Kids Ministry Leaders

The Avant Garde Children's Ministry

2011-11-02T16:33:00.001-07:00

A regular listener of childrensministrytalk.com, I threw out a question to the guys there a few weeks back. Here in Twin Falls, we'd been rethinking our Sunday School program at church, wondering whether it's still an effective model at our church, but also at all churches. The guys at CM Talk threw out some great thoughts to get my wheels turning. Among other things, they confirmed my suspicion that children's leaders are rethinking a lot of things right now. Leaders are dreaming about new ways to offer a compelling message, or perhaps a compelling invitation. They're trying to make sense of our current cultural landscape, which itself is changing compared to 30 or 40 years ago, which is when (if you've been following my History of CM thread) Kids Church started.

I have a quote on the wall of my office that tends to stop me in my tracks, "A question that sometimes drives me hazy; am I or the others crazy?" by Albert Einstein. As someone who likes to think he's pushing for a new approach to CM, I often ask this myself, though many days I admittedly go home thinking, "Yeah, it's probably -I-!"

But this week offered me some hope from a strange place, a place that I'm sure did not intend to offer it on these terms! It came from a new friend named Brent Jensen, who leads the music department at our local college in Twin Falls. (Side note: if you ever want your soul to melt, listen to Brent play a saxophone solo). I caught one of his lectures on "Free Jazz":

I love his thought at around 3:30. He makes a comparison between most popular music and avant garde jazz, avant garde simply meaning "experimental" or "unorthodox". Popular music, he says, is made with the consumer in mind. There's an end product. Great efforts are put into crafting songs that people will purchase or listen to. Avant garde tends to question all this and says, "Why? Why are these the boundaries, and why aren't these other things the boundaries instead?" Brent's great summary paraphrased says that popular music is about the product, where avant garde music is about the process.

I might add that when avant garde surfaces in any trade, craft, or movement, a fairly standard pattern has happened throughout history. In our case, say that musicians produce music that does, indeed, question the traditional approaches. This usually launches a discussion or argument, though sometimes niche, between other people and artists about the benefits and drawbacks of the old and new approaches, which is often what such "avant garde" artists hoped would happen in the first place. For example, I still remember teachers in college who were adamant that jazz died in 1959 with the rise of Ornette Coleman (avant garde) and others. So you can see that there's lively discussion to be had!

This is exactly what I see happening in children's ministry. Even just today I had a pleasant exchange with a volunteer in another state who is rethinking some children's stuff at his place of worship. "How can we better connect kids with Jesus?" seems to be one of many questions at hand, all over the country. Even a Google search reveals books, blogs, and speeches passionately appealing one approach, and abandoning another.

This is all kind of tricky for a person to get their head around, since it's abstract. I don't know exactly what the conversation is about, but traditional approaches to children's ministry seem to be in question at a lot of places. (Cue Pete Townshend, "Call out the instigators, because there's something in the air.") Can't tell you how many churches have abandoned traditional Sunday School in favor of something else... kids church, "small groups", even some churches who say families should all just sit together during church, and "children's ministry" should be all about empowering parents. At our church, the conversation is about an educational model vs. a conversational model in children's ministry. What a fun time to be alive! Is the world moving to a period of avant garde children's ministry? What dreams do you have about children's ministry, or otherwise, that may just be seedlings at the moment?

Are Introverts Good Leaders?

2011-08-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

A bit addicted lately to sites like academicearth.org, I ran across an interview by Harvard Business School that got me thinking.

I wonder what you think of this interview! One thing that stood out was Gino's argument that it's best for introverts to lead authentically and adapt a little, not the other way around. Gino also suggested that being extroverted is generally seen as more of an asset in leadership than being introverted, implying that introverts may feel pressure to become an extrovert... "Don't do this!" she says (paraphrasing). Lead authentically, and adapt a little.

Another article in Forbes suggests a key strength of introverted leaders is the ability to think first and talk later. An introvert by nature, I'll be the first to say that my worst conversations and exchanges are the ones where I do just the opposite! Sometimes I'll speak hastily, eager to come across as an upbeat person and get my point across. A go-getter. You know, an extrovert!

It's refreshing to remember that us introverts can bring a unique set of strengths to the table, while having freedom to adapt when advantageous or necessary. Here's to all the introverted leaders out there!

Would You Kill One to Save Five?

2011-08-16T08:40:00.001-07:00

Annie and I have been watching a lecture series called "Justice" by Michael Sandel, Professor of Government at Harvard, which is totally free. Turns out some 15,000 students have gone through it, and we join the chorus of praise for it; it's wonderful. He bypasses all the usual introductions and begins his first lecture, "The Moral Side of Murder", with, "This is a course about justice, and we begin with a story." The story:

You're the driver of a 60mph trolley car, hurdling without brakes down the track. 5 workers are further down the track, and assume that you know for sure that they will die if you hit them. A ray of hope: a sidetrack! On the sidetrack, there stands a single worker. So you could kill the one, and spare the five. What's the right thing to do? What do you do?

Sandel takes a poll and creates a fantastic classroom dialogue - impressive, considering the class size fills a small stadium! His speaking style is warm and engaging, yet challenging and thoughtful. He has a way of facilitating conversation that reflects people's thoughts without judging them. In this way he welcomes diverse opinions in the same room - not always an easy thing to do when discussing topics like justice and ethics.

A few weeks back I had the fun experience of seeing an old friend who was visiting nearby. We met, and he told me about his ongoing graduate studies in law school, specifically for the purpose of forming more clarity in housing market laws. So justice is a big deal for him. I asked him for a quick and dirty definition of justice, and he gave me three that gave me enough pause to stop what I was doing to just sit and think:

1) Justice is self-determination, as in, people get to set their own course in life instead of being in support roles against their will for others who rely on them for their self-determination.

2) Justice is correcting the imbalances that build up over time under unhealthy systems (like slavery).

3) Justice is changing the way society runs so that involuntary support roles are not part of the normal order of things.

Jesus followers have to reckon with justice. Like, it appears in a sweeping, perhaps alarming fashion within some 7 chapters into the Bible (!), where God wipes out all human existence save for one family. The systemic imbalance is overwhelming, we're told, and the future of humans needs correcting. It's begs asking, "What if the flood didn't happen? What if people had been allowed to continue down whatever crooked path they were walking?" We don't really know, but it doesn't look promising. It says Noah was the last person on Earth who was still close to God, and that would the new starting point for all humans going forward. The implications or results of "being far from God" were violence and corruption (6:11-12), so not exactly a happy, healthy place.

All to say, strange as it may seem at first, the flood actually appears to be a second chance for humankind. This justice was actually redemptive! God's correction, in Genesis' P.O.V., is much needed and can be painful. Talk about unsettling! But there's also hope woven throughout even this wide-reaching, painful justice.

Now the really fun part: how do you invite kids into this story, or even more, the idea of justice? Too much unsettling would be hurtful to a child - bypassing hope & innocence and heading straight for skepticism, which probably isn't a great place to camp out for the long-term. On the other hand, children will... WILL... be confronted with these scriptural and spiritual realities at some point. To ignore that truth altogether is to ignore their well-being. What do you do?

Well, I'd love to hear what you would do, or are doing. Here's a few things we're doing at our church:

- Remember the central message of the Bible - redemption through Jesus. Jesus brings hope that can be both felt and seen. Start and end there. The story of Noah starts and end with redemption... there's a reason for it.

- Start simple. As my friend pointed out, there are layers to justice. So ideally I'll "layer" my level of detail over the child's lifetime by introducing what's appropriate at various times. Language is everything here. Take David and Bathsheeba - I'm not going to go into graphic detail about the sex, adultery, and additional lying that took place during preschool years. That wouldn't be healthy. Plus, in my particular position, parents have a better pulse on the individual needs of their children - I see a fairly different batch of kids each week, so I'll leave the level of detail to parents' judgment. I'll keep the story fairly simple and concrete. Then I'll pray for, talk with, and do my best to empower parents to have further conversations with their kids about these things. But in the end, my hope is to point kids towards Jesus. Trust that He'll actually speak to kids, and invite them to hear from him.

- Speak on real terms with lots of examples. I got caught cheating in the second grade by giving answers to a guy who didn't study for an exam on the 13 colonies. I got punished, and it was not a happy day for me! Then I had another opportunity in 8th grade to give answers to a girl next to me on a computer exam. I remembered what happened in 2nd grade, and didn't give her the answers. She wasn't happy about it at first, but I decided not to pay much attention. I made a good grade, and allowed her to receive the consequences of her bad decision, rather than enabling her to avoid it. If you've had any success learning from your experiences, share those!

Thoughts?

Everyday Redemption

2011-08-09T11:42:00.001-07:00

Being in my line of work affords the opportunity to hear about more kids movies than there are countable smurfs. And such experience has led me to a particular theory, if you'll run with me. I have a theory that there's an inner monkey banshee, who also happens to be an avid Pixar fan, that lives inside every child - and even just mentioning the name of any such movie in, say, Kids Church for example, wakes the banshee and elicits involuntary vocal spasms unlike anything you've ever heard. Which, let's face it children's leaders, makes for a fantastic tie-in to your talking points for the day.

Why the screams? One reason, perhaps, is there's a basic plot outline that, time after time, grabs the audience. Were it Mad-Libs, it'd go like this:

[Hero/ine]:__________

[Problem]:__________

[Justice/Correction]:___________

[Grace/2nd Chance]:__________

[Redemption]:____________

Let's plug in the first Cars movie.

Hero: Lightning McQueen

Outer Problem: Gets sidetracked from his big race. Has to repair roads in small town of Radiator Springs. Inner problem: character flaws like arrogance and selfishness.

Justice/Correction: Sentenced by a judge to repair all the roads, and consequentially miss his big race

Grace: McQueen ends up befriending the citizens of Radiator Springs, does good job on the roads (eventually), brings a sense of refreshment and new-ness to the old town. He's allowed, finally, to attend his big race.

*SPOILER ALERT* Redemption: Is transformed in this process, character flaws overcome. Attends the big race, doesn't technically win, but wins the hearts of stadium fans.

Some adults watch these movies and enjoy the occasional current events reference, witty joke, or creative play-on-words. Many other adults despise these sort of Disney-esque movies. The movies are very nicely wrapped, sometimes quite a lot, and that doesn't sit well with many. Yet, we find Toy Story 3 and Alice in Wonderland in the top 10 grossing movies of all time, worldwide. Moving away from Disney but still following the above outline, Pirates of the Carribean, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings are in the top 5. (Actually, the THIRD Lord OTR movie! Like, the one that was really, really long and took an hour to get through the redemptive portion at the end. Even that earned it $1 billion+) Clearly there's something attractive about what these movies propose!

I wonder if part of the reason so many people are willing to pay billions to see redemption is because we secretly crave it for ourselves. Even the many movies that aren't necessarily redemptive (like the #2 grossing movie of all time, Titanic, a tragedy), it strikes me that they're still put in terms of their redemptive value. "How did the movie end? Did the hero/ine succeed or fail?" the conversations often go. To be fair, there are of course other conversations: artistic value, production value, etc. But compelling stories are compelling long after they're told. I don't know that we find this sticking power with the other convos.

The other day Annie was away for the day, and coming off a stressful week I'd been feeling down. Being the strong, manly, courageous pastor-type that I am, I... ended up lumping out on the couch playing computer games for hours. To my great surprise, this didn't seem to help. So I asked God about this unshakable ick. I felt like God said, "Why don't you go take a walk?" I remember saying something like, "THAT'S your great advice?" To which I felt I heard an optimistic, "Yes, you should totally go do that!" So I did, and, like, it worked. Whatever heaviness was there seemed to lift off. I went onward with my day on a brighter note.

So I wonder if the sort of redemption that's found in following Jesus has as much or more to do with everyday than at the point of death. That's the sort of life that interests me - one where I'm offered real perspective and direction on my marriage, career, and friendships that I need. However compelling a life is that's driven by raw discipline or abstract beliefs and concepts, it doesn't stick with me. But the life that Jesus offers I'm clearly drawn to.

But talk to me - what interests you? Proving what must be my overwhelming naivete, I'm absolutely positive that at some point you, dear reader, will astonish us all and leave a comment, even through the layers of links and clicks it takes to make it happen. Cheers --

#4 - History of Children's Ministry - Sunday School

2011-07-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday School started in the late 1780s in England as a response to poorly educated children. The booming industrial revolution left little time for children's education, with many working 6 days a week for 10 or 12 hours a day. Sunday was their day off, which to Robert Raikes, a local churchman in Gloucester, England, meant a window of opportunity. He bootstrapped his way to starting a "school" program on Sundays (to oversimplify), using the Bible to teach children how to read. Within 15 years, some 250,000 kids were in Sunday School. Although other Sunday Schools are on record as having started before Raikes' programs, Raikes is given credit as the one who popularized them.

About forty years later, in 1831, an additional million students were attending Sunday Schools, putting the number up to around 1.25 million. Pretty impressive, as we're talking pre-Internet, pre-telephone, and even the first electric motor only coming about in 1821! Seems like a profound need was being met, indeed.

Well, just like the pencil, sewing machine, and the World Wide Web, the UK arrived at Sunday School before North America (sorry, patriots). The first national U.S. Sunday school effort didn't start until 1817. The American Sunday School Union, then-and-now dubbed "American Missionary Fellowship", formed by that time. Their publishing branch continued using tracts, hymnals, and a reward-system for Scripture memorization for some 150 years. Their name probably stems from sending missionaries -- that is, traveling paid workers -- to other states by horseback to establish Sunday schools and revive dying ones. Through this systematic and intentional growth, Sunday school remains a prominent part of many kids' church experience.

Through this History of CM project we've been looking at the larger Kids Church experience, which hasn't received much documentation - Sunday school, however, is something that many churches have thought about. Type in "Sunday school" on Amazon on you get tons of results on everything from history to inspirational to curricula. It's something church leaders have thought about for a while. However, I suspect that in the next few decades, excitement for Sunday school will decline. I predict it will be something churches start to "fight for", not something that secular America is excited about.

(The following editorial departs from the prior historical stuff, fyi!) I find it super interesting that Sunday School was originally designed to meet a social need. While it quickly evolved into both educational and evangelistic in nature, the heart and soul at the outset seemed to be to establish a method of some kind. A routine. But not a dry routine - a helpful one that would allow for a curriculum. The many teachers I've worked with tell me that curriculum is next to useless without consistent attendance, as the idea is to build upon what's been taught previously. How great that someone saw the need, worked hard to empower kids, and went on to be successful. Best I can tell, Sunday School worked! The state school system in the UK traces their roots, at least in large part, to Robert Raikes. Mission accomplished. It wove itself into the day-to-day lives of children and parents. It wasn't just part of the system; it was the system. Fast forward some decades, labor laws firmly in place, children now in school weekly, and suddenly we have a system that, in my view, has lost its relevance to the majority of secular America. For people who follow Jesus who want to increase their knowledge of the story of the Bible, Sunday School seems like a good fit. The problem for me is I don't know many kids for whom Bible study equates to a vibrant long-term connection with Jesus. The percentage of people for whom this approach is lastingly meaningful is around 15-25%, the stats tell us. So, like, a quarter of attenders in the best case scenario. Perhaps this is the reality because we have a totally reversed reality than the industrial revolution: our kids learn all week long, and then Sunday is their day off (probably Saturday too - though in my house that was chores day). So to take the same industrial-revolution-approach to Sunday church - teach the Bible - doesn't this seem backwards? The needs have changed. The system has changed.

