New Territory!

     Hello Kidmins! It has been a very fun but challenging month for me. Our kidmin team at our church (Lake Gibson Church of the Nazarene) decided to write our own VBS curriculum this year! After a couple months of meetings and brainstorming, we finally buckled down and started putting it all together - decorating, forms, lesson plans - the whole kit and caboodle. All of us at Rock, Paper, Scissors were thrilled to work on this project and expand our creativity and pick up some new skills. Writing curriculum is something that we have never done before. Most of us tweak our curricula to suit our kids or teaching styles, but writing your own from scratch is a much more daunting task. I've learned so much this past month. I'll be praying about it and putting together a series of posts about what I've learned about writing curricula, so if you've ever wondered whether writing your own curriculum is right for you, check back often. If you have any comments or questions, shoot us an e-mail. I look forward to sharing with you all!

Social Saturdays: 5/5

Want to see what we're following for ideas and encouragement? We'll be posting our favorite tweets, articles, and media from the week! I hope they help you, too.

Blog Posts:
- Matt Mckee: Orange Conference 2012: Great Quotes
- Relevant Children's Ministry: Brad and Angelina, Kids and Marriage
- Ministry-to-Children.com: Giveaway: Angry Birds Curriculum from CMD

Tweets:
  
-Dale Hudson ‏ @dalehudsoncm

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible!" - Walt Disney

 

-Crystal Narrow ‏ @CrystalNarrow

Whyyyyyyyyyy wasn't this book out years ago? #kidmin #erictrapcaught myself several times banging it on my head ... aha moments a plenty!

 

-Ryan Frank ‏ @r_frank

#kidmin leadership nugget: Kids are like clocks, they are made to run!

 

-Wisdomalive ‏ @wisdomalive

#Passion is the fuel for action. Habit, although sustaining, can only take you so far before you need to "fill-up."

Friday's Find: Five Fantastic Freebies

     There is no excuse for not taking advantage of free trials and curriculum samples...Unless of course you don't know about them.

     This week I'm filling in the marketing gap to tell you about five sites that are currently offering some awesome downloadable freebies from media and handouts to entire lessons:

• CMD - Children's Ministry Deals: Their "Free Deals" page has some fun media, music, and object lessons.
• Answers in Genesis Store: In promotion of their new Sunday school kits (available June 15), Answers in Genesis is offering a free Teacher Guide and Student Take Home Sheet in every age group. If you like what you find, keep poking around their inventory; you might find a few other freebies.
• Hillsong Kids BIG: Hillsong Kids is offering an entire free lesson on worship for you to test out their new series entitled Supernatural.
• River's Edge Curriculum: River's Edge offers one complete lesson of almost all of their series for free just for you to see if you like it. Free for Elementary  Free for Preschool
• Orange Curriculum: Fill out a quick registration form, and Orange will let you try a few weeks (and  months of some curricula) of their age-appropriate curricula for free. If you're wondering what the all the buzz is about, here is your chance to find out. (You might have to temporarily allow pop-ups to view this site. Don't worry; your browser will prompt you if that is the case.)

Ideas for a Family Movie Night

     Looking for inspiration for a family event? We recently put together a successful, themed Family Movie Night at our church.

     We sent out postcards and flyers to advertise and took orders for pizza for each family that signed up. (We asked that each family that ordered pizza pay $5 to cover the cost, but admission to the movie was free. We also provided a free snack and dessert.)We decided to show the movie Dolphin Tale, so we decorated our eating and viewing areas with island and ocean decorations that we had leftover from some camps and VBSs. We encouraged people to bring their beach chairs and gave prizes to kids who came dressed in tropical or beach themed outfits (not swimsuits). We also found some free activity sheet and parent guide on Focus on the Family's PluggedIn. Here's the link and some photos:

http://www.pluggedin.com/~/media/PIO/PDF/MovieNights/Kids/2011/DolphinTale.pdf

Inspired? Got any questions? Drop us a comment or e-mail. We'd love to have a conversation and share ideas with you.

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!

Book Review: The Eric Trap

     Eric Newman's children's ministry is suddenly falling apart. What is happening? He thought he was doing everything right. Is this a sign that he needs to throw in the towel and move on?

     Alternating chapters of heartfelt storytelling and real world advice, The Eric Trap is a sneaky little weapon to have in your leadership arsenal. Despite it's slim spine and down-to-earth style, this book is deep in thought and fearless at tackling the heart of the problem. This is a great book for leaders of many ages and season's. Expect it to teach, enlighten, and maybe even heal. Regardless of how many conferences you've been to or how many leadership books you've read, you will fall into one of the five traps that Eric Newman did, and you will need the heartfelt advice in this honest, handy little book.

     The Eric Trap was written by ministry peers who have drawn from their own experience and Biblical knowledge to highlight five things that are sure to trip up every ministry leader. Their advice on overcoming these pitfalls is honest and practical. They encourage us and challenge us to reevaluate the health of our leadership. The importance of overcoming these ministry traps is illustrated by the story of Eric Newman interspersed throughout the book.

     Don't be fooled by the cover - the story of Eric Newman is neither cute nor funny and does not include any furry animals as the whimsical cartoon and use of the word "fable" might suggest. The struggles of the overwhelmed Eric, his floundering ministry, and dissatisfied family are incredibly real, and may, in fact, be too real for many of us. But it is Eric's true-to-life reality that reminds us of the urgency of our calling and the severity of our potential failure.

     Despite parts of Eric's story being a bit depressing, I did enjoy reading and learning from The Eric Trap. Chapter 2: Leadership Under Authority was especially insightful for me, and Mr. Wideman's conclusion was a perfect ending. I deeply appreciated all of the authors' efforts to write about leadership within the context of one's relationship with Christ and the local church (as opposed to a business or management context - you'd be surprised how many ministry-help books leave Christ more or less out of the equation). I highly recommend it to ministry rookies and veterans alike.

A NOTE TO SMALL MINISTRY LEADERS: I understand where you are coming from. Although Eric's ministry is in upheaval, parts of it might still sound like a dream ministry to you - small group leaders, an electronic check-in system, a separate preschool department, an office of his own. Don't be tempted to compare or say that the advice in this book can't help you right now. Eric could not handle his growing ministry because he did not understand the principles outlined in this book. If you try to put these principles into practice now, you will be able to handle your ministry far more effectively than Eric did whenever and however the growth comes. You can still learn from this book.

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!