Archive for 'Inspiration'
A free and highly accessible kidmin resource
Posted on 31. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.
I’ve learned that most kid’s pastors I’ve met are highly resourceful. They’re always looking for great new resources and the cheaper it is, the better. If it’s free, well that’s incredible.
So, I figured that all the resourceful kidmin peeps who read this blog would be interested in this great free resource. Are you ready for this?
Really?
Here goes….
It’s called following #kidmin on twitter.
Wait a second, before you bail on this blog post, hear me out. Some of you have refused to get on twitter because you’ve not seen it’s relevance to your life or you don’t need another social media element in your life. I totally get that. However, you don’t have to sell your soul to Zuckerberg to get a twitter account (yes, I know Zuckerberg is with facebook, not twitter) and signing up for an account doesn’t mean you have to use it an the traditional way. Whatever resistance you might have toward getting on twitter is keeping you from joining the most active and relevant conversation in kid’s ministry today. Every day hundreds of kidmin leader join in the conversation. Many are just being conversational, while others ask questions and seek answers. Some are selling a product or resource and dozens of others are linking to relevant and current articles on their blogs. It’s a wealth of information right at your fingertips, and it’s free and effortless.
If you subscribe to a ministry magazine or enjoy reading and experiencing new ministry ideas, then following #kidmin on twitter is perfect for you.
So, here’s how you do it.
- Go to twitter.com and create an account.
- Don’t forget your username and passord, otherwise you won’t be able to long in and follow your twitter feed.
- In the top right corner of the page, you will see a search bar. Just type in #kidmin
That’s it. That’s all there is to it. You’ll see a never ending list of tweets starting with the most current. Click on links to read posts, visit site or whatever they send you to. Experience and learn. Who knows, maybe you’ll decide at some point to interact.
You can also download the twitter app for iPhone or android. It’s free and you can search #kidmin there as well.
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Systems help you win
Posted on 30. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.
One of the things I’ve learned most this year from the books I’ve been reading is the critical nature of systems. I’m absolutely convinced that systems help you win. You can be a great leader with a lot of charisma, but if you don’t have solid systems, you’ll never maintain what you want to achieve, if you even get there in the first place. I mentioned this in a post a few weeks ago along with the books I’ve read this year that supported this idea.
So, a few weeks ago I rented the movie Moneyball. I don’t like baseball, but I LOVED this movie. I saw incredible application of both systems and leading through change told through this movie, which was based on a true story.
Here’s the trailer to the movie. Pay special attention to what happens from 20 seconds in until 1:10 seconds, but the entire clip gives you the big idea.
Essentially the story revolved around how and underdog team without adequate resources could look at the game of baseball differently and actually compete with the bigest organizations in the league. It required less of looking at “star” players and the high caliber (and costly) skills they brought to the team and looking at the nuts and bolts of what each player contributed to the game. Basically, they were looking at individuals who could consistently get on base. If you have enough people who can get on base, eventually you’ll get enough people making it home and the more people you have making it home, the higher your chance of winning the game. This systematic approach toward the game of baseball turned the A’s from a team with little hope to a winning team. Catch the movie, it’s a great one.
The application toward ministry is simple. Just because your church doesn’t have a multi-million dollar kid’s facility doesn’t mean it can’t be a winning ministry. Just because your ministry doesn’t have skilled and polished communicators doesn’t mean it can’t be an incredible experience for families. Even if there is no staff and very little money, a systematic approach may be the strategy that leads you toward a winning season.
Define your wins? Usually they’re a lot smaller than we like to think. Forget about the “star players,” but take stock in what each person on your team can do and have them exert their energy toward your wins, doing what they do best. When this is done consistently over the long haul, you’ll win. We have to redefine our image os success and put people to work… on a system to see the long term winning results.
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The birth of Kidmin
Posted on 30. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.
I’m always intrigued the origin of things. Why we say certain words or how names come about. What’s even more interesting is when you see the origin of something new right before your eyes. A handful of children’s pastors saw the very thing happen almost three years ago… the birth of “Kidmin.”
At this point, the term kidmin is still catching on, but I suspect that will change in the coming years and perhaps more people will refer to children’s ministry as kidmin as opposed to… well, children’s ministry.
For those of you who are new to this blog or the greater “kidmin” conversation, let me tell you how this whole thing got started.
