Home Articles posted by kidologist (Page 135)

Don’t Read This Post!

(Reprinted from Kidology Home Page Update for archiving) Don’t Read Any Further! Because if you do, you will discover the best deal on Kidology.org in years! We are facing a significant need that just might present YOU with a significant opportunity! These are tough times. Your family feels it. Your church feels it. And so does Kidology. Did you know that we give away free memberships every month to missionaries, students, small churches and honestly anyone who expresses an inability to pay our membership fee? Not a very wise business practise, huh? But then, we aren’t a business; we are a ministry supported by generous donors we call Kidology Champions. This year we have seen a sharp decline in donors and an increase in scholarship requests. SO WE GOT AN IDEA! In order to start this fall on target with our annual budget, finish our site launch and begin the next phase of enhancements we have planned, we need 150 more Champion Donors in 2009. That’s 150 more generous people who are willing to donate 99 dollars to host Kidology.org for a day. AND WE’RE GONNA MAKE IT A SWEET DEAL! Limited only to the next 150 Kidology Champions –…

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Life Online Changing

My life online is changing. I used to blog a lot more than I do now. I love my blog and I do have people bug me to “blog more” – but the reality I connect in other ways, and I do have this other little site where over 20,000 people come each and every day, so when I am starring at my laptop wondering what to blog about, there is a part of me that says, “why blog? you don’t need a blog.” But my blog gives me an outlet for posts that don’t quite fit on Kidology – either they are CM related or are more personal. So in the spirit of both blogging, and why it is harder to blog lately, I’ll reflect on: HOW HAS MY LIFE ONLINE CHANGED? #1 My iPhone has changed online life for me! Dramatically. I do Facebook and Twitter almost exclusively from my iPhone. Seriously, when I’m at my computer, I have WORK to do! I can even do WordPress blogging from my iPhone, but haven’t found the practical need to do som, maybe I should try that more – for personal outings. I really want to blog more – I…

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Leadership Training On Your Schedule

Leadership Training has never been so easy, so affordable, and so FUN! I have been honored to be invited to speak on children’s ministry leadership at conferences all over America (and overseas). I’ve written on it in books and magazines, and been a personal coach for pastors, a consultant for ministry leaders and on factulty teaching at the under graduate level and as a guest instructor at the graduate level, but it has always been a concern of mine that most leaders can not travel to conferences or attend school, but need training! That is why I created Kidology Online Training! Now you can get QUALITY TRAINING right at your computer! The Kidology Online Training videos are FREE FOR PREMIUM MEMBERS who also get a discount on the downloadable training materials that go with each course. Each of the Download Kits are PACKED with bonus content in addition to the training PDF. Start learning today with First Things First, or choose whether you are wanting to develop your Ministry Vision, or get your foundation solid. Maybe you are ready for a radical and thought provoking approach to partnering with parents, or maybe you need to start by just getting your…

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A Leader and a Friend

I recently was blessed to spend a week with Pastor Todd McKeever, a true champion of children’s ministry, ministering at a kids crusade at his church in Arkansas. I appreciate Todd for a variety of reasons, and not just because he has been a member and supporter of Kidology.org nearly since the beginning both as a member and Champion and CP Team Captain, but because he a great leader. What makes Todd a great leader? He always pushes for excellence. Nothing Todd does is half-baked and nothing frustrates him more than settling for the minimum. He is always asking how it can be done better, look sharper, and be more effective. After our first Sunday at his church his first questions were, “What was your experience? First impressions? What was difficult? What could we do better?” Next I found a survey in my email. Everything Todd touches can’t help but improve, and that is a mark of a leader. He has an  insatiable appetitive for learning and growing. Todd is the personification of “leaders are readers.” His idea of a family outing is a trip to Barnes and Noble to read together. The latest books are open on his desk with bookmarkers sticking…

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When the Kids take over Kids Church

Over on Kidology.org there is a discussion about kids leading kids church, as well as one asking for samples of different children’s church services. So, I decided to kill to forum birds with one stone, er, one post! I’ve led over 1000 children’s church services and all of them have been run by kids. As described in my Kids Church Book (available as a download) I use what I call my K.C. Krew, and they help not only run Kids Church, but plan and prepare as well. In addition to all they do every week, from set up to running sound, acting is skits, doing puppets, taking the offering, leading games, to the take down – at least once a year I would guide them through a process of writing their own lesson.  I’d start with telling them how I come up with topics, how I study the Bible, how I choose the activities and write the various components of the lesson. It is a great opportunity for them to understand what happens even deeper behind the scenes and to be trained to do it themselves. Well, one year, they BLEW ME AWAY! After discussion and prayer, we decided to…

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