Watering Young Spiritual Fruit

Now that the third DiscipleTown unit, How to Grow Spiritual Fruit is available, I can’t help thinking about what a privilege it is for me to literally join with hundreds of children’s church teachers around the country, and some even farther away, in helping  children learn the secrets to growing genuine spiritual fruit. It is my prayer that each teacher who uses this material will find it challenging and encouraging in their own spiritual journey as well. I know that as I have studied for and prepared these lessons I have been reminded again that I need to work less at “being good” and more at drawing closer to God to let His goodness shine through me! I have to tell you, when I set out to start this series, I did not want to write just another series on the same old familiar “fruit of the spirit” stuff. I told the good folks at DiscipleLand, “teaching kids about the fruit of the spirit is like teaching someone how to be a banana. I’d rather teach someone how to grow bananas, or how to grow spiritual fruit, than do another series that just described the individual fruits of the Spirit.”…

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BIG NEWS from Speed Stacks!

It is no secret to those who have been on Kidology.org for awhile that I am a HUGE fan of Speed Stacks. Perhaps you’ve seen my 32,000+ views YouTube video, or me beating then world champ Emily Fox, or challenging NFL Roookie of the Year Chicago Bears Tommie Harris, or read my Speed Stacks Object Lessons, or just read my Wacky Art of Kupstacko PowerPoint and scratched your head. What can I say? I love stacking cups really, really fast! In fact, I have been “sport stacking” since before I ever heard of Speed Stacks. I thought I invented it and used to claim it was the next Olympic sport.  I used my own version of stacking in kids church and at camp long before I ran into my first official Speed Stacks spokesperson, Roger Washburn, and was excited to buy my first set of official Speed Stack cups. I showed him how I stacked and he TOOK MY CUPS AWAY until I promised I would stack according to the sanctioned rules of the WSSA. I crossed my heart, hoped to die and all that, and he allowed me to buy my first set of cups, and mini-cups, and a…

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Teach Kids “How to Use My Bible”

I travel to many churches as a guest speaker or trainer and am very often stunned by how little need there is for Bibles in most children’s ministries. I consider teaching with and out of a Bible to be the fundamental basis of my instruction to kids. While I use puppets, object lessons, media clips, illusions, and more to creatively teach and engage children, these are never a substitute for teaching with and out of a Bible. Only the Bible has God’s promise of effectiveness. And yet, the Bible is a rare object in perhaps most children’s ministries today. This is a tragedy! Kids learn by what they see – they need to see you teaching with and from an actual Bible. And the learn by what they do – reading in and from an actual Bible. This is main reason I wrote the “How to Use My Bible“, the second installment in the DiscipleTown Kid’s Church curriculum that we’re producing in conjunction with DiscipleLand. For children, the Bible can be a very intimidating book simply due to its size. This 4-5 week unit will help erase kids’ impressions of the Bible as a giant, overwhelming volume that will take…

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We’re Moving to Colorado

Yes, we are packing everything up and moving to Colorado this month! In his book Visioneering, Andy Stanley makes the following statement: “Everybody ends up somewhere in life.  A few people end up somewhere on purpose.” I have been in Chicagoland since my parents brought me here in 1985. My wife has been here since she married me! I LOVE the city of Chicago! The architecture, the sports teams, the political corruption, the hustle and bustle, the malls (that’s for Sara) the blizzards (yes, I love to snow blow), and the friends made over the years, will all be things I will miss. It is a world class city. I have traveled throughout the world as well as the United States and there is NO CITY like Chicago – not even close. But in m y heart I’ve always been an outdoors guy. And after hosting two Yosemite Summit retreats, nearly dying in April, and again in May, it was time to stop putting off for “someday” what could be done now. I grew up in Colorado where my dad pastored a country church in Elizabeth, Colorado. We got picked up from school on Friday and drove to the country…

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Be The First to Get DiscipleTown!

By pre-ordering the very first DiscipleTown unit, How To Worship, you can be the very first to get this BRAND NEW children’s church curriculum from the creator of Kidology.org and DiscipleLand Bible Curriculum as soon as the final touches are ready… and its close! This completely downloadable curriculum includes beautiful PowerPoint presentations, video object lessons, puppet scripts, dramas, games, and more all build upon a solidly biblical theme that is focused on teaching kids skills they need to build as Disciples of Jesus. In addition to the all the incredible ideas provided for the classroom, DiscipleTown equips you for partnering with parents as well. Each week you are provided with an e-mail you can copy and paste to e-mail parents with what their children learned, questions they can ask their kids to get them talking, and a glimpse into what is coming next week. We’ve also introduced a creative tool that will help make it easy for families to gather just three times a week after meals talk about about what you are learning in children’s church in a fun and meaningful way. ORDER TODAY for only $39.95 and the moment it is ready, you will get an e-mail with…

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