Kidmin Toolkit – WINNER and LIST!

You may remember awhile back, I did a post called Kidmin Toolkit, and it got WAY over 50 comments and a lot of interaction! It was a lot of fun! Well, it took awhile to compile all the responses and pick a WINNER – but that original post has been UPDATED with both the winner and PDFs and WORD documents with all the submissions in a list, so you can compile your very own Kidmin Toolkit and BE READY for the next time you suddenly get called to go teach or serve and have no time to plan or pack or prepare – just grab your Kidmin Toolkit and GO! GO THERE NOW – to see WHO WON, and download the TOOLKIT LISTS! Leave your NEW COMMENTS HERE, rather then there. I’m especially interested in whether anyone actually creates their Kidmin Toolkit. If you do, send me a picture and I will post it here in this thread! E-mail to karl at kidmintalk.com as I will probably end up talking about this on KidminTalk soon! GO!

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Thoughts and Feedback on the Kids Church Cookbook

Writing the Kid’s Church Cookbook was one of the biggest undertakings I’ve ever done. It was bigger than the Order of the Ancient novel, since it required design work and layout involvement that was much more intense, and bigger than the Kidology Handbook since not only is it over 100 pages longer, but it involved me filming seven complete training videos in a custom kitchen studio all while it was closed over a Christmas break… it was an insane time. I won’t even bother typing all that involved, crazy story best saved for telling in person. While it took over two years to get the editing done, the filming was all done in just 3-4 days almost non-stop without sleep! This post was inspired by some encouraging words I just got from a Kidology member named Martin Maynard, which I thought I’d share, in case you’ve been considering picking it up: (I edited to shorten and leave some stuff out.) Karl, the reason I am writing is your Kids Church Cookbook is the best training I have ever come across in my years of reading and studying. I appreciate what you are doing through Kidology, what an amazing site.  I…

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Day 22 – Thankful for Tennis Balls

This is part of a series called 24 Days of Thankfulness. These posts are in RANDOM order, NOT priority order. Each is something I am thankful for leading up to Thanksgiving. DAY #22: Tennis Balls OK, this post isn’t really about tennis balls, it’s about my grammy, but I knew that title might generate some curiosity and therefore some clicks! I am Thankful for My Grammy! (and Tennis Balls… keep reading!) I do not mean to elevate any relative above any other… I am thankful for ALL my relatives, and love them all differently and in different ways. But my Grammy B will always hold an extra special place in my heart. One of those reasons she and I kept secret. It wasn’t until after she passed away, that I finally let the secret out. In fact, at her grave side service, they let the children draw on her casket, and I drew a tennis ball on her casket with the words, “I win.” Relatives looked at me a little confused (and perhaps slightly shocked!) Here is why. One of my “Kidologist Secrets” of relating to kids is to have fun games or “inside jokes” with the kids who I…

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Day 21 – Thankful for My Customers

This is part of a series called 24 Days of Thankfulness. These posts are in RANDOM order, NOT priority order. Each is something I am thankful for leading up to Thanksgiving. DAY #21: My Customers Back in 1994 when very few people knew what the “Internet” was, I got an idea for a website: The KidologyWeb: I was already calling myself “The Kidologist” in my workshops as I sought to equip and encourage children’s workers to approach children’s ministry from the perspective of a child: By 1996 the first “Kidology Handbook” was published: VERY FEW people remember when Kidology.org (before I had that domain!) looked like this: OR when you clicked into it and saw crude pages like this: Only hundreds were lucky enough to BE on the Internet surfin’ kidmin back then! (And only a few bought the “Life Time Memberships” I offered back then when I needed to raise some money to buy some much needed Microsoft FrontPage software, and yes, they are still members!) More remember the next version of the site: Kidology 2.0 (which I called it long for “2.0” was hip) It had the infamous “frames” that if you navigated just right, would give you…

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Day 17 – Thankful for Awana and Sunday School

This is part of a series called 24 Days of Thankfulness. These posts are in RANDOM order, NOT priority order. Each is something I am thankful for leading up to Thanksgiving. DAY #17 : Awana and Sunday School I was just serving at an Awana last night in Colorado Springs. I was reminded as I watched these clubbers of the impact of Awana in my own spiritual journey as I realized how blessed these kids are – and they don’t even realize it yet. For them, it’s just something fun their parents have enrolled them in. Yet they are having a spiritual foundation laid that is going to serve them for the rest of their life. Some will come to Christ at club, others will memorize hundreds of Bible verses which will become the building blocks of spiritual thought that will form a biblical world view which will become the super structure upon which will be built a life of critical thinking. And I’m not over-stating it. Objective studies by outside researchers have found that most kids trained in Awana continue to faithfully follow Jesus as adults. (source) Awana is also where I got my beginning as a children’s ministry…

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