Sumu Kids!

Here’s a “Blast from the Past!” I recently had thousands of pictures scanned by ScanMyPhotos.com and am discovering some fun pictures from over twenty years of ministry as a children’s pastor (as well as lots of fun family pics). Several of these kids I still know and some I am friends with now on Facebook, even though this was 1993 at the Village Church of Lincolshire, IL. (Pictured here are David and Hannah Shaw, Tina Myers, Athena (Rebecca) Stephens, Tyler and Kelsey Hagen, Matt, Sam and Gab Fuqua, Jennelle, Jenene and Jenna Stanonik, Gina Geavaras, Amy Lane, and others I only remember first names. I am getting old!) Here is a fun game event I did in my Rookie Year as a full time children’s pastor that I called Sumu Kids: First, the TEAM PHOTOS: We did this at a “Sack Lunch Sunday.” Every first Sunday of the month, I let all the grade school kids stay at church for a themed afternoon of fun and games. Its purpose was simply to deepen my relationship with the kids as well as to give parents a nice Sunday afternoon off. (Parent Points!) There was always some spiritual teaching, yes, but that…

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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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Kidmin Toolbox

Kidmin Toolkit? Let’s suppose you had to pack for a week of teaching and ministry and all you could pack was a small “Kidmin Toolkit” – what would you pack into YOUR travel kit? A Bible? Naturally. An iPad? Perhaps. A yo-yo? A small puppet? I’d pack a bag of jolly ranchers and a sling shot! Some action figures? Remember, this is ALL you will have for a WEEK of ministry. What will you need? I’m gonna mail the best responses in COMMENTS a prize and then I’ll post what I’d put in MY Kidmin Toolkit – and then I’d encourage you to PACK YOUR OWN Kidmin Toolkit and have it READY TO GO, because you never know when you might just need it! UPDATE: THE $50 PRIZE PACK Very soon… someone in comments, is going to WIN this prize pack I’ve assembled: (Note: It all packs flat to fit in your Kidmin Toolkit!) UPDATE: I was overwhelmed by the response to this blog post. Everyone submitted Great Ideas! However, I could pick but ONE winner, and the Kidmin Toolkit Winner is: Joan Eppehimer SEE ALL THE RESPONSES & COMPILE YOUR OWN KIT! We have compiled ALL THE RESPONSES into…

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A Convertible Half Wet!

What do you do when you are out with your convertible, enjoying a beautiful day with the top down, and it starts to rain, and THEN you discover that the the automatic top is broken? I’ve been on the road (well, technically, in the air!) for weeks – speaking at Camp Hartland and Camp Timber-lee, and all the while my convertible has been in the garage with the top down while I’ve been filming in my car DiscipleTown videos for the next series. (How to Navigate the Old Testament, due out Aug. 20th) So when I pulled out today, I had no idea the top was broken, its been down for a month! I discovered when I was out on a conference call with DiscipleLand after lunch with the family at the mall. I was then meeting at Speed Stacks HQ getting the low-down on some new products (BTW, I am the VERY FIRST non-employee to get a prototype on something I’ll blog about later!) when it started to rain! What to do? Go home and cut out of an important meeting? Park under a tree? Then the innovative team at Speed Stacks discovered that the back double doors of…

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