Archive for the ‘Chat’ Category

Posted on February 4, 2010 - by rfrank

Roger Fields, curriculum and the new purple gorilla

God has blessed me with some great friends. It seems like most of them live in other states and I only get to see them once or twice a year. One of those friends is Roger Fields.

Roger is one of the most creative guys I know and he is a loyal friend. He also knows what he’s talking about. Roger is one of those guys that when he talks – I listen. He sent an email yesterday to his eBlitz subscribers (you should sign up) and it got me thinking. I thought I would share his thoughts with you.

Curriculum is a Disease.

That’s right! I said it. Not only does the word “curriculum” sound dry, stale and academic, it sounds like a disease! Pronouced “kuRIKyoolum,” say it out loud slowly and tell me it does not sound like a disease. The only word it rhymes with is “diverticulum” which is a herniation through the muscular wall of a tubular organ such as the colon. That’s right. There’s a link between curriculum and hernias. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Can’t you hear it now? “My aunt Thelma has pancreatic curriculum.” “Bobby got acute curriculum and had it for 13 weeks. It hit him on a Sunday morning at 11:00 when he glazed over and stiffened up in his metal chair while staring at the white board.” Any day now the World Health Organization will declare an outbreak of curriculum a pandemic sweeping through Sunday Schools across America. This virus must be stopped now before if bores children into a comatose state and shuts down blood flow to the heart.

Research shows that children exposed to dry curriculum through their elementary years develop hardness of the heart. They acquire a resistance to the Spirit of God and a blockage in their inner ears.

We need another word. There is nothing wrong with using materials to help teach kids. I am a curriculum publisher. But the WORD “curriculum” has got to go. It encourages the flawed idea that we can subject kids to an academic lesson and expect them to get excited about God. The bug is not so much the curriculum itself but the curriculum mentality that is the ailment. Until we can come up with a better word that sounds more alive, there is, however, a four-step remedy for the curriculum malady. Think of it as curriculum bypass surgery.

1. Use curriculum that uplifts the amazing character of God and what He has done for us. Remember it is ultimately about what God has done for us not about what we do for Him.
2. Encourage your teachers to read over the “lesson” at the start of the week to give the Holy Spirit time to make it real and practical in their lives before Sunday rolls around.
3. Get kids involved with what you are teaching. Guard against creating a spectator environment where kids merely sit up straight and listen.
4. Don’t be afraid to change direction at a moment’s noticed based on how God leads.

Together we can stop this dreadful disease from sweeping though our churches and choking the spiritual life out of kids.

Roger Fields

P.S. Have you seen the Bo Zerk, the new purple gorilla, in Kidz Blitz Live? Go to http://www.kidzblitz.com/go.htm

Posted on September 22, 2009 - by rfrank

Tuesday Talk: Jerry Meadows

Tuesday Talk is a weekly feature on my blog. Each week, I interview one children’s ministry expert and ask for their answer to a question. Check back every Tuesday for a new interview.

This week on Tuesday Talk:
Jerry Meadows answers the question, “How can children be involved in world-wide missions?”

Traditionally, there has been one mission question and one answer: “Whom shall I send?” “Here am I, send me”.  We must broaden the idea of missions involvement and make sure every believer, regardless of age, has a strategic answer to, “how are you involved in missions?”.  Here’s 5 avenues of involvement you can pave with your own creativity.

1. Prayer: An 11 year old boy in the Dominican Republic who is wheel chair bound due to severe scoliosis and brittle bone disease rolled up to his caregiver and declared that he wanted to die. His life would never be worthwhile. His caregiver put her face near his and said, “you can help change nations if you learn to pray. Can I teach you?” He has become a mighty warrior and is involved in missions.  We must challenge our children with the same passion.

2. Correspondence: Through emails, skype, blogging…your children can learn about culture, felt needs, and real life around the world in real time.

3. Gift in Kind: When your kids give some thing to meet a legitimate need they will be energized to do more. I’m convinced that kids despise cute projects with grandiose tag lines. What they really want is to meet a need.

4. Offering: Yep, good ol’ cash. Challenge them to give their own money not their parents. When they relate to the project you will see 5^th graders willing to give their birthday cash and 2^nd graders ready to do neighborhood chores to earn money.

5. Visits: Encourage your missionaries to come and share their personal stories. Consider children/family mission trips and involve your whole ministry as senders.

Jerry Meadows has served the local church for over 20 years. He is the Global Outreach Director for CURE International and coordinates with CURE’s Spiritual Directors doing children’s evangelism in 10 countries. His family (wife, Michelle and daughter, Chelsea) live in Mechanicsburg PA and have served on many short term mission trips. He enjoys speaking engagements, golfing and vacation time in Northern Michigan.