But, I suppose it's probably difficult to unravel something so deeply ingrained in people's minds as to what church should look like - heck, it's been more than 200 years! All to say: I wonder if many churches' rethinking their Sunday school programs is a healthy step.

As an aside: how crazy was it to have been a kid in the industrial revolution! Imagine that... work 6 full days, and then school on Sunday... what a week! Note to self for further reading!! I'm remembering my childhood, playing Street Fighter 2 Turbo and feeling like, "Wow, if I can beat Guile on level 8, now THAT'S an accomplishment..."

Further reading for all my fellow nerdlings:

Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4, Source 5, Source 6 (I love Google Books)

The Surprising Upshot of Opposite Birds.

2011-07-25T21:17:00.000-07:00

In a college psychology course a few years back, the teacher said the following: there are two cliche statements people accept to be true about friendships, but we rarely think about them at the same time. 1) Birds of a feather flock together, and 2) Opposites attract. Those are competing thoughts that most people hold to be true, he said, but both aren't true. Studies show that the first one is almost always the winner. Generalizing, but statistically true: people tend to stick with those who are like them, he argued. Having married since then, I think of ways that Annie and I are similar & different. I wonder what you think about this!

One thing Annie and I want to do more is read together. One reads aloud, the other listens, then we trade. The conversations that happen are often more fun than the book, and this time we're reading The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose. He's a college student at liberal Brown University, English major, but switches paths for a semester at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. We're only 15 pages in, but we're excited as our own life stories track a bit with Roose's, but in reverse.

Annie grew up in Very Red City in Very Red State but did college in Iowa City, and I grew up in Houston but did college in Boston. I don't think either of us did that for the cultural experience per se, so I guess our inner dog-ears perk up when we hear of people intentionally jumping ships. That's probably part of what attracts me to music. It's fun to see music evolve as people take their indigenous styles to new regions. With the internet, the evolution sped up drastically, and new hybrids are being formed all the time. I mean, there's a whole documentary (I think it's still on Hulu...) dedicated entirely to mash-ups like this:

I can't help but think this is at the heart of what it means to follow Jesus, at least for Annie and me. We're sold that we're forever enriched by being intertwined with people who have different backgrounds and/or perspectives than our own. As Roose points out, one could travel overseas to find such an experience, but, it also seems that we can finding such people living next door. Plus, Annie and I are slowly coming to terms with the fact that WE are "such people", and for all the emotional messiness and embarrassing moments that may come with the territory, we feel blessed. We've had so many moments in the last month or two where we looked at each other and exchanged the facial expression, "I can't imagine our lives without our closest friends!"

I suppose this sort of unexpected friendship gives me hope that real, lasting change on any number of issues - both personal and world - becomes possible. For example, at iCamp we gave money for water filters to people in Rwanda who need and want it. Or I can remember when a close friend offered to tow my broken car around midnight one time, saving us towing fees, time, and paperwork!

There are times when I've felt blessed to help someone, and be helped by someone. If I were in school writing a paper on "what I want most in life," pretty sure that'd be on the list!

So, here's to grabbing a cup of java with an unexpected friend this week!

iCamp Recap

2011-07-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we finished our second annual iCamp. While the name may be trendy, there's no connection to Apple! The "i" simply stands for interact. The idea goes: as we see needs around us both small scale (someone accidentally drops a $5) and large scale (1 billion people without clean water), we become empowered to do something when we interact with those people. It's an entry point into positive change. I'd also pitch that we're particularly empowered when we interact with Jesus - the resourcing, direction, and wisdom he provides is crucial to seeing any lasting change. Here was our schedule @ iCamp this year:

- M-F, 9a-7p

- 9a - Morning chapel

- 10a - Team games/activities

- 12a - Lunch

- 1p - Service projects

- 5p - Dinner

- 6p - Evening chapel

A few memorable moments:

- New to iCamp and our church, "Ted" (I'll call him) was not only the smallest guy, he was possibly the shyest. His default was to hang with adults, and our efforts to redirect him to other kids wasn't gaining much ground. Until Wednesday. Wednesday our team games reflected the gameshow, Minute to Win It, where kids had one minute to complete a challenge. There was one game where no one had succeeded... you can almost hear the movie trailer voiceover, "Many had tried, all had failed." We moved on and neared the end of our day. But Ted decided to give the difficult game a shot. He finished in 26 seconds! As the crowd erupted into uninhibited applause, the activities director hoisted Ted up onto his shoulders, and this was a changing moment for Ted. His confidence rose, and suddenly we found Ted starting impromptu games with others, donating input, and actually commanding other kids (we actually had to reel him back a bit)! So, a hopeful week for him.

- Service projects at several homes, The Safe House, Valley House, the police station, a retirement home, Salvation Army, & Humane Society. Common remarks were, "I didn't know all of this needed to be done!" and "It was fun to see people thankful," and, "Next year let's be sure to bring Round-Up" (that last one may have been from adults.....).

- We collected a daily tithe/offering, 100% of which was donated to 20liters.org. They work to provide clean water solutions primarily to people in Rwanda. From their website, "... water-borne diseases are the leading cause of death globally for children under the age of five, and half the patients in the world’s hospitals are suffering from diseases related to unsafe water." 140 bucks provides 20 people with clean water for 10 years, which was our iCamp target. Second-to-last day, we had around $26. After one final appeal that night, we ended the last day of camp with just over $150!

- Several kids in attendance that were not members of our church (which is where iCamp was held). One even joined us for church the following Sunday - it was fun to see the iCamp kids huddled before service, swapping stories.

- Our fantastic media team put together a recap DVD for parents to take home on the last night. So cool!

- Dunno if I'm allowed to list this, but, I was really helped by our debrief meeting afterwards. Among other very useful suggestions was the idea of flip-flopping our service projects and team game times. The afternoon is 95+ degrees outside, and doing projects in the cooler morning might help. Team games in the afternoon may also help the flow of camp (work first, games last).

So, after tearful good-byes and umpteen stories of things God seems to have done for and through kids, we had such a fun week. I'll join in with the handfuls of kids who chanted excitedly, "I can't wait for next year!"

iCamp

2011-07-08T15:06:00.000-07:00

Next week we have our annual iCamp coming up here at my church. It's a camp for 9-12 year olds that we tried for the first time last year. We were originally offering Vacation Bible School and "Kids Kamp". We realized there were something like 12 or 13 other VBS's happening here in Twin Falls alone, and wanted to offer something unique to the community. Kids Kamp was an absolute blast -- I actually had the fun privilege of speaking there one year -- but in 2008 the economy, as we all know, went down the toilet. So we wanted to find a less expensive alternative than Kids Kamp. We were also praying about a way to be hands-on helpful to our local community. iCamp was born, which not only reduced the cost by $200 per child (a plus for, say, the single parent with several children), but gave us a new "in" with nonprofits around town. It gave us the opportunity to help them each of the five days, gives kids a chance to spot needs in our community... and then meet those needs! I couldn't be more excited!

All to say, there won't be a new post next week. And hey, if you're someone who prays, pray for us! We have high hopes for the camp, that it'll actually be a fresh, new experience of God for many kids, and that somehow it'd be a positive turning point for them. Thanks, and I'll post when we return!

#3 - History of Children's Ministry - Jim Wideman & the '70s

2011-07-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

It was hard to contain my excitement the day, a few weeks ago, when Jim Wideman agreed to an interview for this project! For the unfamiliar, Jim is an author, leader, consultant, speaker... a man whose opinions are some of the most sought-after in children's ministry ("CM") circles -- seriously, he's been involved in that world for over THIRTY years, has worked at something like 5 churches, one of which is perhaps the single most influential church in seeing CM go from an afterthought to a movement. And as I learned in our interview, his memory for dates, people, places, and a general timeline for CM is, as my Western coworkers would say, "Like a steel trap." Heads up: I could have easily written a blog post about Jim himself, but that info is available in his books, so this post features Jim more as a conduit of information. It'll read more like a narrative about the '70s than a biography of Jim.

Today, CM is an industry, a business. Music, costumes, conferences, books, lighting, stage design -- as far as your imagination (and your budget) goes, there are products being sold. It's clear: there's an overwhelming demand for all things CM. Even just the staggering amount of conversations happening in churches and even blogs, there's a buzz that, as far as we know, is new. It hasn't been around before, which is pretty cool for those of us looking to improve in our CM efforts! But it hasn't always been that way.

In fact, just a few decades ago, the conversation was almost nonexistent. CM itself consisted of kids sitting with their parents during church. As Jim and many others have confirmed, the usual sentiment was, crassly put, "Sit down and shut up." Quite the contrast to today's puppets and pyrotechnics! The thought of a separate church service for kids just hadn't shown up on church leaders' radar yet. As Jim informed, you'd be hard-pressed to find a church of under 1,000 people that even had a children's pastor/director. But everything changed in the '70s.

The '70s was an absolutely explosive decade for CM. Virtually all Protestant churches shifted from a "Sunday School" model to "Kids Church". Let me magnify this shift. The typical adult, church service has the following elements in some order, at some time: worship songs, offering, communion, sermon, and prayer. Sunday school, for our discussion, is an age-appropriate educational format ("class") that kids attend in lieu of the (adult) "sermon", or perhaps in addition to it. "Kids Church", however, is ALL of those adult elements offered to kids, in a separate room, with no parents in the room except perhaps for volunteers. A kid's entire church experience on a Sunday is this separate-from-family experience. It's literally kids-church. The formal name and details changes from church to church, but that new model took prominence in the '70s.

With this format of person-on-stage speaking to an audience came insane production value. Think Michael Jackson's "This Is It!" DVD.

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Prepare. Practice. Visually, audibly, kinesthetically enhance the experience. Deliver the experience. ... you know, production value! We could do a whole book on the companies whose bottom-line probably doubled in the '70s (Oriental Trading, etc.) due to CM product sales! Jim, himself, actually invented musical accompaniment to puppet skits, "puppet tracks", around this time.

***

My favorite discovery during my interview with Jim came forth when he brought up Bozo the Clown. CM and nonprofits set the stage for a rather complex counterpoint which surprised me. Nonprofits/parachurch orgs like Focus on the Family, Campus Crusade, and LeSEA Broadcasting Network started offering higher and higher amounts of "Christian culture" to, in a sense, battle the "sinful messages" of secular TV and music. Many provided "family friendly" alternatives to the free-spirited "make love not war" media. I even remember as a child shows like McGee & Me, and Adventures in Odyssey. BUT. While you had church people taking up arms against secular media, CM leaders -- and church leaders in general -- were actually taking their cues from secular culture on how to do church better! CM leaders took notes on teaching methods from Sesame Street, the Muppet Show, Bozo the Clown, etc.! Such shows were successfully using creative methods to teach vowels and consonants - so churches adopted these to teach Bible stories. You can still find this today - I even attended a conference in March where the opener was a pyrotechnically enhanced version of Katy Perry's "Firework" sung by the worship band. This juxtaposition of battling the content while adopting the methods is absolutely fascinating. One of the first "children's evangelists", they were called, to capitalize on this was Von Saum, a.k.a. "Captain Hook", who took his name right from the Peter Pan story.

So, like, the interview was choc-full of information. But the key question I had for Jim was, "What need was children's church trying to meet? Why did it suddenly enter so many people's thoughts as a thing to do?" His answer was totally surprising and, much like your favorite (or, maybe, your least favorite) episode of American Idol, we'll find out the answer next time! (The sound of cyber-tomatoes whizzing by my ears suddenly fills the room...)

Craig Jutila, Volunteers, and Ninjas.

2011-06-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

Volunteering is a unique enterprise. Since there's no threat of losing a paycheck, volunteers actually have to buy in to what's going on. They invest time and energy, and many things are accomplished. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2010 a little over a quarter of the entire United States population volunteered in some capacity! And a third of those were for religious organizations. That's, like, over 60 million volunteers!

For many, it can be a huge rush - it's fun to do something helpful, make an impact, and create positive change for a people or place. After a great day, I've heard many people describe getting a "volunteer high". Because people are choosing to buy-in to whatever endeavor, it also means, on some level, they care. So when opinions differ, or miscommunications happen, or feelings are hurt, etc., it feels like there's something more at stake. And at risk of sounding like Big Bird, we're always going to have conflicts; maybe the question is how we handle them.

Children's Ministry Magazine ran an article by Craig Jutila, children's pastor at Saddleback, intended for children's leaders, but it's good stuff for anyone. He offers three points:

1. Develop Thick Skin and a Sensitive Heart - "Have a magnet in your heart and a compass in your head", Jutila says.

2. Respond, Don't React - Craig says he waits 24 hours when he gets a negative email that "has the hint of negativity", so as to give his fingers' emotions the best possible chance to write a thoughtful (not sarcastic/angry) response!

3. Outlast Your Critics - I literally laughed out loud when I read: "I have a personal theory. I think there are about 15 people who drive around together in a van from church to church. They spread their discontent with just about everything that's going on. They thrive on pointing out your mistakes, correcting your path, and adjusting your perspective. They're so negative it's like they're earning some kind of award for it. No matter what church you go to, you'll meet these people. So don't be surprised when their van unloads. My point is, the goal is to simply outlast those who are critical of you."

I might add a fourth: be direct. This is probably contextual, but it can feel like there's often cultural pressure (whether in church or not) to be nice. This approach says fewer conflicts equals greater health, period. The problem is this approach often breeds resentment, and it gets easier and easier to rationalize staying quiet, and ultimately leaving [the marriage, the organization, the house, the situation]. And if folks DO stick around, people get the message that it's better to hide [their thoughts, their opinions, their emotions], since even the smallest of conflicts become an event, rather than just a passing conversation. The paradox: in an effort to maintain fewer and fewer conflicts - deeper, bigger, harder-to-resolve conflicts take hold.

Dang, and here I promised myself this blog post would stay light and easy-breezy!

On the other side of the coin, conflicts can be fantastic opportunities. The people closest to me are the friends who have stuck around for a long time and been willing to work through our "stuff". For me, I don't feel like I really know someone until we've worked through a conflict. There's a potential bond that's very powerful! The friendship becomes something you've fought together for.

It does seem like at the end of the day, all personal conflicts have one thing in common: they're risky. Things can go well, or, uh, not. How do you sail these waters? What's helped you?

#2 History of Children's Ministry - David C Cook

2011-06-27T18:40:00.000-07:00

Recently I mentioned starting on a project that I'm pretty excited about, the history of children's ministry. You'd be hard pressed to find a more niche market! To start, I'm looking to answer one question in particular: where did today's concept of "kids church" come from? That is, a full adult church service model -- worship, offering, sermon, communion/Eucharist, etc. -- offered to children 12 and under. Tens of thousands of Protestant churches have a form of kids church, regardless of their size.

It seemed like a good place to start might be Christian publishers. Find the people who publish kids church curriculum to the masses. A big shoutout to David C Cook, who generously provided archived materials for this project, and put up with my incessant "I just have one more question" temperament! For the unfamiliar, David C Cook is one of the largest publishers of church materials in the US. They've expanded their product line to include greeting cards, a magazine, curricula, and books.

They started me with a pamphlet on their history which tells the story in comic-book format. If you guessed it was made (or updated, perhaps) in the early 90s, well, you'd be right, my friend! 1993, actually.

Their story began in the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, when David C Cook's mail order business burned to the ground. He bootstrapped his way back into an office on credit, and restarted his business. He'd been teaching Sunday school on the side, but without printed materials as an aid. So, he made his own, and published them, undoubtedly drawing on his experience as a "printer's devil" in his college years. The front cover says the company was founded in 1875. The publishing business grew to become his (and, perhaps, his wife's) full time job, and continued to expand over the years.