I first became involved in children’s ministry as a four year old… back in 1981 and ever since then, I’ve been involved in the ministry either as a participant, a junior volunteer or as a ministry leader. From my perspective, ministry leaders began referring to children’s ministry as kid’s ministry about 5-10 years ago. It seems to be a more casual term, probably more appealing to the older kids in the ministry who prefer being called kids as opposed to dear little children. In the last 5-7 years, I met more and more people referring to themselves as kids pastors, referring to their children’s program as kid’s church and beginning to use the term “kids” in their ministry environment names.
Step forward to 2007… the birth of twitter. I knew one or two people on twitter in the early days, but it wasn’t until the winter/spring of 2008 that people in ministry really started to use twitter as a way of communicating. It was a great way to follow ministry leaders from all around the nation… and world.
Then something changed in February of 2009. For almost a year, hashtags were growing in popularity as a way of categorizing tweets. This allowed people to follow specific conversations, even among people they did not follow or know. I remember experiencing the superbowl on February 1st in a way that I never had before. I was supposed to go to a church party, but with a sick wife, I stayed home to enjoy the game. I ended up thoroughly enjoying the game through a fun conversation of dozens of ministry friends on twitter. It was more fun reading everyone’s color commentary of the game, commercials and half time show than just watching the game alone. The superbowl hashtag made following this conversation so easy.
The next day, @johnincolorado (John Mullis) sent me a message asking me if Children’s Ministry had a hashtag. He was one of the folks in the conversation during the superbowl. I was unaware of any exclusive hashtag, so I threw out the question on my blog here.
Be sure to read the comments. You’ll see the birth of kidmin there. Several suggestions were made such as kidsmin, cmin and even a simple CM. As the comments came in, kidmin seemed to stick. Interestingly, several other ministry leaders who didn’t necessarily comment on this post began adding the hashtag to their tweets and before the day was over, #kidmin had been adopted. Within weeks, we were referring to Children’s Ministry as kidmin as well. That’s how it all started. I must say though, I’d wish I could actually see the first tweet containing #kidmin, but twitter doesn’t make tweets available to search past a few weeks.
Since then, at least one book has been published using the term and even a conference. I remember Chris Jones saying that Group named the new conference Kidmin because, “That’s what you guys call children’s ministry now.”
So, there you have it. It was interesting to see this new terminology evolve and will be interesting to see how pervasive it becomes in the coming years.
Hey, don’t forget to help us celebrate kidmin’s third birthday. Go here for details.
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Make it easy for parents to win!
Posted on 25. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.
I think my last big take-away from the Orange Tour was this little concept.
Make it easy for parents to win!
In Think Orange, Reggie describes the four levels of parenting.
- Aware – These are parents who may be outside your church. Studies have shown that most parents are aware that the moral and even spiritual development of a child is their responsibility.
- Involved – These are parents who are in our churches. They’re around, maybe following Christ, but they’re not really doing anything intentional with their kids.
- Engaged – These are parents who are beginning to be intentional. They’re trying things that they’ve not done before.
- Invested – These parents get “it.” Whether you provide a plan or not, they’re going after it, developing spiritual champions.
Here is what I appreciated tremendously. Reggie shared that you’ll probably never get more than 20-30% of your parents to the invested level. As much as we’d like for it to happen, it’s just not going to happen. Set your expectations.
However, it’s possible to get a lot of parents to engage. It doesn’t take too much effort to take a parent who is doing nothing to start doing something… and this small change can produce huge results. We’ve got to celebrate the small changes. This is huge!
This is why this information was really refreshing for me. We’re in the process of developing a milestone family strategy and we’ll be putting a lot of effort into getting parents to engage with the plan. I would expect that the parents to truly engage in this strategy and follow it through are more likely to be invested parents. However, at the same time we’re panning to launch easy stuff, resources and opportunities to help parents do small things.
I guess it was just good for me to hear this stuff so that I know how to balance, that I don’t get frustrated by less people getting to the invested level where huge numbers are engaged.
I’ll leave you with one last quote that ties this all up and certainly rang a bell for me.
So, consider how everything ties to the next thing and in all of this, make it easy for parents to win!
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We are stewards of timeless truths
Posted on 24. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.
