Making Your Communication Personal and FUN with Bitmoji!

To capture people’s attention today, your messages need to stand out! Let’s face it, e-mail and text communication is a daily part of every leader’s day. But the people we are communicating with are inundated with messages from all areas of their lives. How do you make yours stand out? How can you bring a smile to people’s faces? I use a FREE app called Bitmoji, specifically, the iOS keyboard. You can search by key word of just scroll through LOTS of options then copy/paste or download to your device. Getting Started is easy (and free) 1) You download the app and set up an account. 2) You go through the steps of creating your character! 3) You can change outfits as often as you want! 4) You look for the ones you want to use and then HAVE FUN! Since it is a phone app, I search on my phone, and when you select one, it copies to your clipboard. I will then text it to myself and on my computer, download it from Messages to my desktop, and then I file them all in a folder. If the app ever goes away, I’ve got hundreds to use for…

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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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Check-in Without Lines?

Imagine computer check-in without computers! Imagine secure check-in without lines. Sound impossible? Not any more. Thanks to the always innovating geniuses at KidCheck, secure check-in is getting even easier. As you can tell by the related links below, I’ve been an avid supporter and promoter of KidCheck for years. I love how they are always innovating to make child security easier and more effective each year. While other systems provide the basics – KidCheck continues to add features and benefits that not only provide a pick-up label, but improve communication between parents, volunteers, and leaders. AND NOW… (wait for it) … They have introduced Express Check-in. That means parents can check-in on their smart phone in the parking lot or while walking it, come to your check-in area, hit “PRINT” and be on their way to dropping off their kiddos without every standing in line or typing into a computer. Learn all about KidCheck Express Check-in Here. As I mentioned on my podcast today, the safety of kids is of the utmost importance to parents. When you have a secure check-in area, you score points with parents who want to have the peace of mind that their child is not…

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What Words Define You?

Facebook asked me yesterday if I’d like to know what words I use the most when I post to my wall. It seemed like a fun activity. After clicking my approval, some software somewhere read my wall, compiled words, and sorted them by frequency. The result was the word cloud you see here. I was happy to see “kids” front and center and my son’s name as well. It was no surprise to see “church” or “Yosemite” – though my wife teased me that my friend Brett bumped her off the list, which does cast a little doubt on the accuracy, but at least Brent affirmed that I made his list too! Of course, Facebook only provides a glimpse into our lives, and the parts of our lives that we choose to share – but it’s worth some reflection to ask ourselves, What am I about? What drives me? What do I talk about? What do I think about? Life is made up of words and words reflect the heart. (Luke 6:45 and Matthew 15:18 discuss this.) Whether or not you allow Facebook to count your words, consider if God counted our words and made a list of what typically…

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Kidology.org Makes a “TOP 25” List

Group Publishing has honored me and my team yet again. They just published a “Top 25 Children’s Ministry Websites” list, and I was honored to see Kidology.org make the list. Back in 2010 Group named me as one of the top children’s ministry influencers in the past twenty years as they celebrated their own 20th anniversary as a magazine. It was a great honor not only for me, but for my entire team and all the wonderful kidmin leaders who have played a role in Kidology over the decades of ministry we have enjoyed. I posted my own list of influencers so I could pass the honor on. See: The Kidologist’s Top Influencers

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