Home Articles posted by kidologist (Page 82)

MOVIE REVIEW: October Baby

Grace. Forgiveness. Healing. These are words that get tossed loosely around the Church between the donuts and Sunday bulletins. They are often just technical jargon we all must learn to speak in order to fit in with little impact on hearts and souls. We can hide hurt behind smiles and speak the church lingo without really understanding the depth of what these words were meant to provide. But there comes a time in everyone’s life when the meaning of these words is transformed from church jargon to life-saving concepts that truly save a person from self-destruction and despair. It may be the discovery of a painful truth, a deeply hurtful choice of another person, or a sinful choice for which the consequence was far greater or faster than one imagined. Suddenly Grace is sought. Forgiveness is desperately wanted. Healing is needed. But it can seem to be a thousand miles away. Such is the story behind the movie October Baby. It opens in select theaters MARCH 23rd, and it is well worth your time to go see, even if the topic doesn’t appeal to you initially. The story is one of a young girl struggling with Asthma and Epilepsy who discovers at age 19…

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Book Review: Emory’s Gift

I am not one to toss around the words “favorite” or “best” lightly or often, so when I say that W. Bruce Cameron’s novel Emory’s Gift is my favorite novel, I mean it quite sincerely. It is TRULY the best novel I have ever read. Never before have I laughed out loud reading a book, turned away from others lest they see my tears, or just cried boldly on a plane because I no longer cared if anyone saw my tears. I have read lines to strangers who had no idea what I was trying to express because they lacked the context, but I didn’t really care, because I just couldn’t keep that line or paragraph to myself. Cameron’s writing style and insight into the mind of a young boy is truly amazing, insightful, and downright hysterical at times. Truly, I am Charlie Hall, the main character – a middle schooler, around whom the book revolves. And I miss him now like I lost a childhood friend I’ll never get to see again. So real did the author make him, and so vivid did he paint his memories, his experiences, his deep loves, such as Kate, a teacher he was…

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Reinventing Yourself

At CPC last month, I did a workshop titled “10 Steps to a Ministry Reboot.” You can listen to it and get my notes for a limited time here: www.kidology.org/cpc12 In short, it was 10 basic areas of ministry / tips you need to address in order to both keep your sanity and have a well functioning ministry. Some of the tips are a little shocking to newer administrators. Like “Don’t Recruit” and “Stop Leading.” In other words, you should only recruit a leadership team, and they should do the rest of the recruiting (under your guidance), and don’t lead any ministries yourself. Equip leaders who lead under your leadership. It’s a workshop that often saves the sanity and ministry of those who hear it. In response, I got the following e-mail today: Hi Karl, ….Last week I had the opportunity to attend CPC in San Diego.  I attended your breakout:  “Ten Steps to a CM Reboot…”  I appreciated the things you shared.  I am currently on a sabbatical that my church has blessed me with and this is exactly where I am at right now… I am at a point in my life where I need to re-invent myself…

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How to Search on Kidology.org

How to Search on Kidology.org I’m often asked by our members and visitors, “How do you find things on Kidology.org?” Like Emily just did at CPC this past week, “I know you have vast resources, but sometimes I struggle to find things because there is just so much.” It’s a GREAT question! Part of the issue is knowing what you are looking for, and the other part is knowing where to look on the site. Because we have literally tens of thousands of zone posts, forum posts, and other types of content that have been growing daily for nearly twenty years, simply starting at the search engine at the top of the site is only scratching the surface. That is why we divide the content up into category Zones and various topical Discussion Forums to attempt to guide you to where you can find the specific help you are looking for. However, let me give you a few tips on using our search engine. If you start at the top of the site and enter a phrase such as “love and faith” it will look like this: The results will look something like this: However, if you scroll down, you…

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My CPC’s Are Catching Up To My Age!

UPDATE: INCM informed me there were 3 CPC’s from 2001-2006, so I now know that CPC San Diego was my 40th CPC! I’m enjoying my 38th or 39th consecutive CPC. I’m trying to figure out how many I’ve been to, but in order to get the exact number, I need to know how many years they hosted three! But for the past 17 years I have not missed a single Children’s Pastor’s Conference at any location. Every time people say, “were you at the one where….” I smile, because I have been at all of them since 1995. It hit me this year that soon my age will be the same as the number of Children’s Pastor’s Conferences I have attended. I have been here as an attendee, as a speaker, as a performer, as an exhibitor…but mostly I am just here to walk around and talk to my friends who love kids ministry as much as I do. I love meeting new people. I love seeing old friends. I love encouraging folks going through tough times. I love giving a word of advice or counsel to those just starting out in ministry or business. I love just being here…

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