So I’m in Birmingham and yesterday I got to spend four or five hours with Daniel White, one of the Children’s Pastors at Church of the Highlands. Incredible guy. Sam Luce, Daniel and I hung out at a Starbucks until they closed and then in our hotel lobby until we were just getting slap happy at the late hour.

Or conversations rabbit trailed from favorite movies to past church experiences to funny comedy sketches and most importantly, the Rumspringa. As random as our conversations were, one thing that came up several times and as I went back to the room later, I couldn’t stop thinking about the idea of the power of the story.

Daniel is a sharp guy, insanely creative and talented. He networks with some of kidmin’s best when it comes to “story” and spent a few minutes talking about some of the blogs and tweets he follows from writers and storyboarders from Pixar and some of the cartoons he watches. He talked about how he’s inspired by these guys who make millions knowing what kids want and how to craft stories and messages in a way they “get it.” Daniel passionately talked about his desire to network and pick the brains of these kinds of people when it comes to Children’s Ministry.

This is SO not the case in Kidmin (generally speaking). I find that usually, it’s the exception to the rule. We are quick to pop in a DVD or throw a volunteer on stage who halfway reads from a script when in delivery. We actually have the best story ever written. It’s a story that changes lives. It’s a story that altered history. However, more often than not, we fall flat on our faces when it comes to presentation.

I know this isn’t the case everywhere. I am making some generalizations… but these are some of the thoughts going through my head at the moment.

Why don’t we care more about how we tell the story? Why are we satisfied with things like how the environment looks or whether the kids “had fun” when the delivery of the most important story these kids will hear every week is far below where it should be? To add to this, I’m thinking about what Sam Luce was telling me today as we were driving around, about how important it is that Kids know that all that matters is Jesus. How often do our kids attend our services and hear a great message about praying, reading their Bibles, serving someone? All of these are great things, but if all that really matters is Jesus, why aren’t we saying that more and why aren’t we doing a better job at saying it.

I’m not offering any solutions here, just thinking out loud. Thanks Daniel for getting my thoughts going about this. Any thoughts?