David C Cook published their first kids church curriculum in 1965, which surprised me (the date is earlier than I'd have guessed kids church curriculum started). They sent me an extra copy last week, and I eagerly read through it. A few things worth noting:

- In '65, Cook's kids church materials are designed as teacher's aids, not yet a full blown curriculum. It's fun to see these first fruits, as Cook went on to offer (and still does) such curriculum.

- Prep time. Every publishing company is faced with a big consideration: volunteer teachers. If class requires too much prep, volunteers may feel overworked and disinterested. However, if the entire class is scripted, volunteers may feel micromanaged and creatively blocked. Finding the balance -- or the right crowd -- is crucial. Also, children's pastors oversee said volunteers and often have purchasing power. That's why good curriculum has to please volunteers, which pleases church leader(s), which translates to more business. You can tell there's intent to find that balance even in this early curriculum. There's a good helping of punch-out flannelgraph characters and instructions, while Bible verses and interpretation are omitted.

- Each lesson in the curriculum tells the teacher the "Theme", "Bible Emphasis", "Aim", and "Use Figures [e.g. Frisky, a farmer, cow, etc.]" for the day. For example, the first story is called Frisky Finds a Home. Theme: Kindness. Bible emphasis: a woman is kind to Elisha, II Kings 4:8-11. Aim: To encourage the children to be kind to others. Use figures: 1, 3, 8, etc.

- There are 20 stories total that can be given in any order.

So, if you've looked any curriculum recently, things have changed over the last 46 years! Have you tracked with this change? Do share with us! Long-time children's leader extraordinaire, Jim Wideman, who graciously agreed to an interview recently, helped me wrap my head around this evolution. The next installment will feature some highlights - not to sound too much like a Saturday morning cartoon, but, stay tuned!

Yet Another Review of Rob Bell's "Love Wins"

2011-06-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

Reliably late to the pop culture bandwagon, I just finished Love Wins with a group of friends. My disclaimer here is that I'm unable to give a Facebook-friendly review with a direction of my thumb. While reading, my reactions were multi-layered and complex, which is just how the book was written. Bell never settles for simplicity, always describing with another texture, another image, another angle.

The book opens with a story, where Bell's church held an art contest. The theme was "what it means to be a peacemaker". One piece depicted Mahatma Gandhi, and while it won the hearts of many onlookers, it didn't win everyone - one person attached a paper to it that said, "Reality check: He's in hell." Bell takes great issue with this thinking, and seeks to redefine the traditional, simplistic viewpoint of heaven and hell. The whole book takes this tone. It reminds me of Morpheus in the karate training sequence in the first Matrix, to Neo, "I'm here to free your mind..." and "... do you think that's air you're breathing?"

From there Bell discusses heaven and hell. He argues both on Biblical and experiential grounds that heaven and hell are realities we encounter daily. For example, the love and joy of a happy, content marriage... heaven on earth. Conversely, take any brutally hurtful injustice (say, abuse) - is this not hell?, he argues. I can't help but agree; heaven and hell do seem like things occurring right now. Bell argues that to think of heaven and hell simply in terms of something that happens later, like when we die, is a grave misunderstanding of Jesus' redemptive story. It seems like this is what sparked at least some of the controversy - is Bell saying that there is no afterlife version of heaven and hell? Frankly, I feel like this question derails us off of Bell's larger, helpful points. Namely, if Jesus really is initiating heaven on earth, then that's a conversation worth having because it offers us a life we couldn't get on our own - suddenly we have access to unprecedented perspective, help, and guidance. We're invited out of our small worlds and into a larger story, Bell says.

One cornerstone of Bell's writing is he often gives four or five descriptions for one point, none of them individually giving the full scope of his thoughts on any issue. I'd imagine for people who are strongly bent towards theology, like, systematic study and definition of the Bible, they'd find his writing slippery. It's hard to pin him down sometimes. But that's just what I like about it. While his love for sound Biblical interpretation is evident, his writing often feels more like a painting than a logical treatise. I feel something when I read it. And he seems aware of this - on the Bible stories of Jesus, he says:

The point, then, isn't to narrow it to one particular metaphor, image, explanation, or mechanism. To elevate one over the others, to insist that there's a 'correct' or 'right' one, is to miss the brilliant, creative work these first Christians were doing when they used these images and metaphors."

And he often pits seemingly conflicting thoughts next to each other, creating a compelling idea to demonstrate a point:

But sometimes those individuals' [ex-churchgoers] rejection of church and the Christian faith they were presented with as the only possible interpretation of what it means to follow Jesus may in fact be a sign of spiritual health."

Going against my own disclaimer, it's now thumb time. A few things I liked:

- Bell is relentlessly creative. Parts of the book are written like poetry both in structure and content. Sometimes I find myself with an intuitive understanding of what he's saying, even though it's hard to articulate. (Like trying to fully describe a sunset with words.) Not to sound crass, but it's refreshing to meet a well-grounded, artistic Protestant. I even hope to be one someday (har har).

- Love Wins is full of stories. Like, I enjoy reading about actual people. I lose track of faith discussions that are too conceptual and abstract.

- I love how succinct Bell's writing is. The book is 100 something pages (I can't tell on my Kindle), and he says a LOT in 8 chapters.

- 20liters.org. This nonprofit gets mention in the post-book footnotes. I didn't realize there are 1 billion (with a B) people on earth without access to clean water. This nonprofit arranges inexpensive, effective filtration systems for such folks in Rwanda. Cool.

Other thoughts:

- For the same reason I enjoyed the book, and being pushed to think differently about heaven and hell, I quickly found I had to be okay with unanswered questions. For example, people have clearly loved and hated the following types of statements:

Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices? Those are questions, or more accurately, those are tensions we are free to leave fully intact. We don't need to resolve them or answer them because we can't, and so we simply respect them..."

- I was most helped when I read Love Wins with the approach of, "What can I learn?" and "What do I like?" There's much to be gleaned in the book - and best of all, if read with a group of friends, there are a million conversations to be had afterwards.

Is hearing from God hurtful?

2011-06-16T15:28:00.001-07:00

A few weeks back, I had an interesting conversation with a friend about hearing from God, or hearing God's voice. Several infamous moments in history came up. Like, say, the Crusades, or gross mistreatment of Native Americans during early American settlement, where unspeakable acts of violence were performed in the name of God. Though unspoken, I think a takeaway for both of us went something like, "I want nothing to do with that kind of conviction!"

Also a few weeks back, Annie and I were looking for a car. As often happens with research, I'd nearly exhausted myself looking through dealerships, Craig's List, and classifieds. Upon driving home from a friend's house on my day off, I felt like God said, "Peter, you should check out Craig's List before you go home." (We didn't have internet access at home yet). Drove to the office, checked out Craig's List, and saw a car that looked perfect for well below blue book value. Turns out the seller listed it about 5 minutes prior. I was the first caller, and not only did we get a great car, but we saved a bundle. While this is obviously a more mundane, day-to-day situation, most of my big shifts like moving to a new city, career choices, marriage, etc., I'd attribute to some sense of acting on convictions, or inklings sometimes, of, "I feel like God said...".

So, if you believe such things happen, clearly the idea that, "I heard X from God," can be both freeing and helpful, or, likewise, can be limiting or (even worse) hurtful. Surprisingly, I find myself agreeing with skeptics as much as advocates. For example, I'm sold that hearing God shouldn't preclude my being a thoughtful person, or evaluating my choices. Given so many negative examples, one might wonder if it's even possible to be a person who thinks critically while hearing from a God who can offer perspective about my friends and career.

I've always admired people with intense conviction, but perhaps from a distance.

Like, whatever I think of their theology, it's hard to imagine a close friendship with the Boondock Saints. But that's me. Conviction, after all, can fuel big, wonderful choices. MLK Jr., thank God for his conviction!

And therein lies the tricky thing about prayer. How can we be discerning, thoughtful people without losing the conviction that propels us to make bold choices? How do you sail these waters?

Intro - History of Children's Ministry

2011-06-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

I walked in on the back-end of a conversation one day (don't you love that) where one coworker just asked the other, "What year do you think kids first began separating?" Excited about a deep, riveting conversation about possibly 1) conjoined twins, 2) child development and formation, or 3) quantum physics, I chimed in with a sure winner to any of the three, "I'll bet it was in the '60s."

Well, turns out they were talking about a large-group church service for children, which I'll refer to here on as "Kids Church". I still think my answer was correct. But it's a popular concept in churches these days, to have an entire church service dedicated to children under 12. Think of church services for adults (worship songs, sermon, tithe/offering, etc.), but for kids. Mom and dad go into another part of the building -- or if it's a giant church, perhaps another building altogether -- and have their church service; kids have their own. All this hardly seems worth mentioning as virtually all protestant churches these days have a kids program along these lines. It's just assumed that it exists.

But this is actually a new concept in church history. For the first 1800+ years or so of Christian church history, church for kids largely revolved around sitting with mom and dad during adult services. It's only in the last, perhaps, 150 years that this concept of "church for kids" came into being. So, like, where did it come from? I decided to sniff around. There are ample books on end regarding teen ("youth") and adult church, but not a single collective source of information for children's church! I checked out many of the big retailers online, asked children's pastors across the country, and have put the word out. I'm fairly confident there's not even so much as a blog with such historical resources. (That said, if I missed one you know about - please pass it my way!)

So I've decided to take on the project. The hope is to provide a resource to children's workers that will give us a sense of "where we've come from" so we'll be able to know "where we're going." Thanks to the generosity of many children's leaders, there are many research projects in the pipeline: interviews, archives, conversations, etc.! I'm way excited! And I can't wait to share the findings.

And along those lines, if you have any information, contacts, leads, authors, etc. - pass them my way! I'd love to include it. Stay tuned for the next post!

On Volunteer Appreciation

2011-06-14T08:52:00.001-07:00

A few months back I found myself in several conversations

about volunteer appreciation with other children's leaders. Deciding to skim through several books written about it, the approach generally seems to be, "Do things, O Leader, to show your appreciation to your volunteers." Verbal

praise, gifts, high fives and hugs, free food, etc... gestures of appreciation. Show appreciation, and volunteers will feel welcomed and happy, which will make them want to stay (the books argued). One line stands out to me from a popular book on the topic, "An appreciated volunteer is a happy volunteer."

This discussion is now firmly ingrained into the atmosphere of children's leadership - a totally random person on the street could go up to a children's ministry leader and ask, "What have you done to show appreciation to your volunteers?" and you'd undoubtedly have a conversation on your hands. It's assumed that that's what happens: children's leaders show appreciation to volunteers. It's what we do... after all, we're children's leaders!

Well, apparently I missed the memo on this. Thinking back to my teenage and young adult volunteering, I'd felt the happiest when several things were at play:

- Ideas were being taken seriously. A culture of teamwork made all the difference here. Some of the most disappointing times for volunteers, then and now, are when the opposite is true. I'm thankful for patient leaders who listened to my ideas, even when they were probably way off target. It showed they at least were interested

in me, even if my idea was a flop.

- I was excited about the initial reason for volunteering. A compelling purpose is just that: compelling. It's what makes getting up at 7a every Sunday, to do an hour of tedious setup, worthwhile.

- My presence added value to the endeavor. I can't prove it, but I'm pretty confident I've rolled more sound cables than any person alive. Why on Earth a team of people would opt to wake up at the bootiecrack of dawn, set up a sound stage from scratch, and tear the entire thing down at the end of the day, EVERY Sunday for years, is completely mysterious. It makes more sense, though, when they feel they're adding some serious worth to the venue!

One of the most fun parts of my job is getting to connect with lots of enthusiastic volunteers. Seriously, there are people on the team here who have been here for 10+ years, and are passionate about what they do! It's a great energy to be around. Like, I'm at a place where there are volunteers who outlast the children's pastors! Their enthusiasm is contagious, and it piqued my interest. I asked each of them at different times, "What keeps you going over the long run like that?" Without missing a beat, each of them responded in the same way, "I feel called to do it." Each has stories of times they've felt appreciated, as well as neglected.

As much as tokens of appreciation are nice, the thing that seems to drive people over the long haul is some personal conviction that what they're doing matters. I have a hunch that "volunteer appreciation" boils down to this alone. How appreciated people feel is a function of how valuable (they perceive) the organization is, and how valuable they are in it.

How do you feel most appreciated?

Hospitality, and A Recent Trip to Rob Bell's Church

2011-06-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

While passing through Grand Rapids, MI recently, my family and I had the fun experience of visiting Mars Hill Bible Church, who many of you know is pastored by Rob Bell. Like many, I was aware of the controversy about Bell's latest book, Love Wins, so it was fun to actually visit his church and hear him live. (As a total side note: interestingly, much of the controversy started before the book had even been released. I'm sure some had advance copies, but the rest?) We thoroughly enjoyed the experience, with one surprising takeaway.

You see, just down the street is another giant church with bright, gorgeous signage out front. If you're going on purpose to whatever church that was, it's clear when you've arrived! There's no mistaking it. Mars Hill on the other hand... well... we pulled in the parking lot, and as any fool can see, it was clear we were there when we saw their sign:

After figuring out we were at the right place, we thought maybe they forgot to put their name in the giant white nothingness next to the green circle thing -- don't you just hate it when you convert a mall to a church building and absent-mindedly space small details like your name on four giant signs outside? But no, it seems intentional. There on the door, in teeny, tiny, white letters is the name "Mars Hill Bible Church"!

Which starkly contrasts with virtually every church in the area (which, as an aside, is totally intentional of Mars Hill, if you ask me. It's a response to the icky in-your-face evangelical culture in which many of us grew up and were disenchanted by). The inside had a similar vibe. A lone table with free bagels (sliced into quarters... smart) & coffee. Muted colors everywhere. Meticulously designed interior with wall art, sitting areas, lounge, and sculptures. They pulled off an amazing balance of welcoming guests without the appearance of trying too hard.

They have something like 3,000 active members, which does not include visitors and regular attenders who haven't signed up as official members. So clearly, like, it's working for them. Mars Hill gave me something to think about - what if hospitality is more about the environment we create? As demonstrated in this awesome vid:

I learn so much from comedy! But here's what hits me. Being hospitable, on Mars Hill terms at least, is paradoxical. In giving people ample freedom to come and go as they wish, they feel welcome. It's intentional yet subtle. It happens in the way we design our buildings and parking lots, and also in our body language, word choices, and presentation. To be sure, part of this seems contextual - it probably depends on where you are in the country. Welcoming people in Grand Rapids is different than Seattle. But my sense is that more and more people, everywhere, want to be welcomed without knowing they're being welcomed. But that's me - what do you think?

kidlink

2011-06-07T10:55:00.000-07:00

Growing up in various churches -- Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, and Presbyterian to name a few -- I'd describe the model for my church experience with one word: education. Learn about God. Grow in knowledge. Conversations with mom and dad revolved around "what we learned today", (to which the answer was always some variation of "Jesus"). After working that model for many years, though, it came up short for me. It's not that I didn't learn good information -- there are probably worse ways to spend your time than learning what the Bible says. But the deepest questions I had about life hadn't been answered. Say there was an all-loving God who wanted to give me perspective about my future and my friendships and my career, could I even get to know Him? Can I, like, TALK to Him? Would he have important things to say to me?

What does THAT sort of life look like? Somehow I'd missed it. I knew the Bible stories, definitions of concepts like grace and righteousness, but, like, I didn't actually know God! How the heck did that happen? How could a person possibly spend 12 years in churches and come out the other end with deep knowledge of concepts, but distant from an actual God?

