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Visiting Awana HQ for the Inside Scoop

As a grown-up clubber, frequent blogger about Awana, and as the man who introduced Sport Stacking to Awana Game Time and a children’s pastor who has seen the impact of this ministry – I am always looking for opportunities to drop into the Awana HQ in Streamwood, Illinois. I’ve been hearing some exciting news coming out of Awana – and noticed their brand new website, so after speaking at camp for a week in Wisconsin, I headed down to Awana to sit down with Michael Scarbrough, who is the Director of Children’s Ministry at Awana to get the inside scoop on the relaunch of Awana going on right now! LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE! I also snagged me an official Awana sport coat (off a freebie table) so that I can sport it at the next Awana Conference. I think this coat gives back-stage access or at least snacks in the employee room. Forget GQ magazine, I think I could be on the cover of AHQ magazine! Got a great Awana story? Have questions about the club? Want to share some feedback for Awana leadership? Visit the podcast discussion forum and let’s talk Awana!  

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We All Got “Stuff”

Tonight I kicked off a new week of camp speaking at Camp Timber-lee. I’ve been a camp speaker here since 1997. They keep having me back, even after I moved to Colorado, which is an honor. This year’s theme is ‘Anchored’ and it’s a super topic – for when we have our lives anchored to God, we can survive the storms of life. I’ll be covering the ‘Water Stories’ of the Bible. Tonight we began with the Wise and Foolish builder in Matthew 7:24-27. For each story we will be looking UP (something we learn about God), IN (something we learn about ourselves), DOWN (identifying a ‘bottom line’ Eternal Principle) and then OUT (what will we DO differently as a result of this story?). One of the neat things about tonight’s chapel was when I introduced a new puppet tonight, named Shredder (a skater dude). He embarrassed to share his real name, so he goes by this cool nick name. He mentioned that he ‘s got some ‘stuff’ going on in his life that he could use God’s help with. When I asked what he meant, he said he didn’t want to give details in front of all these kids,…

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No More “Tannerization” at Kidology

After over ten years as the self-described “Swiss Army Knife” of Kidology, Steve Tanner has accepted a new challenge and will be moving on from our ministry. What is “Tannerization?” Whenever something has passed through Steve’s hands, we have long called it “Tannerized” to describe the quality control and excellence that Steve has brought to our team. While we are sad to see him go – we celebrate all that he has brought to this ministry, and are excited for what God has for him next. Steve will remain a friend of everyone at Kidology! What will the future hold for Kidology in a post-Steve era? Only God knows! But while we scramble a bit to re-organize and search for what’s next, interview potential new staff and make sure everything is up and running before he leaves… we are reflecting on how thankful we are for God bringing Steve to Kidology and what a great job he did! There was never a dull moment with Steve around – his knowledge of all things technical, Disney, Marvel, and just about everything else made working with him always interesting and entertaining. If you really want to know all he did, you might…

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Be God’s Man in God’s Place

I’m at MBI right now for a children’s ministry conference being put on by the seniors in the Children’s Ministry Major program. A major not available when I was a student. They are doing an incredible job. It is such an honor to be here. As I walked around the campus yesterday posting pictures to Facebook of the campus changes, and what’s still the same – it brought back a lot of great memories. It was actually pretty significant that I was here on May 2nd. 24 years ago, on May 2nd, 1990 – I got to go out to take the President of Moody Bible Institute one on one. I had valet parked his car a few weeks earlier and left a note inside asking if I could treat him out to a meal. When he called my dorm room a few days later, my room mate answered, and shocked said, “It’s the Presdient!” I answered, “Bill Clinton?” And he said, “No, Joe Stowell!” We scheduled our meal, and I picked him up at the “Arch” in my little Chevy Chevete and took him to the Rock n’ Roll McDonald’s, where I was the ‘house magician’ – and where…

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We Are ALL Adopted! Single Kids Church Lesson

I’m super excited to announce the release of a single lesson for children’s church called ADOPTED! As an adoptive dad myself – I know that kids who are adopted have a special need to know that they are loved and that their adoption is a part of God’s Plan for their life. I was thrilled as I studied Scripture to discover that not only were there many adopted Bible heroes in the Bible, but that their adoption played a key role in God’s Plan – not only for their life, but in His overall divine plan. But it doesn’t stop there – God uses adoption as a picture of salvation. Ephesians 1:5 says that: God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. We are all adopted into the Family of God through faith in Jesus Christ, who was partially adopted Himself, being welcomed into a family by his earthly dad, who loved him as his own. The lesson presents that the same reasons kids are adopted into families, for protection, provision and purpose – are the…

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