-
My Least Favorite Question
Sometimes, life gets crazy. Wait…scratch that thought. Life is usually crazy for most of us. #homework #classes #babies #toddlers #blogging #churchactivities #solvingminorworkcatastrophes #busymom #seminarymom #lifeiscrazy We manage to stay busy and with our business often comes an array of emotions. Perhaps sadness at an unexpected car accident, sudden illness, fight with a spouse, betrayal from a close friend, or even loneliness. And, if you are anything like me, you might experience all of those feelings in one day. (#truestory) At the same time, perhaps you feel happiness and relief when no one is injured in a car accident. You thank God for medicine and good doctors. Maybe you cry tears of…
-
Three Quicksand Dangers in Kid’s Ministry
Quicksand is weak, unstable, and liquefied soil that traps and submerges people slowly into impending death. Normally, people get trapped into quicksand unknowingly, and are not purposely walking into it. Life turns into immediate panic when someone realizes they are trapped in an almost hopeless situation. Signs are posted to warn people of quicksand areas in order to keep others alive and avoid the horrendous situation. I want to ‘post’ a warning sign regarding three types of kid’s ministry quicksand: (1) Church-ianity; (2) Bible-ianity; and (3) Christianity. Interestingly enough, I think many others have already posted warning signs, and maybe this post is more so regurgitation. Future post will offer…
-
A Worthy New Year’s Resolution: Be Steadfast, Immovable
Life is a fight, and it's a fight to stay alive. Children's ministry is no different. There are times of abundance and times of scarcity. Either abundance or scarcity can become two great powers pulling attention away from the true power of the gospel (c.f. Romans 1:16). We can let abundance or scarcity change us, or we can allow the gospel to transform us from the inside out, building a character of steadfastness and immovability "in the work of the Lord" (c.f. 1 Corinthians 15:58). The New Year of 2014, whether filled with abundance or scarcity, is a time and place to be resolved in the gospel. Paul writes to…
-
Three Steps for a Decapitated Church
Is your church decapitated (headless)? If your church is headless, then your kid’s ministry is headless. Without the head, the body is lifeless, including all of its parts. Thus, a church (the body) without Jesus (the head) is headless and lifeless (Colossians 1:18). No matter how one dresses the body, the body is still lifeless. Interestingly enough, many in the church continually attempt to dress the body with budgets, meetings, strategies, payroll, square footage, advertisements, and lists of ministries. Some attempt to place charismatic leaders as the head of the body, creating a really awkward look to any church. Would people come to see a headless church? Sure, as it…
-
How MEATy is your Curriculum?
Choosing a children's curriculum can be a daunting task. We begin all our children on the milk of the world, in the hope that we may also begin to feed them meat as we build on their understanding of God’s Word. In light of repeated New Testament analogies (1 Corinthians 3:1-3; Hebrews 5:11-14; and 1 Peter 2:1-2); concerning milk and meat (or solid food), I will use the acronym “MEAT”. The acronym MEAT is one tool you can use to evaluate the best curriculum for your needs based on four factors: message (doctrine), expense (cost), applications (uses with learners) and teacher-friendliness (ease of use). Message: Is the message doctrinally sound?…
-
3 Disturbing Gratitude Trends
It seems like everyone is doing the 30 day Gratitude Challenge. I am all for gratitude, but I am noticing a few trends that make me just a little bit uneasy. Trend #1: “Me-Centric” posts. They may go something like this: Day 1: I am thankful for my… Day 2: I love my… Day 3: I am so grateful to have a … Is it just me, or is this over-focus on “me-centeredness” just another symptom of our self-indulgent society? What if a post went something like this? Day 4: I am thankful for apologizing to a homeless man after I ignored his question and watching God work in both our…
-
Jesus
Jesus is primary. He is primary for anyone’s life, especially any ‘ministry.’ Don’t assume him; rather, know, trust, believe, and follow him. This is life or death for ministry as it is life or death for our souls. We are not the walking dead; rather, we are Christian – one walking alive until death to live with him forever. Christian means Christ-centered or Christ follower. We follow the Christ of Christianity. We follow the Christ of scripture (the Bible). We follow the Jewish man of the New Testament who claimed to be the promised one (Christ, Messiah) of the Old Testament. We follow the human man named Jesus that…
-
Lesson From an Egg
I remember one of the first times I hard boiled an egg. I removed the eggs from the refrigerator, put them in a pot, covered the eggs with water, sprinkled a little salt to prevent cracking, and waited for the pot to boil. Ten minutes later, I removed the eggs from the pot and put them in an ice-water bath. The famous test of a “done” egg seemed to indicate that this was sufficient for producing a proper hard-boiled egg. Some of you noticed my rookie mistake and are chuckling. For those who don’t know, you are supposed let the eggs sit before running them under cold water (or putting…
-
Impact, Calling, Serving…”Do You Know Your Destiny?”
“Thank you for teaching my son why we celebrate Christmas. Our family never knew the reason why we celebrated Christmas. We thought it was all about giving gifts and never knew it was because of the birth of Jesus.” Believe it our not, these words were spoken to me in January 1991 by the mother of a three year old in my preschool class. I was surprised by what she said as she shared from her heart with such sincerity and gratitude. You see, I just assumed when I was teaching the lesson about the birth of Jesus that the ten children in my classroom already knew the story and…
-
Halloween 101: Community Building and Factories of Courage
A child hid her face in her hands, “Mommy who would put such a scary mask on display?” “Boo!” Out of the shadows jumped Mr. Incredible hoping to steal some candy from his unsuspecting sister. “What an awesome batman mask!” said a father brandishing his camera. Love or hate them, one thing is true: a simple, plastic mask evokes strong emotions. Some of us may stay as far away from them as possible, shunning anything that even reminds us of evil in the world. Others join in the merry making with hardly a care in the world. Either way, we can’t completely hide from Halloween, which brings me to an…
