Home Archive by category "Kidology" (Page 69)

Category: Kidology

Drawing the Bible; Turn Off the DVD Player

I’m speaking this week at Hartland Bible Camp in California. It’s my first time here, but I am really loving the experience. I’ll post more about the camp at the end of the week. I wanted to post a few pics about one of my favorite teaching methods… Bible Story Drawing. Besides drama, illustion, and some of my other usual techniques, for the actual Bible story segment, I am illustrating the Bible Story by drawing it as I teach it. Since the drawing gets erased each day (Actually, by my arch nemesis before the next lesson, more on that in a future post!) I take a picture to save my works of art for posterity! Here they are, perhaps someone else might enjoy them… as you can see, my artist skills peaked around the second grade. As for the lesson content, I am covering The Nine Virtues and teaching Bible Characters that displayed them. I’ve done four so far: Courage: Displayed by David: (Click image to see full size) HONOR: Displayed by Young Jesus (Click image to see full size) TRUTH: Displayed by Peter (Click image to see full size) LOYALTY*: Displayed by Esther (Click image to see full size)…

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Step Aside, and Let God Recruit

Got a great e-mail today – one of those that says it better than I can. Pastor Karl, I recently was granted a Kidology scholarship and I am SO thankful. It would take a book to explain my situation but I am sure you have heard it all before… a struggling Children’s Ministry without a Minister so a member takes the task on and is just overwhelmed. When I opened my email from Rachel (customer support) stating I had the Premium Membership there was a mention of this “Leadership Labs” series that was suggested I try out. I started the “First Things First” lab and had to pause the video after the first homework assignment. Can we say a gut check? I immediately started crying out to God and apologizing for making this MY task and MY service. I turned everything over to Him and asked Him to take care of everything. “Just show me what you want me to do,” I pleaded. I was in tears before our talk was over. That night I slept better than I had slept in weeks! I was actually planning on sleeping in the next morning, but the phone woke me up. On…

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Spiritual Warefare or Bad Luck?

The 13th Unit of DiscipleTown is due out any moment now. It’s been another exciting one to write! It is such a privilege to get create these idea-packed children’s church units for Discipleland. So far I’ve written on “How to Worship God“, “How to Use My Bible“, “How to Grow Spiritual Fruit“, “How to Make Good Friends“, “How to Follow God’s Plan“, “How to Make Good Choices“, and “How to Be Faithful Workers“, “How to Pray“, “How to Build Character“, “How to Explain My Faith“,  “How to Discover Gifts & Talents“, and “How to Meet with God“. Each one has presented it’s own unique challenged and each one has had things go wrong in the process as though someone or something is resisting this process! At times I wonder if I just have really bad luck – or if it is indeed spiritual warfare as I push forward to create these units that help kids become better Disciples of Jesus. On this latest one – it got CRAZY as I tried to finish the videos that will help children to understand the overview of the New Testament. While sometimes I’ll be hit with technical issues, like sound only coming out…

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Coming in Next to Next to Last

I’m excited to announce I came in in Next to Next to Last on the Church Leaders Top 200 Church Blogs on Two Websites! (Actually, it’s the same list in two places) and Yup, I was Number 198 on a list of 200! Barely made it! Whew! But what an honor to be noticed and because they did the ranking based on Google ranking and subscribers to Google Reader and RSS feeds, I must say: THANK YOU to those you YOU who read my blog, because it must mean you find my posts interesting, helpful, encouraging or something in order to keep coming back. I often say “I’ve been blogging since before there were blogs” and so it’s nice to know there are people reading! I don’t often post (or concern myself) with awards or recognition (my dad raised me to not give much thought to such things) but as long as I am here to say “Thanks”, I should mention Tony Kummer’s Blog List – not because I’m on it – but because so MUCH WORK goes into creating these lists, and he has 99 OTHER great Kidmin Bloggers on it, all worthy of checking out, in addition to…

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The Power of Encouragement

Before there was Kidology.org – (well, it was members.aol.com/kidologyweb) – Before most people had heard of this guy who called himself “the Kidologist” – there was just this kids pastor name Karl Bastian who threw himself 287% into whatever he did! One of those times was when he got invited to provide the children’s programing (not child care!) for the Okoboji Lakes Bible Conference waaaay back in 1996. I was hired by none other than Scottie May. You may have never heard of her, but she is the Mom of Phil Vicher (Creator of VeggieTales), and he wasn’t a household name in kids pastor’s homes (or American homes for that matter) back then. I think the first VHS tape was just hitting stores! Anyway – Along with my wife and some youth I brought from my church, we were proving children’s programming for TEN DAYS while the parents were in sessions over in the “Big Tent.” We did full scale Kids Church-like lessons, game times, crafts, and so much more. As I always do whether I’m doing Kid’s Church, speaking at camp, or writing curriculum, I provide more than asked and try to make it the best I possibly can…

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