Home Articles posted by kidologist (Page 65)

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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Never Give Up! Monsters U Review

Stealing an idea from George Lucas, PIXAR decided to come out with a “prequel” to Monsters Inc., which I think was genius from a business point of view. Not only will families with kids flock to the film, but the college crowd who grew up on Mike and Sulley will too. And flock they did! After missing out on not one but TWO sold out showings, we decided we’d better go an hour early if we wanted to get the best seats in the house! I’ll link to the official Kidology Review coming shortly from one of our expert reviewers, but I wanted to post some of my thoughts. First of all, TWO THUMBS UP! As people were coming out the showing before us, I asked, “Thumbs Up or Down?” After repeated thumbs up, I had to explain the ‘thumb system’ to Luke. LOL NOTE: I AM going to include spoilers from this point forward, so if you haven’t seen it, stop reading after this paragraph, and just go see it. It’s a great film with super messages for everyone on friendship, forgiveness, teamwork, and as my blog title suggests, never giving up. Secondly, (minor spoilers following) I love the…

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HOW TO DO THE U-TURN CARDS!

After decades of using the “Salvation Cards” to lead kids to Christ, with the help of my creative team, I have completely redesigned this classic Gospel tool to bring it up to date and make it even better! It is now: U-TURN CARDS! This creative, fun, flexible, interactive presentation will quickly become one of your favorites, and now with the added “Pocket Edition,” it can be used by small group leaders or one on one to share the Greatest Message Ever Told! Using the Romans Road, Yield, Stop, and other traffic signs, kids learn the right route to heaven! Learn how to do this fun presentation via this complete training video which comes as part of your download order. Here is how to present the U-Turn Cards: Tweet video with: Kidology.org/UturnHow2 Order U-Turn Cards Today!  

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Build, Destroy, Build Again!

As mentioned on my podcast this week, my son and I spend a great deal of time each day playing Angry Birds… but not on an iPhone or iPad… but with real birds and pigs and blocks, and I might mention they are Star Wars themed too! We take turns building towers and placing our pigs, and then trying to knock them down with the birds via the little sling shots. There is a bit of strategy to how we build, but for the most part you are building something you know is going to be destroyed. So while we may spend a great deal of care and creativity building, we can’t get too attached to our masterpieces knowing the whole point of the building, was to knock them down! We have to remember the real joy isn’t in the building, it is in the playing together. In fact, the whole point of the game isn’t what we build or even the shooting of birds to knock it down – it is Daddy-Son time. At the end, when the floor is a mess, it is a sign that we had a great time. It’s kinda like kidmin. It reminds me…

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You Can Go Deeper and Still Be Creative!

As many of my readers know, I write the Kid’s Church curriculum for DiscipleLand and it is called DiscipleTown. It’s focus is on “Disciple Skills” – 24 units that cover twenty-four skills every fully developed disciple of Jesus needs to master. I am currently writing the 22nd unit. The series is designed for larger group with small group option and to be teacher led with many creative options (more than you can fit in a single week!) with several multimedia options. I was very encouraged to get the following note this week from Marion Tims, a volunteer minister who describes herself as a 10 year veteran professional educator and home school mom and “to be honest, hard to impress.” She writes about DiscipleTown… Karl, I just want you to know how much I have enjoyed finding the DiscipleTown curriculum. As the Children’s Director of a 300+ church, we started a Children’s Church in 2011. With my background in education, I knew I wanted a curriculum that would teach clearly and concisely Biblical principles in a creative, multi-media format. Having  attended a mega church in the Atlanta area where they had a vibrant, active children’s ministry, I knew I wanted to duplicate…

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