Posted on September 18, 2009 - by rfrank

Freebie Friday: LifeChurch.tv OPEN

Freebie Friday is a weekly feature here on my blog.  Every Friday, I’ll post about a new freebie you can find online or near you!

This week in Freebie Friday:
LifeChurch.tv OPEN

LifeChurch.tv has always set the standard high for digital interaction in churches. They were one of the first churches to use the internet as a live broadcast medium for a church service. They’ve introduced fantastic tools such as YouVersion to the web for anyone to use at absolutely no charge. They’ve even got a service to resource churches- LifeChurch.tv OPEN.

A few weeks ago, Kendra Golden of the LifeChurch.tv Content Development Team introduced me to OPEN. OPEN was born out of a passion to see as many life changed as possible over as wide an area as possible. LifeChurch.tv makes some pretty sweet curriculum for their kids’ ministry, but in large part they were making it and then it was sitting “on the shelf”. So they’ve taken all of the children’s ministry curriculum and posted it on OPEN. Free.

Four years worth of preschool curriculum including videos, storybooks, lesson plans, and activity pages are available. For elementary kids, their weekend curriculum comes in 3-5 week series, and is a full hour of a video-driven program. They’ve also got KONNECT, a mid-week elementary discipleship program that is a two-hour program that goes through the stories of the Bible in a small group format with a game, a hands-on craft, and snack to reinforce the Bible story presented in a short video. Best yet, you can even visit lifekids.tv to provide follow up resources to kids and their parents.

And did I mention, it’s all free? You’ll probably want to mention it to your fellow staff members- the youth and adult programs from LifeChurch are up there too. Next time you need a change in your program, check out LifeChurch.tv OPEN to get a free series. You can’t beat that.

Posted on September 17, 2009 - by rfrank

Thursday Talk: Dienna Goscha

Tuesday Talk is a weekly feature on my blog. Each week, I interview one children’s ministry expert and ask for their answer to a question. Check back every Tuesday for a new interview.

This week, I’m running a little behind. So it’s Thursday Talk. Please forgive me.

This week on Tuesday Talk:
Dienna Goscha answers the question, “How can a children’s ministry improve their special needs ministry?”

The majority of churches are smaller churches without the means to run a separate special needs ministry. These churches, however, can effectively minister to special needs kids.

Parents want to know that the church cares about their kids. Simply taking the time to sit down with the parents and find out what that child specifically needs speaks volumes about the love the church has for the child.

Also, research the particular need the child has. Visit national websites and personal blogs that shed light on the child’s challenges. Be creative in your own particular environment with the knowledge that you have gained to maximize the chlid’s experience. Make sure that all teachers involved with the child understand the special challenges the child faces and is equipped with specific solutions to these challenges that they can implement. If a child needs one-on-one attention, find volunteers and schedule them to be the child’s “buddy.” Be sure to stay in contact with the parents as the needs of the child will change.

Most importantly, surround the child and the family with love and compassion so they know that they are not alone.

Dienna Goscha, co-founder of River’s Edge Curriculum, has a passion for creating an environment where children can connect with Christ in fun, relevant ways. She has twenty years of experience leading children’s ministries in churches. She believes that church should never be boring because knowing and loving God is the most exciting thing a child can do. Her creativity is the cornerstone for developing and writing children’s church curriculum.

Posted on September 8, 2009 - by rfrank

Tuesday Talk: Ryan Wolfe

Tuesday Talk is a weekly feature on my blog. Each week, I interview one children’s ministry expert and ask for their answer to a question. Check back every Tuesday for a new interview.

This week on Tuesday Talk:
Ryan Wolfe answers the question, “What are five ways that a video camera can enhance your children’s ministry?”

Using video in ministry is a necessity. I probably don’t have to sell that point. What some people may not realize is that something as simple as a video camera can breathe new life into your ministry. It can…

Take your ministry beyond the walls of your church. We filmed our children signing worship songs and our leaders teaching VBS style lessons. These DVDs were handed out to families along with craft kits and, bingo, we had a Backyard VBS in 12 different neighborhoods totaling over 200 kids.

Increase Bible memorization. Let me go one step beyond that. It can make Bible memorization fun! We teach our monthly Bible verse in sign language every Sunday on DVD. Kids are learning God’s words in 2 languages.

Make training meetings successful. What is more frustrating that having no one show up to a training meeting? Film your trainings and send them home on DVD with your Team Members or post them online.

Make your praise time come to life. Do you feel like your kids are zombies during praise time? Put a video camera on them and tell them you are making music videos. Then actually use those videos for praise time the following week.

