Home Blog

FREE eBook: It’s About Relationships

NOTE: This is not a book of fluff, it is practical and will help you grow relationships. There is no shortage of programs, resources, or ideas in children’s ministry today—but at the end of the day, what is most effective in reaching kids for the Gospel hasn’t changed in a hundred years—it’s building relationships and personally introducing children to the Savior. This ebook is loaded with practical ideas on how to have a more relational ministry. You’ll be surprised by the results! The most incredible aspect of Creation was that God walked in the garden with the crown of His creation. They had a relationship with God that sin severed, ending a fellowship we can only imagine. For centuries, that relationship became one of distance and of fearful respect until Jesus came to walk, talk and relate with man. He came to live in relationship with mankind. He didn’t just die on the cross to offer salvation. He invites His beloved creation back into an intimate relationship with Himself and to genuine fellowship with each other. That is why the secret to effective ministry that has long term results can be summed up in one word: relationships. All that has…

Continue reading

FLIP IT to Gratitude

Introducing The Complaining Game! How do we help kids focus on the positive? This is what I did one Sunday. I put 10 common complaints of kids onto slips of paper and then put them on the top of 10 buckets. Kids then go 3 Popsicle sticks to use to vote. They put a Popsicle stick in the top three buckets they complain about the most. Then, we totaled them to discover the top complaints. Here was our results: BUT, then I flipped the papers over to reveal the postive aspect of that complaint. Don’t like to clean your room? Be thankful you have a room, and a house! Hate eating veggies? Be thankful you have food to eat! Internet too slow? Be thankful you have Internet! Download all the complaints and “flipped” gratitude statements here. Find out what your kids top complaints are, then help them “flip it” to see why they should be thankful instead. Included is a full size version of this graphic I sent to parents to help them see what their kids were complaining about.

Continue reading

Do You Need a BREAK from Ministry?

So, just HOW excited would you be to get AWAY from your job for a week? You can only IMAGINE… no e-mail, no texts, no meetings, no phone calls, no to-do lists, no boss dropping in with some new task… how excited would you me? Maybe as excited as this guy on Yosemite Summit at the top of Sentinel Dome! Yosemite Summit is a week long sabbatical retreat for men in the heart of Yosemite National Park. This is not camping. This is a week at a relaxing lodge for refreshment, renewal and recharging away from the hustle and bustle of fast-paced ministry life. You can leave your watch behind as there is no schedule other than eat breakfast, hike, chill, and return for home cooked dinner in the evening enjoying fellowship with other men during the day. Explore YosemiteSummit.org to learn more or register here! I’m praying for the guys that will join me on next year’s Summit. Will it be you?

Continue reading

Expect Much, Get Much!

Children typically only rise as far as you expect them to. Rarely does a student exceed the expectations of the leaders in their life. I’ve learned, “Expect Little, Get Little; Expect Much, Get Much.” Many children have a low opinion of themselves, but if you think more of them than they think of themselves, you can have the power to help lift them to the next level on their Christian journey! As a young boy, one of my teachers, Helen Reed, gave me a passion for Scripture memory. I still remember hearing, “I think you can do it,” whispered in my ear as I worked to memorize the Bible verses she provided. Her consistent encouragement pushed me to accomplish much! I would have never memorized all of those verses, nor would I have the grasp of Scripture I have today, if it wasn’t for her faithful challenging. When it came to Scripture memory, I knew that was an area of strength, so did I no longer need challenging? Far from it! We moved and I got a new church teacher. Mr. Ralph could have just complimented me on my knowledge of Scripture, but instead he commented, “I’ll be impressed when…

Continue reading

STOP, DROP and ROLL!

As teachers, we have an agenda. We have a lesson plan we are trying to teach, a game we are trying to lead, a craft we are trying to complete, or some other activity that we prayed about, planned, prepared and now are trying to pull off. But often our children have other ideas about how the time in the classroom is going to be spent. There is an old children’s ministry saying that goes, “If you don’t have a plan for the kids, they’ll have a plan for you!” What do you do when you are trying to lead young children in one direction and they are moving in an entirely different direction? We usually tell them to stop what they are doing and to do what we tell them to do. Does this work? Not usually. Someone once defined insanity as taking something that doesn’t work and working harder at it. When children don’t respond well to our request to stop and obey, we have a conflict. In the classroom we are dealing with other peoples’ children, so we lack the authority and leverage we’d normally have over our own children, so we feel rather powerless. We try…

Continue reading