April 2013 - Childrens Ministry Online

The Orange Conference App

Posted by Kenny Conley | Geek, Ideas | 0

Hey, check it out. Orange just released a new app just in time for the Conference a little less than 2 weeks away. It does exactly what you want in a conference app.

Schedule and Map

Probably the two most important parts of an app. What breakout are happening and where can I find them. The app gives you a macro level view of the entire campus and then a micro level of each building. No more fumbling for paper maps and schedules. You’ll look like a pro as you navigate your way around Orange with your iPhone.

Oh, and what could be even cooler than this? Log in and all the breakouts you already signed up for show up. Change your mind and you want to attend another breakout? You can do it right there in the app. Make the change and it updates your account with Orange. Awesome!

Speaker bios and Live Streaming

Want to know more about that guy who is leading the breakout that is so freaking awesome? There’s a great section where you can find those speakers, read their bio and then send them a tweet or visit their blog.

Lastly, there’s a section for live streaming. Let’s be real, if you’re at Orange, what’s the point of live streaming… and we know how stellar internet performance is when there are 5000 people all tweeting, facebooking and instagraming at the event, but if you’re not at Orange… how perfect is this?

Last but not least

You Android or Windows Phone users aren’t going to be happy. This is an iPhone only app. Sorry. 🙁

Download the app here!

Good Friday Family Event: Lambs and Donkeys

Posted by Kenny Conley | Family | 0

We held two stations outside and they were huge hits. A donkey riding station and a little lamb petting zoo.

Donkey Walk

With the Donkey Walk, we wanted to introduce the part of the story where Jesus came into Jerusalem on a donkey. Funny thing, when I wrote the material for the passport, I imagined a wobbly little donkey. The donkey’s we got were beasts. Now they were stubborn and difficult like donkeys can be, but they weren’t little or wobbly.

The passport guided families around this experience but I’m not going to lie. The only thing kids had on their mind at the Donkey Walk was getting on a donkey. It was fun and highly attractional. The only problem we ran into was that some people parked their cars, saw the line forming and decided to jump in line before getting the passport. Initially, we had some volunteers make an issue of it… and some people were bothered. We had to make sure our volunteers understood that it was best to direct people inside before they got in line if at all possible, but it wasn’t the end of the world if a kid did the Donkey Walk before they got the passport. Some of those kids got their arm or hand stamped instead.

Spotless Lamb Petting Corral

This was just your typical run of the mill petting zoo, but we only had lambs. We didn’t make a big deal out of it, just let kids into the corral to pet them. We didn’t want to push the envelope telling all the kids that it was lambs like this that were slaughtered for your sins, but we didn’t avoid the subject either. This mostly all came together in the final station, the Meaning of the Mystery. We did try to tell the story of how Jesus came into the temple where there was chaos as all the merchants were trying to sell lambs for the sacrifice.

These two outdoor venues were the most expensive part of the whole experience, costing a little over $1500 for the four hours. Totally worth it though if you can make it happen.

Google Fiber: This make me very, very, very happy

Posted by Kenny Conley | Geek, Random | 0

It was recently announced that Austin, TX is going to get Google Fiber. Yes, Google Fiber!

Most of you are probably asking, what the heck is Google Fiber. You can read the wiki page here.

Essentially, Google Fiber is an experimental broadband network that will offer internet at a rate of 100 times faster than what most people have coming into their house. 100 times faster, that’s crazy!

Over a year ago, Google announced a competition with more than 1000 cities of who was going to get it first. Well, Kansas City, KS is on the top of the list, followed by Austin, TX. As of now, Google hasn’t revealed plans to bring fiber anywhere else.

This article explains why Google may not bring it anywhere else. The thought is that Google has no intention of getting into the broadband delivery market, but by doing this experiment, it pushes the other internet providers to innovate and compete. Essentially, Google wants everyone to have faster internt. The faster interent we have, the more YouTube videos we watch, the more ads we see and the more money Google makes.