On more than one occasion, I heard Reggie say this line last week at the Orange Tour.
We are stewards of timeless truths.
What I think is interesting is that I often hear people complain about Orange curriculum Usually I hear people complaining from the point of view that there isn’t enough Bible in it. The funny thing is that I have people on my own staff who at times complain that the curriculum is too church. Honestly, there’s no such thing as a perfect curriculum and that alone isn’t reason enough to go out and start writing your own.
Curriculum was made to be tweaked… especially when they give it to you in editable digital form, right? Whether your curriculum comes from a virtue perspective or a chronological spin through the scriptures, the foundation doesn’t change that scripture is the basis for all things taught. If we don’t connect kids and students to the life-changing power of the scripture, we’re sunk. We may explore how the scripture can transform us to lead self-controlled lives or how certain events in the Old Testament teach us about what God wants to do in our lives right now. The bottom line is about how scripture connects to our lives.
In ministry, we have to understand that we are stewards of timeless truths. Every one of us. Leaders, small group leaders, hosts and story tellers. We steward these timeless truths and it is so important that we convey these truths accurately and responsibly. Too many times in my ministry have I heard a leader butcher the telling of a biblical truth, either in delivery or in content. We need not forget about James 3:1.
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
We are stewards of timeless truths and we must never take this responsibility lightly.
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Money issues
Posted on 22. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.
I came across this video a few weeks ago, very well done. The Great Recession has affected most of us. I’ve spoken to very few churches that haven’t had to make cuts. This satirical video very clearly illustrates the issue were facing in our country. It’s easy to point fingers at how sloppy our government has been, but most of us are to blame as well. When most of the population is carrying thousands in consumer debt, saving next to nothing yet still enjoying all the perks of life… it’s no wonder our nation’s financial situation is what it is.
In January, Gateway has been doing a series called Recovery Road. Really it’s just a four week sereis illustrating many of the principles from Financial Peace University. In February, we’re launching dozens of FPU classes to hopefully make a difference in the lives of people who need to make changes.
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Results of PIPA/SOPA protests yesterday
Posted on 19. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.
If you came to this site yesterday, you noticed that it was intentionally down in protest of the two bills going before congress next week. You can read more about this stuff in a post I wrote yesterday. A lot of people participated yesterday and good stuff was done. Here’s an email I got yesterday from Fight For the Future.
Today was nuts, right?
Google launched a petition. Wikipedia voted to shut itself off. Senators’ websites went down just from the sheer surge of voters trying to write them. NYC and SF geeks had protests that packed city blocks.
You made history today: nothing like this has ever happened before. Tech companies and users teamed up. Tens of millions of people who make the internet what it is joined together to defend their freedoms. The free network defended itself. Whatever you call it, the bottom line is clear: from today forward, it will be much harder to mess up the internet.
The really crazy part? We might even win.
Approaching Monday’s crucial Senate vote there are now 35 Senators publicly opposing PIPA. Last week there were 5. And it just takes just 41 solid “no” votes to permanently stall PIPA (and SOPA) in the Senate. What seemed like miles away a few weeks ago is now within reach.
But don’t trust predictions. The forces behind SOPA & PIPA (mostly movie companies) can make small changes to these bills until they know they have the votes to pass. Members of Congress know SOPA & PIPA are unpopular, but they don’t understand why–so they’re easily duped by superficial changes. The Senate returns next week, and the next few days are critical. Here are two things to think about:
1. Plan on calling your Senator every day next week. Pick up the phone each morning and call your Senators’ offices, until they vote “no” on cloture. If your site participated today, consider running a “Call the Senate” link all next week.
2. Tomorrow, drop in at your Senators’ district offices. We don’t have a cool map widget to show you the offices nearest you (we’re too exhausted! any takers?). So do it the old fashioned way: use Google, or the phonebook to find the address, and just walk in, say you oppose PIPA, and urge the Senator to vote “no” on cloture. These drop-in visits make our spectacular online protests more tangible and credible.
That’s it for now. Be proud and stay on it!
–Holmes, Tiffiniy, and the whole Fight for the Future team.