Increase retention for vital announcements. Kids often “misremember” critical announcements because we don’t always have their attention. Film a child or a teen giving the announcement like it is an infomercial. Your kids will be glued and will not forget those important announcements.

Ryan Wolfe:
Married to a Superhero (Melissa)
Father to 2 of God’s finest creations (Rocco & Zoe)
Family Pastor at First Christian Church in Canton, OH for the past 7 years
He’s blessed to work with 500+ children every week
Where else could he go to get paid to be a big kid?
Training kids and equipping parents is his passion

Posted on September 1, 2009 - by edoyle

Tuesday Talk: Len Banks

Tuesday Talk is a weekly feature on Ryan Frank’s blog. Each week, I interview one children’s ministry expert and ask for their answer to a question. Check back every Tuesday for a new interview.

This week on Tuesday Talk:
Len Banks answers the question, “What are some tips you can share for branding your children’s ministry?”

I think the first thing you should know about branding your ministry is that you don’t have to be an artist! It is about being consistent with a theme, keeping your eye out for using items in a different way, making every activity or event represent it, and anchor on colors and logos. We are Surf’s Up, a surfing theme, and all my age groups are named based on that; tide pools (nursery), boogie boards (preschool), short boards (grades K-2), and long boards (grades 3-5). Our logo is blue, orange and white and those colors show up all over our room, print materials…everywhere! I have place mats from IKEA as wall decorations, color tissue paper varnished on the walls for color blocks, a surf board as a basketball back board and another one as a hanging light shelf, and 50 pair of flip flops walking the walls from the lobby to the main room. The last four years of VBS curriculum all were ocean, island, water themes (the outer space one may be better but it doesn’t fit our culture and branding so I just tweak, if necessary, the one that does). I also think it is important to pick a brand that fits your culture more than it just being a cool “Christian” name. We live in Half Moon Bay, CA home of the Mavericks surfing contest, so Surf’s Up fits us. If agriculture or baseball or mountains are your regional culture or environment – then key off of that. That creates immediate relevance, identification and ownership. It just feels right. Have Fun!

Len Banks has been a minister for over 20 years now working in all areas from youth to lead pastor, music to mens.  Currently he is the Associate pastor at Mariners Church in Half Moon Bay, CA with areas of responsibility as executive pastor, children’s pastor, and all arts, media, and web.  He has been married to Diane for 23 years and has a 15 year old daughter, Nikki.  Together they love travel and all things Disney.  His current obsessions are Starbucks Venti Americanos, his Apple MacBook Pro and his Mini Cooper S.   You can connect with him on Facebook or his church site MarinersCC.org.

Posted on August 11, 2009 - by edoyle

Tuesday Talk: Kenny Conley

Tuesday Talk is a weekly feature on Ryan Frank’s blog. Each week, I interview one children’s ministry expert and ask for their answer to a question. Check back every Tuesday for a new interview.

This week on Tuesday Talk:
Kenny Conley answers the question, “How do you manage children’s ministry in a multi-site church?”

This question is a can of worms. There are as many versions of multi-site as there are denominations, so execution will vary by strategy. However, two words come to mind in regard to multi-site, both as the person leading and those participating.

Collaboration and compromise.

Multi-site offers the unique opportunity for teamwork to impact different audiences. This type of collaboration allows a team to get more done with less people. The positive side of this is that since you have a team helping you get things done programmatically and administratively, it gives you more time to lead your teams and pastor kids and families. The down side is compromise. Although you have a voice collaboratively, compromise is a part of the whole team (multiple sites) heading down a road, maybe one you weren’t in favor of.

I communicate this clearly to new people coming on staff. There’s no room for lone rangers here. For those already on the team, encourage them to find ways to take advantage of the collaborative team and spend more time leading and pastoring and less time behind the laptop.

Kenny Conley is the Next Gen Pastor at Gateway Church in Austin, TX.  Kenny brings 11 years of Children’s Ministry experience in leading multi-age ministries (cradle to college) with a multi-site strategy.  He lives in NW Austin with his beautiful wife Sara of ten years (this July) and his ruggedly handsome two year old son Titus (this June). Kenny avidly blogs at www.childrensministryonline.com.

Posted on July 21, 2009 - by rfrank

Tuesday Talk: Dale VonSeggen

Tuesday Talk is a weekly feature on Ryan Frank’s blog. Each week, I interview one children’s ministry expert and ask for their answer to a question. Check back every Tuesday for a new interview.

This week on Tuesday Talk:
Dale VonSeggen answers the question, “How can children’s pastors help grandparents in the church?”

