Archive for March, 2009
Christian fiction recommendation
Posted on 27. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
Some of my favorite books of all time include the Lord of the Rings trilogy by Tolkien and Chronicles of Narnia series by Lewis. I’m a big fan of the fantasy genre.
Michael Warden is an accomplished author and happens to be on staff at Gateway. Actually he works part time at Gateway (he develops leaders and leadership material for other leaders. He is also a life coach. In addition to all of this, he’s an author of several books. One of his books just won a spot in the top ten of 2008 from the Christian Fiction Review earning it one of the “Best of 2008. It was one of only eight books to get a 10/10 review. It’s the book “Waymaker,” the second book in his series called The Pearlsong Refounding.
If you’re interested in some good reading, click on the links below to pick up your own copies of “Waymaker
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Blog maitenance: kill me now!
Posted on 26. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
For the last few months I’ve been cleaning up my blog. I found some SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tools that are amazing, however it has required me to go back and update every post. In additon, I didn’t start tagging my posts unitl about five months ago. So, I’ve been going back and creatining tags for past blog posts. Yes, this is taking a very long time. I just updated two pages of post on my admin screen. That’s 30 separate posts. It took two hours.
I have 14 pages left, or 210 inidvidual blog posts. Yeah, about 14 more hours of cleanup. Once I’m done with this clean up, I’ll be updating my categories and moving my blog to the root directory. That shouldn’t really take very long. Once all this junk is done, I’ll relaunch with my pretty new blog theme I purchased six weeks ago. I can’t wait. Again, I’m planning to have this all done a few weeks before Orange, so I’ll keep at it.
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Things our grandkids will never understand
Posted on 22. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
I don’t even remember how I found this page. However, it made me laugh.
Seriously, do I even need to make a connection to Children’s Ministry? If you were using a tool 5-10 years ago, are kids still identifying with it today.
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Unleash your blogging potential
Posted on 21. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
Okay, don’t laugh at me. This post was inspired from Tony Morgan’s breakout at the 2008 Unleash. Yeah, the 2008 conference. Yes the 2009 conference was last week… I’m just a little behind. No, I didn’t go, but I read Rich Butler’s notes from the breakout a year ago and I saved this as a draft and have been putting off writing this post. I’m not really sure why, but I’m glad I did.
Here are the main points:
1. Determine your primary audience.
2. Post regularly.
3. Keep your post short.
4. Don’t sell yourself.
5. Use Humor
6. Stop Attacking other people and ministries on your blog. (Hurt people, hurt people!)
7. Remember blogging isn’t private.
8. Be a thought leader.
9. Don’t listen to your critiques until you know their heart and motivation.
10. Reveal the real you.
In the last year I’ve seen the audience to this blog triple. I’m no expert at all, but I’ve seen these things work. Here’s my take on Tony’s notes:
1. Determine your primary audience. He’s right. Seth Godin talks about this a lot on his blog. Find your niche. Honestly, there aren’t that many Children’s Pastors out there blogging (more now than ever, but the market isn’t saturated).
2. Post regularly. This is a big one. I see my audience grow most when I’m posting at least 5-7 times a week. Oddly enough, I see a huge surged when I take a week or two off and then slam out 2-3 weeks of 1-2 posts a day. Although, I think the better pace to to post ahead of time and not take any breaks in blogging.
3. Keep your post short. I suck at this. My wife is a skimmer and I know there are a lot of skimmers out there. She doesn’t read all of my long posts and she’s my wife, so I know the other skimmers aren’t either. When I’ve got longer posts, I try to make a series out of it, chopping it up into bite-sized chunks.
4. Don’t sell yourself. I’m assuming he’s talking about self-promotion. I’d agree with this. You can tell when you meet someone who’s really taken with himself. I don’t want to be that guy. I was probably over-cautious on this originally until Karl Bastian recommended that I put my profile on the blog as he couldn’t even figure out who was the author. I figured that if you’ve got good stuff to say, people will figure out who you are.
5. Use Humor. Funny blogs are certainly more fun.
6. Stop Attacking other people and ministries on your blog. (Hurt people, hurt people!) Honestly, I haven’t encountered too much of this in other places and see no value in this. The only criticism I’ll put out there is on a product and I’m not afraid to be honest with my opinions on a product or resource.
7. Remember blogging isn’t private. My wife helps me remember this one. There is a line between “authenticity” and TMI. Many posts have been edited or deleted after they’ve been published. Seriously, my wife makes me so much better than I am on my own.
8. Be a thought leader. You know, every now and again inspiration hits and I’ll have a stinkin’ cool idea (It doesn’t always come naturally. Ha!. I publish it and bam, my audience spikes, comments are left and new ideas and thoughts are generated. It doesn’t happen all the time, but once it does, it’s really fun. It challenges me to think about my posts a little more. Anyone can blog about what they’re doing, but it takes some forethought to push the envelope with new and creative ideas.
