Author Archive

Posted on March 8, 2010 - by rfrank

The Facebook message I will never delete

This morning I came into the church office after pushing hard this weekend.

Yesterday we launched a new worship venue for the kids in my church. For as long as I remember, we have had two kid’s church services at my church – one for ages 3 through K and one for grades 1-6. We have been wanting to break the kids into smaller groups and become more specialized in our approach and teaching. We created a new service for the Kindergartners through the second graders. We have been working on this for a few months, but last week we pushed hard installing the sound and video equipment and working through a long list of “last minute” to-dos.

This morning I received a Facebook message from Shelli, one of our faithful volunteers in the bus ministry. Shelli is committed and has a heart of gold for kids. When I read her message, I choked up. I read it to our church staff this morning. I have changed the child’s name, but here is the message:

After church Sunday a little voice from the back of the van said, “Miss Shelli.”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Thank you for taking me to the kindergarten class today, I had the best time there.”

Five year olds don’t always remember to say thank you and this just touched my heart. Jesse is not in school yet. She is often neglected in many other ways as well. She lives among addicts and yet somehow she is happy, smart, and doesnt realize when she goes without the things that every little girl should have. She loves church! If you asked her why, she would say its fun, but I would say she loves it because 1) it’s usually the only time she leaves the trailer park in week, 2) it’s the only age appropriate learning opportunity she gets, and 3) it’s the only stable, regularly occuring event that she has in her life. It breaks my heart. I could go on and on….

I just wanted to share this with you to let you know that for one little girl…the best thing in her life, just got a little bit better yesterday.

Thank you for all that you do for these children.

These are the stories that every children’s pastor wants to hear. I don’t think Shelli knew how much of an encouragement her message was to this guy. I think I have enough fuel in my tank to go another 10 years now!

Don’t forget the importance of what you do! Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these… you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).

Posted on March 6, 2010 - by rfrank

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-06

• Putting finishing touches on a parents meeting tonight at church. #fb #
• Booking plane tickets for CPC San Diego!!! I hope to see you there. http://www.incm.org #kidmin #
• Sipping my coffee planning out the day. It's great to see sunshine outside! #fb #
• Eating lunch at @culvers with @kidzmatter2me aka Evan Doyle. #
• @jamesmacdonald has something to say about the church. Go to my blog and see what it is. http://bit.ly/cN27Ai #kidmin #kmag #
• I love my day off!!! #fb #
• Luci is getting a haircut! #
• Hanging with Beth this morning! #fb #
• RT @nataliemiller1: Is reading @jimwideman 's "Beat the Clock"…its brilliant! Its going to totally change how I do family and ministry … #

Posted on March 2, 2010 - by rfrank

James MacDonald and the compelling church

I have always appreciated the preaching ministry of James MacDonald. Maybe you have heard his radio program, Walk in the Word, or you have visited one of his churches in the Chicago area. James is up there on my list and is on my Mount Rushmore of Preachers.

James has a great blog for pastors and ministry people. I want to share his latest blog post. It answers this question: Is Your Church Compelling?

There is a deafening, non-stop discussion in evangelicalism about what the church needs to be (many of the most vocal are those who pastor no one and win very few to our Lord). On and on they pontificate about how church needs to be personally relevant and interesting and meet felt needs. About how it needs to be entertaining for people without making them uncomfortable. About how it needs to be cool and compassionate and connected and cultural and . . . Here’s a “C” word for you, CHURCH NEEDS TO BE COMPELLING.

I believe with all my heart, that much of what the church has become in our day is measly, milk-toast, and malnourished. It’s about as compelling as a ‘walk in the mall.’ I believe the New Testament church needs to be compelling. By that I mean, window-rattling, life-altering, Almighty God unveiling, COMPELLING! (I was yelling when I thought/wrote that).

Here are five things that make church compelling:

1) “Thus Saith the Lord,” Preaching
The most common observation about Jesus’ teaching was “he teaches as one who has authority.” Yet even Jesus used the Word of God for his teaching. “Did not our hearts burn within us as he walked with us on the road and taught us from the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). A preacher who has been gripped by the Word of God and who is overflowing with Holy Spirit conviction will make a more compelling impact and draw a bigger crowd that all the cheesy substitutes currently popular. Nothing is more compelling than people coming to church and hearing from God through the word preached. Everything else is just pathetic by comparison. “And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4).

To read the rest of the post click here to go to Pastor James’ blog. It will be worth your time for sure.

Posted on March 1, 2010 - by rfrank

The Kitchen video sampler

Evan Doyle just emailed me and told me that our next KidzMatter email is ready to be proofed. Of course, I don’t proof it, that’s Tina’s job. You can thank me for that! But I always like taking a look at it before it hits the Inbox of over 15,000 children’s pastors and leaders.

