Archive for November, 2009
Posted on November 30, 2009 - by rfrank
Looking back on a great weekend
Yesterday was a great day of ministry. Here’s are some highlights:
- I taught a lesson in Kids Church on the rich young ruler. The point of the morning was that stuff won’t make you happy – Jesus will! We played the butthead game
(I don’t call it that obviously), sang some Christmas songs (including a new one from Yancy’s new DVD) and had an all-around great morning in both kids church services.
- We had a great day on buses. If I remember right, the report showed 171 kids that came to church yesterday from the bus ministry.
- Sunday School was great. I teach an adult class called the Growing Together Class. It’s targeted at people in their late 20′s and 30′s. Beth picked up bagels from Panera for class (yummy!). We started a new five week series called Five Things God Uses to Grow Your Faith
by Andy Stanley. It’s going to be good.
- At 4:45 I took Luci to Heaven’s Harmony for Christmas program practice. It will be here before we know it.
- Our 6:00 evening service was a blessing. My pastor is in a series on the gifts of the Spirit. He did a great job working through the Scripture. My favorite thing he said last night was that there aren’t volunteers in God’s work. Volunteers can get in and out whenever they want. Ministry, on the other hand, involves a calling and commitment!
Enough from me. How was your Sunday?
Posted on November 28, 2009 - by rfrank
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-28
- Great morning at church! #fb #
- An ensemble at my churh is knocking it out of the ballpark. I love our Thanksgiving praise service. #fb #
- I baptized a 10-yr-old in my church tonight. A great reminder about the importance of childrens ministy! #fb #
- I read this at Starbucks: "I wish grown ups could remember being kids". This may be one of the greatest secrets to kid's ministry! #fb #
- K! Magazine editors meeting in 40 minutes! #fb #
- We had one of the greatest K! Magazine editors mtgs ever! We have an issue coming up this spring that will knock your socks off! #kidmin @fb #
- In a great KidzMatter staff meeting! #fb #
- 10 minutes til Awana starts! #fb #
- Just drove by a church that has been turned into a store. Something in me hates that! #fb #
- I just licked up a secure wirelss network named getyourowninternet. I love it. #fb #
- @r_frank @samluce is one of your editors? Nice addition! (via @LShallenberger) // yep. He's awesome! #
- @Tannerman I hate seeing churches with closed doors! Maybe they reloctated to a bigger facility! #
- It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at Target. #fb #
- Happy thanksgiving friends! #fb #
- Having a great black Friday with my favorite 2 girls in the world. #fb #
- 3 days until we announce the HOTTEST new item rolling out of the KidzMatter lab! We've been working on it for 7 months! Tuesday's it! #fb #
- Had a group of 6 from Albuquerque, NM register for Napkin Conference because of #kmag! Thanks @r_frank (via @napkinideas) // can't wait! #
- Heading to my 15 year class reunion. It's cool and weird at the same time. #fb #
Posted on November 25, 2009 - by rfrank
More books that our K! editors are reading
Monday night we had a K! Magazine editors meeting. I love these meetings! There were eleven of us on the phone from all over the country talking children’s ministry.
After our last meeting I shared with you some of the books mentioned that our editors are reading. I heard from a lot of you that you really appreciated the book recommendations. So, here we go again!
Jim Wideman talked about his own book (a great read!): Children’s Ministry Volunteers That Stick
Sam Luce mentioned a book that I want to buy for myself: The New Breed: Understanding and Equipping the 21st Century Volunteer
Judy Comstock mentioned this one: Simply Strategic Volunteers
I recommended that everyone read this book: Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic
Time to go shopping!
Posted on November 23, 2009 - by rfrank
Weekend Write-Up
I love Sundays! Yesterday was no exception. Here’s a quick review of my day.
- 7:30 am – I picked Evan Doyle up at his house and we stopped at the gas station for coffee. We’ve been doing this for several years.
