Here is my rough summary and paraphrase of Dr. Stinson’s talk. I will post the audio when it is released so you can listen for yourself. His message had two sections. In the beginning he explained the challenges facing men & boys in our culture. Then he offered some practical ways that churches can encourage biblical manhood and help fathers … More Children’s Ministry Resources
Here is my rough summary of Dr. Moore’s talk. I will work on cleaning this up next week. Most of these notes are my paraphrase. His message mainly drew lessons from the orphan care movement for church based family ministry. At first I was a little confused by his approach, but he connected the dots as the session progressed. Overall, … More Children’s Ministry Resources
The conference began with lunch and panel discussion. It was a fast moving session with much more going on than I could write down. Instead, I will list some of the takeaways from my notes. Definition: The family equipping model seeks to reorient existing ministry programs so that parents are better trained, equipped, and acknowledge for their role in the discipleship of … More Children’s Ministry Resources
I was able to attend a small family ministry conference this month in Louisville, KY. It was fun to hang around my old Seminary for the weekend. I was also glad to meet about 25 readers face-to-face. Click here to see the my video about the conference. This page links to our coverage of the conference. I took notes in … More Children’s Ministry Resources
Last summer, we did a VBS program from the Go Fish Guys at my church. It was a great experience and we enjoyed the music that went along with it. One of my favorites was a song called the Ten Commandment Boogie. It’s part of our large selection of free resources that teach the 10 commandments for kids. It’s basically … More Children’s Ministry Resources
You might think kids would get tired of tag games, but that’s just not the case. Here is a variation of classic freeze tag we play in our children’s ministry. Here’s what you’ll need. Well defined play area, an outside field or gym would work well Two soft objects to use for tagging A whistle (optional) Between 10-20 minutes Game … More Children’s Ministry Resources
Yes! We want you to use our content. This page offers some guidelines for re-publishing our content online and in print. As always, we want local churches to printout and distribute our materials within the church. These are suggestions are for other uses beyond direct kids ministry. If you have additional questions just leave a comment on this post. Can I teach … More Children’s Ministry Resources
With all the content on our website, it can be easy for new readers to miss some great articles. In this post I want to highlight some of our most encouraging writings. Like always, you can print these off to share with others and even publish them in your church newsletter. If you have a blog or church website, you have … More Children’s Ministry Resources
Are you looking for materials for your children’s Sunday School? Then you’ll love all the free resources we have posting and linked on our website. Here is a collection of our most popular resources to get you started. New Materials for Sunday School Need something else? Then, use the search feature in the right sidebar or browse our table of … More Children’s Ministry Resources
In a previous post, I described the spiritual dangers for overly religious kids. I was writing about kids who get too much church and not enough relationship with Jesus. Most of the comments from that post were supportive and agreed with my assessment. Many readers saw a connection with being over-churched and giving up on church as teenagers. That makes this issue even … More Children’s Ministry Resources
Bob Singleton from God’s Kids Worship sent me a review copy of their special encouragement resource DVD titled The Story in their Eyes. The idea is to show this video at a teacher appreciation event or use it in recruiting volunteers for your children’s ministry. I could imagine some churches would show it directly to their congregation during a Sunday Morning … More Children’s Ministry Resources
A top concern for most kids pastors is reaching the children in their communities who do not attend church. These unchurched kids simply don’t know much about the Bible. Often they have a mixed up version of Jesus gathered from TV shows. Before they can give their lives to Him, they need a basic introduction to the Good News. On … More Children’s Ministry Resources
It’s been a few months since our last Think Tank discussion. These are occasional forum-type posts where I ask several Children’s Ministry leaders to respond to a difficult question. The responses are always helpful and bring insight from several different directions. For this session of the Think Tank, I posed a question that affects my own ministry. My congregation has … More Children’s Ministry Resources
Here is a cool Bible song for children I saw on another blog this morning. It’s from Brentwood Kids. It’s a scripture based song designed to teach kids Galatians 5:22-23. It takes a very fun approach to teach what fruits are not from the Spirit. Don’t overlook our teaching resources for the Fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is … More Children’s Ministry Resources
Most of our readers (and all of our writers) are from Protestant churches. I am happy to hear many Roman Catholic friends find our website helpful. We do have some major differences on doctrine, but when teaching directly from scripture we find much more in common. One frequent question we get is about where they can find Catholic VBS materials? Here … More Children’s Ministry Resources
Here is an interesting and welcomed news item from the Southern Baptist Convention last week. Each year they debate and pass a slate of resolutions. This is basically a chance for the SBC to take a position about various issues. Usually these are cultural or political positions that more or less preach to the choir. My church financially supports the … More Children’s Ministry Resources
I’ve been a fan of the Sovereign Grace kids music for a few years and really enjoyed their first and second CDs. In fact, we used some of the songs for the worship music in our kids ministry programs. We’ve also handed them out as family worship resources for parents. So, I was excited today to get an email about … More Children’s Ministry Resources
A reader recently emailed me asking for advice about her VBS schedule. I thought it was a good question so I wanted to share a few quick thoughts here on the website. This is not an exhaustive discussion, so please share your ideas in the comment section below. You can also check out a helpful conversation about this on the Kidology forums. … More Children’s Ministry Resources
This week I want to honor Christian Yount Jones for being a advocate and encourager of children’s ministry. She is best known for her role as editor of Children’s Ministry Magazine. You can also find her blogging and tweeting. Chris is one of those people that are always ahead of the curve. Her editorials in CM Magazine have alerted me … More Children’s Ministry Resources
The world can be a frightful place for young children. This series of Bible lessons will help the children in your class to trust in Jesus as their Good Shepherd. It draws from several passages in the Gospel of John to show how He loves, saves, and protects them. These lesson plans are intended for preschool children, ages 2-5. They … More Children’s Ministry Resources
This week we are honoring Amy Dolan as our Kidmin Champion of the Week. Her blog is widely followed, even making the final four in our little contest last March. She also has an impressive resume of real world ministry experience, church consulting, and conference speaking. I should mention her lead role in the excellent What Matter’s Now in Children’s Ministry … More Children’s Ministry Resources
This week I want to honor another kids ministry blogger as the “Kids Ministry Champion of the Week.” Thanks for all the feedback after last week. Each Tuesday I will select a new champion and feature their blog feed in our sidebar. Karl Bastian is a Kids Ministry Champion because of his massive resource website called Kidology. He has served … More Children’s Ministry Resources
Today I am launching a new feature called, “Kids Ministry Champion of the Week.” My goal is to honor the kids ministry bloggers who are making a difference through their writings. These are writers who have been personally helpful to me and many others. My plan is to announce this award toward the beginning of each week and feature their … More Children’s Ministry Resources
Fluff. Watered-down. Just a waste of time. About 5 years ago that was my opinion of any kids ministry that focused on fun. My thinking has changed a lot since then. I’ve learned some things from experience and now I wholeheartedly endorse FUN. No children’s ministry can ignore the role of fun. It should be an intentional value in your … More Children’s Ministry Resources