Home BlogPage 115

What I’m Giving My Son For EASTER.

What am I giving my son for Easter? Of course he will get up and wonder where we have hidden his Easter Basket – and we will play our annual “Hot and Cold” game, just as my father and mother played with me and my sisters. “Your so cold your toes are gonna freeze and fall off!” “Getting warmer!” “Getting HOT!” “OUCH! You’d better put your shoes on you’re so hot!” “Oh, My! You need a pot holder you’re so HOT!” Soon the basket full of candy and goodies has been discovered, only to be told, “Oh, no! We gotta get ready for church! Hurry up! Where has the time gone!” But along with the candy and little toys, there was always a gift of spiritual significance. Something to return some meaning to all the secular hoopla and manages to sneak into our Christian holidays now-a-days. And this year, I am so excited that DiscipleLand has JUST the thing for young learners! It’s a brand new Bible Story Book – but it’s more than just a beautiful re-telling of Bible stories, it a parenting tool that helps intentional parents talk to their kids about the character traits our our Amazing…

Continue reading

Got Building Plans?

Got some Kingdom Building Plans? I’ve got a bit of a sober warning and challenge for my fellow ministers today – one written in my personal online journal a few years ago that I’m publishing today. I pray some will consider it slowly and with an open heart. It was written by one who learned these lesson not easily! So it is written not preaching down – not side to side, and perhaps at the time it was written, broken looking up. OC writes,“These are days of tremendous enterprises, days when we are trying to work for God, and therein lies the snare. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God.” Out of deep and sincere devotion to God we can make great effort to work for God, to assist Him in building the Kingdom, but our efforts are like a little boy with a toy hammer banging on the side of a sky scrapper. We may feel really powerful and important, but our efforts are silliness compared what God is doing and has already done. And to think that we can DO anything, is so wrong. “The men and women He is going to use in His mighty building…

Continue reading

NO MORE Making Time for Family

I’ve made a decision, and by God’s grace and power, I’m sticking to it. Are you ready? Here it is: Never again am I going to make time for my family! That’s right. I am DONE making time for my family. No more. Never Again. I Quit. I’ve spent over ten years making time for my wife, and then when I became a dad I started making time for my son too. And I was totally wrong to do so! I have learned my lesson, and have made a personal commitment to never ever again make time for either of them. Have I lost my mind? No, quite to the contrary – I have finally found it! While I have always claimed to put family first – my proof was in all the time I “made” for them. The days off, the dates, the dinners, the vacations, the coming home for a meal, the night time feedings and play time on the floor… all the things I took a break from ministry to do. What?!?!? Did you just hear the insanity in that last sentence?! The “break from ministry” I took to “make” time for my family? I’m ashamed to…

Continue reading

Help My Blog Win!

O.K. – I usually stay quiet on these things – but since my good buddy Greg Baird isn’t being humble and quietly standing by and watching to see who wins, but using Twitter to drum up votes, and I’m in the same line-up as him – and he’s beating me – (and beat me in my last Karl vs. Greg contest) I figure – this year I’ll go for it and try to at least beat Greg! What am I talking about? Well, my good buddy Tony Kummer over at www.ministry-to-children.com does a Kidmin Blog March Madness each year to see who will be voted the BEST Kidmin Blog. While everyone hits the Blog and Twitterverse with “vote for me’s” – I’ve usually chosen to stay quiet and just watch and see who wins, (Hey, I’m human – I hope to win!) but I’ve chosen not to try and influence votes or buy votes swing it in any way. Guess I wanted it to be a PURE contest – and, I’m up against friends and GOOD blogs! So I just preferred to wait it out and see who wins. AND I think it’s wrong to vote for yourself anyway, out…

Continue reading

Is VBS Dead?

“Is VBS Dead? Or just not worth the bother?” writes Keith Tusing over at CMBuzz.com He continues: VBS – The origins of Vacation Bible School can be traced back to Hopedale, Illinois in 1894.  Hey, that means VBS has actually been around longer than me! Many churches have long been committed to an annual VBS as a part of their summer programming for kids.  Now, a large percentage of churches have discontinued or they are considering discontinuing this summer tradition.  One of the questions that is being tossed around: Is VBS still an effective tool for Children’s Ministry?  Let’s take a look at a couple of facts: A shift in children’s ministry since 1997 has been the 12% decline in the percentage of churches offering Vacation Bible School (or VBS) – from 81% to 69%. The number one reason given for not offering VBS was a lack of available volunteers. – The Barna Group, Ltd, 2009 By contrast V.B.S. continues to have the greatest evangelistic impact in the Southern Baptist Convention with 26% of 2006 baptisms in convention churches coming as a direct result of V.B.S. Today over three million children attend Vacation Bible School annually. So what is all the debate about?  It seems that many…

Continue reading