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Category: Kidology

When Family Trumps Family Ministry

I am sad to report that my 94 year old grammy passed away just weeks before her 95th birthday after going into the hospital on what would have been my grandpa’s 101st birthday. She passed quietly and peacefully while listening to Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer. I was supposed to be traveling to speak at a family ministry conference, but when she got ill, family suddenly was more important than a “family ministry conference” – so I called and asked if I could back out last minute. They were very gracious and understanding. So instead of speaking at this national conference I had been looking forward to for two years, I was at my Grammy’s funeral. In love with Downtown Chicago, last year I had the honor of taking her on a “date” downtown with my wife and four year old for what we knew would probably be her last excursion downtown, as it was getting harder and harder for her to venture out. This was an annual dinner cruise my wife and I did to celebrate our first date as Moody Bible students, and since we were moving to Colorado last October, we knew this 20th occasion would…

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Dealing with Parent Conflict

Here is a Sneak Peek into Part 6 of the Kids Church Cookbook – just to give you a glimpse the material it deals with. Someone was telling me the other day how the Cookbook gets a lot deeper than just how to use Puppets and Balloons and I need to share that more – so here is a “taste” of one of the “meatier” topics covered in the section of staffing your children’s church. (This was posted prior to the final editing.) Dealing with Parent Conflict Ben Franklin said that in life, two things were certain: death and taxes. When it comes to children’s ministry and parents, there are two things that are certain: kids and conflict. The kids are the easy part! The conflict… not so easy. Invariably, you are doing to do something that a parent is not going to like. Occasionally, you are going to do something wrong. A parent is going to call you on it. When that happens. Be humble, don’t make any excuses, don’t explain it away, don’t give the circumstances – just admit it and apologize. They know you are human and their respect for you will go up. And even if…

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He Pointed at Me

We were sitting in a Mac n’ Erma’s to enjoy a meal, and as a nice twist of fate, this strangely mature looking college aged young man was treating his pastor to the meal. He had driven up to meet me asking to pick up in person the Moody Bible Institute reference I had written for him. Noah was one of my “krew kids,” all grown up and heading to Bible college to prepare for a life of ministry. I was bursting with pride. Mostly godly, but some fleshy too. I couldn’t help it. I had taken this boy under my wing when others hadn’t seen the potential I could recognize. I saw only myself as a boy. We enjoyed our meal, caught up on the years we’d been apart and finally, I had to ask, “So what made you decide to go to Moody and go into children’s ministry?” Instead of answering, he did something that will always be a lifetime memory, and I’ll admit the pride burst a little more. He simply pointed at me. Of course, the glory goes to God. But all those K.C. Krew meetings, all the late nights getting ready, all the puppet rehearsals…

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FREE Online Leadership Training!

Everywhere I go I run into Kidology Members who ask me where they can get affordable Leadership Training and I am surprised how often they are unaware that they have access to FREE online video Leadership Training as part of their Kidology Membership. I created Kidology Online Training specifically because I can’t go to every conference I’m invited to and because I know not every leader can go to conferences. Through these FREE streaming online videos every Premium Member of Kidology can learn what I’ve learned in my fifteen plus years of being a leader and children’s pastor. Then, to add to the learning experience, each training session has an optional add-on download kit that provides a RICH 30+ page PDF that goes even deeper into the material, has bonus material, a downloadable version of the video so you can go mobile with it or full screen and even gives you a PowerPoint so you can then, in turn, train YOUR leaders! When you are done and compile all FIVE PDFs the sum result is the Kidology Handbook Leader’s Edition, your companion to the highly popular Kidology Handbook Teacher’s Edition. But remember – while the download kits have a modest…

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HELP WANTED, but Experience Required

I received the following e-mail recently, and it’s a question and request I get often. I wanted to post my answer to her here so that it might encourage others as well. As I know her struggle is not an uncommon one. Karl, I need your help. I want to be in paid ministry and I have been volunteering and the church I am working with says “we can’t believe you don’t have a job yet…you are perfect for this.” I am frustrated because ministering to kids and helping them discover the wonderful truths of the Bible is my passion. “Here I am! Send me!” If I get back responses from my resume, I hear mostly that I don’t have enough experience. I do have quite a bit of volunteer experience and did my internship with a children’s minister, but the necessity for me to have a full time job now to support my daughter and I makes it difficult for me to put in another 20 hours a week at a church volunteering as a CM. So how do I both support my family AND get more experience? I am seeing walls up everywhere I turn and am curious…

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