Home Archive by category "Teaching" (Page 19)

Category: Teaching

How Are You Using Technology To Connect?

How are you using technology to reach today’s kids? In his contribution to Greg’s Baird’s series on The Future of Children’s Ministry, Todd McKeever writes about how he has allowed texting during church to give tweens a safe way to ask tough questions. Since the average American teen now texts over 3000 times a day – it’s might be better to join ’em than to fight ’em! Join the discussion on Kidology and share how YOU have tapped into technology to connect with kids or engage kids in your ministry. BUT FIRST – watch this incredible video, and consider if you need to DISCONNECT from our cell phone a little more. I know this convicted me:

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Kid Sizing an Adult Mission

At the church I am currently attending, Creekside Bible Church, they have a well thought out, though very adult-minded mission statement that is described on their website: This fall, they decided to relaunch their children’s ministry with a new name, “Kid City” as they have a passion for the city of Denver and want to be a light in the community, among other reasons. I was not in on the brain storming for the new name – so I am speculating. (I am not in any official role at this church, though I have just volunteered to teach kids church this month to help kick off the new name.) I did, however, volunteer to help the pastor, @joshweidmann develop the new name a little to incorporate the broader Mission of the church so that “Kid City” could take on some more meaning and partner with the church more. So how do you partner the Children’s Ministry with the Broader Adult Mission of the Church? Let me start by giving an example from the past. In my previous ministry, we had developed our own children’s ministry Mission Statement, which I must say, I really liked a lot. (As have others aparently,…

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Hello 2010 Timber-lee Campers!

Helloooooooo Campers! Do you remember the first thing I said to at the beginning of the week? (How could you forget? I said it over and over, emphasizing a different word each time LOL) “This week could forever change the path of your entire life.” Well, I hope it did! I hope that as you listened to my lessons they weren’t “my lessons” but GOD’S and that you heard somethings that will make a difference – because a small difference now – over time – will end up being a huge change over the course of your life – the path of your LIFE WILL BE CHANGED! That’s why I love being a camp speaker, to have that opportunity to be used of God to maybe have that chance to help change the path of your life. Wow, it gives me goose-bumps! That’s for all your words of encouragement, drawings and shrinky-dinks! We had a GREAT theme this year: “Walk the Way” – and we studied how Joseph walked the “way” of his God no matter what happened… and it was a good thing, because God was workin’ an awesome and amazing plan for his life that he would have…

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The Great Adventure Cards Are BACK!

The Great Adventure Cards Are Back! I can not even begin to tell you how EXCITED I am to announce that the Great Adventure Cards ARE BACK on Kidology.org! Created by our own board member and children’s pastor Dan Huffman, these amazing Bible trading cards are a wonderful way to get kids to participate at church. They are more than just Bible cards, they are a complete FUN Bible trading game! There are 25 sets of 80 cards with a variety of series, each is a Bible story, and each is a different number of cards, depending on the story. The artwork is very cool. Each card has a question and a Bible reference. The questions were carefully written so that they are hard enough that most kids (and adults!) aren’t going to “just know the answer” but easy enough that by looking up the answer they can find it in that one verse. The kids collect the cards by coming to church, bringing their Bible, a friend, participating, answering questions, etc. and when they complete a series, AND can answer all the questions (from reading their Bibles and working on them with Mom and Dad at home!) they give…

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When Teaching a Large Age Range

I was reading a discussion over on the Kidology.org forums about how to teach to a wide age range and there were some comments suggesting different age ranges to aim for. Some were suggesting “aiming for the middle” or “targeting the older kids” so as not to bore them, whereas others thought it better to teach to the younger ones so as not to lose them. I’d like to suggest a different approach after having taught over 1,000 children’s church services to first through sixth graders for over fifteen years. It’s a rather simple suggestion: AIM FOR EVERYONE! The key in a large group with a large age range is to shift your focus constantly. The secret is to be highly visual and to be physically moving and animated to keep the younger ones tracking with you (don’t stand still and never sit, meaning you the teacher) and use humor constantly to keep a connection with your audience. Think about it: Senior pastors preach to a wide audience range of age and intelligence and education and world view and learning styles and they can do it! They don’t break their audience into groups! How do they do it? It isn’t…

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