Fast forward some years, and I'm now in CHARGE of a children's department (who knew?), and it got me thinking. What if our ministry could be about that connection with a living God? What if there were a God who we could feel close to, like, now? If we could receive day-to-day direction on the things we're actually experiencing (for kids: school, friendships, family life, and so forth). That's a program I'd get excited about.

So we're attempting to do just that with our newly renamed children's ministry, "kidlink". The idea is that everything about our ministry is designed to "link kids" to God and other people. That they'd be able to find that rich connection with God and hear from him.

Well, this approach has some very real, practical implications for the classroom. For example...

Prayer always needs to be emphasized as "two-way", which is what we see all through scripture. We speak to God, he speaks to us. Then, especially with older kids... TRY it! Show them how to do it. Pray, and then listen. Let them watch us listen. Try it as a class. Have them write or draw what they think God is saying. In this way, prayer is a process, not a destination.
Our kids church culture needs to be that of discussion and possibilities. A place where many different perspectives are welcomed. How do we do that? It's simpler than we might think. For example, take Moses at the Red Sea. What if we stopped reading the story right as Moses and company pulls up to the Red Sea (before it's been parted) - how about ask, "Pretend YOU are Moses! You are in charge of this huge group of people, there's an army on your tail, and there's nowhere to go! What would you do?" Inspire discussion. Ask lots of open-ended questions. This way kids aren't being taught; they're being engaged. One of my favorite posts on this subject is by Amy Dolan who argues that we need to move away from the ever-popular "one main point" sermons by asking open ended questions; and in this way each child leaves the room with his or her own main point.
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, has it right: "Get the culture right, and everything else falls into place." Foster a culture of connection with God and other kids by making the choice to let kids see your faith. If God has done something for me lately, after my wife, children are probably going to be one of the first groups of people to hear about it. I want them to see what God is doing in me, and to have freedom to ask questions.

So how's all this going so far? It hasn't been without its bumps, but I'm excited even this early in the game. Next time I'll post some stories of what seem like pretty amazing things happening for kids!

A Hiatus

2010-08-31T13:55:00.001-07:00

It struck me that in order to focus more on developing vision for our children's ministry, I'll need to let a few other things go. Sadly, this blog is one of them. That means we're taking a break, and there won't be any blog posts until after Christmas.

Thanks to those who read regularly and especially those who've commented over the months. Here's to a great fall season, and lots of wisdom and direction to all! Cheers --

Some Great Resources

2010-08-25T17:17:00.001-07:00

I am so thankful for the internet. For all of the weird stuff that's out there, I love the ability to connect with other children's pastors and leaders from around the country, by whom I've been so helped. I've posted some of those sites on the right-hand side of the page. And MAN is there a lot of free information on children's ministry. I thought I'd post some of my recent favorites.

- Children's Ministry Magazine's leadership section. It's full of solutions and surveys of common challenges in children's ministry. Lots of topics of convo:

- Children's Ministry Talk. Dick Gruber and Jason Rhode run a talk-show type podcast in response to listener questions. Okay, so I like them partially because they've answered two of my two last questions. But they're also relevant. They answer questions and post a list of resources related to each podcast. E.g. Recently they talked about how to discuss sex in church (I thought I'd throw my recent blog post topic their way), and then they listed half a dozen links, books, and articles that deal with this topic as well. Fabulous!

- Blogs. Amy Dolan, Henry Zonio, Larry Shallenberger, and Michael Hyatt, to name a few. They're all on the right-hand side of this blog. Some offer concrete tips and techniques, while others are geared more towards reflection. But each one is current, cutting edge, and creative.

- Creating great flyers. One of my secret hopes in life is to become a genius communicator... I'll give you a call when I figure it out, but in the mean time here are some great websites on creating great flyers. Or an entire nonprofit dedicated to helping churches communicate more effectively... the name is sure to catch your attention.

What are your fave sites/resources lately? Please pass them on!

Thoughts On Discussing Sex

2010-08-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm enthused from a lively conversation over at Not the Religious Type recently about sex. If you haven't read it yet, read it, and read the comments... some really amazing things shared there. I decided to chime in that as a children's director, it's been a difficult subject for me to address. People, especially parents, all have opinions about how they want kids to be informed. Opinions on what to discuss. Opinions on when to discuss it. Et cetera! I'll spare you the stories on that; suffice it to say, WOW do parents have opinions! So I'm learning that it's a good idea to share a week ahead of time with parents, "Hey, just wanted to let you know we're going to be reading a Bible story that involves adultery," or, "sex", or whatever. And then remind them again before class on the day of. But that doesn't address how to address or engage in actual discussions with kids about it. It's not like churches can quietly tip-toe around this one: we're teaching from a book that openly and explicitly mentions sex over and over and over. Not only in the candid Song of Solomon (gotta love that the most explicitly sexual portion of the Bible was written by Solomon, a guy who elsewhere the Bible says is the wisest man who ever lived... ha!), but in the stories of various characters.

Tim cites an interesting article over at NTRT dealing with abstinence pledges. .

Based on those interviews with more than 20,000 young people who took virginity pledges, Bearman found that 88 percent of them broke their pledge and had sex before marriage.

88%! I only have theories about why this is the case... namely that I think "protecting our kids" is the wrong approach. I think "empowering kids to make wise choices" is a much better way. But again, they're only theories so I'll move on.

The vision to me goes something like: we want to empower healthy, successful sexuality. Right? I mean, no one wants kids to have unfulfilling sex or marriages or dating experiences. How we define "healthy" is the rub. I wonder what you think IS the best way for churches to empower healthy sexuality. As one commenter at NTRT points out, the church has done an abundant job of effectively shouting "ABSTINENCE!" really loudly. But that's a message; it isn't a conversation. As the article points out, perhaps it isn't the most effective strategy. Another approach would be to avoid the topic. "Let the parents deal with it." Unfortunately, I don't feel I have that liberty to avoid a conversation simply because it's difficult. And parents might be tempted to say the reverse, "Let the church deal with it. Send my kid to a class." But I wonder if we could come up with some kind of collaborative way to engage kids in helpful dialogs. Christopher Greco (again at NTRT) points out that these sorts of conversations have basically changed his whole life for the better. I went through several such classes that Christopher & Dorothy led as husband and wife... amazing things came from that.

I've seen church curricula that try to teach a dating & sex philosophy that goes something like, "love, marriage, sex, babies." It falls short for me because, as a child or teen, that doesn't answer my questions about sex. It's just another rule. I don't need more rules regarding sex; I need answers. Or perhaps life-giving, non-defensive, non-judgmental discussion.

I guess I have to go back to this: sexuality lends itself to two-way dialog. Why? What human being on the planet, married or single, has all the answers to sexuality? It's so closely tied to one's beliefs, values, experiences, etc. Dialog, not just "education", seems like it has to play a role at some point. Dialog seems like the only way to address ongoing questions, especially when everyone is at a different place in their sexuality.

So there's some thoughts. What do you think? Any suggestions on how churches could address the topic with kids?

Lessons From My Father: Learning to Learn

2010-08-13T12:14:00.000-07:00

Ask any of my siblings about our childhood summer road trips, and each person has a story. Most summers all 6 of us made the trek from Texas to Wisconsin and back. I personally enjoyed the drive as much as the destination. Probably because I didn't have to drive 4 kids for three days. I got to be chauffeured! Gazing out the window, road trip games, motels, food, and my cassette walkman sporting the Sister Act soundtrack.

Ask any of my 3 siblings about their experience with it, and chances are at some point you'll run into a conversation about historical markers. You see, Dad really enjoyed historical tidbits, and he enjoyed stopping to read each of those tidbits even more. We knew when we passed a "Historical marker on right, 1 mile" sign, we'd soon hear from dad, "Um, guys, I just need to pull over for a second." Dad knew that when we passed such a sign, he'd hear a Hallelujah Chorus of Complaining from the kids in the back seat.

While I bemoaned them at the time, I am so glad he stopped at the dozens of historical markers each summer. My dad was someone who really enjoyed learning, because he knew that in order to continue growing even well after one's school years, they'd have to take initiative. They'd have to be intentional about their growth; it seems like it misses those who just let the signs go by. My brother, Damon, and I chatted about this once, that we are both glad we got to observe habitual, eager learning... the kind that's driven by a combination of fascination and discipline.

The Shoe Button Complex

2010-08-13T09:17:00.000-07:00

I've blogged before about Warren Buffett's super-entertaining, though gargantuan, biography. In it, business partner Charlie Munger and Buffet recall a Harvard classmate sharing with them what he called the "shoe button complex":

"His father commuted daily with the same group of men," Munger said. "One of them had managed to corner the market in shoe buttons - a really small market, but he had it all. He pontificated on every subject, all subjects imaginable. Cornering the market on shoe buttons made him an expert on everything. Warren and I have always sensed it would be a big mistake to behave that way."

This thought occurred to them early on, and it grabbed me immediately. I like this passage because it helps me to reckon with knowing what I don't know. I read it and recall lots of moments in my life, "Oops, I think that was probably a shoe button moment. I didn't really know what I was talking about!"

After a draining day, occasionally my fellow staffers and I re-energize with a game of multiple-choice trivia. Since we make up the questions ourselves, it quickly becomes clear that we all have a lot of niche knowledge. The look of dread hits my face when they start asking me about rodeos, sports, and presidential history. I just don't know that stuff (yet?). So even through my losing streaks, I usually leave with a smile, "Now I know a little more about what I don't know!"

Question: what do you know, and what don't you?

Common Ground: Gamers and Athletes

2010-08-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

While I like to think lately "I'm too busy for that stuff," somewhere inside me lives a mystical medieval warrior ready to explore, say, Dungeons to defeat the, I don't know, Dragons... that live there. And his ears perk up every time there's an interview, documentary, or panel discussion with big names in the industry like SimCity creator Will Wright.

During my best (worst?) years of nerdship, I was an avid Starcraft player. One high school spring break, I actually played Starcraft online for over 24 hours! Apparently I'm not the only one; in South Korea there's an entire electronic gaming league. They call it e-sports, and fans pay money to sit in a stadium to cheer on their favorite Starcraft player, watching them battle an opponent on big screens. The best players make a living doing this, and they practice (led by a coach) for 8, 10, 12 hours a day. Teams are often sponsored by corporate advertisers, and announcers give the play-by-play. Here's perhaps the most famous battle from one of the original e-sports champions, dubbed "Boxer".

That's our common ground for the week: gamers and athletes. Both can be extremely competitive, social, and mentally active. Long gone are the days of gaming reserved to gloomy arcades filled with greasy, dateless males. On a fun side note, recent research shows that the current fad of "social gaming" (think Facebook, a la Farmville) is dominated by females!

Common Ground: Cowboys and Stock Brokers

2010-08-03T08:09:00.000-07:00

Sitting in the bleachers, about 50 of us watched in silence as kids proudly paraded their horses through the arena. One at a time, they competed for ribbons in showmanship, a category where winning revolves around things like poise, control of the horse, and cleanliness. As the show progressed, one group stood out to several of us: the 8-year-olds. Quite a sight to see a 3-foot-something controlling a 1,000 lbs beast. Midway through the show we noticed a small crowd gathered off to the sidelines. We learned that a child was lying there face-down and not moving. Turns out she got bucked off her horse while waiting for the next round to begin and landed on her hip. Thankfully she was conscious when the EMT's arrived, but just goes to show how powerful horses are.

I'd never been to a showmanship competition before, so I'm possibly the only person on the planet who (during one) thought, "Wow, this is so similar to life in the big city!" My brain raced, apparently making connections to my former homes of Houston and Boston, as well as other cities I'd visited like Seattle and New York. The goals of the showmen and, say, a wealthy financial analyst are similar in a way: they both try to domesticate things much bigger than themselves. Perhaps you caught the swath of news stories about Goldman Sachs allegedly selling mortgage-backed securities that they knew were bad. So whether it's equestrian or economy, both can capably crush a person.

I'm starting a series of blogs I'm calling "Common Ground." The goal is simple: to find commonality between unlikely places or peoples. Seems like common ground is as good a first step as any to build bridges between people groups that haven't connected well in the past. Inspiration is drawn from the experiences of other's and my own, where great things have happened when we choose to build friendships with people groups different from the one(s) we come from. Scientist Matt Ridley published an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal a few months ago. He argues that human advancement was stagnant for millions of years, but then skyrocketed in the last 45,000. Why? The answer is surprising:

The answer lies in a new idea, borrowed from economics, known as collective intelligence: the notion that what determines the inventiveness and rate of cultural change of a population is the amount of interaction between individuals.

So, you know, take it for what it's worth, but hopefully I'll learn some fun things to try out over the next few weeks.

Killing Our Need For Affirmation

2010-07-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

A while back, some friends shared a story about how they'd led an area of children's ministry for years and had been thanked a total of two maybe three times. They felt "burnt out" -- common language in volunteer world --and their emotional tank was running on empty because of it. A people-pleaser by nature especially as a child, many stories flooded to my brain about teachers I'd worked hard for without a thank-you, underappreciative bosses, and small jobs accomplished with no kind words.

I remember first becoming aware of this dynamic at a church I volunteered at for a number of years. If we succeeded in our intended goals, the sentiment from the leader was noticeably, "Great job!" not "Thank you!" The assumption on the leaders' part was that volunteers wanted to be there because 1) they loved doing a given position 2) they had some sort of clear picture or "vision" about what to work towards... succeeding meant a "high five" was more appropriate than "thanks!" It struck me for the first time that volunteers weren't helping fulfill someone else's vision in order to be good people (which would, in fact, mean a "thank you!" is needed). Rather, we were working towards a common goal together. We still had a clear leadership structure, but the vision wasn't owned by only a few. I'd never experienced that before. And it was painful! At first I grew resentful at various leaders... "How could you be so callous?? You don't thank any of us for all the hard work we do! Either you don't SEE it, which makes you blind, or you're choosing to ignore it, which makes you a jerk."

I really liked other aspects of the church, and by that time I'd made a number of close friends volunteering. And I couldn't imagine myself anywhere else, so for whatever reason I stayed, and stayed. And stayed. I asked (complained to?) God constantly about this one. It just didn't seem fair for those of us doing all the legwork to get no complimentary compensation. And the more I went to God with this, the more I felt like God would stare back at me with a giant hand and pat me on the back. "Way to go!" he'd say. This became our routine. The more I did this, the more God was able to meet that need.

I don't have much to recommend young leaders as I still am a young leader. But if I had to choose one, this would be pretty close to the top: start immediately getting your need for affirmation met by God alone. The reason is because of the stakes of what we do. What amount of pats on the back can compensate for influencing another human towards a positive life change? My model for this is Jesus on the cross. Can you imagine if while hanging there, battered and bloody and running out of air, Jesus looked into the heavens and screamed, "Did you catch the irony here, Lord? The very people I'm dying for didn't even THANK me for doing this!" Seems a little out of place.

A better alternative: volunteering out of a sense of agreement, excitement, or connection with the stated vision of a particular ministry. Funnily enough for me, I actually started volunteering out of a sense of duty; I signed a "membership covenant" with this particular church and had agreed to volunteer, even though I didn't really want to. But after a while and integrating with some other volunteers and leaders, I grew to really like it. So there's no one way to do it, but I'm sold that over the long run, connecting with a vision that excites you (read: with God's help & direction) is worth a few hours every month. I just am not able to do something out of a sense of duty for years upon years - I'd rather spend some time searching for a vision that motivates me, and gladly hop on board. Or even start my own venture! It's helped me to see the power of a collective effort. It's helped me to make friends. It's helped me to befriend people with backgrounds much different than my own. Perhaps the biggest: it's helped me to get my "well done"s from God alone.