Tomorrow’s email is about the overwhelmingly positive feedback we hear from everyone using The Kitchen. Evan also put together a cool video sampler to showcase some of the videos we have produced for the lessons. While the curriculum is not media-driven but teacher-driven, we understand the importance of media with today’s kids. That’s why we have invested so many resources into these videos. While we still have a way to go, the videos keep getting better and better every week.

After setting up and tearing down a portable video studio at my church for the first few months (a ton of work), we finally have a green screen studio of our very own! A church in town (my grandma’s church) had a few classrooms they weren’t using. They gave us a classroom to use as a video studio. It is such a blessing to have a real studio where we can leave everything set up and ready to shoot. I’ll have to share some pictures of our studio in an upcoming blog post.

Click here to watch the video that we will be sharing tomorrow. Enjoy!!

Posted on February 27, 2010 - by rfrank

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-27

• Second service underway. I'll be preaching in about ten minutes on a picture of grace: Mephibosheth! #fb #
• Meeting with some new children's ministry directors in my church. #fb #
• Lunch with Luci! #fb #
• Working on my blog (http://www.ryanfrank.com) #kidmin #cmconnect #kmag #i_dont_know_why_I_am_using_all_these_hashtags #
• Time to start #24 on the DVR. #
• Getting caught up on email. #
• Preparing for a few upcoming parent meetings at the church! #fb #
• Two more tweets until I hit 2,000. #
• One more tweet until I hit 2,000 tweets. #
• I just hit 2,000 tweets! #
• Doing a week of work in 2 days is crazy! Leaving for Napkin tomorrow! #fb #
• Changes are coming to Children's Ministry Magazine! http://bit.ly/9IgKWN #kidmin #
• In Indianapolis heading to Denver then Vegas! #fb #
• Just ate a Wolfgang Puck pizza. Yummy. #
• Landed in Denver. Another good Frontier flight! #frontier #
• Flight to Vegas delayed. Sitting in Denver. #
• @KarlBastian At airport heading to Napkin Conference in Vegas. I wish we could hang out. Next time. in reply to KarlBastian #
• Back row of the plane baby. #
• In vegas! #
• Early bird bowling with Luci. #
• In the car with Michael Chanley and Allison Evans heading to Napkin. #napconf #fb #
• Listening to @bennyperez on the stage. What a great talk. I'm up in 20 minutes to speak at #napconf. #
• Heading to @bennyperez 's house for lunch with the #napconf speakers. #
• Just had my picture taken with UFC champ Wanderlei Silva (aka "The Axe Murdere") at #napconf. #
• At In and Out Burger with Napkin speakers. Fun fun! #fb #
• Watching the Blue Man Group. #fb #
• Eating breakfast with @jimwideman @michaelchanley and 8 other #kidmin leaders. Talking about ACMA right now. #
• Listening to David Wakerly at #napconf. #
• "I hate being the best person at what I shouldn't be doing" says David Wakerley at #napconf #
• Listening to @AllyEvans share her amazing testimony at #napconf. #
• On the Vegas strip with Beth and Luci! #fb #
• @michaelchanley Good bye #
• On the plane in Vegas heading home. Had a great time at Napkin. #fb #
• I feel like a teen, @r_frank just texted me from 10 feet away, I love geeting to hang with #kidmin friends #napconf (via @jimwideman) #
• Landed in Denver. #
• We've landed in Indy. Luci fell asleep as we were landing! #fb #

Posted on February 22, 2010 - by rfrank

Preaching with the help of a mind map

The past two months I have been afforded the opportunity to preach in “big church” a lot more than normal. Most years, I speak in big church probably four Sundays a year. Recently, our church agreed to provide the preaching/teaching and pastoral support at another church. Consequently, I’ve had to preach more to the adults at my own church. In fact, I’ve preached four of the past five Sundays between both churches. I’m thankful for a strong team of volunteers in my children’s ministry (guys like Evan Doyle, for example) that step up the plate and hit it out of the ballpark in my absence.

All of that to say this: I’ve been forced the past few weeks to sharpen my communication skills. Before I tell you about a communication technique that I’ve been using, let me preface this by saying that preaching must start with an anointed, God-called person who has a message from the Word of God. You can be a dynamite communicator but without the anointing and power of God you won’t have fruit that remains.

Once you have that message from God, I want to share a tip that will help you communicate it with excellence. It’s called mind mapping. (more…)

Posted on February 20, 2010 - by rfrank

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-20

• Had a great night preaching at New Hope Baptist Church tonight. Met some really nice people. #fb #
• Ordering strawberry banana pancakes from IHOP. Yummy. #fb #
• Talking with our awesome Publication Director, Tina Houser, on the phone. #fb #
• I've been studying the story of Mephibosheth all afternoon. What a story! #fb #
• On the phone with six awesome children's ministry thinkers. This is great! #fb #

Posted on February 16, 2010 - by rfrank

Leadership in two words

How do you define leadership? Google it and you’ll find somewhere near a bazillion definitions. How would you define leadership in just two words? I am anxious to hear what you have say.

