Tell kids you LIKE them… it means more to them than “I love you.”

Many years ago, I was visiting with family and having fun tussling with one of my nephews who was about seven years old at the time. He was a kid I only got to see a few times a year, but we were pretty close. One of our favorite games was “Pillow Monster.” I would pile pillows on top of him while he was on the couch, and then “attack” the pile of pillows. I would “never notic” that he had escaped from under the pile as I trashed the pillows, jumping up and down on them pretending I was attacking him. He would laugh hysterically completely unaware that I could hear him behind me, knowing he wasn’t under the pile of pillows. Then, he would cover me in pillows and jump on the pillows, but of course, I wouldn’t be able to escape! It always ended in an exhausted heap of hugs to watch TV or something more relaxing. One time as we settled down to catch our breath, I blurted out, “Michael, I love you.” His response surprised me but had a profound impact on me. He said, “Uncle Karl, of course you love me. You’re my uncle.…

Continue reading

The LOVE Patrol

What is the most important volunteer role in your Children’s Church service? You might think it’s the teacher on stage, but actually it’s the members of the LOVE Patrol! What is the LOVE Patrol? The LOVE Patrol is what I like to call my volunteers that are “out and about” in the room among the children. In my kids service, which we call The Outpost, our official name for our helpers is Trail Guides, but I let them know they are on the “LOVE Patrol” during the service. I borrowed the name “LOVE Patrol” from a church that I visited many many years ago and I think it’s fantastic! It sure is better than “crowd control” – because it communicates that their purpose is not control, but to love on the kids and help them get the most out of the service. Train your volunteer helpers that their role isn’t to just sit in the back, or along the sides of the room, but to constantly be “on patrol” and watching the kids during the service. Contrary to what is often done – they are NOT looking for “bad behavior,” instead they are  actively moving about the room, studying the…

Continue reading

Be the Adult Who NOTICES Kids!

I’m honored again to have another article in the FREE Spanish Magazine Entreninos. (No worries, my column is in English!) One of my Kidology Theorems was republished, Be the Adult Who Notices Kids. So, now you can download and print in a very nice format for your volunteers. Download the PDF here. To download the entire magazine, first download this PDF for English instructions on how to navigate the Spanish site to download any of their magazines FREE. Just visit entreninos.com to download Issue 40 (or any other issues you want!)

Continue reading

Truth to Youth is Different Today

One of the most powerful workshops I ever attended was taught by my good friend Dick Crider several years ago. It was about the changing of the very words we use. When we talk to young people today, we THINK we are saying one thing, but the very words we use have been redefined to have completely different definitions. This is intentional, and it is devastating to the Church and to Truth. These are the pictures I took of some of this slides as he taught. Let them sink in and realize that when you talk or teach today, you have to be extremely intentional in how you communicate. We have to make extra effort to be clear about the Truth. Definitions may change but the Truth remains constant. How each person responds to the Truth hasn’t changed either. (Hebrews 9:27)“Tolerance” doesn’t mean the same thing to us, as Christians, as it means to the secular World. We are the most tolerate of all people… they would disagree. We also are very accepting. But the World has a different definition for accepting. You must not just accept the person, but endorse and even praise their actions. We separate the person…

Continue reading

Just 100 Prophesies of Jesus!

We often tell kids about the many prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. But this year I decided to actually show them by compiling just 100 of the over 300 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. It turned out to be a much more daunting project than I originally anticipated, but it paid off. My goal was just to give them two or three of the 100 cards each, but they kept asking for more and more. They are now available on Kidology: 100 Prophesies of Jesus! DESCRIPTION: Boost your faith as you discover one hundred prophesies about the Messiah, written in the bible and fulfilled by Jesus! Guess how many prophesies God made about Jesus and His time here on earth? 25? 50? 100? 200? It’s hard to give an exact number because of how they are written, but scholars have counted about 575 verses in the Old Testament that somehow point to or describe the coming Messiah! Some of them repeat the same prophecy, but overall, there are about 300 different prophesies that Jesus fulfilled during His time on earth, from His birth through His ministry, and even in His death and resurrection. God used prophesy to help demonstrate that Jesus was…

Continue reading

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...