It's helped me to understand what one pastor I served under said (from the pulpit!), "If you are excited about what we're doing here at this church, don't thank me. JOIN me."

In church, what would things be like if we didn't need to hear another thank-you again... ever? What if the deepest nooks and crannies of our souls were filled with satisfaction that came right from God? Perhaps a better title for this would be "redirecting" our need for affirmation.

Does Wondering Help You?

2010-07-28T14:13:00.001-07:00

A common theme lately in Kids' Church, we had an open discussion about loving your enemies ("love" meaning something you show or do that's positive). What does it mean, why is it worth mentioning, how do we do that when it's hard, etc. A thoughtful student, wheels clearly turning, asked curiously, "Does that mean we have to love Satan?" He was referring to the Bible dubbing Satan "the Enemy", so if we're supposed to love our enemies, wouldn't Satan be, like, the ultimate possibility? While I recommended against this for a few reasons, I loved his curiosity and the fact that he was really processing what this type of living would look like.

I can't help but return to this type of awe-and-wonder curiosity about many things like marriage, adulthood, art, ministry, friendship, sexuality, and the list goes on. Probably some childhood wounding, I'm usually skeptical if not put off by those who are ultra-certain or rigid about any of these areas. While I don't personally lean as far as, "How can we be sure of ANYTHING?", I do think we adults lose this childlike approach to examining the world. As the boy in class proved to me, it seems like we can experience a fresh wave of inspiration at the least, and perhaps even discover a world of conversation and depth with God.

The implications in ministry seem clear to me: asking children take-home questions instead of take-home points, making interaction with the Bible a (much) higher priority than memorizing the Bible, and defining ministry success on other terms than "certain of X worldview" (how about discovery? friendship/relationships? curiosity?). What do you think?

iCamp

2010-07-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard the pitch, here it is - iCamp is a new type of summer camp we designed from the ground up here at our church for 9-12 year olds. The main event was an afternoon community project each day - we called up nonprofits around the city and asked, “Hey, we’re here, how can we help?”. Then we sent teams of kids to accomplish those projects. So we did everything from yardwork at people’s houses to walking dogs at the humane society to sorting, folding, & racking the store-room at Salvation Army.

iCamp ran Mon-Fri, and each morning we had our two resident kids-games-professionals lead strategic games for each team of kids. For example, picture two 10-foot planks lying on the ground parallel, with foot straps (like skis), 4 kids lined up single file, each with feet in the ski straps. The only way to move is to step in unison as a team throughout the obstacle course, and then you have to do it blindfolded :-). The fastest team wins the points, and each day points accumulate to an awards ceremony at the end of the week.

Wednesday night included a lock-in here at the church (or as I will remember it, "the neverending pillow fight"). We also had mini church services at the beginning and end of each day to give context to what we're doing - we're not just trying to be good people here, we're trying to connect to a larger purpose we think God is inviting us into. We're aiming to see great things happen for us as we try to help others. In churchy terms, we're not just hoping for good things from afar, we're hoping to be the miracle for people and businesses all over Twin Falls. What struck me was the growth and learning that took place seemingly every day. Anyone who works with kids can tell you it's hard to tell if you're making any sort of immediate impact - often the growth is more long-term. Each day, though, I heard things like:

I didn't know the Humane Society did this everyday.

I'm so glad we were able to help those people.

I can't imagine doing this all day long like the people who work here.

Two favorite stories. #1: Doing yardwork one day at an elderly man's house -- I'll call him Tom -- Tom came out of his house, loudly and cheerfully thanked all the kids for their help, and then turned to me with a quieter look on his face. Tom is a widower of only two months. "I just wanted to say thank you to these kids for their help. I haven't been able to come out here since my wife died." He started to cry, and continued with some additional kind words. Turns out it was also the hottest day of our summer so far in Twin Falls that day, so between the painful memories and 100 degree heat, Tom was thankful for the kids' help.

#2: While at The Safe House (transition house for orphans or abused children/teens), 3 iCamp girls were sorting clothes in a closet, when in walked a 14 year old girl who had just come from being strangled by mom. She was there to get help/clothes/food. The Director asked our adult volunteer if the girl could come into the closet to pick out some clothes. Well, the 3 girls who were in the closet totally welcomed in this girl with excitement and interest, helped the girl pick out clothes, got to know her, etc. It was anything and everything they could do to show love to her, and they did it without thinking.

Also, a secular children's organization has shown interest in sending over a large swath of kids to join us next year for iCamp 2011. We're pumped! Thanks again to all the volunteers - without which iCamp wouldn't have happened - many of whom took time off work to be a part. Can't wait for next year!

Lead the Way God Made You

2010-07-11T18:06:00.001-07:00

This is easily my latest favorite children's ministry book. Whenever I read any explicitly "Christian" literature these days, the only way it clicks with me is if it helps me. I don't do well with sentimental, abstract writing that feels good but does nothing to tangibly benefit me. So this book struck me immediately: author Larry Shallenberger put lots of thought into the "why"s behind the things he recommends, and is able to back it up with experience and wisdom.

Larry has an interesting background; if I have my story straight he went from seminary to being a case worker at a children's mental health facility for 7 years. I believe this gives him the unique ability to assess and analyze people's strengths and weaknesses, with the added benefit of being able to fully and precisely articulate them. I've taken plenty of personality assessments, but I hadn't ever taken a leadership assessment, which Larry offers in chapter one. With a clear appreciation for theatre -- another thing that attracted me to Larry & this book, his love for the arts -- the book sorts leadership into six categories/types. I kept having these moments while reading about the various types, "Aha! I know a person just like that!"

If you're curious, I scored a whopping ZERO as a Theater Manager. I tied for an overwhelming first place with the odd combination of Director and Production Assistant. When I told this to my pastor/boss, he looked at me and said, true to his blunt cowboy roots, "You're weird."

I was so helped by Larry's assessment because I was able to pin down my natural aptitudes in leadership, which I hadn't been able to do before. I always figured as a children's director/pastor, your job was to wear 1,000 different hats and be good at all of them all the time. Also, I graduated from Berklee College of Music as a performance major on bass guitar. And as a child I felt that church was strange and irrelevant. So I'm not drawing from a well of intuition from years of successful ministry, yet I find myself with clear pictures of what our children's ministry could and should look like (I've lost sleep over my many "aha" moments), and usually can figure out how to get there.

This review is obviously part life story and part book review, but that's exactly why I'm writing it - it had an impact on me, and I believe it will for any children's worker. Check out Larry's blog at www.larryshallenberger.com. Also, you can read the first 50 or so pages for free. Check it out!

So.... What's In It For Me?

2010-07-06T10:38:00.001-07:00

I realized that last month, June, marked 2 years of being a children's director. I was honored by the small celebration that was thrown for me:

Anyway, at three of the four church services we have per week we have "Kids Church", a large-group gathering for 1-6th graders. I've noticed something that seems to make or break my success in Kids Church. With whatever I'm talking about, it comes down to my ability to answer this question, "How does this benefit me?" So if I'm talking about something and children leave for the day not knowing how it benefits them, I've lost. If I've been engaging, interactive, fun, and discussed lots of meaty stuff, but they haven't made the connection to how it helps them, I've lost. It seems like when they've made that connection, they're much more apt to go and DO the things we're talking about that day.

For example. I delivered a message I titled, "Brothers and sisters!" I suppose the idea was to speak meaningfully to those with siblings, and be broad enough so that "only-childs" would get something good, too. I had games, I was fluid in my speaking, I had spontaneous examples and stories, energy, and spoke with conviction. And it flopped. Kids were bored, unresponsive, best I could tell didn't take anything of value with them... I could go on.

Case study 2, a message called, "How To Have the Best Life Ever With Your Parents!" Immediately there's a sense of movement; it's not just creative packaging. Suddenly there's a destination in mind. How DO you have the best life ever with your parents? Could God help us figure that out, even drastically improve the quality of our lives with our parents'... now? Set us on a helpful path forward? Now we're having a real discussion, rather than simply, "The Bible says to obey them."

Using all of the same elements as before (interaction, discussion, games, fun movie clips, etc.), 1st graders were donating comments left and right. My 7th grade volunteers who help make Kids Church possible (ushers, greeters, etc.) had ears fully perked. One girl in 3rd grade took notes, which was a first. And it seems like a lot of kids were helped whether it was something I said or something God did for them that day. But there was a clear connection that happened for many, "Oh... THAT'S how this will benefit me. I'd be foolish not to try it."

I wonder what children's ministry would look like with this question in our minds... I wonder if it would change the content, delivery, and style of our Sunday mornings for the better?

The Idiot's Guide to Interpersonal Conflict

2010-06-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

No, this isn't written from the perspective of, "A guide for complete beginners." It's okay to laugh.

1) Talk loudly, and interrupt frequently. It's important to work out your problems in the height of your emotional distress. Best case scenario, write an angry letter, and DO send it.

2) Exaggerate your case. If necessary, bring your children into the conversation, and use the word "devastated," as in, "My children are devastated that you think I have a bad attitude."

3) If you can't avoid the conflict entirely, try to resolve your conflict via email. About 90% of communication is nonverbal, so bank on the 10% to get your points across clearly. This way, you can say everything you need to say without being interrupted, and the other person just has to take it. Like a bullet.

4) If you are the avoidant type, become resentful that you are even having the conflict in the first place. Use phrases like, "In my 15 years of being in X position or at Y job, I've never had such difficulty!" The problem, after all, is them. It's not you. You are too mature, wise, and flawless to have any character defects after this long. I mean, you get along with everyone else so well, so surely the problem is with them. Especially if you are Christian, Jesus has been "working on you" for a long, long time, and has ironed out your most noticeable imperfections. Consider Him on your side. Religious fodder (whether implicit or explicit) is especially welcome in the world of interpersonal conflict.

5) Since your intentions were obviously great, please, by all means, do NOT -- I repeat, do NOT -- consider or acknowledge the other person's feelings! Bad things will happen to you if you do. Well-intentioned people rarely make mistakes, and when they do, your convo buddy should be expected to overlook them because, hey, you didn't mean to sound like a priggish jerkweasel. You didn't intend it, so therefore it isn't true.

Hope this helps!

To Glee or Not to Glee?

2010-06-22T14:06:00.001-07:00

Standing on the busy, hurried subway in Boston, I waited for the driver to announce, "Hynes Convention Center", the station where my college was located. The unspoken rule of personal space made itself most known in the sea of mp3 players surgically attached to people's heads, or the free local Metro newspaper in their hands. Everyone on the subway has a destination; no one rides it for leisure or to meet people... it's utilitarian. Just like conversations that take place while riding. "Get out of my way, please," or, "You dropped your iPod."

Enter the children.

Children don't purposefully do anything for utility. Everything is an opportunity to be observed, eaten, or spoken to. Hoping Hynes would quickly approach, I stood there nervously as a nearby mother of one sat down with baby in stroller. I thought, "Please, no... just... DANGIT." She sat and turned the stroller right towards me. "Great. Now what do I do? He's staring right at me. He? Or is it she? I can never tell when they're that young. That's why I don't say anything... moms are sick of little Jennifer being admired for dad's strong jaw and future in baseball." Silence, except for the subway clatter. "I mean, what do I DO? S/he just keeps looking at me, waiting for me to do something. I mean, what am I supposed to do, entertain them? Nod approvingly as though I relate to mom's maternal attachment to her child? Make a balloon animal? STOP STARING AT ME!"
***

I wonder if you can relate. Especially in college, everyone else around me seemed to know instinctively what to do with kids, and I didn't relate to any of it. I only really knew how to be me, if that. On a plane, at the store, at work: you can't escape them, and they're looking at you. Well if you're like me, you feel compelled to rise to the occasion. It's a tendency I'm calling the Ronald McDonald syndrome. It's that urge inside of you to act like a clown to elicit a response from a staring child.
I suspect Children's Ministry strikes many, many people (especially males) as some kind of Ronald McDonald hell, where they'll have to be someone they're not for all eternity, entertaining children with an extremely limited amount of natural talent. Who you are becomes not as important as who XYZ church requires you to be. "They're all going to stare at me, and I won't know what to do," is possibly one of the greatest fears to newcomers.

Two sobering questions for thought/conversation: is this actually true of your organization? That is, will volunteers indeed know what to expect and do? Second, what would your organization look like if you spoke meaningfully to this fear, relentlessly and clearly? That is, if people knew exactly what your organization was like, do you think they'd want to come?

How Important is Interaction?

2010-06-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it's the middle of June, so you know what that means: time to talk about Christmas! One of my favorite things about the holiday season is the endless airplay of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Gene Wilder went to my wife's alma mater, University of Iowa, where they've immortalized him in a picture on the wall and I'm told they named something after him... a building perhaps. My favorite scene from the movie happens when the kids set foot in the Factory's chocolate river room... take a look:

I love that... "everything is edible." Every ounce of that room bleeds with the call to interact. It isn't meant to be looked at or appreciated or complimented. It's to be interacted with. It's great how things that were once "blah" are now fun and imaginative: a building, a mushroom, grass. Things that at one time may have been a new discovery for me, but having gotten used to them, they're fun to rediscover.

Now, of course, that idea of rediscovery can be seen everywhere... what if marriage were that way, or our jobs... etc. Is the road into a life of refreshing discovery paved with interaction?

What about children's ministry? It seems like when you sign up to volunteer at a church, many people feel enormous pressure to "teach something," especially for those who grew up going to churches. So we get caught up teaching memory verses, "one main point" curriculum, and rewarding those kids who do well in this model. But what if our goal was to engage kids with the story of the Bible, or their own life stories, or even our life stories? What if we approached all areas of ministry with the goal of interaction?

Production Quality and Children's Ministry

2010-06-10T09:08:00.001-07:00

Annie and I recently rented Michael Jackson's "This Is It". For those who don't know, Jackson was planning on one last world tour, using only fan-favorite songs. The DVD mentioned that something like 50 concert dates went on sale online and within just an hour or two they were completely sold out. Months of rehearsals and millions of dollars spent on production & personnel, and Jackson died just weeks before his first concert date in London. "This Is It" is a collection of Jackson & crew's rehearsals leading up to his death. They weave "rehearsal moments" in with Jackson's mock performances, and it's a blast.
It's hard for me to contain my excitement when I talk about it because, wow, we were blown away. We were blown away on a number of different levels.

- The production quality. Top-level dancers, musicians, stage managers, lighting & sound techies, stuntmen, computer crew, etc. all collaborating towards one man's vision. As you quickly find out, Jackson is hands on with many different aspects of the show. Millions of dollars worth of pyrotechnics, dozens of lighting and sound crew fixated on Jackson's snap-of-the-finger for their next cue. Just for rehearsals! And get this: there's a ginormous LED theater-sized screen behind him playing pre-filmed clips & movies created just for this tour. Filming obviously required a film crew, set, costumes, make-up, etc... a full-on movie production to be played during the concert. Somehow Jackson & crew successfully spliced himself into an old Humphrey Bogart movie in the filming of a music video for Smooth Criminal:

- Jackson's creative voice. He can say anything he wants to the band, techies, or stage manager, and it's pretty much guaranteed that it's going to happen. He's been doing this for so long and knows exactly what he wants and needs that everyone gives 150%, and gets paid 150%, to make it happen. Annie noticed that if anyone had something to say to Jackson -- rarely did they -- it came through one point person. I'm forgetting his title, stage manager?, but Jackson didn't have 40 people talking to him or asking him questions. Everyone knew the game plan, and any suggestions funneled through Jackson's trusted assistant/stage manager guy. Very cool.