___
P.S. Huge credit goes to participants in the 11/16 American Censorship Day protest: Mozilla, 4chan, BoingBoing, Tumblr, TGWTG, and thousands of others. That’s what got this ball rolling! Reddit, both the community and the team behind it, you’re amazing. And of course, thanks to the Wikimedians whose patient and inexorable pursuit of the right answer brought them to take world-changing action. Thanks to David S, David K, Cory D, and E Stark for bold action at critical times.
P.P.S. If you haven’t already, show this video to as many people as you can. It works!http://fightforthefuture.org/
So, it’s not over yet. If you haven’t signed the petition yet, do it today!
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I love my freedom! Stop Pipa/Sopa!
Posted on 18. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.
I don’t really ever get political on this blog, but I guess when political issues intersect with the content/purpose of this blog, then I feel like I have something to say. Actually, I want to do more than just say something, but ask you to do something.
Next week, two bills go before congress that threaten the freedom we have enjoyed over the years on the web, putting the power to sensor in the hands of large corporations and the government. This is not good for our nation!
The Protect IP act goes before congress and the Stop Online Piracy Act goes before the house. I’m not going to go into detail on what both of these bills are about because so many others have explained it much better than I could.
Click here to read about these two bills in detail.
Click here to see an infographic that clearly describes both these bills.
These bills were written to stop piracy mainly distributed by foreign entities, but this bill really isn’t going to be able to stop piracy as there are already too many easy work arounds. But, it gives significant power to government and big media in hollywood to shut people down with little to no restraint. It’s an assault on our freedom and many have declared this bill unconstitutional. However, due to the power of lobbies, these bills have a lot of congressional support.
You can help though. Contact your representatives and let them know that you oppose these bills. This task has been made easy.
Click here to petition your representatives easily… you just provide your info and they’ll get your message to your representatives! This site also contains tools to help get the word out.
Click here to visit Google’s petition if you prefer.
Here’s a great video that will even better explain how all of this works.
I’m all for stoping piracy, but this is NOT the answer!
So, please take a moment to let your representatives know how you would like them to vote!
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The power of Kidmin community
Posted on 17. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.
I was really bummed that I missed out on CPC this year. I had the opportunity to watch a video of a session where Michael Chanley interviewed Matt McKee, Sam Luce and Jonathan Cliff about the “networking group” Gina McClain and I share with those guys. I say “networking group” lightly because now it’s more like a strong group of friends that give and receive so much life from each other far beyond conversations about ministry. I think that “our story” was a glimpse of what great networking and community can look like in the world of kidmin.
However, right now I’m experiencing kidmin community right now in an entirely different level and I’m really excited about it. Last week I wrote this post and tweeted several times about starting an official Kidmin Biggest Loser group. Well, today was the first official “weigh in” and there are 16 kidmin folks from all over the country participating. Here’s what I love about this group.
- One person is a kidmin volunteer at my church (she saw all my tweets and wanted to join)
- One person attended one of my breakouts at Kidmin Conference in Chicago and started following my blog
- One person did Infuse with me for two years
- Two people I met through my Illuminate events
- Several people I’ve known for years through twitter and blogs
- A handful of people I’d never met or connected with until this competition
- Almost half of the participants, I’ve not yet met in person
Already I’m seeing great encouragement happening among a group of people who share a common passion, yet why we banded together has little to do with our primary passion. I think that over the next 13 weeks, some great relationships are going to develop and grow.
So, should I ask the question? What does networking in Kidmin look like in your life and ministry. Have you connected with others who know you, speak into your life and encourage you as a person as well as your ministry? If your answer is no… then what are you waiting for?
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The next big thing is already here
Posted on 10. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.
Today in a staff meeting I was introduced to this quote by H. Richard Niebuhr.
“The Great Christian revolutions come not by the discover of something new that was not known before, they happen when somebody takes radically something that was already there.”
How true is this quote. The biggest way I see this quote in Kidmin is the family ministry emphasis we see ourselves in now. Ten years ago, no one was really talking “Family Ministry” the way they are today. You can’t engage a kidmin conversation without someone throwing out Deuteronomy 6. The funny thing is that Deuteronomy 6 said the same thing 10 years ago as it does now.
I love the Family Ministry revolution happening in our churches now and I look forward to seeing the long term affects. I look forward to seeing the ministry “revolution” continue to to mature and develop. However, I’m also curious as to what happens next. I wonder if it too is right in front of our noses and we’ve simply not paid attention to it like we should.
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