Getting Started in Kids Ministry

Recently I got this comment on my blog on the YOU page, and wanted to answer her here on my blog for others to read as well: Hello There! I am Rachel. I am a children’s ministry major and a missions minor at central bible college in Springfield, MO. I have heard wonderful things about your website and your material. I am currently doing an internship and my pastor is having me subscribe to several blogs, yours now being one of them. I am planning on being a part of a church planting team in Seattle, WA next summer. I will be the kids pastor. Any advice on how to get started from the ground up? Well, Rachel – where to begin?! First of all, thanks for droppin’ by my blog and kuddos to your pastor for him having you subscribe to my blog! He is a wise and sage senior pastor! If you are not a member of my mega-site, Kidology.org, be sure to jump over there ASAP where you will find a wealth of help that has been growing since before there were any blogs! (since 1994) If you can’t afford the modest membership fee, note the scholarship…

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How NOT to Choose Curriculum

It’s that time of year again – you may be evaluating your curriculum and determining whether you want to make a change. Let me suggest of ways you SHOULD NOT choose what curriculum to use in your children’s ministry: Use what you have always used. Traditions might be great at Christmas time, but using a curriculum “because you’ve always used it” is a terrible reason – unless you can explain its scope and sequence and the strategy for why it was put in place. But if it is “just there” because Moses brought it down from Mt. Sinai, or some other long gone leader who is kickin’ back with Jesus by now… it is time to re-evaluate! Let your teachers each pick their own. Love your teachers, support your teachers, but DO NOT let them each pick what they want to teach in their classroom. This is a formula for educational disaster! Why? Your students may end up learning about Joseph and Jesus six times to Sunday and never even find out who Moses or Abraham are! You need a comprehensive strategy for what content you want covered throughout the entire range of your educational program, so you need a…

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What is it about Yosemite?

This place is beyond description, though of course, I try. As I often say, it is where God showed off. Our language lacks adequate words to do Yosemite justice. Incredible. Amazing. Spectacular. Breathtaking. Beautiful. Magnificent. I suppose the best I can use is awe-inspiring. Awe at the sheer size, and height, and depth, and distance, and beauty, and splendor that hits your eyes all at once. And no matter how many pictures you take (and I take a lot) you can’t contain it. You can’t get your mind around it. You have to be there and just experience it. But what is the “it” – “it” is not Yosemite, it is GOD. His Bigness, His Majesty, His Beauty, His Greatness, His Power, His Creative ability, – I do not worship Yosemite – I love Yosemite because it draws out of me a depth of worship I can only experience there. It’s like somehow God is more there than anywhere else. While I know theologically that isn’t true, this broken spiritual vessel is somehow healed there – even if only temporarily – and able to feel God’s presence like no other time. All doubts, All worries, All concerns, All pressures, All…

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