- The talent. An international talent competition was held just for the back-up dance crew a la American Idol (Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, eliminations, etc.). What got my attention is that Jackson was over 50 at time of filming and could still pull off some of his signature moves, eliciting cheers and hollers from his uber-talented backup crew. Also, I didn't even realize Jackson played with a live band, but he does, and you can YouTube any of them to get your mind blown. From edgy, blazing guitarist Orianthi to the rock-solid rhythms of Jonathan Moffett, it's hard to go wrong.

- Of course, the music. Not much to say here, other than you can go listen to the whole album for free on grooveshark or lala.com. However much I was a fan before, I'm a bigger fan now.

I mentioned this DVD to a few of my colleagues on staff here, and turns out a few of them had watched it and were blown away by all the same things. A few of us dreamed about what our departments could look like if things were done with the clarity, smoothness, talent/training, and hard work that were executed during This Is It. One thing we're working on in the children's department towards this end is defining every position and responsibility on paper. This way volunteers will have a clear picture of what's expected and what to work towards.

Your turn: what things have you found to be helpful in running a class, organization, family, etc. in terms of "production quality"?

The Discipline Guide

2010-06-09T10:21:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd pass on a short review of a book I read a few months back called The Discipline Guide to Children's Ministry by Jody Capehart, Gordon West, & Becki West. Nerd that I am, I usually do some quick & dirty research on who writes the books that I read, and all three authors are definitely from the "education" bent. Jody has both founded and led schools, and the West's consult for Christian education. So to get our perspective in order, it's written from the viewpoint of long-time teachers.

For better or worse, the book draws a fair amount from the DISC personality assessment. So in addition to thinking about my own teaching style and technique, this book helped me to think of myself as a student again and my own personality based on the DISC model. This was helpful in giving me a context for the tips & techniques the authors suggest.

Also, the book is extremely readable. It's not too lofty, so I could imagine any old schmoe picking up the book and giving it a go. The authors pepper the meaty book with many entertaining stories from their own classrooms. One chapter I found very helpful breaks down kids into age groups and grades and says, "Here's what you can probably expect from X age group." So not only does the book use personality to guide discipline, it takes age into account.

Many of the authors' concrete suggestions are given under the assumption that your kids program is run like a classroom. So, some of the tips might be tough to apply in, say, a large group setting, or in a discussion-based model like small groups. That said, there are some "guiding principles" along with Bible passages discussed throughout, as well as questions answered like, "Why do children misbehave in the first place?" which apply to any situation. So I found that for any shortcomings the book has in terms of relevance it makes up for in terms of helpfulness.

Throughout, the book provides xerox-able forms and even entire, scripted training seminars for readers to use. All fantastic resources! Though, I didn't always relate to the language used in these "scripts". I.e. giving teachers sweet and sour candies and asking how that experience is like disciplining kids. "Well, didn't taste good at first, but as I continued it got better." Duh. Sorry, I won't talk down to my teachers like they're preschoolers. That said, in the grand scheme this is not a big complaint, and nothing that can't be modified. There are moments like this throughout the book, but I have to imagine this is true of any discipline book - there's an abundance of suggestions and tips, so you take the ones that apply to you, and move on.

So, clearly lots of good things to be said on my part. While I can't imagine anyone who thinks they're doing well with classroom management would read this book, for newcomers or long-timers looking for some help I'd highly recommend it.

How Do You Lead?

2010-06-08T08:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks again to everyone for your info last week! It's fun for me to hear from various children's leaders who have some experience under their belt. In reading his blog, I learned that Larry Shallenberger has a few books published, and in addition to being drawn to other self-identified creative types, I read a few chapters on Google Books of Lead the Way God Made You. I ordered a copy immediately afterwards, and couldn't be more excited. What I really liked about what I read is that Larry gives a context to people like me who, otherwise, might have a hard time making sense of our mix of interests/passions.

So as many of you know, I graduated from Berklee College of Music with a degree in (SPOILER ALERT!) music, specifically electric bass. And I couldn't be more thankful for my time there. Soon after college, I landed an unexpected job as an after school caregiver/tutor to inner city kids in Cambridge, MA (did you know that Cambridge -- home to Harvard and MIT -- has an "inner city"? Well... it DOES!). Combine that with a strong entrepreneurial spirit. I remember being 7 years old going door to door with my best friend trying to re-sell screwdrivers and other oddities trying to raise money for Six Flags tickets. We didn't get them. But we did make $7 profit in an hour once, which was pretty sweet. I've also been researching stocks and businesses for over three years in my off-hours. No one told me to; I just do it because it interests me.

Or more recently, I unexpectedly took up woodworking. While I played some sports here and there, I wouldn't ever consider myself the athletic type. Working with my hands wasn't even a little bit on my radar, but yet I love it. I plan to open up an online shop soon to sell lamp bases in partnership with my wife, Annie -- the only person I know whose entrepeneurship exceeds my own! -- who already has a thriving lampshade business.

And now I'm the children's director at a church. Leading a team of people to try to accomplish something that could make a long, long-lasting impact in kids' lives, and inviting God daily to help us discover and rediscover what this means, is something I love. I couldn't be more thankful to be here.

So that's me - the woodworking, bass-playing, business-minded, bookworm, children's guy who is trying his best to reinvent what children's ministry could and should be. While sitting here listening to Chick Corea's My Spanish Heart. What about you? What strange mix of skills do you find unexpectedly tie in to what you do now? Do they all somehow converge in a weird way to meet your life's needs, or are they distinct but still fun?

Leader Profile: Keith Wilsey/Twin Falls, ID

2010-06-04T14:37:00.000-07:00

Our offices are closed on Monday, hence the missing leader profile that day. So, today you get a double-dose. Here's Keith:

1. Where are you from, and in what ways do you lead children? How long have you done it?

I have been asked that question before, but in a different context. Usually the question is posed, " What planet are YOU from?".

With THAT in mind, I am from the planet called Western Washington where I grew up. I have had great opportunity to live in Montana, Wyoming, Nevada and here in Idaho. In each place I wondered if I made a mistake. In each place, I grew where I was planted and was sad to leave. I got involved in kids ministry and youth group while in Nevada eleven years ago. Being a parent of three plus an almost teenager, I realize they always have much to teach me as an adult. A fathers heart will love and protect.

2. Myers-Briggs?

Is this a new aspirin? Just kidding. I think I have taken this personality test so many times over the years that I have multiple personalities. My giftings from God are teaching and mercy

3. If you had to pick, what's one thing all/most children's leaders (on any level) should do?
Take time, have fun and be a kid when you can. Do not take yourself too seriously, confess to each other, lift each other up...oh wait, you only wanted one...

4. Should never do?
Don't ever turn your back on those sweet little people for one minute:) They will paint their hair, color their hands, write interesting notes on the whiteboard and do it all in the name of surprising you.

5. Other than faith, what's the one thing you'd like to pass along to your kids?
Be thankful for what you do have. a crises for a lot of kids is when there IPOD breaks. A crises for many kids is wondering if someone will ever love them and care for them.

6. One thing you'd do this year for kids if you had unlimited time, money, and energy?
I would build some kind of educational center as part of the church where kids can learn how God is in science, How creation proves God's existence and show through the plant world how God does so many incredible things. (mustard tree as an example) This would be a place of learning, worship, safety, and learning how trust is built in relationships as they grow in different levels of their walk in life.

7. How about your biggest strength and weakness as a leader?
I love being hands on as a teacher. Meaning that I want to create things with them and experience as they experience things. To see things as they see them brings big advantages to understanding who they are and how they think and feel

Leader Profile: Jeff Heidkamp/Minneapolis, MN

2010-06-02T09:04:00.000-07:00

1. Where are you from, and in what ways do you lead children? How long have you done it?

Minneapolis. I've been a day camp counselor, a teacher in a jail, a kids church volunteer, now I'm the senior pastor of a church with 80 kids, mostly under the age of 5.

2. Myers-Briggs?

ENTP

3. If you had to pick, what's one thing all/most children's leaders (on any level) should do?

Help kids feel loved by people and by God.

4. Should never do?

Use God to control kids through guilt

5. Other than faith, what's the one thing you'd like to pass along to your kids?

happiness

6. One thing you'd do this year for kids if you had unlimited time, money, and energy?

Take them to the ocean and to China

7. How about your biggest strength and weakness as a leader?

Strength: communicating vision

Weakness: long term follow through

Leader Profile: Kevin Doepp/Portland, ME

2010-06-02T08:59:00.000-07:00

1. Where are you from, and in what ways do you lead children? How long have you done it?

I am originally from Long Island, NY but currently live in Maine. I am a father of three children and am married for going on 13 years. I, along with my wife, led our Children’s Ministry here at the Vineyard Portland for one year which she now leads on her own. I handle our outreach endeavors which includes the adoption of a local school. I have done that for one year in my role as the assistant pastor.

2. Myers-Briggs?

Not sure I have ever officially done that but my personality type is Choleric-Sanguine.

3. If you had to pick, what's one thing all/most children's leaders (on any level) should do?

Listen to Wes Stafford of Compassion International share his heart on children. It is mind-blowing!

4. Should never do? (Do share your juicy stories)

Betray their trust. There is so much out there competing for their time, energy and money—we need to let them know they can trust us always!

5. Other than faith, what's the one thing you'd like to pass along to your kids?

Taking risks in going for the dreams God has put inside of them.

6. One thing you'd do this year for kids if you had unlimited time, money, and energy?

I would develop a two-prong organization with centers all over the U.S. (to begin with) that gave children the opportunity to have their practical needs met along with instruction and guidance on living their lives for the dreams God put inside of them. Dreams are often lost on the children and youth of the world. I want more kids to grow up with the ability to go after the dreams God has given them and not allow the hindrances of their socioeconomic status’ to hold them back.

7. How about your biggest strength and weakness as a leader?

Biggest strength is being able to communicate effectively and biggest weakness is not knowing when to be quiet sometimes. Greatest strength can also be a glaring weakness!

Leader Profile: Abby Taylor/Twin Falls, ID

2010-06-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

1. Where are you from, and in what ways do you lead children? How long have you done it?

I grew up in Twin Falls but moved away after High School. My husband and I moved back to Twin Falls last Summer from Austin, TX.

I am currently the Nursery Coordinator for AGF- in the past I have been a Children's Coordinator (for the church in Austin) and an employee in the Children's Department at RHEMA Bible Church (in Broken Arrow, OK). I have been doing Children's Ministry most of my life and I love it!

2. Myers-Briggs?

Don't know ??

3. If you had to pick, what's one thing all/most children's leaders (on any level) should do?

Love children!! And don't fake it- kids will know if you are being fake and insincere.

4. Should never do?

Have bad breath! Keep breath mints on hand at all times!

5. Other than faith, what's the one thing you'd like to pass along to your kids?

That God has a plan for their life and they are uniquely gifted and talented to do what God has for them.

6. One thing you'd do this year for kids if you had unlimited time, money, and energy?

Hmmmm- there are so many things! One thing I would do is build a state of the art facility for Before/After school care- a place for kids to come and get fed, play games, be loved and nourished. Another thing I would do is take them shopping and let them buy a brand new outfit, shoes and school supplies!

7. How about your biggest strength and weakness as a leader?

I would say my organization and experience are definitely strengths. My weakness would be taking for granted my experiences in Children's Ministry- because I have been around it so long it can be hard for me to communicate appropriately with people who haven't been in Children's Ministry before.

Leader Profile: Larry Shallenberger/Erie, PA

2010-06-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

Here's the first of our five leadership profiles this week. We thought it might be fun to hear from some of the various people who are doing kids ministry at the moment. Without further ado, here's Larry.

1. Where are you from, and in what ways do you lead children? How long have you done it?

I'm from Erie, PA. When I first graduated from college I began working with children and youth at a residential mental health facility. I was a direct childcare worker and the a case manager for seven years. I joined my current church in 1997 as a children's pastor. I still oversee the children's ministry, but now I also lead the youth, college, and adult learning experiences as well.

2. Myers-Briggs?

That's a duo on Dancing with the Stars, right? Seriously, I've never taken that personality profile. The other batteries I've taken have me right on the line between introvert and extrovert.I don't mind being in front of a crowd, but I've got to have time alone to recharge. I'm task oriented and work at a high pace.

3. If you had to pick, what's one thing all/most children's leaders (on any level) should do?

Build teams. Every children's ministry needs to learn the art of giving ministry away.There's just too much to do. Ministry will always be challenging. But it doesn't need to be isolating.

4. Should never do?

Children's pastor should never allow their ministry to be silo-ed from the "big church." One of my pet-peeves is watching children's pastors design programs that don't mirror the core values and emphasizes of their large faith community. If the big church values small groups then your children's ministry needs to major in small groups. If you serve at a missional church then its incumbent on you to design experiences where children serve the community. In fact, family ministry for you might be designing opportunities for parents and children to serve together and then debrief afterwards.My own ministry didn't start getting traction until we released a kids worship album. The album was good. But I was shocked at how much energy and momentum came our way. I think the secret was our church was growing in the area of worship at the time and was making some big changes. We unintentionally aligned ourselves with the momentum in "big church" and benefited from it.

I get irritated when I listen to children's pastors who live in their ministry bubble, purchase plug-in-play curriculum that doesn't match the values of the church, and then pout that they aren't being supported by the senior pastor. It's on that leader to first support the senior pastor's vision.

5. Other than faith, what's the one thing you'd like to pass along to your kids?

I can think of a few things, in no order. I want my sons to be rapid Philadelphia Eagles fans.I want to model for them how to love their future wives sacrificially. And I want them to understand that creativity is a lifestyle that begins with a dream and ends with effort.

6. One thing you'd do this year for kids if you had unlimited time, money, and energy?

I'd get a hub of The Mentoring Project started in Erie. We're targeting the fall of 2011 but I'm not happy with that. Erie, PA has the highest number of children living under the poverty level per capita in the United States. Can you imagine the impact that will happen once we muster a platoon of mentors who'll invest themselves in the sons of single moms. We'll see kids finish high school and avoid violent crime. Those boys will avoid addiction and commit to be stand up men someday. If I had unlimited money I'd send it to Portland so they could increase their staff. But it's amazing to see just how much they've accomplished in such as short amount of time. Dr. Sowers is an incredible leader and its been fun to watch TMP's dream develop.

7. How about your biggest strength and weakness as a leader?

A strength that comes to mind is would be a capacity to explore. There always seems to be a canon of hot books and speakers Christian leaders buy into. This set of ideas get repeated, ad naseum, at conferences and blogs until all of our ministries end up looking and feeling live everyone else's. I prefer to venue out a bit and pick up ideas from different leaders and theologians to give my ministry a different feel.

A weakness would that I bias toward being task-oriented over being people-oriented.That tendency often has been checking off boxes and moving onto the next thing without stopping to appreciate people.

Thanks Larry! Larry has a fantastic blog for anyone interested: http://childrensministryandculture.wordpress.com/.

What Is Your "One Thing"?

2010-05-25T14:26:00.001-07:00

Next week will be a fun one for us. We're going to post profiles of various leaders from around the country. They kindly responded to some questions I asked them, and we'll post one everyday next week. Stay tuned!

For now, I'd like to pitch a question your way. I ask it whenever I think of it on the spot, but sometimes it catches people off guard since they don't have time to think about an answer. So being a Kids Ministry blog....

Other than your faith, what's the one thing you'd want to pass on to your kids? Or, perhaps, "the next generation?" Can't wait to hear your responses!

Do We Need to Take A Stand More?

2010-05-21T09:41:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, just wanted to send a quick note your way. If you feel so inspired, please leave a comment! One thing we're not trying to do on this blog is to rally a group of people who all agree with the points that are made. Put otherwise, we're not so much interested in your affirmation or agreement; we're much more interested in your two cents! We're interested in your stories. We're under the assumption that if you're reading this, you have something to contribute, so, please do! So without further ado...

