I remember the first time I showed a Veggie Tales movie to the kids in my church. They loved it. My adult workers loved it even more. Back then you could show Veggie Tales to a room full of kids and most of them had never heard of it. Good luck doing that anymore.

I remember the first Bob and Larry stuffed toys I bought for my office. My office was a baptism changing room at the time, but gosh was this young children’s pastor excited to have Bob and Larry sitting on my shelf. Why? I was relevant.

I remember when 3 2 1 Penguins hit the market in 2000. Man was I excited to see a new line of videos. I was so bored with Adventures in Odyssey and McGee and Me.

I remember the first time I heard that Big Idea Productions was being sued by Lyrick over distribution issues. This was before K! Magazine and before I had “connections.” I couldn’t pick up the phone and call someone to see what was happening, I had to rely on Google, and Google confirmed the story.

I remember the spring/summer of 2003 when the court found in favor of Lyrick and awarded them $11 million in damages. I remember hearing the news that Big Idea (as it had been known) was dead.

I will always remember hearing Phil Vischer speak at Children’s Pastors’ Conference 2009. Since I’m on the board at INCM, I had the opportunity to meet Phil before the session when he spoke and talked to him for a few minutes back stage. What a great guy. I remember sitting in that room with 2,000+ other children’s pastors with my wife one one side and Evan Doyle on the other side. There, Phil shared his story. He shared the tough lessons he had learned about business – but most importantly – the lessons he had learned about his relationship with God. I bought the DVD of that session and have shared it with so many people.

Is Veggie Tales over? Obviously not. The company has new leadership and they are cranking out new products  like mad. I got something in the mail at the church this week about their new DVD called Pistachio.

Is Phil Vischer done? Nope. He has a new company called Jelly Telly. That’s another blog post of it’s own. I’m real excited about a new DVD series that Phil is creating called What’s in the Bible. It’s designed to walk kids and families through the entire Bible. The 13 DVD-series will release beginning March 1, 2010.

Some of my friends (Todd and Sean at Timbuktoons) have been working with Phil and the team on this project. Timbuktoons is the company that does the animation and video enhancements on our Kitchen videos. I got a sneak peak at What’s in the Bible a few weeks ago when I was meeting with Awana. It’s going to be great stuff that every Christian parent and children’s pastor will want to snatch up.

Enough rambling about Veggie Tales. All this food talk has made me hungry. I better hit the fridge.

Over the next few days, I’m going to share some leadership tips that we can all learn from watching American Idol.

Idol Lesson #1: Everyone wants to be a somebody. A high-point in the season for many viewers are the first few shows of each season when thousands of high-hoped contestants are shocked to discover they don’t have what it takes to be the next star. They line up a mile long and a mile deep to get their chance to be the next American Idol only to be told they don’t have what it takes.

Everyone wants to be a somebody. This is a basic need that everyone has. Ready for the good news? Everyone can be someone in Christ! What a prime opportunity we have to share this with people when they are little – in children’s ministry! Do your kids know that they are special? Not because of what they do, but because of who they are in Christ?

Idol Lesson #2: Everyone wants face time with the leader. Tens of thousands line up hoping to show their goods. What a lot of TV viewers don’t realize is that less than 100 are actually permitted to stand in front of Simon, Randy, Kara and the guest judge. Those 100, as well as their other thousand-plus competitors, actually begin their audition process over a week prior, auditioning before several other layers of judges. They each want face to face time with the judges – the Supreme Court of reality TV.

Your volunteers, your kids, your parents, your staff share this in common: they want face to face time with you. Are you giving it to them? Unfortunately, you don’t have the option of picking and choosing on this one. After all, pastoral work is about people. Giving your people face to face time is vital to your ministry. When is the last time you stepped into every classroom at the church to spend a few minutes talking to your leaders? Have you been getting on your knees to talk to the kids that call you their pastor?

There you go – the first two lessons from American Idol that I’ve been thinking on. I’ll post the next two in a few days. Oh, in case you are wondering, I won’t be making any connections between children’s ministry and Pants on the Ground. Don’t even ask.

Cool stuff, huh? Think these could be tools for training volunteers in this digital age? Thanks Justin!

We have been working with Jason Rhode and Dick Gruber over the past few months about forming a partnership between K! Magazine and their podcast. We are pleased to tell you that Children’s Ministry Talk is going to be the official podcast of K! Magazine in 2010. We will announce more in the near future.

For now, click here to check out today’s podcast episode. Enjoy!

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