9. Don’t listen to your critiques until you know their heart and motivation. It’s like water on a ducks back. Seriously, although it would be fun to read a fight in someone’s comment thread, I think it would be embarrassing to get into it with a commenter. I haven’t had any of this on my blog yet, so this is still theoretical. However, I have a feeling that if you’re not getting some critiques, you’re probably not really pushing the envelope enough.
10. Reveal the real you. This is why I love twitter and why so many people don’t get it. If I’m a reader of your blog, I do want to know who you are. The way we write helps and so does twitter.
Okay, that’s my assessment. Hope it helps.
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When God works in spite of you
Posted on 19. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
I love a good plan. Strategy and tactics, they get the blood pumping. I think that careful planning brings honor to God, but sometimes he like to mess with us and work outside of our plans. If anything, he likes to keep it interesting.
This last Sunday was an exciting day. I found out only three weeks ago that we were having a baptism on April 5th. I immediately booked our only available meeting space on Sunday morning for a baptism class. Unfortunately, I only had 10 days to promote the class. By the time Sunday rolled around, we had about eight kids registered for the 9:30 class and three for the 1:00 class. Recently I modified the format of the baptism class where I allow parents to take the lead. After I spend twenty minutes clearly explaining how one chooses to follow Christ, I leave the room and let the parents review the information and if possibly, lead their children to a decision.
I discovered after the 9:30 class that one mom led two of her children to faith and another mom led her son to faith. Amazing! At the 1:00 service, a mom had me stay after and lead her two daughters to faith. It was a beautiful day. However, it would only get more interesting.
On Sunday the 252 Basics curriculum was setting up for an invitation. Basically on Sunday the verse was, “For the Wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.” We clearly explained what this verse means. Then after the large group time, small group leaders further described how this verse impacted their lives as they shared their testimony of faith. Essentially, this week was setting us up for an invitation next Sunday.
Well, on Sunday night I ended up subbing in as a boys small group leader. After the large group time I had the opportunity to further break down the scripture verse. The service ended up letting out early, so I had to rush. We didn’t completely finish, but we did adequately set up for the big ask next week.
Then on Monday morning I was walking around campus on Monday and one of my co-workers told me how one of his volunteers was so excited about how her son came to faith the night before. “When did he come to faith?” It seems he gave his heart to Christ at church. I was a little confused. I didn’t give an invitation.
Later I emailed the mom. I congratulated her on the good news, but then asked for details. How did this happen? When did this happen? In her answer she found it odd that I was asking these questions because her son said that I was his teacher. Here’s the story:
God has been working in this nine year old boy’s heart for the last several weeks. He’d been asking poignent questions and his mom was thinking about setting up a meeting with me. Then on Sunday as I unpacked this scripture verse, every work spoke to his heart. At some point of me taking and him listening, he surrendered his life to Christ… all by himself. When his mom picked him up from the classroom, his eyes were teary eyed. The first words to his mother were, “my life changed tonight, I feel different, I received God’s gift of life!”
I got the whole story yesterday while on the phone with his mom. The genuineness of this decision has touched my heart. This last week was the set-up and the big ask is in a few days. However, God decided to side-track my plans for this nine year old boy and speak to his heart directly… in his perfect time.
It’s a great thing when your plans all come together and lives are changed; however, it’s another thing all together when God circumvents your plans to do soemthing special without your help at all.
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Don’t get too attached to twitter
Posted on 18. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
I recenly had a conversation with someone who was frustrated that as soon as they got connected on Myspace, everyone started leaving for Facebook. To be honest, social media may not be for those who can’t handle rapid change.
I just read a fascinating article by Steve Rubel titled “Twitter is Peaking.” This guy is an authority in this kind of stuff and he offers some great insight into twitter’s life cycle. One of the things he said is
“As I have written before, no community has ever had staying power. Twitter right now is poised to fall victim to the same trend.”
I love Twitter and would hate to see it go, but serioulsy, something better is right around the corner. Are you ready to change?
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Child Dedicaiton: Conclusion
Posted on 18. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
Either I was really thorough or I beat a dead horse. I’ll let you decide, just don’t tell me. 
So, I’ve been very specific on how we’ve morphed our Child Dedication and all of its components. What we did last week was by far the best dedication I’ve been a part of, but there is still room to tweak. So, here are things I’m considering for the dedication we’re doing in May.
- Registration will stay the same. Parents will register online to attend the class and after the class, they’ll need to register the children. To make things easier, I’ll log a computer into Fellowship One and allow families to register their children that night.
