Home Articles posted by kidologist (Page 40)

Judging Books by Their Covers

You know the old saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? Well, I disagree! I often judge books by their covers. In fact, I not only judge them – I learn from them! One of my favorite things to do when I visit a bookstore is to get some leadership training from the book titles alone. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think the books may be great, and filled with some amazing tips and wisdom, but often, the title alone is food enough for thought. On a recent trip I spent some time in a Barnes and Nobles and couldn’t help thinking how helpful the book titles were… and I didn’t need to spend a dime! Here is a small collection of the book titles I saw, and learned from. And I’m a better leader for it! Sure, you can google any of these book titles and buy them, but here is what I learned or was reminded of, just from the covers! These are in no special order, simply the order in which I took the pictures… Ministry can pull us in many directions – they may all be GOOD directions, but it is critical that we…

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Making Lessons Relational with Green Screen

Kids learn best when there is a personal connection with those tho teach them. (So do adults, for that matter. It’s no mystery why the #1 reason people leave a church is that they don’t like the pastor.) If we don’t connect with our kids relationally, we reduce our impact. There are lots of way to be a relational teacher. The Kidology Handbook is the book on the topic, but there are many fun ways to do it as well, by personalizing the little things you do every week. Next week we conclude our Armor of God Series – it’s been a LOT of fun. The kids have really enjoyed our Roman Soldier we’ve been bringing through time to learn. (Watch videos of these lessons here.) The kids really enjoy Micah – he is a nut – and willing to do anything to engage the hearts and minds of our kids. (See Capturing Kids Imagination When You Teach.) So when I needed to create an activity for small groups next week, I decided to incorporate Micah into the activity. During the first week of this series, Micah showed up at church in his pajamas – and we ended up talking about…

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Back from my 47th CPC!

I just got back from attending my 47th consecutive Children’s Pastor’s Conference! I never miss one because it is the ideal place for furthering my kidmin training, for networking with other leaders and resource providers, for getting encouragement from and being challenged by the best speakers and worship leaders of the day, and for hanging out with hundreds of others who love reaching and teaching kids for Jesus! CLICK TO WATCH! If you didn’t catch it online already, my faithful puppet pal, Wilbur, provided a LIVE TOUR of the CPC Resource Center featuring KidCheck, Protect My Ministry, JumpStart3, Science VBS, and many of the other great resources that were on display. In just a few weeks, I’ll be in California for CPC 2-Day… perhaps I’ll see you there! Because Jesus Loves Children, Pastor Karl Bastian The Kidologist

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Making the Most of CPC (or any Kidmin Conference)

This week I’ll be attending my 47th consecutive Children’s Pastors Conference. Though I’ve been to more kidmin conferences than can be counted. Sometimes I am privileged to get to do some Equipping and Encouraging as a workshop presenter or speaker – but usually I am just glad to be there to learn, connect, discover new resources and network. Let me share some tips I’ve learned over the years about how to MAKE THE MOST of whatever kidmin conference you are attending – you invest a lot of time and energy and resources to attend a conference, you might as well be sure you get everything you can out of it! #1 – Don’t try to do everything! This sounds contradictory to “getting the most” out of a conference, but conferences, by design are LOADED with opportunities to learn, connect and gather tools. However, if you attempt to DO everything offered, you may actually miss out on some of the best things there, or be moving so fast, you miss the people in the midst of the stuff to do. Keep in the mind: The conference is there to serve you – you are not there to do what the conference…

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Capturing Kids’ Imaginations When You Teach

We don’t teach to give children facts. We teach to change lives, right? If we want our lessons to impact kids’ lives beyond Sunday, we MUST capture their imagination and bring our lessons to life! Let me share some tips on how to do this using my current series as an example. This month I am starting a new series on the Armor of God. It is one of my favorite series’ to teach, and I do it differently every time. I have a “secret agent” series on Kidology.org that I am loosely following, but anytime I teach, the creative juices get flowing and new ideas are sure to abound! This time around, thanks in large part to my teaching partner, Micah, we are doing something extra crazy! Micah had a complete suit of armor custom built for himself, so we decided to build a TIME MACHINE and bring a real Roman Soldier through time to help explain the functions of armor to the children before I compare them to the items God has equipped us with to fight our spiritual battles. No matter what you are teaching, it is important to capture the imaginations of children! It draws them…

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