Avoiding the GIMMIE GIMMIE’s

How do you help kids develop an “Attitude of Gratitude?” Every holiday seems to get derailed with the wrong focus. Christmas is about getting presents and Easter is about candy – and Thanksgiving can end up being about FOOD! MANY many years ago I wanted to develop a game for my students at church that would help them focus on being thankful, but in a fun and engaging way. I also had the issue of it being a low attendance Sunday with families traveling and as a result I often was short on volunteers. What to do? I ended up creating a large group game that became so HUGELY POPULAR it became an annual tradition. The game has been available on Kidology.org for over ten years in my “home made” version – but we finally decided to create a “real” version worthy of the FUN that it creates and make it available for wider use! If you have ever played Parker Brother’s classic card game of PIT – you will already know the basic rules – and get a mental image of how fun the game is. But instead of just a few players yelling out, “One! One!” or “Three!…

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What Are You Teaching Sunday?

How are you handling Halloween? Kids are seeing a lot of scary images. Our culture is obsessed with evil. As you probably know, I wrote a Halloween Series this year. I just got this e-mail in from someone who just finished it: We just finished up our final Spooky Lessons of the Bible last night. The kids LOVED it! Great lesson series Pastor Karl. The kids really enjoyed the gross guessing game. We used peeled grapes for eyeballs, a loofah sponge and jello for a brain, REAL pigs feet from the meat section of the grocery and for the final night, we used pickles and pistachio nuts for gorilla fingers. But most important, our kids better understand that they don’t have to fear death if they have a relationship with Jesus Christ. The most powerful story in the series was the final night – the lesson of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. Again, thank you for this fun and powerful series. I look forward to seeing what else you have in store for us! Lori Clark Gainesville Church of God, Florida Lori mentions the last lesson. Well, I have taken that last lesson, and made it available as a SINGLE LESSON…

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The ALL NEW Awesome Adventure is HERE!

And let me tell you, it is AWESOMER than ever! (Download the Promo PDF) If you have been discipling with Awesome Adventure over the years – you are in for an EYE-POPPING surprise! You will find the same Bible-Rich Content that covers the same 12 Basic Discipleship Lessons – but communicated in an entirely new exciting way! I’ve been personally transformed into a cartoon (!) – and entered into the book to take Dee, Cy and Paul (and their trusty dog, Chip) and two other new Christians, Luke and Laura, on a hike in Yosemite National Park to learn all about God and what it means to walk with Him! Along with way they visit actual historic sites in Yosemite while learning about the Bible, Prayer, Fellowship, Spiritual Gifts, and many other important topics – while discovering the parallels between hiking and walking the Christian life! They learn that discipleship comes with dangers, and decisions and even a run in with a bear! Your young diciples will learn right along with the kids in the book what it means to live for God along the path of life. There are fun interactive puzzles, codes, mazes, word searches, and colorful illustrations…

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Kids Music CAN be Cool AND Rich!

Just like much of our adult worship music today, kids music too often reflects what Jesus warned against: “vain repetition.” (Matthew 6:7) We have songs that are nice, peppy, and certainly full of praise, but lack biblical depth or content. It makes me miss the classic “Sunday School Songs” I grew up on. In fact, when I have an opportunity to lead kids worship, I rarely use “video worship” and instead lead with my guitar, despite the fact that I only know about 6 chords! (My musical gift is being able to convert nearly any song into a D-A-G! LOL) I’ve learned that if you are enthusiastic, speed up, slow down, have kids on stage, use motions, and then bring it all down and end with some seriousness, you can make up for what you lack in musical skill. Remember, it’s all about relationships. And I think a person is always better than a screen in the end. But all that aside, I want to make sure you are using GO FISH in your children’s ministry. If you use video worship, Go Fish is probably the BEST out there – in every category. First, let’s talk about production quality. While…

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Checking In with KidCheck

I recently caught up with KidCheck CEO Alex Smith and interviewed him on my podcast, Kidmin Talk. Let me encourage you to invest just a few minutes to give a listen. WHY is this worth your time? If you are in children’s ministry leadership, one of the areas of responsibility you inherited, that you may not have counted on when you got your Call to Ministry – was the safety of the kids you oversee. When I meet children’s pastors/directors and ask them, “So what was it that drew you into kids ministry?” No one has ever said to me, “You know, I just got this divine Calling from God to make sure kids were securely checked in on Sundays and all entered into the church database and that their addresses and parents cell phone numbers were all kept up to date so that we could sent text alerts. Oh, and I felt the Holy Spirit tell me that allergy awareness was just something that I was gifted at and I needed to find a profession where I could make it a major focus.” No. No one has ever said that to me. And yet I have had leaders tell…

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