Home Archive by category "Children’s Ministry" (Page 111)

Category: Children’s Ministry

Village Church Kids Ten Years Ago

Over the last two years I’ve been going through my hundreds of VHS tapes from over fifteen years of children’s ministry as a children’s pastor and came across a video recently that I made TEN YEARS AGO around this time as a children’s ministry appreciation video. This was in my pre-Mac days and so I had a lot of help from the youth pastor at my previous church, Jim Crouter, in making this. It’s been nearly two years since I resigned from the Village Church of Barrington and they have recently hired a new children’s pastor. I’m very happy for the church, but it has made me sentimental about all the many happy memories I have from eight wonderful years on staff there. (Josh, you snagged up the best CP job in the country!) VCB was a wonderful church to work at with a great staff and awesome volunteers and, of course, super kids! I know some of my friends there follow my blog so I thought they’d enjoy seeing what their teenagers looked like ten years ago! I still know the names of most of the kids in this video. Wow, does time go by fast! I miss them…

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A Walk Down Kid U Street

The Kidology Univeristy is coming THIS FALL! (And it will be bigger and better than ever!) In this ToyBox Tales inspired video, meet some of the speakers as Karl does some “man on the street” interviews with just a few of the presenters coming to Chicago this fall! You can also download a higher quality QuickTime version of the video for promoting the event at your church. (19MB) There are a ton of great conferences for children’s ministry but we truly believe you will be missing out if you skip this one! We have put together a Mega-Conference line up for a non-mega price! For our 10th Anniversary Celebration we have pulled out all the stops, and may never do a conference this size again. Kid U 2008 is the year not to miss! Great trainers like Jim Wideman, Greg Baird and more! Extended leadership workshops where the presenter gets time to provide personalized coaching and interaction. Over thirty volunteer workshops on Saturday, bring your team! God Rocks in Concert! Participate in a Children’s Pastor Kidz Blitz Live! Compete in the Sport Stacking Tournament! Small Dinner Groups with speakers and sponsors! AND MORE for under $200! REGISTER TODAY BEFORE IT…

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What Happened to the Bible?

Jump over to DiscipleBlog.com where I posted a thought provoking article on what I am calling the Bibleless Trend in Children’s Ministry. I am certain if you teach children the Bible you will find it just might give you pause for consideration – or encourage you if you are not part of this rapidly growing trend that has rendered thousands of evangelical children’s ministries void of actual Bibles in children’s ministry! Let me know our thoughts there on at this post. Go there now. There is a great discussion on the post on Kidology.org Join the discussion!

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Yosemite Summit 2008 Video

(Reprinted from Yosemite Summit for my blog readers) Don’t miss the video at the end, and click any picture for a larger view. It’s hard to believe the Yosemite Summit 2008 is over. It’s been several weeks, but it still feels like a part of me is still there in the Sierra Nevada. It’s been fun sorting through the 5000+ pictures we took and reliving the fun memories. Not only the incredible PLACE we were, but the awesome friendships that were formed and will continue to grow in the years ahead. It was an amazing time together and God did some incredible work in our lives. For me, my soul comes alive in this place and I finally feel truly free. We started our first day watching the sun rise at Glacier Point. The views are simply spectacular! It was a time to leave the busyness and noise of normal life behind and just listen to God. There were times we could just sit and soak our souls in the presence of God as well as walking with Him on the incredible hikes. There is just something powerful about reading God’s Word and praying when you are in a place…

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Addicted to Ministry?

“Hi Craig, my name is Karl, and I too am a recovering ministry-a-holic.” In the current issue of K! Magazine, there is an excellent article by my friend, Craig Jutila, former children’s pastor at Saddleback Community Church, where he very honestly and transparently talks about his own personal “crash” from being so addicted to ministry he found himself in an unhealthy place spiritually, emotionally, and relationally with his family. I appreciated his candor. I’ve attempted to be as open here on my blog (and even more so in one on one relationships) about my own “demise” as a children’s pastor nearly two years ago who thought he could do everything and keep his walk with God and family life healthy. Why are the best lessons in life learned so painfully? Craig’s topic was “spiritual renewal” and he admits (as I will) that we can be so good at faking it and knowing all the answers even as we are dying on the inside – but unwilling to admit our need. He quotes an unknown person as saying we don’t change until, “you hurt enough that you have to” or you “learn enough that you want to.” We both admit, it…

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