Google will be offering 3 options for internet:

Free broadband
A 1 Gigabit up and 1 Gigabit down plan for $70
A 1 Gigabit up and 1 Gigabit down plan that includes TV for $120

Not too shabby. There’s no guarantee that Google Fiber will come to my neighborhood, but I’ve got my fingers crossed.

I liked this Q & A answer on the Google Fiber page:

Question: Why is Google Fiber coming to Austin?

Answer: Austin is known globally as a mecca for creative and entrepreneurial people, including musicians, artists, tech companies, and the University of Texas and its new medical research hospital to name a few. High-speed ubiquitous connectivity can make an immediate impact on the work of all of these groups. When we were originally choosing where to bring Fiber in 2010, Austin had one of the most enthusiastic responses. Austin city leaders have worked hard to make this possible, and we’re excited to be here.

I love this town for so many reason, here’s to one more!

Good Friday Family Event: Passport and Event Guide

Posted by Kenny Conley | Family | 2

I’ve been writing about our Good Friday Family Event. Below are the documents that were essential to the event. One was the passport that every kid received. It guided them through the whole experience. It was connected to the Good Friday Event Guide which had info on all the stations, both for just adults and families. This guide had descriptions of the family stations, but more importantly, it included a map.

Also, a few hours before the event, we sent an email out to every parent in our database with a final invite to our Good Friday experience along with a link to these documents, so that way they could have a digital copy on them while they were there.

We’ve got some ideas of how to morph this for next year, going more digital, but I’ll wrap up this series with things we’re thinking about for next year. Below are the documents.

Good Friday Family Event: Orientation Video

Posted by Kenny Conley | Family, Ideas | 0

When people walked on the campus, they were directed to the kid’s building if they had kids. Once they were greeted at the door, they had the opportunity to check in their younger kids (4 and under) into childcare and all others were pointed toward the “Journey through the Passion” orientation. We wanted to make sure that everyone understood what was going to happen this night, how to use the passport and what they needed to make sure they did in case they didn’t have time to do it all.

The orientation video was a four minute video with a 3 minute countdown on the front end. The first orientation began right at 5:00 (when the event started), meaning the orientation video began playing at 5:03. As soon as the video was over, families were escorted out the back of the building where they could access some of the stations while new families came into the orientation room through the front doors. We ran the orientation every 10 minutes from 5:00 until 7:20 (I think) so that even if a family came right near the end, they could at least visit one or two stations before everything shut down at 8:00.

Here’s the video:

KQ Good Friday Experience from Gateway Church on Vimeo.

Good Friday Family Event

Posted by Kenny Conley | Family, Ideas | 0

A little over a week ago, we hosted a Good Friday event for families at Gateway. It was amazing and I want to share how and what we did to pull it offer. First though, let me give you some of the background.

I’ve been at Gateway for just under 5 years and this is the third year since I’ve been at Gateway that we’ve done anything on Good Friday. They began with a Programing and Arts Director that came to Gateway just over three years ago. The first year, it was just a service. We offered children’s programing for kids up to 5th grade because the content in the service was too mature for kids. It was a great service and it felt good to be doing something for our people on Good Friday. Last year we made a switch to provide a “come and go” multi sensory experience. People arrived on the campus and were handed a map and a schedule and encouraged to hit as many things as they had time for. There was a service with communion. there was a space that showed short films, there was an art gallery, there was a room with prayer stations and there were displays with diagrams and replicas of the spikes and whips used on Jesus along with several other venues.

Last year, we pulled the trigger a little late for this Good Friday experience and didn’t have the time we would have like to plan a similar venues and events for kids/families. So, we had childcare up to age 4 and two scheduled events for families. It was okay. Because things were planned so late, I wasn’t even able to attend due to a prior engagement. However, the experience planted a seed to do something really significant this year… and that is what we did.