- I’m thinking of creating a closer connection with the pastors/leaders and the families they pray for. I’m thinking of having them come to the child dedication class and be a table leader and guide the discussion. Then at the dedication, they’ll pray over the families making the dedication much more personal. Last of all, I’d like this pastor/leader to follow-up in some way with the family 2-3 times in the months following dedication (or at least hand them off to a small group leader).
- Since I do preregister for the Prep for Child Dedication class, I’ll assign seats and put families with similar aged kids or families who live in closer proximity to each other at the same tables.
- For the dedication we’ll double the number of pastors/leaders to pray over their children so that the prayer time will last 15-20 minutes max instead of 30-40.
- Rather than have all the families hang around after the prayer time, we’ll let the families go out to the lobby to have their pictures taken by one of our photographers and receive their certificate and Bible.
- Currently we give out a cheap gift Bible and I’m not really impressed with it at all. I’d love to find a nicer Bible that the family will treasure over the years.
Oh, I’ve got one more big thing to share. Two days ago my new blogging friend Ned posted about the way they do Dedications. I love it and he does several elements that I’m going to incorporate, especially their dedication book. WOW. Check out his post here.
So, thanks or taking this Child Dedication journey with me. I’ve learned a lot both from this experience as well as the feedback you’ve posted. Don’t be afraid to change, mix it up. For many churches, any change would be a move in the right direction. Above all, avoid the “Dog and Pony Show!” Capture the hearts of your parents now and give them the tools to start spiritually leading their kids NOW!
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Child Dedication: Feedback
Posted on 17. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
I feel the best way to grow and learn is to ask people their opinion. As much as I can, I like to build in a review process to events, classes and experiences. Since we made so many changes to the Child Dedication this time around, I really craved feedback. Below are the questions I asked:
Tell me about your Prep for Child Dedication Class experience.
What did you like? What didn’t you like?
What do I need to keep the same and what do I need to change?
Was the information in the class helpful?
Did the material inspire further questions following the class?
Tell me about the dedication experience.
What did you like?
What didn’t you like?
What do I need to keep the same and what do I need to change?
Did you feel that the experience was personable?
How did it meet or fail to meet or exceed expectations?
Tell me about the pre-dedication experience.
How did you find out that we had a dedication coming up? Was it from one of my emails or the church program/slide?
What it difficult/inconvenient to register for the class and/or dedication?
Here are some of the answers we got back:
Tell me about your Prep for Child Dedication Class experience.
What did you like? What didn’t you like?
- I loved the table communication.
- It was all great, I especially liked the discussion questions – I realized that my situation or upbringing is not that different. I liked the fact you had childcare as well.
- We liked everything except the time frame. It cut into little one’s bed times so that made it a bit hectic and antsy toward the end.
- I really enjoyed talking to the other couples so the group discussion was really great. It’s always nice to hear other christian couples opinion on child rearing. Maybe the time of night? 5:30 or 6:00 would have been a little easier with the baby situation.
What do I need to keep the same and what do I need to change?
- Everything was great! Maybe next time you could assign seats at the tables based on age of the child being dedicated. That would help conversation flow more easily.
- Like I mentioned before, we found the class to be very motivating, inspiring, and it really filled us with the Spirit.
- I thought the message was really great. Enjoyed learning the statistics about leading children to to Christ. Very enlightening.
Was the information in the class helpful?
- Yes. I liked the statistics and the breakdown of the bible verse.
- Yes, I think that it’s always good to hear different points of view as far as the table topics went.
Did the material inspire further questions following the class?
- Yes…my husband and I talked a lot about how to bring God into our home with our children throughout the day rather than just before bedtime.
- It was just what we needed. I’m trying to make this short for you, so I’ll leave it at that.
- It challenged me to do more for my family and give them the information they need by exposing them to the bible. And I can be educated too just by reading a kids bible!
- Yes! A statement that was so simple yet so profound was “it takes a village to raise a child” and we really agreed with that. It prompted us to invite not only our family but some of our closest friends because they too will be influences in our children’s lives and it’s a great way to let them know how we are choosing to raise our child.
Tell me about the dedication experience.
What did you like? What didn’t you like?
- I liked the fact that the dedication was not on a Sunday evening because that meant more family could make it. (theoretically, anyway) I didn’t really like how individual it was – I like the feeling of doing the dedication as a part of the church body.
- I loved the slideshow! The whole experience was very special for my family.
