Ministry with Balloons is a blast!

Ever since I was the house magician at the Rock ‘n Roll McDonald’s in downtown Chicago (in college) I’ve been twisting balloons for kids at church, birthday parties, magic shows, etc. But my use of them in my ministry for teaching was pretty minimal and limited to one balloon creatures. That was until very recently. “Master Ron” as he is known, is a Christian children’s entertainer and awesome juggler and balloon artist. I have used him for years to sub for me in Kids Church when I’m out of town, and he is the only sub I’ve had that the kids just don’t seem to miss me at all when I get back. (is that good, or not?) :-) A computer systems analyst by day, and a balloon twistin’ juggler by evenings and weekends, Master Ron is a great teacher and communicator with kids…. and an inspiration to me. This summer I had him teach all our grade school kids at our church for Sunday School in June. We found ourselves with three weeks to ‘fill’ between our regular Sunday School and when our summer Family Sunday School class could start, and I needed something easy for me and fun…

Continue reading

Gimmie a "U" !! Gimmie a "W" !! What’s that spell?

UPDATE: Bad Link to photo gallery corrected! Gimmie a “U” !! Gimmie a “W” !! What’s that spell? UNCHARTED WATERS! Uncharted Waters is the Sports Camp Ministry we have used for the past two years to reach out to the kids in our church and community. (see last year) We had 50 kids come divided between basketball… and cheerleading. GO! GO! GO! We had at least six kids make a decision to give their lives to Jesus and GO FOR THE GOLD that will last for all eternity! The secret to the success of these sports camps is NOT me… I could never lead a sports camp (unless it was sport stacking!) What I love about the ministry of UW is that they do most of the work for us. Here is the UW Team: Coaches Josh, Catie, Lindsay and Lisa! Of course, a lot of work was also done and thanks are due to our Sports Camp director, Cherie and a bunch of volunteers. Anna Maria, Barb and Cherie (not pictured: many more!) What did I do all week? Worked on my six foot unicycle shooting…. (still needs much work) And my “Air Karl” moves!Were you there? SEE ALL…

Continue reading

Year End KC Krew Party!

Well, it’s hard to believe, but I just finished my fourteenth year of K.C. Krew. (Kids Church Krew) So we headed off to a friends house on a lake to celebrate a year of serving God together. I still remember that first KC Krew – I didn’t have a clue what to do with the kids, just a conviction that I needed to be trainig kids to serve in church, rather than just sit and be entertain/ministered TO. Since then, well over a hundred kids have been trained to serve God and given the experience of serving God at church. Several of my past Krew members are in ministry today and a few are at Bible college! But even those who don’t do vocational ministry have learned that serving God is a lot of fun and rewarding too. My prayer is that serving at church will always be just something they do. It’s no mystery to me why so many adults have no interet in serving, the church trained them through childhood and youth to come to church and sit and watch…. and then we wonder why they won’t volunteer. It’s about time we taught kids to serve at the…

Continue reading

Introducing the Senior Pastor Cam!

At our pastors/elders planning meeting last week, we came up with a great idea that is sure to sweep the country! As our church is growing, we are talking about the options for handling growth and the possibility of a video-venue service – live music/etc. in the gym and then the message from the pastor on screen from sanctuary. (Just in discussion mode, VCBers, no set plans yet) ANYWAY, someone mentioned that to make the video sermon enjoyable to watch, it would be important to offer several different camera angles rather than just one static camera showing one boring view from the back. THATS WHEN IT HIT ME! I blurted out, “THE DAVE CAM!” I slipped out to our Kids Church backstage and retrieved a helmet mounted webcam that I hooked up several years ago for Kids Church (where what/who I looked at appeared on big screen!) and returned to the serious pastor/elder meeting and plopped it on my boss’s head. Pastor Dave modeling the prototype “Dave Cam” I tried to convince the group that this was a fantastic idea! Not only would it create a great alternative view of the service, but it would provide a view of the…

Continue reading

Luke Goes to Luke’s!

Well, Dadddy gets to go to off to work and other places, and usually Mommy is home alone with the Little Boy for hours on end… so today, Dadddy kicked Mommy out of the house – sent her off to do whatever she might enjoy while Daddy played Mr. Mom all day… and what fun we had! Here is the sweet little boy sleeping like, uh, well, like a baby. But getting to this blissful state takes a little work sometimes. One of my favorite tricks is cuddling with the boy having quality bonding and lovey time, and then pullin’ the old bait n’ switch… little boy falls alseep with Daddy only to replaced by pillows! To master this Daddy move, Verrrrrrrrrrrry slowly first replace the arm under baby’s head with one pillow, keeping your hand on baby and face close in case he peeks…. then slip away holding his hand and replace your body with another pillow. Finally, help him clutch the pillow case thinking it is your shirt… and your FREE! They do eventually wake up and figure out they’ve been had…. but that’s ok, got some work done! Next it is time for some motivational training and…

Continue reading