While doing some blogging recently, I ran across a blog with a message about one big thing that the church at large needs to do more of -- especially children's ministry: Take A Stand! I know a lot of people see one of the church's primary responsibilities is to draw lines in the sand about what it does and does not approve of. And it seems like some people are helped by this. People who need boundaries in their lives, in my experience, may turn to the church for answers to some of these types of questions.

I also wonder if there's a rather large swath of people, especially in postmodern United States, who feel like there's been a pretty substantial culture war happening within the church for some years now. Those folks might push for less culture wars and more interaction/relationships with secular America.

What's your take? Children's ministry is often a very explicit-boundary setting... after all, they're kids! They need boundaries to develop healthily. Do you subscribe to Taking A Stand as your bottom line, or perhaps relationships as your bottom line, or something else entirely?

The Kitchen and the Restaurant

2010-05-12T14:09:00.001-07:00

In March, my fellow staff members and I headed to Christian Faith Center's annual Vision conference. We were especially excited this year, as Bishop TD Jakes took the stage as headliner for the conference. I'd never heard him speak live before, which in itself was a treat, but he made one point in particular that seemed to stick with each of us. It's something like this...

One way to think about church, especially for volunteers and staff, is like a kitchen and a restaurant. In a fine-dining restaurant, customers come in to see (hopefully!) clean floors, clear crystal glasses, wrinkle-free tablecloths, and friendly/accommodating staff. Back in the kitchen, however, it's a whole different story. The head chef may be screaming at the sous-chef, who is frustrated that the waiter gave her the wrong order, who couldn't understand the indecisive customer to begin with. Meanwhile, there's a small kitchen fire, a plate that shatters when it hits the floor, and one of the four line cooks called out sick that night.

Sunday morning service, in Jakes' thinking, is the restaurant. But throughout the week (and sometimes on Sunday morning) there's a whole kitchen dynamic happening. It's work. Someone has to clean the carpets and toilets, schedule volunteers, find replacement for the volunteer who called out sick, prepare for classes, teach classes, set up the information table, train volunteers, etc. That's simply the day-to-day of ministry. For department heads & staff you can add to that list: planning for and executing short, intermediate, and long-term goals, implementing a vision, hiring and firing, managing complaints, developing processes and systems, motivating, appreciating, possibly managing other staff or department heads, carrying out the vision of the pastors, etc. The list goes on.

Not to carry this too far, but what I took away from Jakes' point is that one needs a well-oiled "kitchen" in order to have a successful "restaurant".

Does this ring true for you? And... do share any wonderfully taxing "kitchen" stories you have :).

Should We Learn From Kids?

2010-05-12T11:23:00.001-07:00

A few years ago I worked as an after-school caregiver to 4-7th graders. The job was especially challenging since training was minimal, and kids' needs were through-the-roof high. Many came from dysfunctional homes, had lots of challenges in school, zero conflict resolution skills, etc. But I loved it, and I grew attached to many of the kids. One in particular -- I'll call her Jennie -- came from a house where parents abused drugs and alcohol, experienced possibly some physical abuse, and a great deal of emotional abuse. She could tell I cared by the way I'd simply listen to her difficulties with other students, teachers, classwork, etc. She was often bluntly honest about the way she saw the world around her.

One day late in the year we had a new student join the after-school program. He didn't speak much English, which is hard enough as it is in an English-only class, but in this particular program, I was afraid these kids would eat the poor kid alive! These kids didn't communicate very well to each other in English; throw in a language barrier and watch the sparks fly. So I tried to be particularly kind to the new kid. Well, Jennie (remember, 4th grade!) called me on it one day and said, "You don't have to be all nice to the new kid. Why don't you treat him like you treat all of us?" Ouch. It stung not just my pride as an adult ("who's in authority here??"), but it stung because she was right! Someone a few weeks ago alerted me to this gal:

Whether you're on board with all her talking points, she brings up a provocative question (for me): what should we adults be learning from kids?

A friend of mine said about his own kids, "Kids present parents with the unique opportunity to grow up." Interesting that he didn't phrase it the other way around - he said parents have the opportunity to grow up! I know that was true for me with Jennie. I could have gotten defensive and scolded her, but instead I just received it and moved on. I know many of you readers are parents - whether you are or aren't, what do you think? Any noteworthy stories along these lines?

The Language Barrier

2010-05-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

Some friends and I were in a fun discussion the other day about our experiences growing up in churches. We'd all grown up in different types of churches, and were talking about what that was like. And we found that we had an interesting point of connection: at one time or another, we (church-goers!) remember times we've felt like "outsiders" due to a surprising thing: language barriers. Then Annie passed along this video to me:

... I wonder if you can relate. The tricky thing about jargon is that, um, it's jargon. It seems to me like the only people who benefit from jargon are the ones who already speak it. Meaning, there's a (sometimes steep) learning curve for someone who doesn't speak it... you could say there are "barriers to entry". Especially in the 20th century, churches became notorious for producing their own brands of language. If you were already a part of such churches, great! You're in. But for secular, unchurched America, I knew a lot of folks who didn't just feel separated, but alienated. I wish I could cite some case studies, but I'm speaking from experience here so, like, I AM the case study!

So one thing I pitched to our children's leadership team recently is something like: what would it mean for people here in Twin Falls, ID if they didn't have to learn a language at our church (which isn't to say they currently have to. just some rhetorical food for thought)? What if the primary benefit people receive from attending our church is that God does good things for each of us... in the helpful context of a community of people trying to or curious about following him? What if they didn't have to prescribe to a language, political perspective, or particular culture? What if "just being here" was good enough for us to offer love to everyone?

And then I gave some practical suggestions like:

- During class prep, think through every segment of your lesson and ask, "Would someone who has never been to any church understand what I'm saying?"

- Consider more relevant verbiage for phrases like, "the Word", "born again", and "saved". Those phrases require an explanation to someone who is outside of the jargon-bubble.

Have you experienced this insider/outsider situation at church or elsewhere? What's been helpful for you as you relate and connect to other people in overcoming The Language Barrier?

How Do You Give?

2010-05-04T14:14:00.000-07:00

My plan in 2010 was/is to read 50 books this year. Annie, my wife and avid reader, and I decided to unplug our television antenna (DVDs only) to help in this. Well, that plan was effectively derailed after I foolishly decided to embark upon Warren Buffett's 93,000 page biography entitled "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life." While other books have been written about Buffett, none have been so thorough in detail, as this one was uniquely appointed by Buffett to be written. He gives the author, Alice Schroeder, the interesting permission, "When writing this book, if you ever come across two accounts of the same story, use the less flattering one."

What struck me, among other things (like his live-in mistress whom his wife approved of), was his extreme frugality. It seems like in his mind, his frugal spending habits are purpose-full. His thinking is that every dollar he has will be 100 someday -- and amazingly, he accomplished this over and over -- so it's foolish to spend or even give away the $1. But you get the sense that he isn't uncharitable, it's just that he's into this "delayed" charity, or "invested" charity, where he'd be able to give it all away someday. And impressively, he DOES end up giving away billions of dollars as many of you know about. Characteristic of Buffett, he does it strategically (off the top of my memory, it's something like $5 billion a year from his company, Berkshire Hathaway, to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation).

I only know one person (like, that I've talked to) who was a very successful investor and regular churchgoer named Charles Park. He has his PhD in economics from MIT, and now pastors a Vineyard church with his wife in New York. I guess I'm drawn to long-term investors because they seem to be really savvy when it comes to being strategic with their resources. The question for these people isn't, "Where should I invest my time, energy, and money?", rather it's, "Where would I best invest my time, energy, and money?"

On a recent church trip I had the privilege of sitting around a table with 6 other men twice my age, only two of whom I knew. When I discovered they all had kids, I decided to pop the question, "Besides your faith, what would you all say is the single most important thing you want your kids to know about?" Five of them looked at me and said almost in unison, "Money."

So I turn to you. Have you, like Buffett, found any benefit in giving money away, either in tithe-form or to other people or charity? How so? Do you have any stories of how this has played out for you?

Hey You! Yes, YOU! Write Me a Guest Post!

2010-04-28T09:21:00.001-07:00

I know there are at least a few people secretly reading this blog, so allow me to call you forth! Have something to say? Enjoy writing? Well, I'm opening up this blog to guest posts. Here's how to do it: submit your guest posts to me (Peter) at peterjordanb@gmail.com. So without further ado, write away!

Small disclaimer: what I can't do is guarantee I'll run your guest post. What I can do is guarantee I'll read it, and consider it. If you need some clarification on the type of writing that I'm after, check out our What We're About page. Can't wait to hear your stuff!

How To Traverse Through Subcultures

2010-04-26T16:01:00.000-07:00

As a teen, a group of my friends were really into anime, a stylized form of Japanese animation. I tagged along on occasion and saw some interesting anime TV shows and films, some more popular like Neon Genesis Evangelion, and others more obscure like Record of Lodoss War. The anime world is a entire subculture; just look at Comic-Con (140,000 people in attendance last year alone). Like many sub/cultures, it can be difficult for outsiders to understand the behaviors and motivations. Dressing up like your favorite anime character and going to a festival? Or from a conversation I just had the other day, "I just don't get anime. Why would anyone want to watch characters flying around in stagnant poses? It's like they don't even move, just the background moves. Ugh."

And obviously the world is filled with these subcultures. How many subcultures are there in Christianity alone? Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? And I think I'm particularly aware of these faith-setting subcultures because of the decades in which I grew up: many, many folks from evangelical church backgrounds starting entire companies to fight culture wars. To compound the situation, I'm pretty sure at some point in my teen years I engaged in some form of said battling via face-to-face conversations, or disapproval and criticism of various media to my friends and family. And so I also got to see how much of a turn-off that was to so many secular people who might otherwise have engaged in intelligent -- or at least open-minded -- discussions. So, know these aren't potshots I'm taking at anyone else; if anything I'm saying, "I get the problem because I WAS the problem!"

From Not the Religious Type blog, Jeff Heidkamp concurs:

Sociologically speaking, I've noticed that a lot of people, like me, who were kids and teenagers in evangelical churches at the heights of the Colson/Dobson/Reed culture wars in the 80s and 90s find ourselves suspicious of any attempt to impose faith-based values on secular people. Mainly because we saw the culture wars from the inside and we know how ugly they were for the church itself.

A few months ago someone recommended to me Andrew Marin's provocative book "Love Is An Orientation". Marin, for the uninitiated, is an evangelical Christian who started The Marin Foundation, a nonprofit organization intended to build bridges between the church and GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) communities. He also has a blog worth spending some time on. And for all of the difficulties he has, seems like he's having some significant success. Just Google a bit... the guy is everywhere.

Having spent much time in both overtly democratic and republican cities, I have a sense for the political stakes involved. By the way, two thumbs way up for this book - if you get a chance I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. But clearly this conversation goes far beyond the political arena. You may remember the story of Ronald Gay (a churchgoer) who walked into a gay bar, opened fire, killing one and injuring several, and testifying later saying something about how he wishes he could have killed a few more.

I find myself connecting strongly to Marin's vision and mission. He's also articulately and helpfully asked to churches, to me, "How's your approach working for you? What if our immediate goal wasn't to persuade; what if our immediate goal was to form relationships? And what if out of those relationships, positive growth and change happened for all parties involved? What if the church and the GLBT community were able to point each other towards God? What might that look like?"

So I ask you, what would that look like? It feels a lot riskier than simply throwing stones from behind a picket sign, or to do as I'd done in earlier years: judge, criticize, and disapprove. Especially in children's ministry, as teachers, as parents, as coaches, what are some helpful things we, the church, can do to build bridges in this direction? Seems like if adults are not able to successfully do this, our hope grows thin for future generations to do this well. Thoughts?

How Important is Multiculturalism in Kids' Church?

2010-04-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

I play in a band that plays music from Central America: Duranguense, Salsa, Cumbia, Ranchera, etc. That in itself is a ton of fun since I didn't grow up playing these styles, and I'm always eager to play something new/challenging. Well, last Saturday the band invited my wife, Annie, and I to a local dance. We were there for both business and pleasure; we wanted to scope out the competition and see what songs others bands are playing. We also danced and had fun listening.

A few things I will remember forever about that night.
1) We're people who value getting to be alongside people groups that are different from the ones we grew up in. Well, I'm pretty sure we were the only white people there, so mission accomplished.
2) As my wife pointed out to me, how rare is it that two middle class white folks get to be the minority anywhere in America (much less a predominantly white town of around 40,000 people)? Surely there are places, but my experience has been that many white folks stay in mostly white locales. Sort of a "birds flock together" approach to social living. So, getting to be a minority culture, if only for a night, was so meaningful to us.

I spent the first few years of my life in Honey Creek, WI, a town of about 750 people. When I was 6, my parents moved the family to Houston, a city of around 2 million (almost 6 if you count the adjoining suburbs and towns). They said a big part of that decision was they wanted to provide all of us kids with more opportunities: vocationally, relationally, socially, etc. And I really like all of the upshots of that decision. For example, I don't recall any strange or unwelcome feelings regarding other cultural traditions around me, probably because I was immersed in other cultural traditions (food, clothing, music, architecture, etc.) at such a young age. Quite the opposite, actually... I loved, and still love, being around people who think, speak, and believe different things than me. It's taught me to demand a variety of perspectives before I make up my mind about how I think, speak, and believe.

I was also a highly sensitive kid, more of an observer than an athlete. One day in 4th grade during recess, a group of kids made fun of me for having a girlfriend. Turns out the "leader" in this group of friends was the girlfriend's older brother. They circled around me, shoved me, called me names, etc. Oh yeah, and they were of another ethnicity than myself. Being more of the sensitive type, I actually had to work through some of that pain in later years. If I could put it this way, I find it very interesting indeed that multiculturalism is an area of my life where I've uniquely experienced more simultaneous (bear with my churchy words here) blessing and wounding than perhaps any other area.

I'm sure many of you have stories of your own. But rather than trade stories, I'm more interested in hearing your take on all of this multicultural stuff, especially as it relates to faith settings. The Bible often paints lush images of church as a place where people from many different traditions should come together to worship, as if many cultures doing faith together somehow give us a fuller picture of who God is. Does this ring true for you? And especially in children's ministry, should this be a picture of who we are and how we do ministry? Anything you've done successfully (or unsuccessfully) in this direction you'd care to share with us? Inquiring minds want to know :-).

The Khan Academy

2010-04-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

I'll admit, I'm not the most academically talented person in the world, but I SO enjoy it. I especially enjoy helping others (esp. kids) make sense of something that didn't originally make sense. While working some years back as a typist, I found my way into babysitting jobs that inevitably involved tutoring of some sort. Then I worked as an after-school caregiver/tutor. Now I oversee a children's department where periodically I'm asked about tutoring resources for children. I can't get away from it! Well, the other day I came across this guy named Salmon Khan who runs a nonprofit organization called The Khan Academy. His goal is to provide free, quality education to people of all ages via short Internet videos.

Even taking into account its flaws, I'm a big fan because it could be a great supplement to more traditional classroom settings. Those of us who identify as (or with) HSPs know that things like fluorescent lights, chatty classmates, smells, odors, volume, attractions/crushes, etc. can all be distractions. Check it out! I wonder what you think of it.

So, What Are We Doing?

