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The Day the King Unlocked the Gates (free eBook for kids)

Found another hidden treasure! One of the most difficult things to explain to children (or adults for that matter) is the ‘problem of evil.’ It is a philosophical issue that troubles even the most inquiring minds, but doesn’t escape the simple minds of children either. What is ‘free will?’ Why did God give it to us? Why do so many people not believe in God, or even know about Him – if He is truly all knowing and all-powerful? And if He is so loving, why does He allow so much evil in this world? He must be either not all-powerful, not all-knowing, or not all-good for there to be so much in this world that isn’t good! All fair questions. I attempted to answer them years ago with a story I wrote called THE DAY THE KING UNLOCKED THE GATES. I’m no artist – but I even did the illustrations myself and reproduced this book for the kids at my church. I have only a paper master, so I’ve scanned it and created a eBook PDF for your enjoyment. I do hope you will read it to your kids and let me know what you think! It addresses free…

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Old Gospel Tools – Same Timeless Message

I’ve been creating ministry tools for as long as I can remember, even before I had a “job” where that was part of what I do. I’ve been going through some “old stuff” and came across some old ministry tools I created back in the type, tape, and photo-copy days of old! These were Gospel Tracts that I made to give to people I met along the paths of life. I’ve removed my address/phone from them (since they are defunct and don’t want anybody being called and bugged!), but the Message in them is as true as ever! Let me encourage you to check them out and consider creating your own evangelism tool. People always responded well to something I had written myself over mass-produced Gospel tracts, because they seemed to see I cared enough to make it and then give it to them. So they would often read it and engage in conversation, even if I wasn’t able to persuade them toward my faith – they opened up dialogue, and that is always a good thing! They learned what I believed, and I learned more about them. I had three versions for three levels of relationship and gave them…

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Kids Church = Noise Issue in Room 100

In children’s ministry you have to maintain a sense of humor. Otherwise, you’ll get your feelings hurt. I have a notebook where I save “keepers” – complaint letters and other ‘friendly’ notes and memos I’ve gotten over the years that remind me I work for Jesus, not men. One such church memo I thought I’d post now that nearly ten years has gone by. It wasn’t directed at me, but I got a kick out of it, as you’ll see by the hand-written note on it and the highlights I did at the time (not intended for anyone else then, just my “keepers” folder.) We were remodeling the Kids Church room, which was technically “Room 100” and the good folks on the property committee had some concerns about the “problem” with the “noise” in there and how “those in Room 100” might need to be “kept under control.” The issue was that fixing this would not be “quick, easy or cheap.” Those darn kids, they just love to sing, and that kids pastor! He just loves to rile them up so much and get them laughing so hard, it can be heard outside the room in adult classes! Yes, acoustics…

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That Which Shall Not Be Named, Obama and Feet

What do “That Which Shall Not Be Mentioned in the House of the Lord,” Obama and Feet all have in common? They all were in my Kids Church lesson a few weeks ago. It was a fun lesson on being a servant using the story of Jesus washing the feet of His disciples. Imagine the President of the Unites States coming over to your house and taking out the kitchen garbage? It included a fun shoe game, Gus complaining out chores, including having to clean up “that which shall not be mentioned in the House of the Lord” and some fun props that led to a bunch of fun feet puns when I posted the following picture on Facebook: (Read the Puns Here) It was a fun lesson, and you are welcome to use anything from it to teach on this topic. You can watch the entire lesson here. (The opening game is edited down so you can see the rules and a bit of the game play without having to watch the entire thing.)  

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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…

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