- 8:15 am – The early service. We started earlier than normal (8:25). Big church starts at 8:15 but for some reason we never start the early children’s church on time! We did “the normal” (songs, prayer time, and all that good stuff). I taught a Thanksgiving lesson on the 10 Lepers and we played the Twinkie Rush. Kids love the Twinkie Rush!
- 9:45 am – Sunday School started. Beth and Luci showed up at church and I walked Luci to her Sunday School class where she was greeted by Mrs. Janet. I gave her a smooch (Luci, not Mrs. Janet) and Beth and I headed to our Sunday School class. Yesterday was the last lesson in my series on the book of Revelation. I started this verse-by-verse series in May. We did 10 minutes of prayer and share time, 20 minutes on the lesson, and 15 minutes asking review questions from the book. I pulled out my Eggspert
game from the resource room – the big kids loved it!
- 10:45 am – The bus kids showed up with a bunch of new church kids for round 2 of kids church. We did everything the same as the first service, except for the pastor ran over and I had to stretch the clock. Been there, done that?
- 12:45 pm – We made it home for lunch!
- 4:30 pm – We had our annual praise dinner at the church. It was well attended.
- 6:00 pm – Our praise service included great worship, special music, and testimonies. The auditorium was packed. I also baptized a 10-year-old in my ministry. What an ending to a great day!
So, enough from me. How was your weekend?
Posted on November 21, 2009 - by rfrank
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-21
- Driving Luci to school on a cool rainy fall day! #fb #
- @TeacherTim thanks for your prayers! Blessings! #
- The back seat of a Lumina is not made to seat three pastors. It awful tight! #fb #
- Lunch conversations can be boring when you're the only pastor on staff who doesn't care about football. #fb #
- On the phone with Judy Comstock. CPC 2010 is going to be awesome. So much new stuff! #kidmin #fb #
- Writing all my stuff for the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of K! Mag. I'm only 10 days late. That's not bad, huh? #fb #
- "Coming Up" and "From the Blog" are done for Jan/Feb 10 K! Magazine. One page down. #fb #
- RT @NathMcLean: I blame @r_frank for my lateness to my meeting. I got so into my K!mag that I forgot what time it was! // What can I say?LOL #
- My letter from the editor is done for Jan/Feb '10. Whew, that always takes me the most time. #kmag #kidmin #fb #
- RT @stocksohio: I finally got around to subscribing to K Magazine. Looking forward to the 1st issue. #kidmin // we hope you get hooked! #
- "Me & My Tweets" and "You Tell Us" is done
#fb # - We had a great KidzMatter creative meeting at our house tonight! This winter is going to be awesome. #fb #
- @thampson and @scopley are really making @kidzmatter look good! We love these guys! #kidmin #
- We are 2 weeks away from the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT from the KidzMatter lab. This might be bigger than K! Mag. I can't wait to tell! #fb #
- I just got a breakthrough idea that I have been searching for now for a few weeks! Thank you Jesus! #fb #
- Picking up Starbucks for everyone at the church office this am. #fb #
- Bought my first bag of Christmas Blend at Starbucks! Tis the season. #fb #
- Celebrating the church secretary's 60th birthday! Happy birthday Brenda! #fb #
- 20 minutes until AWANA and our midweek service at church! I can't wait! #fb #
- I love my wife!!! #fb #
- Met with a parent in the church this morning, set up for tomorrow, made some phone calls, updated by blog, now going home! #fb #
- Final touches are coming together on our newest KidzMatter resource & BABY IT'S GREAT! I can't wait for u to see it in less then 2 wks! #fb #
Posted on November 21, 2009 - by rfrank
My Coffee Table: Strengths Based Leadership
A few months back I read this somewhere: Stop reading, stop leading. I won’t go as far as to say that you have to be in a book to be a good leader, but I can tell you from personal experience that books stretch my leadership. Books improve my serve.
Right now I am reading Strengths-Based Leadership
Although I am still reading this book, I can tell you the gist of the book in a few bullet points:
- The best leaders in the world don’t try to copy other leaders. They discover their own strengths and build on them.
- The best leaders in the world discover the strengths of their team (employees, volunteers, or whatever) and allow them to focus on what they do best.