2010-04-15T18:41:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting experience the other day. I'd been feeling my way through some disappointments at work in the children's department, and as someone who (I know this will shock many of you) prays, I chatted with God about my down-ness. Okay, "chatted" is probably a little generous. Venting is probably more accurate. Once done with said venting, I sat there for a little while. My sense was God said something like, "Don't worry about it; I've got your back." Well, within about an hour of that, I had two people contact me: one in person and one over the Internet, who both encouraged me in scarily specific ways. Just out of the blue. And it was exactly what I needed. It was like this huge weight sort of floated away, and I picked myself up and continued on. Hmm.

I recently wrote a post on postmodernism. To add to the fun, I had a great conversation with a friend about this stuff. His thought was that postmodernism is, indeed, a slippery slope because of the "everyone's experience counts for something" approach to faith. In other words, if everyone's life story (or at least parts of it) becomes the standard by which we judge what is or is not Truth, it would be tough to make a case for absolute Truth. Which my friend would argue -- if I'm tracking -- is God.

As someone who oversees a children's department, the stakes of this conversation just feel larger and larger to me. It seems to me that how we reckon with this is central to how we do life, friendships, church, and faith because in addition to how we do those things ourselves, it determines how and what we are inviting others into. Are we inviting others into a system of morals? A particular worldview? Political preferences? Maybe... it's just that I'm not profoundly helped by any of those things. My deepest longings to have a life that's better than I could imagine, to know a God that's alive and seems to care about who I am and what I do, who actually adds something to my life (not abstractly), that invites me to play a part in a cosmic story of redemption that's bigger and harder and better than I could possibly hope for... well that gets me up in the morning.

I can't help but feel like from my collection of stories and the stories of many, many others, that God wants to do great things for me, as if I didn't do anything particularly worthy of such attention and benefit; that God does it simply because it's who he is. Yet to my friend's point, it would seem misguided to say that everyone's personal life story encompasses all things Truth. So my question for you great thinkers: how can we invite kids into this sort of experiential (again: NOT abstract!) faith while still maintaining this sense of "this God thing that we're talking about here, kids, is Truth"? Or is that even the right goal to begin with? Do share with us, and leave a comment!

Wild Turkeys, Cults, and Kids Ministry

2010-04-14T11:03:00.001-07:00

I recently finished a book by a guy who has to be the coolest social psychologist ever named Robert Cialdini, who wrote a book called Influence: How and Why People Agree to Things. I'll bet you didn't think social psychologists are cool, but boy, you would be oh so wrong.

In this book, Cialdini shares his many, MANY studies of "compliance professionals": people whose main task is to persuade someone else to do something. So everyone from sales associates to fundraisers to cult leaders. And he's got some pretty convincing conclusions about all of it: namely, seems like (he thinks) he's figured out why you and I will ever agree to anything, ever. All stories were great reads, but perhaps my favorite involves an ethologist who studies wild turkeys.

Female wild turkeys, he writes, are naturally excellent mothers. They preen, protect, and care for their young. But the ethologist noticed something quirky. It seemed as though wild turkeys went into "mother" mode at the sound of their young's "cheep cheep" sound. So he put it to the test. You see, a wild turkey's natural predator is the polecat. So the ethologist's team got a giant, stuffed polecat, tied it to a string, and dragged it slowly towards the mother. As expected, the mother tore into the stuffed polecat, charging, clawing, screaming, etc. Then they did the experiment again, except this time they put a small recorder into the stuffed polecat with the "cheep cheep" sound recorded and ready to play. They pulled the polecat towards the mother. When the mother began to charge, they played the "cheep cheep" sound. The mother went docile. She actually climbed atop the polecat and began preening it! Cialdini calls this a "trigger".

Cialdini's argues that you and I look upon these creatures and say to ourselves, "What a stupid animal. It goes into auto-pilot at the sound of such a silly and obvious trigger!" And then Cialdini goes on to show quite convincingly that we, superior humans, all have compliance triggers. When they're played, most people will behave very predictably. He references an in-depth study of the Jonestown, Guyana mass suicide of 1978, electro-shock experiments, and simple telemarketing strategies. And, well, he sold me.

Well, this got me thinking. What does my personal "auto-pilot" look like? What are things that I do in Kids Ministry that I don't even think about - I just do them because, *cheep cheep*, I've been conditioned to respond that way? Do share with us, what's been helpful for you to re-evaluate recently?

Separation of State and Ch....ildren?

2010-04-09T08:50:00.001-07:00

On the way to work today I pulled up to a stoplight, probably 4th or 5th in line. I noticed a bumper sticker on the car in front of me in big, bold, patriotic colors:

God is Pro-Life!

Funny thing; a pickup truck to her immediate left had a bumper sticker that read:

I'm a gun-totin' Idaho Democrat!

(On an unrelated side note, the truck also had a bumper sticker that I'm sure is one of PETA's favorites: "So many cats... not enough recipes!")

These bumper stickers got me thinking. What's important for us as kids ministry leaders, parents, etc. to tell our kids about politics? It's easy to spout out our personal political persuasion (and for many of us, to do that loudly and forcefully in the hopes of persuading our opponent... *sarcasm intended*. Do we really win anyone over when we yell our opinion more loudly? I think there's a whole blog post in there somewhere...). But if you're like me, you want the next generation to take part in thoughtful, intelligent discussions, where there's genuine back-and-forth, even in the area of politics.

I don't know, help me figure this out: is it better to just avoid the topic altogether? My experience is that this topic is particularly tricky in churches because many folks (again, rightly or wrongly, I'm not sure) feel a moral or religious energy behind their political preferences. How do we navigate this as kids ministry leaders and parents, or do we navigate it at all? And let me iterate: I'm definitely not looking to start any sort of discussion about your political ideology of choice. There are lots of other great blogs where you can voice those types of thoughts. I'm more interested in hearing what you think about how we should prepare kids to be thoughtful in their political choices. Or is it simply best that we resign that discussion to others and simply use bumper stickers?

How (Not?) To Set Goals

2010-04-08T09:18:00.000-07:00

When I'm not making fun of romantic comedies, I'm often watching them with my wife, Annie. (She hates it when we do both at the same time). We watched one a few months back called New In Town, starring Renee Zellweger as a wealthy, big-city businesswoman who moves to the small town of New Ulm, Minnesota to deal with a manufacturing plant. As the movie unfolds, she befriends the locals and, shocker, meets a guy, and is challenged to rethink not just her business strategy, but her life strategy. Okay, just between you and me, I will admit that I liked it. Goal-oriented person having to reframe her priorities amidst a small-town identity crisis. I grew up in Houston, went to college in Boston, so I've spent most of my life in big cities. I now live in Twin Falls, a town of around 40,000. So, I could relate to this movie!

I am a goal-minded person. Especially at work, I enjoy having my ducks in a row, thinking through many different possibilities beforehand, and then aiming for the best possible scenario. Then I like to track how well I did. I like to think I place great importance on measuring success. First, what is success, and then how does one measure that success? Something I've quickly learned is that everyone, EVERYONE, seems to have an answer to this question whether they've articulated it on paper or not. And everyone seems to be operating from that picture of success. So if we're working off of different pictures, things become difficult really fast.

And this comes in handy when, say, starting a new event, or implementing a new vision in (for me) a children's department. It's been helpful for me to be able to look back and say, "Yes, we accomplished what we wanted to accomplish," or have a discussion, perhaps, on ways in which we missed the target. Usually the feedback sessions in our Kids Ministry involve some of both. Recently I was reminded of how important it is to make sure the "target", if you will, is clear in the minds of volunteers, leaders, parents, etc. When it isn't, there's often confusion and frustration for everyone involved because we're all aiming for different things.

But being the wannabe diplomat that I am, I have to ask... is there a downside to setting goals? Let me put it this way: it seems like us goal-setters have a tendency to place a lot of self-worth in achieving. And here's the tension as I see it: working in ministry at any level involves gigantic variables like, say, people. Or God. Or the weather. Things outside of our control. So when said variable throws a curve ball, achievers can get, well, uptight (to say the least). Defining success in a people-oriented vocation is difficult enough, so how do we navigate this uncertainty? In a for-profit business, for the sake of conversation, we could measure dollars and cents as a bottom line; what do we measure in ministry?

A few things that have been helpful for me in this:

- Stay in contact with other trusted people about your perceived failures. Often my wife has reframed a "failure" for me in a way that has helped me see opportunities for growth. Other times, my perspective has been too narrow. Other times it's been too broad.

- Read Jeff Heidkamp's blog on How Not To Panic. There's a lot of tie-in to what we're talking about here, and it's awesome.

If I could be so bold, do share with us: what have been some helpful metrics for you in your ministry? How do you define success, and how have you navigated failures?

Reflections On the 15% Who Stay...

2010-04-06T10:50:00.000-07:00

Being fairly new to the world of Children's Ministry (2 years this June), something I recently heard is a statistic that somewhere around 85% of kids who attend evangelical churches leave within a short amount of time after moving away from home at 18 years old... and don't return. I'm no genius but 85% is, like, a huge number, so certainly that has to say something. And like many stats, it's probably difficult to gauge the accuracy - according to Voddie Baucham Ministries blog the research was done by Glenn Schulz of the 2002 Southern Baptist Convention. So it might raise questions about how there are over 30,000 denominations in Christianity; which ones were polled? Even a "good" random sample poll of, say, 1,000 or 1,500 people would only cover 3-5'ish% of those denominations. Fair enough. But actual numbers aside, I ask you: what does this research indicate? My takeaway is both genius and profound: it seems like kids and churches are not making lasting connections.One particular week in kids' church I did a lesson on managing money, and invited the kids to do an experiment later in the week. The experiment went like this: every time you run into money in any amount, before you do anything else, pray over it. Ask God a very simple question, "God, what would you have me do with this?" and then listen for a response. The following week, one boy -- we'll call him Tom -- told me what happened for him. Tom said he found a dollar in the school locker room and prayed over it. He didn't hear a response. At the end of the day, he was walking out of the building, and he spotted a worried-looking guy standing next to a taxi cab. Tom asked, "What's wrong?" and the guy responded, "Well, I need this cab for a ride home, but I'm exactly $1 short." Tom smiled, and knew just what to do.

I guess my thought is a simple one: what would it mean for kids if each of them had a collection of personal stories like Tom's? Ones where kids can say to themselves, "I remember when God did X, Y, and Z for me." And what would it mean for you to invite kids into such opportunities? Seems to me like it's a lot more risky than simply teaching Biblical knowledge. Why? Because God has to actually DO something. We can't control the outcome, whereas we have a much greater degree of control over how many kids, say, memorize a verse.

Do we need to start strategically "letting go"? What do you think?

More Than Magoo!

2010-04-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

Jim Carrey, once again you speak to the deep levels of my heart. From the movie Liar Liar, divorced Fletcher (Jim Carrey) connects with his son through what he calls The Claw, a maneuver where he tickles his son, who loves it. Potential stepdad Jerry (Cary Elwes), steps on the scene and tries to replicate the experience:

Fletcher later calls this type of behavior "magoo".

When I first took the position as Children’s Director, I quickly realized that:
1) I love this stuff. To lead a team of people to connect kids to a rich, abundant life with God… it gets me up in the morning.
2) I don’t relate to magoo.

I can recall vivid images of my childhood in the early ‘90s in various churches during worship. At one church, we had a lady lead worship who walked around from class to class, leading us in a-capella songs about, say, animals in the jungle. (Presumably about God’s creation?) So we’d act out each animal we sang about, and soon I found myself being forced into acting like a lion or a monkey.

While monkey-doing, I remember even as a 4th grader thinking, “Is this it? Isn’t there more to worship?” I wanted something meaningful, something life-changing. Put otherwise, I didn’t want to know about God so much as I wanted to know God.

And to be sure: it’s not that magoo is wrong, it’s that I personally don’t relate to it. Apparently I never have. And I’ve come to find out that that puts me at odds with much of the children’s ministry world. That said, the question this conversation raises is, for me, a helpful one: what are we offering children in our ministries? Is it something powerful, something actual?

Some steps we’ve recently taken in this direction at our church: we’ve canceled our two long-standing summer events. We’re doing a new event in its place where our 9-12 year olds will partner with non-profits around town to meet some small-but-real needs via day projects (helping in soup kitchens, beautifying parks, etc.) in our city. It’s kind of an experiment… we’ve never done it before. So here’s to hoping for good things to come of that. We’ll be sure to post a follow-up in July when it's done!

Oh, and let me make a quick distinction: I’m all for being silly! Magoo and silly are different. Magoo is far-reaching and irrelevant. Silly is the way you look when you throw yourself into a culture or world that feels foreign to you at first. So I don’t mind silly. See for yourself:
So help me figure this out: is this a helpful distinction? Or share with us: how have you managed to offer kids this sort of rich experience we're discussing here?

Is There Hope For Postmodern Children's Ministry?

2010-03-19T15:01:00.000-07:00

I read an article the other day by a well-intentioned children's ministry leader that went something like this: Postmodernism is an ever-increasing threat to the church (and especially our children), and if we don't take measures to protect ourselves from it, we're doomed. After all, next to parents, who should be more concerned for the well-being of our children than churches?
I've been in a circle of people the last year or two who thinks a lot about the church's purpose and relevance in postmodern USA. I'd heard this word, "Postmodernism," thrown around quite often, but didn't know much about what it meant. So I asked a friend in this circle who double-majored in history and sociology; who better to ask than him? And he gave me the rundown. Postmodernism, firstly, is a literal term. It refers to everything after "modernism." So, like, we're in postmodernism. Modernism is all about dissecting the world around us into a scientific process. Truth is something that can be tested, and retested, to prove its validity, epitomized in apologetics authors like C.S. Lewis and Josh McDowell. The ever-popular Sinner's Prayer? Modernist. Perhaps you could say, modernist believers would contest that Christianity has a rational basis.

Postmodernism, however, focuses much more heavily on what my friend calls vantage points. Postmodern Christians would say that Truth is actually not so easy to pin down. With all that we learn over the years, various cultures, governments, and world views, how can anyone be so sure what is or isn't Truth? Even if you have inklings, how can you say for sure that you KNOW? It's much better to talk about what you've EXPERIENCED. That's postmodernism. Perhaps you could say, postmodernist Christians would contest that Christianity has an experiential basis.

And the cultural implications are HUGE! Architecture, music, clothing, education... and to some (many?) churchgoers, there are moral dangers about said culture.

The Christians I know who would align more closely with "modernism" look upon those shady postmodernists with scorn. "Why won't anyone rise up and stand on the TRUTH? We need more people with a backbone who aren't afraid to take a stand for God! Postmodernism is ruining our children's sense of morality!" In such discussions I usually respond with something profound like, "Hmm. So... how about that sunset over there?"

What's your take? Is postmodernism something we need to shield ourselves from? Do we as children's ministry leaders embrace it? If so, how?

About This Blog

2010-03-18T16:01:00.000-07:00

Wow, there are some really great children's ministry blogs out there. Goodness, there are entire websites dedicated to resourcing leaders with videos, tips, and even entire lesson plans from start to finish. However, this blog aims to do something hopefully a little different. We're more interested in hearing your perspective, to have discussions. So please share your thoughts! The hope is that as we do that, we'll walk away feeling like there's a whole world of possibilities we didn't see before, ones that would empower us to make a positive, lifelong impact in kids' lives towards God.

A Word About Me

My name is Peter Bierma. I graduated from Berklee College of Music with a BM in performance. I'm now the Children's Director at an independent church in Twin Falls, ID called Amazing Grace Fellowship. Funny how things work out sometimes. And I love it! I really enjoy discussing leadership, business strategy, personal development, the future of all things church-related, multi-ethnicity, pop and not-so-pop culture, faith, music, and woodworking, to name a few.