Friday's Find: Kids of Courage

     I was so excited to find this website! It will be the first place I go next time I need resources for a missions lesson. Kids of Courage is run by the organization The Voice of the Martyrs to teach kids to stand up for their faith and bring awareness to the persecuted church. They have developed thirty activity books to teach kids about the church and peoples of other countries. Each book is available for FREE download (you will be required to register and will be given a password) and contains 50 pages of activity sheets, stories, coloring pages, recipes, and facts about a specific nation or people group where Christians are experiencing some form of restriction or persecution. This includes nations such as China, India, Colombia, Burma, Turkey, Egypt, etc. While your at their website check out their VBS. It's only $45 and comes in several teaching formats. You can also read some inspiring stories on their blog. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Friday's Find: D6 Days

     Friday Finds is back, and we're talking about D6 Days. The D6 Conference is all about discipleship and family ministries. Their primary focus is passing on God's truth to the nest generation. From now until May 1st (the conference Early Registration deadline) you can watch videos of past conference sessions for free right on their website. They also have MP3s from five of their breakout labs available for free download. If you want strategies to implement discipleship and family programming into your ministry or just want a little pep talk, check out D6 Days on the D6 Conference website. And check out more info on the upcoming conference while you're there. Remember that these freebies are only available until May 1st. No time to waste!

CPC Live!

     I had a wonderful time last night watching the INCM Children's Pastors Conference with my pals on CMConnect. INCM (International Network of Children's Ministry) has setup a free online community called CMConnect. From there they are live streaming CPC San Diego for free. There will be two more sessions - one tonight and one tomorrow night. You might need to setup an account to start the live stream, but setting one up is easy. (You don't have to fill in all the questions right away.) Once you're signed up, you can connect to other kidmins, read about what is working in their ministry, ask questions, and exchange ideas. There's also a chat feature that allows you to talk to online members in real time. Last night I was able to chat with other kidmins at the conference while streaming it from my home. If you couldn't go to a conference this year (or wish you never came back from one) this is the perfect opportunity for you to learn and network.
   
The next session is tonight at 6:30 Eastern. Hope to see you there!

CPC Live! on CMConnect!

CPC '12 in Orlando

     I love going to the INCM Children’s Pastors Conference! It’s a fantastic time to think and find new ideas and refocus our ministry towards God’s leading. This year at CPC in Orlando was amazing. INCM laid out five key parts of children’s ministry, the “5 Initiatives” as they’re calling them, that they believe are the fundamentals of what we do in the lives of our children. Taking things back to basics, you could say. Each general session covered one of these Initiatives. So, here are the 5 Initiatives and my take-away from the general sessions:

1.       Impart God’s truth to this generation.

Do not underestimate the above sentence. It does not mean “Tell them enough Bible stories.” Are we afraid to tackle tough truths with our kids? Have we watered down or limited the Bible too much in our classrooms?  Kyle Idleman, author of the book “not a fan,” who presented this session said, ”Teaching is not downloading information; kids need to fall in love.” Getting the majority of our kids to remember the days of creation or Ten Commandments or life of David is not our goal. Not that those stories aren’t important, but our kids need more than just stories. They need truth that they can use for offense and defense. They need serious truth that they can use in the challenging times in their life. They need to know that truth is something they should seek after – they should ask the hard questions. Our kids need to fall in love with the Truth.

2.       Provide a safe and relevant environment.

The environment is the first thing that lets kids and parents know how much we care about them and about what we do. It should impress the parents with its organization, assure them of its safety, and still be fun and engaging for the kids. Here are three things all good kidmin environments should have:

a.)    Signs – Good signage is a must. People like to know how to get where they need to go, like the bathroom for instance.

b.)    A means of collecting information – Someone should be collecting information from the parent/guardian: Who will be picking your child up? Does your child have any allergies or health concerns? Where will you be sitting or how can we reach you in an emergency? Etc.

c.)     Emergency plans – All teachers should be aware of the emergency or evacuation plans for power outages, fire, intruder, and medical emergencies plus any disasters that are common in the area such as tornadoes, earthquakes, or tsunamis.

Aside from being safe, we need to make sure that we are giving kids a place where they can have fun and learn and be themselves.

3.       Communicate with families

Parents, guardians, and other family members spend more time with the kids in our ministries and therefore have more influence on those kids than we can ever hope to have. Connecting with families is essential, but don’t stereotype the idea of family ministry. Families don’t need a better picture of what family “should be.” In most cases, the families in our ministries will never be able to become a mom and a dad with 2.4 kids, a dog, and a picket fence. Our families need to know that God is working in and through each family just as it is. Parents need to be encouraged that God has a bigger story to tell in their family, that they will be accepted as a family that God is using, and that they can succeed as the family God made them to be. And, as is true with everything else in our ministries, you, me, we set the example. We must make our own families the most important ministry we will ever be involved in. What does it profit a man to bring many souls to the Kingdom if he loses those he cared about the most?

4.       Network with a community of leaders

Ministry is a marathon not a sprint and most of the time it takes teamwork. We need to look for and ask God to bring into our lives people we can team up with to encourage and inspire and build up each other. In the Information Age networking has become so easy that there really is no excuse for not trying. Join a group on Facebook, get an email pal, find a mentor, and make lunch dates with other kidmins or pastors. Give yourself an outlet and a chance to be a good team member and friend. God never meant for us to go it alone.

5.       Pray for the international children’s ministry community

Prayer is one of the most powerful tools in our arsenal. When we pray, we should not only pray that we can think of a game by Wednesday and that a certain little boy will behave but also for others who are trying to minister just as we are. While we worry about getting a snack for the preschoolers, some churches are worrying about famine. While we worry about having enough volunteers, some are worrying about getting caught attending a secret Bible study. We need to remember the big picture – that the Kingdom is so much bigger than just us. Praying for each other builds connections that reach across continents and into eternity so that their kids become our kids and ours become theirs and God gets the glory for them all.