kids ministry learning styles

Did you ever have that ultra boring college professor that chose to lecture for three hours every week in that same monotone voice? When I look back through my old college notes I may not remember the professor very well but I can tell you how boring the course was based on the drawings and doodles all over my page. No one likes a boring class or lecture The younger the audience, the more difficult it is to make things interesting– I know first hand from multiple years of teaching and kids ministry.

If we get bored with that monotone lecture, why do we sometimes assume that kids will love what we say and hang on our every word? With media and technology, kids have a much shorter attention span than I did as a kid, and gone forever are the days when Beaver Cleaver sat quietly and respectfully, paying close attention.

Kids Ministry Lessons based on Monsters Inc

We recently finished a series of 4 kids ministry lessons based on the movie Monster’s Inc. We ended the series with a family trip to the theater to watch Monster’s University. The kids had so much fun, we decided to make the lessons available to other people to use as well.

Each lesson from Messages from Monsters  includes the timing for a movie clip to show, along with a clip introduction and clip wrap up. This is how we tie the movie into the lesson.  In addition to the movie clip information, each lesson includes:

• lesson prep passage

• daily bible focus

• game idea

• object lesson

• main lesson

• sample schedule

If you are involved in a kids ministry, or are a parent looking for a way to have some spiritual conversations with your kids, this series would be great for you. Our kids had so much fun, and your kids will too.

Follow the link to download one of the lessons and find out how you can get the entire series.

 

As always, I would love for you to participate in the conversation. Feel free to leave a comment!

Talking to kids about tragedy: The Oklahoma Tornado

Once again we are faced with a tragedy at a national level. With so much news coverage and social media, it is hard to protect our kids from the terrible news. Tom and I, along with Wayne Stocks and Linda Ranson Jacobs recorded a cmconnect radio podcast a while back about how to talk to kids about a tragic event.

You can listen to that discussion here

I have also put together a link of some other useful resources that could help have those difficult discussions. Hopefully they can help you or the families that you minister to.

There are links to focus on the family, Linda Jacobs, Brian Dollar, and more, all articles written to help have age appropriate discussions about tragic events with your children.

 

Follow the link to a list of great resources

 

Be sure to post a comment if you have a resource I can link to.

 

Action Bible review and contest from David C Cook

I had a chance to read and review the comic book style Action Bible (and New Testament, Handbook, and Devotional). In my opinion they are great for boys, all the way through pre-teen age.  I also didn’t want to give you just my opinion on the Action Bible series, so I took them to church to ask the boys their thoughts. I share their response and more—-  If you are interested in reading the review, or a chance to win, check out more details here:

Action Bible Review and Giveaway

Anyone want FREE access to CM+?

If you are a part of children’s ministry at all there is a good chance you are familiar with cmconnect.org. If you are not, I highly suggest you check it out. It is a great place to share ideas, and the networking aspect is awesome.

This past week, Michael Chanley (creator of cmconnect) and team rolled out a great new training tool called CM+.

CMConnect+ provides an enhanced training group designed to network you with of community of leaders.

Members receive the following:

• access to a growing list of archived trainings (current value over $20)
• a 10 to 15 minute exclusive monthly video from a thought leader in Children’s Ministry
• exclusive weekly discussions hosted by INCM
• bi-monthly MP3 uploads from INCM ($96 annual value)

This content is designed to give members access to exclusive content for developing as a leader in Children’s Ministry. You will not only enhance your CMConnect experience, you’ll also improve your ability to lead in our unique calling!

 

So far there are several audio sessions from last years Children’s Pastors Conference (CPC).  I am very excited since I have not yet been able to attend one of these great annual conferences.  I am looking forward to listening and learning from some great leaders through the audio sessions. I also can’t wait to start the content provided for CMConnect+ members to earn a certificate in “The Basics of Children’s Ministry: The Five Initiatives of INCM.”  I have been told that this is just the beginning of the resources to be added to this group.

I have the special opportunity to give away 10 ‘free one month trial memberships’.  Since I am able to share this learning opportunity with you, I would like you to share something with me.  The first 10 people to comment below and share about a favorite learning experience will win a free month access. It could be your favorite teaching technique.  Or maybe your favorite learning memory from when you were in school. Share something and win!

FamilyTalk ranks #18 on an Amazon best seller list!

You may have seen some earlier posts I wrote about Family Devotion times, or my book- FamilyTalk: a guide to family devotions.  Whether you have seen the posts or not, I have some exciting news to share.

After much reading, learning, and experimenting I finally formatted my book for Amazon.  The link went live on New Years Day, and after a few sales and several reviews from people that already had the print version, FamilyTalk ranked #18 on Amazon’s Best Sellers list for its category.  That means out of over 300 books in the category, it ranked #18 in it’s first day!

Check out FamilyTalk on Kindle!

That may not mean much to you, but that was very exciting for me.  It was not long after that I noticed it was #1 in the Hot New Releases for it’s category.

If you haven’t seen it yet, it is listed at a great price right now on Amazon.  If you have a Kindle, or a Kindle app on an ipad or iphone this would be a great investment for your family.  If you decide to get a copy, don’t forget to leave me a review!  And you are welcome to post your thoughts here too

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 3 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Top Thoughts this Year

I was checking though some stats, and realized something.  Several months ago I posted (what I thought would be) my last post here as I moved all of my posts to my new site.  The funny thing is, because of the way different search engines work, this site often gets more traffic than my new site.  I put links here to my new site, but it seems not everyone followed the links, so I lost some of you in the process. Please consider following/subscribing on my new site, since I update that much more than I do here.

Since you may have missed some of my recent posts, I thought I would take a few minutes to share a few of the top posts from this year, many of them coming after I moved.

By far. my most popular post was “how to talk to your kids when tragedy strikes”

I posted this recently in response to the Connecticut elementary school shooting. I shared a few of my own thoughts, as well as links to many other resources to help you talk to your kids after a tragedy. I was also privileged to interview Wayne Stocks and Linda Ranson Jacobs on a special podcast.  They are both very experienced when it comes to helping kids through tragic events.  You can listen here.

Some other popular posts:

Questions to ask when in Leadership

If Christians were birds

5 classroom and behavior management tips and tricks

Laying a spiritual foundation in our kids

What is Family Ministry

I am considering posting more here as well as my new self hosted blog, but I ask you to consider subscribing over there to make sure you dont miss anything.

As always, thanks for reading, and feel free share your thoughts with a comment!

Top Leadership quotes from CMLeaders

So I’ve had a little time to start processing everything from the CMLeaders conference.  If you weren’t there, I would highly recommend you attend next year.  I searched through my twitter account to find some of the quotes I posted during the conference.  I understand that sometimes a quote out of context may not mean much to you, but this list is just as much for my sake as it is yours.  At least this way I have all of my ‘top quotes’ in a single place.

Your devotional time determines your emotional time @craigjohnson5

Kids don’t need to love me, they need to know someone loves them @samluce

Help those u lead succeed and shine brighter than u do. @samluce

We need to get back to “Jesus is everything” @samluce

The value of a volunteer in the United States is $27.79 per hour. – Sheila Robinson

Thoughts from CMLeaders conference

I just got back from the very first CMLeaders conference, put on by INCM (International Network of Children’s Ministry).  It was a GREAT experience.  As expected, the quality of speakers was top-notch.  I walk away challenged to not only be a better leader, but a better follower as well.  I have just started to review and begin to process my 25 pages of notes.

The structure of the conference was great.  There were no breakout sessions, only large group ‘TEDTalk’ style sessions.  This was nice because I did not have to worry about choosing the wrong session or wondering what I would miss out on in the break out group I didn’t go to.