Home Articles posted by kidologist (Page 48)

Happy New Year from the Bastians

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas Season – we went to visit family in California, so I got to swim in an outdoor pool over Christmas. Then came home to a delayed White Christmas and enjoyed spending my New Years Eve snow blowing about a dozen homes around my house on a beautiful snowy evening. I wanted to post our Christmas Letter and Year-End Video before now, but life was just too busy enjoying the holiday, so here they are now: #1 Enjoy Our Christmas Letter: (Click to download PDF) #2 Watch Our Year in Review Video! Looking forward to a new year of deepening friendships and serving you!

Continue reading

Why Attending CPC is a Must!

If I had to sum up in one word why I go to the Children’s Pastors Conference every year, I know exactly what it would be. While there are many reasons to attend, there is one reason that trumps all the others. Some go to enjoy awesome adult worship – something they rarely get to experience in weekly ministry to children. Others in order to be trained in countless practical workshops – I teach some nearly every year, so of course I believe in the value they offer. Still others see it as an opportunity to hear from great speakers in the general sessions. In person always beats an online webinar. Many go because it is the only place you can be exposed to all kinds of kidmin resource providers in the country all in one place, and have all the publishers there to see what they are offering. A few see it as a chance to get away from the routine and familiar surroundings of their weekly church job… but while ALL of these are reasons I love the Children’s Pastors Conference, my #1 reason can be summed up in this one word: PEOPLE CPC is where I get…

Continue reading

¡Hola! Karlos is Back!

As I mentioned awhile ago, I enjoy the honor of contributing to Entre Ninos, a wonderful ministry for the Spanish speaking segment of the Kingdom that ministers to children. I want to encourage you again, if you know of anyone who ministers in Spanish to send them to www.entreninos.com so that they can download a copy and benefit from all that this incredible resource features. The current issue features an interview with Yancy (not Nancy) who has a new Spanish language CD out! I often hear how “there is nothing for Spanish children’s ministry workers” and often it is only that they don’t know where to look. Entreninos is a wonderful way to discover the resources available for our amigos!

Continue reading

A Fun Game with Stacking Cups

I try to use Sport Stacking cups any chance I get because they always engage and excite kids, and they can be a great learning tool too. Tonight I was tasked with teaching on teamwork and how we all must work together using our different gifts and talents. So, as I often do when I need to teach is I mine the incredible content found in DiscipleTown units and looked that the How to Discover Gifts and Talents, and found a great game! In the lesson it suggested numbered Styrofoam cups (since that is available to anyone) but I prefer to use Speed Stacks cups. I made two sets of ten cups using ten different colors. (Yeah, I own a lot of stacking cups, including many discontinued colors.) Then I made slips of papers with the colors names on them. To choose volunteers I simply passed out the slips one at a time to ten volunteers. The Rules: They needed to make a pyramid, BUT they could only touch the cup of the color they were assigned. Teamwork and communication were needed! Round One: Simple pyramid, one on two on three on four cups. Any order, but each child could…

Continue reading

WHY I Do What I Do

Do you know what gets me out of bed in the morning? It is one passionate belief. “I believe that more than anything, kids need Jesus – and in order to reach them effectively, ministry needs to be FUN, CREATIVE and loaded with TRUTH.” – Karl Bastian That is WHY I founded Kidology.org 20 years ago – and it is the driving force behind EVERYTHING we do at Kidology. Whether you are looking at curriculum like DiscipleTown or Stickers Through the Bible – you will find that it is FUN, CREATIVE and loaded with TRUTH. Even the fun games we create, like our Bible Clue Hunts or Christmas Bingo, are designed because we know that to effectively reach kids, church must not only be FUN, but the products must be loaded with TRUTH and something new and CREATIVE in order to capture the hearts and minds of children. Even the 100+ Resource Providers we present in our store are selected because they offer FUN ideas in a CREATIVE way to teach the TRUTH. If YOU believe that kids need Jesus… And if YOU believe ministry must be CREATIVE and FUN… And if YOU are passionate above solid TRUTH over fluff……

Continue reading