- The best leaders in the world know the needs of their team.
This is a great book. I plan to buy it and work through it with our team at KidzMatter. I will leave you with this thought: You cannot be anything you want to be – but you can be a lot more of who you already are.
Click here to get the book
Posted on November 19, 2009 - by rfrank
Volunteer Time
I was flipping through the Nov/Dec issue of Outreach Magazine this morning. Yes, I read more than K! Magazine! I came across some interesting info on page 38.
According to the Corporation for National & Community Service (did you know there was such a place?) more than 61 million Americans volunteer their time.
Want to know where they serve? Here you go:
Religious 36%
Educational 27%
Social Services 13%
Health 8%
Other 7%
Civic 6%
Sports/Arts 4%
Let this serve as a good reminder to all of us that people like to feel needed. I bet there will be some people at your church this weekend who would like to volunteer – but they might be waiting to be asked!
Posted on November 18, 2009 - by rfrank
A new blog from Mike Johnson
Mike Johnson is one of the coolest children’s pastors in America. I have enjoyed getting to know Mike and his team the past few years. In fact, the past two years we have told each other that we would get a meal at Children’s Pastors’ Conference but we always get too busy and never get around to it. Maybe this year!
Last year I asked Mike to talk write an article about his office at the church. Though I have never been in his office, I have heard about it and the picture (see it on this page) is awesome.
Mike just launched a blog. I’ll be checking it out often and I think you should too. It is at www.mikejohnsonblog.com. Go check it out for yourself. Mike has a lot to say and we we will grow if we stop and listen.
Posted on November 16, 2009 - by rfrank
10 minute survey. 5 more days.
Last week I announced a new survey I’m working on for K! Magazine. I’m trying to get a good pulse on the current state of children’s ministry in America. We’ve had an excellent response to this survey and are collecting some great information. Thanks so much.
I have created a three question survey that shouldn’t take you more than ten minutes. If you haven’t taken the survey, will you consider taking it right now? When the results come in, I will organize them and publish them on this blog and in K! Magazine.
To take the 10 minute survey, click here!
Thanks for contribibuting to this research.
Posted on November 14, 2009 - by rfrank
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-14
- Sitting in church celebrating America and our veterans! I love America! #fb #
- We were just told we could text a question DURING service..some will be answered at end of service. (via @gregbaird) // how fun!!! #
- Talking about the great weekend in church staff meeting. #fb #
- We're getting an IHOP in town. Woo hoo! #fb #
- My K! Mag came today. Glad I've finished today's to-do list so now I can sit down & read it #kidmin (via @Barbaragraves) // hopeyou like it! #
- @Barbaragraves Itching to get home to see if mine is in the mail box! I can concentrate on nothing else! (via @steveconley) // u made my day #
- Getting ready for @kidzmatter staff meeting tomorrow. There's a lot of exciting stuff on the horizon! #fb #
- I woke up to the song "The wise man built his house upon the rock" playing in my mind. Now it's playing in yours. Sorry! #fb #
- Enjoying really fast internet at the University. I am envying! #
- Eating lunch with a friend at Indiana Wes Univ. #
- Meeting with our preschool director. She's great!! #
- Watching Up! tonight with Beth and Luci! #fb #
- Enjoying a day off! #
- My pastor just asked me to preach Sunday AM. I'm thinking about speaking from Josh. 4:1-10, a sermon in stones. Great text 4 families! #fb #
- On phone conference #2 of the day. One more to go. #fb #
- Studying #
- Great night! We had 19 in our Modern Day Joseph parenting class! @awana #kidmin #fb #
- http://twitpic.com/ngtdp – My car as a new #kidmin. @r_frank would be proud! (via @Barbaragraves) // this is great! #
- Studying like crazy for my sermon in big church Sunday! #fb #
- In a church board meeting. #
- Lafayette Indiana is a cool town. #fb #
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About Ryan
Ryan Frank is a husband, dad, children's pastor, creator of KidzMatter, and publisher of K! Magazine.