And while we are talking about leadership, watch this video. It’s been around for a while but it’s one of my favorites. You’ll see some leaders here – even some unexpected ones.

Once you’ve watched the video, define leadership for me in two words. Let’s see what kind of list we get.

Posted on February 13, 2010 - by rfrank

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-13

• Good morning friends! #fb #
• Lunch with the church staff. Where should be go? #fb #
• Buying plane tickets for Napkin. http://bit.ly/rKfbt #fb #
• It's 24 night! #
• Playing with Luci before fighting the snow to church. #fb #
• Got a few inches of snow today but everyone says more is coming tonight! I can't wait! #fb #
• Popping another cough drop. #
• "Nobody likes beets, Dwight! Why don't you grow something that everybody does like? You should grow candy." Michael Scott #fb #
• Listing some stuff on ebay. #
• Cleaning my fish tank. #
• Lunch with Evan Doyle discussing his annual performance review. Don't worry, it's good. @kidzmatter2me #fb #
• Great night at church but glad to be home. #fb #
• Getting ready to watch The Office. #office #
• Moving some Sunday School classes to new rooms for Sunday. I have my work cut out for me this morning! #fb #
• Phone conference with our KidzMatter strategic planner. #fb #
• Heading to Ruby Tuesdays for a birthday party. #fb #
• Church board meeting then a KidzMatter video shoot. #fb #
• The Kitchen video shoot in progress. One down. Six to go. #kidmin #

Posted on February 6, 2010 - by rfrank

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-06

• Worshipping and singing "He is Exalted". Stepping up to preach in 10 min. #fb #
• 2nd service is underway. It's been a great morning at LBC! Getting ready to preach again. #fb #
• Eating some of Beth's killer chili. Yummy. #fb #
• Cleaning out my attic right now. Here's what I think about it. http://bit.ly/cC3fNC (via @gina_mcclain) // great thoughts Gina! #
• Writing blog posts for http://www.ryanfrank.com. #fb #
• Watching 24. #24 #fb #
• Happy ground hog day! #fb #
• Catching up on email. #fb #
• Preparing for KidzMatter staff meeting in an hour. I can't wait! #fb #
• RT @rogerfields: To everyone's shock, new study finds abstinence works! http://bit.ly/abstinence-works #kidmin #
• Been reading effective executive, scheduled my week yesterday, and looking forward to a great time budget! (via @hayesandrew) // way to go #
• 6 people in front of me in line at Subway. Should I wait? #
• Spaghetti and meatball night. #fb #
• It's 45 degrees and I'm wearing shorts to the gym (via @jimwideman) // I could have gone without a mental pic of Jim Wideman in gym shorts! #
• It's my writing night for K! Mag. Tina will be proud of me. #fb #
• Watching Idol and writing for K! Magazine at the same time. This might not be easy. #fb #
• Bikini boy all the way. #fb #
• Enjoying the morning off. #fb #
• Rocking out some more K! Magazine content for March/April. I might get my part done tonight! #kmag #fb #
• One thing never changes: things always change. #fb #
• Random question: If someone gave your ministry $50,000 what would you do with it? #fb #
• Previewing a "That The World May Know" DVD for a midweek elective I am teaching tonight. We are doing "Fire on the Mtn" – great series! #fb #
• My stapler doesn't like me today. Thought you should know that. #
• New post on my blog: Adjectives http://tinyurl.com/yesmgbd // Steve Jobs love. (via @kidzmatter2me) // Great post from Evan. #
• u can raise the bar or u can wait for others to raise it, but it's getting raised regardless. Seth Godin (via @lgrace2) #
• We're gonna get a lot of snow this weekend in Indiana! Woo hoo. #
• Sitting in on an #Awana leaders meeting. #
• Getting ready to watch The Office on the DVR from earlier tonight. I hope it's a good one. #office #fb #
• Hostess Suzy Q's are calling my name. I must go. #
• It's snowing! #fb #
• Snow snow snow. #
• From Proctor & Gamble's 99; #44: Be a Good Coach. A boss tells you what to do; a coach helps you learn as you do it. (via @Barbaragraves) #
• Got stuck in the ditch this morning right in front of my house. I hate snow sometimes. #fb #
• Making a homemade Paula Dean sugar cream pie! Come on over in an hour if you're hungry. http://bit.ly/dBubyI #fb #
• Luci has had her bath and is in bed early. #