Tag Archives: Children’s Ministry
Don’t let SOPA return!
Posted on 07. Apr, 2012 by Kenny.
A few months ago, SOPA and PIPA were shut down because Americans showed policy makers that we value freedom. If you missed that post, you can read it here. It was one of the most successful campaigns and the bills were totally shut down as policy makers pulled their support.
However, the Obama administration is still voicing support of SOPA. Wired noted recently that:
“The White House did say that it wouldn’t endorse a bill that endangers freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risks, or negatively affects the DNS system. On the other hand, it says elsewhere that “combating online infringement” — not protecting free speech — is a governmental priority “of the highest order.”
I got an email from Fight the Future yesterday stating that:
What is the White House working on exactly? Just the other day, the administration sent a letter to Congress to demonstrate their support for new internet censorship legislation.
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The Eric Trap Blog Tour
Posted on 06. Apr, 2012 by Kenny.
On Monday, April 9th, the Eric Trap blog tour BEGINS! Let me tell you. This isn’t like any blog tour you’ve ever seen. This one is going to be Epic. I’ll go ahead and apologize right now because the kidmin blogospher and twitterverse are about to get overloaded. Almost 50 people are participating in the blog tour and most will be using multiple streams of social media. Many of the bloggers will be giving away books (more than 40 up for grabs).
So, get ready. The Eric Trap goes on sale in 3 weeks and you’ll get some sneak peaks in the coming weeks about this new book. Stay tuned, I’ll post more on Monday as the blog tour starts up. I can’t wait!
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Free Books!
Posted on 06. Apr, 2012 by Kenny.
Everyone likes the sound of that, right?
My wife just sent me a link telling me that Francis Chan is giving away three of his most popular books away for free on the Kindle on April 6 and 7th only. You just have to shoot over to Amazon and download them today. I’ve heard Francis at the Orange Conference a few times and his messages were very challenging. However, I haven’t read any of his books yet (although they are on my list). Seeing this new, I quickly jumped over to Amazon and downloaded them, so hopefully I’ll get to read them this year.
I’ll make it easy for you. Click here to download the free books (the deal states that the books could go back to their regular price at any time).
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Augmented reality glasses: coming soon
Posted on 04. Apr, 2012 by Kenny.
I saw this today on a bajillion people’s facebook feeds.
Sure, there are many downsides to this kind of technology. With these, we’ll become the multi-tasking addicts we’re already becoming comfortable with as it is. However, if you look around, most people are wandering around the city goofing off with their phone, looking for directions, checking in and listening to music… these augmented reality glasses just put it all on a more convenient screen.
Here’s what I’m seeing though. Remember when the bluetooth headsets became really popular and everyone was talking hands free as they walked down the street. It quickly became a social turn-off.
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Good Friday family experience
Posted on 04. Apr, 2012 by Kenny.
I’m excited about what Gateway is offering families this year for Good Friday. We’ll have Easter services on Saturday and Sunday, but we’ll offer a unique experience on Friday. From 5-9, we’ll have several “choose-your-own-adventure” type experiences for people to choose from. We’ll have dramas, music, worship, short teachings, short films, audio experience of the cross, art installation and tactile experience (with a several crucification nails from the 1st century), a guided prayer experience and several other options. All these things are happening multiple times during the evening all in different venues. Due to the nature of Good Friday, many of the venues are not really child appropriate, so we are hosting a family experience in addition to childcare for kids under the age of 4.
The family experience will feature songs and a short film about Good Friday (I wrote about it here) which we’ve broken down into parts where we can expound on what was happening and guide families in discussion around the events of Good Friday.
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Good Friday resources: Where are they?
Posted on 03. Apr, 2012 by Kenny.
It seems that there really isn’t any shortage of Easter resources. From curriculum, video, and other needs, you can find just about anything you’re looking for. But that’s not true of Good Friday. It appears that most resources seem to lump all of Good Friday and Easter into one package, but the Good Friday stuff really can’t stand on it’s own. With more churches offering Good Friday services, events and experiences, the need for stuff specific to Good Friday has increased.
At Gateway we’re doing a very interesting and unique (unique to us) experience for Good Friday which I’ll write about later. We’re putting together a family experience around around Good Friday and we really had a difficult time finding what we were looking for. With what we did find, it was hard to find something that wasn’t too bloody and something that wasn’t too cheesy.
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Does your church have a unified voice?
Posted on 02. Apr, 2012 by Kenny.
I’m about to celebrate 4 years of serving at Gateway Church and let me tell you, I’m so thankful. It’s been a wonderful journey so far and I’m looking forward to many more years ahead of me. One of the things I love the most is how strategic Gateway is about reaching a specific demographic. Jim Wideman had done some consulting for Gateway years ago and while interviewing, he told me that Gateway was one of the very few churches he’d worked with that very closely reflected the culture they were trying to reach.
One of the ways that Gateway does this is training leadership in the “Voice of Gateway.” Just a few weeks ago we sat through a 30 minute refresher in an all-staff meeting.
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App of the week: Glo
Posted on 01. Apr, 2012 by Kenny.
A couple of weeks ago a co-worker was sitting next to me during a staff small group meeting and he was looking up a scripture passage. Instead of YouVersion (which is a great app and I highly recommend), he was using something different. there was something amazingly refreshing and different about the layout. He told me about it and I downloaded the free “lite” version. It’s the Bible app “Glo.”
If you have a iPad, I highly recommend the app. Here’s the best way I can describe how it is different from all the other Bible apps.
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Happy April Fools
Posted on 01. Apr, 2012 by Kenny.
It’s been totally weird. I’ve not been pranked or seen any pranks all day today. However, it’s always fun to see what Google or other companies do on April 1st. So far, Google has launched an 8-bit version of Google Maps for the original Nintendo (who thinks up this stuff) and Conan O’Brian bought Mashable for $3,500. Funny but appalling was WestJet’s new travel program for kids.
Here’s an interesting video telling the history of April Fools Day.
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The Eric Trap has arrived… kinda
Posted on 29. Mar, 2012 by Kenny.
So this is what just arrived in the mail yesterday. It’s so exciting to see the culmination of this project. It’s truly been something that’s been in the works for years. It was so much fun putting it together and I think it’s going to be even more fun interacting with people who read it.
You may be wondering… “how do I get a copy?”
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