April 2012 - Childrens Ministry Online

GREAT new song for kidmin!

Posted by Kenny Conley | Ideas | 2

I hopped over to iShine the other day to watch some of the video clips over there. It’s a...

The Eric Trap Blog Tour: Day 4

Posted by Kenny Conley | Ideas, Leadership | 0

Day 4 and already 9 reviews of the Eric Trap. Not bad, huh? I’ve got three more reviews to...

The Eric Trap Blog Tour: Day 3

Posted by Kenny Conley | Ideas, Leadership | 0

Man, we’re really starting to get into this thing.

Today we had two incredible reviews of the book, The Eric Trap. Let me tell you, these people aren’t being paid or encouraged to say what they’re saying. I personally asked about 3-5 people to write reviews and Sam invited 3-5 people as well. Everyone else simply requested a book to review. I had a conversation with Brother Jim last week where he told me that he didn’t know half the people who were going to review the book. We determined that this is a good thing… that’s its not the normal fans who are going to say it’s a great book just because someone’s name is on it.

Task list vs. wish list

Posted by Kenny Conley | Family, Ideas | 3

I’m in the middle of writing an article about family ministry and it made me think of a specific frustration that I and my team experience so many times when it comes to family ministry. I thought I’d post my thoughts here as it isn’t likely this aspect will be covered in the article.

I and my staff team have all sipped the family ministry kool-aid. We’re all believers and have great vision for what family ministry could look like at our church. However, there’s one massive barrier. We’re all so busy doing what it takes to make the weekend experiences successful that there’s not really any time to do some of the things we’ve dreamed of doing.

Eric Trap: First video review

Posted by Kenny Conley | Ideas, Leadership | 0

Several people will be posting video reviews of the Eric Trap over the next few weeks. If they say a picture is worth a thousand words… it probably means a video is worth ten thousand words. Don’t let Paula Dean...

The Eric Trap Blog Tour: Day 2

Posted by Kenny Conley | Ideas, Leadership | 0

Now we’re getting somewhere! Today the blog tour jumped to the next level with three different reviews. Trust me, it’s going to get a little nuts these next few weeks. Just wait until the week the book comes out!

Actually last night, Rob Livingston wrote a great post starting off day two. Rob is a bi-vocational kid’s pastor… a school teacher in Sweet Home Alabama. He and I broke bread (or tacos) at Chuy’s here in Austin 8 months ago and I think I made a friend forever by sending him on to eat the best BBQ brisket he’d ever tasted. The funny thing is that Rob didn’t have a blog 10 days ago when he requested a copy of the book… perhaps the Eric Trap prompted a new habit? I hope so! I liked Rob’s review a lot. He described how at one point he got really excited about a decision Eric made thinking, “finally, he got something right!” only to find out that this too was a bad decisions. This illustrates a story we wanted to tell.

Make it Count

Posted by Kenny Conley | Leadership, Random | 1

I came across this video yesterday. You never know if cool videos like this are really legit, or if even this “off the cuff” idea was developed in a corporate think tank. Regardless, I loved it.

I enjoyed the idea, all the great quotes and the adventure. It did challenge me to ask the same question. Am I making it count? Am I taking risks? Probably not nearly enough. Enjoy the video below.

The real Eric Newman

Posted by Kenny Conley | Ideas, Leadership | 0

Sam Luce wrote a great post yesterday about the Eric Trap book. For a great behind the scenes scoop on the book, check it out.

However, as you read this book, I know that some of you may ask, “Who is Eric Newman really?” Is he a real person? Did you and Sam have someone in mind as you told his story? Hmmmm, maybe. Yes… but we’ll never tell.

But what we will tell you is that you’re asking the right question but looking for the wrong answer.

Google Calendar, Contacts Mail and the iPhone

Posted by Kenny Conley | Geek | 5

As I write this, I’m expecting Jonathan Cliff to write a comment saying I’m making this too complicated and that I’m doing this all wrong, but I thought I’d share some of the technology frustrations I encountered today and how I fixed them.

One of the greatest leaps in technology in recent years was the ability to share my work calendar with my wife. No longer did we have to have long conversations of when I might be available, but instead, she’d just make appointments on my calendar for me.While I was on a PC, there were some good syncing apps between outlook (what I used) and google calendars (what she used). When I switched to a Mac, it got hard again. Then when we switched to Google Apps at Gateway, all was well. However, now my wife uses her iPhone 90% of the time rather than her computer.

For the past 18 months (at least), Sara has had an iPhone and she’s had access to my calendar and all has been well. However, for the past 2-3 months, she’s not had access to my calendar. I’m not sure what happened, maybe Apple or Google changed something.

The Eric Trap Blog Tour Begins

Posted by Kenny Conley | Ideas, Leadership | 0

So, today is the beginning of the three week blog tour for Kidmin’s newest resource, The Eric Trap. Last night, Jim Wideman shared a little of the “behind the scenes” look into how The Eric Trap came about. It’s certainly worth the read. Brother Jim has published several books over the years, but this one is the second book produced through his Infuse coaching program.

To start things off today, Jenny Funderburke posted her review of The Eric Trap. We picked her to start this tour because she’s been intimately involved in the project.