Tag Archives: Church
Pornography statistics
Posted on 27. Jan, 2011 by Kenny.
I’m at the end of my two week series of sex, porn and children’s ministry and I want to cram in a few last bits of information. A friend of mine who heard about this series sent me some links to share. She’s continuing to track down some additional resources, but she remember when studying marketing in college a few years ago she learned how the porn industry strategically marketed toward 11-17 year olds knowing that they were the largest user base and that if they got hooked (addicted) as a teenager, they’d be a customer for life. She remember reading how the porn industry used school textbooks to learn what kids would be searching for when working on projects to optimize search results so that kids would likely stumble across their content.… Read the rest
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Two great articles on sexuality
Posted on 26. Jan, 2011 by Kenny.
Since I didn’t realize that Children’s Ministry Magazine had a great article on this important topic, I figured I’d search their site to see if there were any more. Yes, two great articles!
Click here for their article on how children understand sexuality at different points of their development. It would be a great resource for parents to understand what their kids know, what kinds of questions their kids are going to be asking and how to deal with those questions. Excellent information.
The second article I found was directed toward ministry leaders. It deals with how to tackle difficult conversations and situation involving a variety of sexual topics. Everything from engaging a family of same sex parents, working with children who have gender identity issues and encountering kids who are engaging in conversations about sexuality.… Read the rest
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The church and sex ed
Posted on 26. Jan, 2011 by Kenny.
As I was writing this series about sex and Chidlren’s Ministry last week and this week, I didn’t even realize that Children’s Ministry Magazine published a pretty significant article on this very topic in their November/December 2010 issue called sexual purity. If you subscribe to the magazine, be sure to check it out (begins on page 62). There was a lot of great information in this article. One interesting quote was from a study saying that”
“Teenagers are more likely to abtsain from sexual intercourse before the age of 18 if their parents hold strong religious beliefs and explain them to their children and attend church together regularly.”
Good to know.
However, I was very intrigued by the direction the article took.… Read the rest
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Kids caught in the porn trap
Posted on 20. Jan, 2011 by Kenny.
So this week I’ve broached the subject of sex, porn and Children’s Ministry, but I mostly opened the conversation about parent driven sex talks and resources. I haven’t said much about pornography though. Hopefully, thorough parent-driven sex talks will address pornography and prepare kids for when they’ll be exposed to it. However, is there a way for the church to help address this problem more intentionally?
The numbers speak for themselves. 12-18 year olds are significant consumers of pornography. The average age of first exposure is eight. All of us have children in our ministries who are being exposed to porn and many are developing addictions. Many of these kids are already caught int he trap. They’re lured back to it time and time again because of their new-found appetite, but they’re also carrying this shame and guilt they’ve never carried before.… Read the rest
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A new word for discipleship
Posted on 29. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.
Words are so interesting. Over time, they change meaning, lose effectiveness or develop a stigma. When it comes to faith, we see this all the time. Pick up C.S. Lewis’ book Mere Christianity and the opening chapter will tell you how the word Christian has lost it’s meaning, and this book was written decades ago. Really, it’s only been the last 2-3 years that I’ve replaced the term Christian for the words Christ follower. Sure, it may just be semantics, but the term seems to be much more intentional about meaning in a culture where the word Christian conjures up some many different definitions and emotions. Who knows, maybe in a few more years, there will be another term Christ followers are using.… Read the rest
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More social media factoids
Posted on 15. Nov, 2009 by Kenny.
A few months ago I posted this video about the power of social media. Then a few weeks ago I found the video below from David Wakerly’s blog. I’m probably just preaching to the choir here, but this social media thing is a pretty big deal. Are you utilizing all it has to offer for your ministry?
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Random design question
Posted on 15. Nov, 2009 by Kenny.
Okay, my design question isn’t really random, it just doesn’t have anything to do with kids or church ministry.
My parents own their own tax business. They’ve been a part of a franchise for the last 5-6 years, but now they’re out on their own. They’ve selected their name, but now they’re working with a design company to develop their logo. They’ve got several really good options on the table and they’re needing to select one concept that they’re going to take further. My good friend Matt McKee had some really good advice that I think they’ll take into consideration in the revision process. However, I wanted to get some feedback from a general audience as well. Most of the readers of this site aren’t in the “tax business” but everyone has to pay taxes.… Read the rest
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Need Bibles or books?
Posted on 26. Aug, 2009 by Kenny.
About six or seven year I ran into these guys at the CPC in Atlanta. I didn’t really have a definitive source for Bibles or other books. When I needed to buy Bibles by the case, I haven’t found anyone who can beat Harvest. When I was using curriculum from one of the major publishers, I found that I could buy it at a discount from Harvest rather than the publisher. As churches, we’re always looking for opportunities to save some money and stretch our ministry budgets. Harvest can help with that.
Here’s a little secret though. Don’t rely on just their website. Several years ago I was designing a small group/discipleship program for elementary aged kids. Depending on what grade you were in determined what books and supplies you needed.… Read the rest
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TwitterChurch revisited
Posted on 05. May, 2009 by Kenny.
Almost a year ago I wrote this post. It was about a church in Michigan that integrated twitter into it’s services.
Just the other day Time did a story on this church. Read it here.
I’m challenged by what this church is doing.
Twitter has been around for close to two years and too many people still don’t have any idea what it is. It’s kind of like this commercial below (pay attention at 0.33 seconds in).
Churches talk about innovation and their need to be creative, yet so many haven’t event embraced the dozens of ways that twitter can be used.
Last week I was at Orange. It was my second year. The first year it was an experience.… Read the rest
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Budgets: Are you feeling a crunch this year?
Posted on 27. Oct, 2008 by Kenny.
I’m just curious and throwing this question out there. With the economy in the condition it is in at this time, is your church really feeling it? How has that affected your budget or your budget planning for next year?
I’m working on the 2009 budget this week and I think we’re anticipating things to get a little tight, but nothing to serious.
Anyone have to make budget cuts? What areas are seeing the cuts? What ways are you having to be creative to deal with shortfalls?… Read the rest
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