- I liked the fact that you included the entire family and friends in the actual prayer/dedication of the child. I also liked the slideshow – that made it even more personal for the family to see the children
- I THOUGHT THE DEDICATION FORMAT WAS GREAT. I’M SURE IT’S HARD TO PERSONALIZE THE EXPERIENCE WHEN THERE ARE A LOT OF CHILDREN. I KNOW THE LEADER ASKED EVERYONE TO RETURN TO THEIR SEATS BUT BECAUSE KIDS GET ANTSY AFTER A FEW MINUTES, IT WAS HARD TO KEEP THEM SEATED AND STILL FOR AN HOUR. NOT SURE IF YOU WOULD WANT TO LIMIT THE # OF KIDS SO IT DOESN’T GO THE FULL HOUR…
THE AC DEFINITELY NEEDED TO BE TURNED ON SOONER. IT WAS PRETTY WARM IN THERE WHICH MADE OUR CREW A LITTLE HOT (AND FUSSY!) - I loved the message, and the video was awesome! Great touch. Thought the message at the end was a little lengthy strictly because our little guy became very restless after we had our family prayer.
- I liked the group prayer that my family and kids got to share with John, our group leader.
- I liked that he was interested in our next steps to help guide our children down the right path.
- I enjoyed the initial music, but with kids present, I would limit it to one song. Kids get antsy, quick.
What do I need to keep the same and what do I need to change?
- Totally think that each family should still be prayed for individually. Maybe you can somehow incorporate a little ‘be the body’ action at church the next morning?
- We weren’t sure if we were supposed to leave after our children were dedicated or if we were supposed to wait until everyone had gone. Everything else was wonderful!
- It was nice having it on a Saturday as well, that allowed my out of town family to participate. I would maybe make it at 10am, instead of 11am. That is usually the time young kids eat and get down for naps – atleast mine do.
- I LIKED THE FORMAT. WE LOVED THE PICTURES UP ON THE SCREEN.
- If there is any way possible I would try to keep it at 45 minutes?? Just due to the amount of babies etc. But overall we really enjoyed it!
Did you feel that the experience was personable?
- It was very personable. Cathy made us feel very comfortable while the children were being dedicated. I especially liked that she prayed for purity and the future spouses of my children.
- No, the class was small and intimate but the actual dedication, not so much. Maybe the folks that were appointed to pray with each family should be their “family mentor”, and check up on them every few months or so?
- I did feel it was personable once we made it to the stage for the personal prayer.
How did it meet or fail to meet or exceed expectations?
- It greatly exceeded my expectations! I attended a child dedication a few years ago for one of my friends, and this one was much more personal. You did a great job!!
- I wasn’t sure what to expect. Having the 4 groups up at the same time kept the time there to a minimum but made it personal as well. We all know kids have a very short attention span and it worked well.
Tell me about the pre-dedication experience.
How did you find out that we had a dedication coming up? Was it from one of my emails or the church program/slide?
- My husband inquired about it and then we were sent notices via email.
- I inquired about it before a date was actually set, because I had heard about the previous one.
- church program
What it difficult/inconvenient to register for the class and/or dedication?
- No
- My husband had registered via email for the class and when I arrived I was not on the list – not sure if he received the info to register for the class online or if he assumed he was registered since he told someone we would be there.
- It was very convenient.
- ALL GOOD HERE.
- No problem at all. The follow up email was nice to because it let us know our information was received.
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REGISTER FOR ORANGE TODAY!
Posted on 17. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
Have you been thinking about registering for Orange? You might want to do so today. ReThink is offering a St. Patrick’s Day special today. 2909 people have already registered and the goal is to get to 3,000 today.
Here’s what’s happening:
If we get up to 3,000 today, then I’ll give the church that registers person number 3,000 four free registrations to the conference AND preconference. I’ll either refund them the cost of 4 people or give them passes for 4 additional people. It’ll be their lucky day.
There is nothing people need to do to participate…I’ll be watching the numbers and if we get to that number today, then I’ll post the winner on the Orange website news feed tomorrow. But this is only good if we hit that number today!
If only 4-leaf clovers were Orange….dang it!
So, stop procrastinating. Register today!
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Buzz around “End of Evangelicalism”
Posted on 16. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
That’s a really long word and sometimes tricky to say.
Last week this article created quite a buzz around the blogosphere. If you haven’t read it or heard about it, crawl out from under that rock you’ve been hiding under and give it a read.
Sam Luce published a great post about it the other day.
Sam, Henry, Michael and I recorded a new podcast specifically talking about this article and it’s impact on Children’s Ministry.
Here are several other articles that were published in reaction to this information (these were provided to me by Henry Zonio):
Study results that original article was based on.
USAToday’s take on the study
Ed Stetzer Post #1
Ed Stetzer Post #2
Ed Stetzer Post #3
Article from the George Barna Group
Christianity Today Article
Just being honest here. After reading this stuff, it causes me to give more thought to the short series I wrote about doctrine a few weeks ago. One of the causes for so many leaving the faith is that they aren’t ever really getting it. I stand my by thought that intentional theology is certainly needed.
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