Home Archive by category "Technology" (Page 4)

Category: Technology

Kingdom Kids Historical Documents

When I was a “rookie kids pastor” back in 1993, not even married yet, before the dawn of the personal computer, (or before they became truly practical anyway) I used to hand draw my Sunday Kid’s Bulletins.  I also used them for a Mail Box Club as an outreach tool. Doing some “Spring Cleaning” this week, I discovered a box filled with original masters of these bulletins as well as many completed by children. It was fun to find these blank bulletins that I spent hours creating each week as a follow up tool for my lessons. I used to photo-copy them and send them home as well as use them as a follow up tool for magic shows at outreach events. This is all back in 1993 when I was the first Children’s Pastor the historic Moody Church which was founded by the great evangelist D.L. Moody well over 100 years ago. Below is a downloadable PDF of one of these Kid’s Bulletins / Mailbox Club Bible Lessons. I post it for two reasons. The first is simply for fun and enjoyment, as a “historical document” of how kidmin was done in the “old days” before all these techno…

Continue reading

Baptism Like Being a Bronco Fan? Really!

Today I was guest teaching at a local church – and it happened to be the divisional play off game between the Broncos and the Chargers… which the Bronocos ended up winning later in the afternoon 24-17, though I didn’t know that when I was teaching! My topic was John’s baptism of Jesus – I explained that sports “fans” originated from religious “fanatics” and  I compared how a fanatic, in the words of Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, is “someone can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” We stick with a team, often even after moving, because we are loyal, and sports fans often “won’t stop talking about them.” What if it were that way with our devotion to Jesus? We were sports gear to show our team spirit, what do we do to show our “Jesus spirit?” Of course, we can wear Christian t-shirts or put bumper stickers on our cars, but God came up with something better. It’s called Baptism. Below is a video of the lesson, and my lesson plan is linked below. The only thing not in the lesson plan is the magic appearing/disappearing dove and much of my puppet routine, but the basics…

Continue reading

The Hunt for Odd Ministry Props

As I write in extensive detail about in the Kid’s Church Cookbook, Part 5: Getting Creative, creative teachers are ALWAYS on the look out for unique teaching items. So I thought I’d share one I picked up over Christmas Break: iWipers When I saw these I cracked up! The potential for this prop is fantastic! Teaching on Noah and the flood! Teaching on Jesus calming the storm! Simply wear on a rainy day at camp or VBS Do I know when I will use these? No. But they are now in my collection of creative kidmin props! You can’t wait until you need something to find it – you’ll never have a lesson and say, “Boy, sure wish I had some glasses with windshield wipers on them!” But when you own a pair and are preparing a lesson, one day you’ll say, “HEY! This is when I can use those cool windshield wiper glasses!” And you’ll be so glad you have them. The point of this post isn’t to go and get yourself a pair of iWipers. (Though some of you might!) The point is, always keep your eye out of unique props as they engage kids, create memories and…

Continue reading

Blogging Tips for 2014

Start your New Year out with some blogging tips! In just a few months, I will have been blogging with this website for ten years. Kinda crazy! But that isn’t when I started blogging. I was blogging before there were blogs. I used to create webpages from scratch before any of the blogging platforms existed and would email friends a link to my post, like when I went to Alaska or flying with my dad. So when I started blogging, the Internet was a bit of a lonely place for blogs… but now there are well over 100 kidmin blogs worthy of reading! Over the years my blog has gone from in the Top 5 to now down in the mid-thirties on the “Top 100” list – and I celebrate this decline! It means that there are many people contributing weekly to what has always been my driving passion – to equip and encourage those in children’s ministry. While much of my kidmin writing ends up on Kidology.org instead of my blog, I have enjoyed seeing the amount of help for kids ministers growing steadily every year, even if that means my blogs “ranking” goes down some. It’s a team effort!…

Continue reading

Change Apple Finder Default View

This may not appeal to many, but one of my many pet peeves with Apple Lion (the beginning of the decline of Apple with the passing of Steve Jobs) is the STUPID “All Files” default view whenever you open a new finder window. One by one I am learning how to undo all the insane “improvements” Apple made to the once inherently and intuitively awesome Mac, but lately they add stupid features you have too Google how to fix. (Like the vanishing scroll bars. Arrrg. Fixed that!) Why oh Why would you want a window that lists every file on your Mac and that takes an insane amount of time to load? The chances of something you actually need appearing in that window is highly unlikely. So you have to wait until it is done loading to click on a useful folder like Documents, or your home folder to get to what you need. So, if that has bothered you, I have found the fix! Simply open a new Finder Winder and go to Preferences, and under “New Finder windows show:” choose what you’d like to see whenever you open a new Finder. While only a few options are provided,…

Continue reading