1. Include grandparents in your communications to parents regarding activities, issues, volunteers needed, and general information.
2. Don’t underestimate the spiritual influence grandparents can have on grandchildren (Example: Timothy in the Bible)
3. Plan some children’s ministry or seasonal events specifically to include grandparents and children.
4. Tap the abilities, strengths, and experiences of grandparents that are still very capable and active.
5. Organize an “Adopt-a-Grandparent” program to connect grandparents who have no grandchildren close by with children who have no grandparents near.
6. Celebrate and honor grandparents with a “Grandparents’ Day” or even possibly a “Grandparent of the Year” or “Grandparent of the Month” emphasis.
7. Facilitate service projects that can connect children with grandparents…visiting homes, raking leaves, pet shows, bake-outs, talent shows, rock-a-thons, or any such activity that promotes acquaintances and mutual respect and appreciation.

Dale VonSeggen received his BA in mathematics from Olivet Nazarene University and his Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Western Michigan University. Dale and his wife Liz’s family ministry One Way Street became a full time job for Dale in 1987. He devoted all his time to writing, publishing a wide variety of children’s ministry resources, and founding many regional, national, and international training events for workers with children and youth.  Dale’s hobbies include traveling, reading, collecting camels, attending sporting events, and spending time with his grandchildren. Dale and Liz reside near Denver, CO.

Posted on July 7, 2009 - by edoyle

Tuesday Talk: Sam Luce

Tuesday Talk is a weekly feature on Ryan Frank’s blog. Each week, I interview one children’s ministry expert and ask for their answer to a question. Check back every Tuesday for a new interview.

This week on Tuesday Talk:
Sam Luce answers the question, “How can you use Twitter to enhance your Children’s ministry?”

1. Communicate with volunteers.
I have started the process of using twitter with my volunteers. I created multiple accounts. One is for Small group leaders, another for Logistics (the check in security crowd), a large group one for our producers and communicators, and a preschool one. At a campus level I created one for each campus for updates on a broader scale that would be helpful for parents and volunteers.

2. Communicate with parents.
This year I plan on communicating from camp primarily though twitter updates. Praise requests, fun quotes from kids, kids saying Hi to mom and dad. I hope to use it as something we can build from year to year.

3. Communicate vision, values and best practices.
As more of our volunteers get on twitter I will use it as a reminder of our vision and how they can practically put to action our vision and values through small practical tips. Another thing that is great is the ability to send links that point volunteers to blog posts and videos that will help train them to be more effective in what they do. Again making ministry specific twitter user names is essential to keep people zoned in on only the twitters that pertain to them.

4. Communicate with loads of kids pastors.
As a kids pastor if you are not leveraging Twitter to connect with and learn from other kids pastors you are nuts. Twitter is by far the best place to get instant feedback to know if an idea is good or stupid. To find out what other kids pastors are doing that is working. Also if you are using Fellowship One or 252basics there are many others that are doing the same so twitter can be leveraged in a huge way to collaborate with others doing ministry in with many of the same tools you are.

5. Communicate with Ryan!
Lastly through the power of Twitter you can learn that Ryan (@r_frank) likes hot dogs.  (Editors note: Because we always knew you cared!)

See you in the Twitterverse!

Sam Luce has been the children’s Pastor at Mt. Zion Ministries Church in Utica, NY for 11 years. He is passionate about reaching kids and equipping families. Sam is married to his beautiful wife Sandra they have two boys and their first girl. For more info about Sam (and his brief stint as a Twitter fugitive) go to www.samluce.com.

Posted on June 30, 2009 - by edoyle

Tuesday Talk: Gil Johnson

Tuesday Talk is a weekly feature on Ryan Frank’s blog. Each week, I interview one children’s ministry expert and ask for their answer to a question. Check back every Tuesday for a new interview.

This week on Tuesday Talk:
Gil Johnson answers the question, “How can children’s ministries use video to enhance their worship time?”

As we all know, the kids that we work with in our churches are living in a visual world. They see videos on television, computers, iPods, and even billboards as they move through their daily lives. While it’s always great to use video for funny intros, Bible teaching and game times, we should use the same attention grabbing technologies to help these kids engage in their most important task- worshiping God.

Children’s ministries can strategically use video in their worship time by first using video to set the mood as kids arrive. This will help get them prepared for worship by letting them hear worship and possibly even watch other kids worship.

Videos used during the music portion of the worship time will help kids by letting them see the words they are singing and some videos even have something going on in the background to add context to the message. On a practical level, using video can help hold kids’ attention and help them focus on worship instead of being distracted by the environment they are in or the other kids around them. All of these elements help make the worship time more relevant and meaningful to the kids.

Gil Johnson is the marketing manager for the Integrity Kids worship product line of Integrity Music and is also Children’s Pastor at West Mobile Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama. He spends his free time with his beautiful wife Jennifer, their 12 year old daughter Hannah and 9 year old son Justin.