I turned twelve and became a man (I was never a teenager, but that’s a post for another time) my dad presented me with a Thompson Chain Reference Bible and said now I was ready for a Man’s Bible. I was in awe! 25% of the Bible was study tools, and there were linked chains of references on every…

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