Don’t Be the Kidmin Who Misses This!!

There is an amazing new animated movie coming March 2018 that will only be in theaters ONE WEEKEND! I got to enjoy a an early screening with my family and it is amazing! Imagine Frozen, Lord of the Rings and Narnia blended into a wonderful children’s story that is a beautiful parable of the importance of not forgetting ancient Truth. It has adventure, catchy music and a powerful message for all ages. A fallen angel is trapped in the form of a dragon, known as the Ice Dragon, banished as long as the people remember the Song their Creator gave them. But as time goes by, Truth fades into legend with only a few believers left – and the dragon breaks free! How will the villagers defeat the mighty dragon? You’ll have to find out for yourself! From the creator of God Rocks comes this delightful story that was written by the creator, Bruce Stacey, decades ago for his own children and has now been brought to life in a spectacular animated film. As children’s ministry leaders – we need to both celebrate and support creative efforts like this to engage our culture and share the Good News! Instead of…

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Creatively Reaching Kids, with Spinners!

We must constantly be looking for new ways to reach kids. The best way to get new kids to come to church is to get the kids we have to invite their friends. We can challenge them constantly, but like us, kids need incentives. So I decided to tap into the latest craze and create some excitement with spinners. You know, those silly spinning things that every kid is carrying around and driving adults nuts with. I ordered some custom ones for my church and am launching the effort this Sunday with this video: The idea is that kids who invite a friend who has never been to our church BOTH the guest and the friend who brought them will get one of these “exclusive, limited edition, available-nowhere-else custom Highpoint Kids Spinner!” I’ll let you know how it goes! I’ve got several hundred to give away! UPDATE: We’ve had over twenty visitors, here are a few pictures:

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Stop Trying to Bear Good Fruit!

For years one of my “pet peeves” theologically has been how much I hear kids being taught to “work on the Fruit of the Spirit.” There are countless kids church series that go through each fruit helping kids to work on them, one by one. I’ve even seen sermons to adults admonishing Christians to work on being more kind or gentle or self-controlled. But there is a serious flaw in this approach! Fruit produced by our effort, isn’t Fruit of the Spirit – it is fruit of the flesh, even if the end result is good. Stick with me for a moment before you start yelling at me! I know the Bible says to produce good fruit – we should! But too often our approach is backwards. In our church’s scripture reading plan, I find my self in the book of Matthew, and was struck with this truth again as I read the following passages: By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good…

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Connecting Digitally with Your Kids

For Father’s Day my son cracked me up when he wrote in my card, “I love you more than the games on my ipad! :)” So touching. But the reality is, my son is growing up in an age where he plays on an ipad as much as he does with physical toys and games. I’m delighted that Lego still captures his imagination as much as Minecraft, and that he’d still rather play outside than on his X-box, but at the same time I have a love-hate relationship with iPad games. There are times I wish he didn’t have one – but I also realize that touch-tablet technology is the world he is growing up in. While he can use the family iMac with ease, it is very likely that by the time he is a teenager, the computers we use will be the technological dinosaurs of a past age. I enjoyed growing up using the very first personal computers and leaping on each advancement as they came out. Even waiting in line for a new Apple OS to be released instead of the free downloads of today. But this ‘Old Dog’ has to recognize that both the reality of…

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JOIN ME in Teaching GO! This Fall!

I’m so excited to announce the curriculum I’ll be using this fall in my own church ministry and I want you to teach it with me! It’s called GO! and if you want to teach the same thing as me, I’ve arranged a 50% deal off the first unit so you can experience this amazing curriculum with me in August! (or September, see below!) Let me tell you more about it in this short video: I’m kicking off GO! in August with the ZOOM! series. ZOOM! starts a journey through the entire Bible with an overview of the first five books of the Bible. GO! covers the entire Bible every year, with a unique focus each year, coordinates with Christmas and Easter and regularly includes the Gospel. It’s got both large and small group options and so much more. Check it out at GOcurriculum.com If you’d like to GO! with me, check out the discount code below to save BIG TIME! I hope you’ll GO! with me and consider teaching GO! with me this year. I’ll be sharing tons of ideas and training along with way, so you’ll have some extra support while using GO! For 50% off ZOOM!, the…

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