Work Expands to Fill the Time Allowed

This is one of Barney Kinard’s “Coach’s Conundrums,” or what he calls one of his collection of pithy principles that need some explanation. As he often says to his Protégés (as he calls his students), implementing of his conundrums could alter your paradigm for children’s ministry or influence the way you approach kids. I want to share this one with you – because it is one that when he shared it with me years ago, it hit be so hard between the eyes, it about knocked me over! Not only is Barney a long time friend, he is one of our Kidology Coaches, who offers weekly coaching calls to his students as part of Kidology’s personal one-to-one personal curriculum based mentoring program. Every Monday, he faithful sends out his Coach’s Huddle, an e-mail LOADED with updates, insights, encouragements, pithy wisdom, fun puns, updates on his students, and bonus coaching materials exclusively for his students. It is truly a treasure of knowledge his students are blessed to get (and I’m lucky to be CCed on) every Monday. I’m taking the liberty to post his Coach’s Conundrum on “Work expands to fill the time allowed” knowing that Barney will not mind! Here…

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Partnering with Parents That WORKS

If you were asked, “Do you partner with parents?” it’s been my experience that you are most likely to answer, “I try.” And if I were to ask you, “How do you partner with parents?” you are likely to list types of events you’ve done, resources you’ve sent home, or things that you’ve tried once, but didn’t seem to quite you pull off. My guess is that when it comes to the concept of partnering with parents, you feel defeated, or in a quandary as to how to do it. You are not alone! What if you could say with confidence, “YES! We partner with families in my church.” I believe you can. I think it is safe to assume that you are very concerned about the spiritual welfare of the children in your church. If you are a parent, you have your own children in mind as you think about the challenges that they are currently facing and the battles that lie ahead. Perhaps the title “Partnering with Parents” resonates with you as something that is desperately needed in your church. However, it may be a phrase that conjures up feelings of doubt, discouragement or frustration because as much…

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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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