On this July 4th weekend we pause to remember our American freedom. We fly the American flag. We wear the American colors red, white, and blue. We watch fireworks. Some of us eat American food: hotdogs and apple pie. Some of us drive Chevrolets.
May we all remember that we are created by God and loved by Him. We can enjoy freedom in Christ. He is our Father who loves and cares for us everyday.
When church attendance is extremely low, small churches ministers sometimes wonder if what they are doing is working and if they are sharing Christ’s love to others. We plan and study and coordinate lessons and activities. When the weekend rolls around, we have low numbers show up. Discouraging …but we must remember, it’s not the numbers …it’s the people. They need Jesus’ message and our love. Read the following excerpt from the interview…
Here is an excerpt from an interview with the Veggie Tales creator: For the full interview, follow this link…
What advice would you have for a little church with zero budget that wanted to be more relevant for kids in the media/information age?
Focus on the things you can do that Nickelodeon and Disney can’t. You can tell a story - with eye contact and audience participation. You can hug. You can take kids on adventures outside - parks, pools, etc. You can make things together. Never assume that because kids sit in front of a screen at home, they should sit in front of a screen at church. Get up and move around. Sing. Years from now, those kids won’t remember what shows they watched or what video games they played. But they’ll remember the church worker that loved them.
What is one word of encouragement you would give to everyday children’s ministry volunteers?
A smiling face and ready hug is worth more than a 50″ plasma and an X-Box. Never forget that.
I’ve been watching the SBC meetings online this week. Sunday and Monday are usually the best meetings of the convention. They have several different pastors from churches all over the convention to speak and some of those churches even provide the music for the day. I enjoy listening to those pastors speak.
It is exciting to know the convention leaders have asked younger ministers to speak in recent years. As a younger minister and a pastor’s wife, I’m appreciative that those leaders listened to the requests of younger ministers and included other younger ministers on the speaking schedules. But… they included younger ministers of megachurches …churches with an average weekend attendance of over 2,000, and most of them are pastors of megachurches of 20,000+.
If most of the churches in the convention average around 200 in attendance, then how come we aren’t hearing from some of those pastors at the convention meetings?
Someone might say, “well, we don’t know those pastors.” Then I say, “get out there and meet them.” Isn’t that one reason why we have state conventions and associations?
Our National leaders need to interact with our state convention leaders who can point them to our association leaders who can then introduce our leaders to the small churches… the churches of 200.
If our leaders accept the position as head of the convention for the year, then they need to set aside that year to interact with more of the size of churches making up the majority of the convention. I understand this is a huge God-sized task, but if he doesn’t have the time to pursue a task of this size or can’t be away from his church for great lengths of time, then he probably doesn’t need to accept the position.
Here’s a link of terms to help understand how the Millennial Generation speaks …
Dan Kimball is in David’s D.Min cohort at George Fox University. After the week of class, Dan and his family attended church in Seattle. Below is a report of their experience with the children’s ministry… this is what it’s all about, making the children feel secure, welcome, and happy, and they learn something to carry with them…
From Dan…
Sunday morning, we went to the 11 AM worship gathering at Mars Hill Church. Becky and I went to a Mars Hill worship gathering about 9 years ago and had dinner with Mark back then. I’ve been there a few times since, but this was the first time as parents bringing children. Katie and Claire are now 6 years old and it is always interesting seeing how as parents, it is checking in children to a new church, how easy it is to find where to go and what to do etc.
I will say that we both felt this was probably the best experience we have ever had at a new church in terms of the children’s ministry and staff. It’s so interesting as before we were parents we didn’t pay attention to these things, but now as parents these things are so important. There were signs that made it easy to find, there was even family parking, and when we got to the check-in area, the children’s staff were more than friendly and helpful. Two staff came over and started talking with Katie and Claire making them feel more at ease and before we knew it they were off in a class. Normally they (Katie and Claire) may ask for us to go with them into the class and check it out a bit, but they were put so at ease by the staff we didn’t need to.
Becky and I went into the gathering and sat in the back and Mark was preaching on the resurrection of Jesus and giving some apologetics for responding to some of the more common criticisms of whether it happened or not. During the gathering there were some words on the screen coming up letting you know you could text in questions about what Mark was teaching. At the end of the sermon, I think there were three or four questions he got to answer - which was great in terms of having some interaction from people even in a crowd the size this was.
After the gathering we got Katie and Claire and met up with Mark and caught up a bit. It really is quite amazing seeing what has happened over the years here at Mars Hill. I remember very well the first time I was here and the church was maybe around 200 people and now seeing the growth to over 6,000 people and multiple campuses. 
But whether 200 or 6,000 - this is what I know happened and what I valued as a parent. Katie and Claire started telling us what they did in the class, and started reciting the Shema from Deuteronomy 6. Not only that, but they unrolled a little scroll that they made in the class and were showing us how in Hebrew the letters go from right to left and Claire was pointing to the words in Hebrew and then telling us the English word written underneath. 
Several hours later in the day, they still could go over what they learned and even this morning a day later, Claire could say it again. So our daughters learned the Shema at Mars Hill Church and I thank the children’s staff there for making it such a positive learning experience for them.
I’ve heard of a certain piece of furniture called a curio cabinet but I’ve never really thought about why it is called by that name until tonight. David and I are at Len Sweet’s home on Orcas Island in Washington this week for his last week of classes before his year of dissertation writing.
Tonight was our first meeting with Len and he told us about the Cabinet of Curiosity and asked us to all tell about something in our homes in our cabinets. We were to name something that is curious and unique to our marriage relationship … maybe something we collect together or something we saved over the years or something that describes us. What a neat way to think about that! Of course, it may not be kept in the traditional piece of furniture but more symbolic of a curio cabinet treasure.
We told about our collection of Coca Cola cans that began on our honeymoon off the coast of Venezuela when we purchased a box of Pop-Tarts and Coke with Spanish writing on the cans. Ever since then we’ve been collecting International Coca Cola cans. Friends have even given us cans to add to our collection on display on a table in the foyer of our house.
Another item in our cabinet of curiosity began with the groom’s cake at our wedding. It was in the shape and design of a football field with Alabama Crimson Tide on one side and Florida Gators on the other side. In honor of our college football fever, we have a spirit box loaded with Alabama and Florida stuff.
Funny but true post on How to lose a children’s minister in 10 days
As a Family Minister, I’ve always tried to provide various ministry resources to every member of the family. In the past it has been easier to define the family: mom, dad, children, grandparents. However, today’s family can be much more difficult to define.
In my daily work schedule, I see many types of families: two-parent families, single-parent families, families headed by grandparents, families headed by aunts and uncles, and other family heads as well. Each of these families needs guidance and support and resources to help them raise the children in their care. The church must step up and take a stronger stand on helping to provide those resources. Churches need to reach out in a non-church setting in order to reach some of those families.
In the June 2008 issue of HomeLife Magazine, there is a article by Denise George, titled “All By Myself.” She outlines 7 things churches can do to minister and provide resources for single moms. Churches can provide Bible studies, enlist couples to teach classes together, bring women together, encourage women to mentor other women, organize retreats, provide practical help, and pray daily.
These are all fantastic ways churches can minister to single moms and non-traditional families; however, churches need to go outside the church walls with these methods. They need to host a class in another location, maybe in a coffee shop. They need to encourage families to mentor other families in their neighborhoods or in playgroups. It is important that families do not alienate these non-traditional families by criticizing their families; they must offer them support and resources to help them to raise their children in moral and Godly ways. Through these mentoring relationships and daily prayers, God will speak to each one of these families in His own unique way.