Archive for May, 2010

Too Busy?

By | May 29, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Saw this list on a website and thought I’d share!

YOU MIGHT BE TOO BUSY IF…

•your to-do list is a list of to-do lists.
•you say you’re too busy to learn how RSS can reduce your stress!
•your calendar is full through May and it is only January!
•your 5 yr old says, “Are you done yet, I need to work on the computer now!”
•your cell phone vibrating makes a hole in your pocket!
•hot chocolate and pizza logs eaten at a skating rink constitute dinner. Twice a week. For four months.
•there are so many things to do that you can’t decide which to start, so you sit and stare at twitter.

•you’ve already put in 8 hours before you take a shower! (GUILTY!)
•you spend four days trying to accomplish 1 thing, and realize that you have finished many other tasks but still not that 1 thing.
•you realize you haven’t done laundry, so you just wear two different socks under your boots, hoping no one will notice. (GUILTY AGAIN!)
•you forget to eat lunch even after several people remind you!
•you can’t remember if you ate or just thought about eating.
•you’re 3/4 of the way through the day before you actually think about what you want to accomplish for the day. •you look up at the clock and 6 hours have passed without you noticing. (YIKES!)
•your desk has too many piles that you resort to working elsewhere.
•you spend more time adding things to your to-do list than actually DOING them.
•you spend so much time organizing your to-do’s that you have no time to actually do

What keeps you the busiest?

  • Paperwork (20%, 1 Votes)
  • Catching up on phone calls and emails (20%, 1 Votes)
  • Trying to find new ideas (20%, 1 Votes)
  • Studying for my lessons (20%, 1 Votes)
  • Trying to find and train volunteers (20%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 5

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I Went to Church Today, Didn’t I?

By | May 29, 2010 | My Thoughts | No comments

I was reading on

I know I am very guilty of this one. We arrive for first service (the one I’m supposed to be attending, not serving in) and I just want to see if there is anything that needs immediate attention on my desk. I should check and see if the Children’s Church worker needs anything. Hmmm, so-and-so didn’t get a newsletter yet.. let me just make a copy real quick. And so on…and so on… you know the drill. Before I know it, I’m sneaking in the back doors to join my family who have already sang three songs and heard the announcements. Then, you all know what happens next. I scan the crowd thinking about things I need to do and people I need to talk to, and I think, “Let me just make a list so I can stop thinking about it”. Before I know it (AGAIN!), the sermon is over, we’re standing for the last hymn, and I feel like I haven’t been in church at all. Now it’s second service, and I’m off to serve.

So what’s the solution? Here are a few ideas I’ve pondered. Let me know what you think!

1. Arrive early to church. At least then you can get those few “last minute” things done without actually missing service. Try to enlist your spouse (or one of your kids!) as the “enforcer”, letting you know when task time is done and church time has begun.
2. If possible, come the day before and get everything all set up. Refuse to “double check” things Sunday morning. I found it’s helpful to have a weekly checklist — you can modify it on the computer whenever something new is needed and then you can rest assured that all your bases are covered.
3. Sit down. I know, it’s torture! At least for me. If there is even a potential 30 seconds before church starts, I want to run and talk to someone or grab a resource for someone. If I just planted my butt in a pew and refused to move, I might actually catch the start of service (and the announcments!) for once. It would take discipline, that’s for SURE, but most things do.

So, what if it doesn’t work?
What if you just can’t concentrate during church?
Here’s Plan B:
1. Find an alternative church service to attend. There may be Saturday night services around that you could frequent. I know in our town, there is an outreach service geared towards the 20-30 aged crowd. They meet on Saturday nights, and I’ve often thought about stopping in there.
2. Get your sermon on CD and listen later. Put it on your Ipod/MP3 and you can listen while walking, cleaning, or working out. Then again, that might defeat the purpose of “being fully present in church” — see how hard this is!?!
3. Really dig deep in devotions. I know, we’re supposed to be doing this anyway, but sometimes corners get cut because “I spend lots of time in God’s Word — preparing for my lessons!” So, carve out a time, and really strive to connect with God in a meaningful way. It could during be lesson prep. I know I had a really powerful time with God preparing for Appleseeds the other day. The material isn’t what matters, it’s the connection.

When all else fails, I remember something I read in Doug Field’s Book, Your First Two Years In Youth Ministry Sometimes you just need to get away. Go to a coffee shop for a day, an afternoon, an hour. Sit down with the Bible and a journal and just be with God. Sometimes it takes getting out of the house, out of the church, out of the office for a little bit to recharge and refocus our priorities.

Anyway, hope it helps! Leave a comment and let me know your solution to this problem!

Are you too busy? Click here and see!

Minute to Win It!

By | May 28, 2010 | Games, Holidays and Events, Minute to Win It | 13 Comments

Great Idea for Family Event

This past weekend, we had our annual Missions Conference. Saturday night was family night with the “Minute to Win it Theme”. Our Missionary, Steve Clouser, talked about the “one-minute” opportunities we have throughout life to plant the seed of the gospel, to water it, or sometimes to even see the harvest. The event was great. Here are few things I learned:

DO THESE THINGS:

1. Have a variety of games. We had 10 games picked out, one for each level, with a few alternatives in case the crowds got restless. Well, after watching level 1 game three times, they were completely tired of it. We didn’t consider the fact that Level 1-3 games would be played A LOT as people got eliminated and new contestants started. So, plan for 4-5 Level 1 games and 2-3 Level 2 and 3 games. After that, have Level 4-8 games interchangable and reserve a few super hard ones for Level 9 and 10. About half-way through the game, we just started throwing games at the contestants without rhyme or reason because we wanted to keep things interesting. Not exactly fair to the constentants, but much more fun to watch. oops.

2. Have sign-ups ahead of time. We had sign-ups the week before and the put everyone’s name in a bowl (one bowl for kids and one bowl for adults). This prevented the “Oh oh! I want to play, pick me! Pick Me!” phenomenon.

3. Play the cup stacking game. For some reason, no matter when we brought this game out, people loved it!

4. Have simple prizes, if any at at all. People were way more interested in playing the game and attaining the prestige of the next level than they were about any prizes. Most forgot to pick theirs up and had to be reminded. I wish I would have known that before my $80 trip to Sam’s Club. Oh well, you can also use chocolate!

5. Have seperate divisions for adults and kids. We played a few games simultaneously to keep the audience engaged, but mostly we played the kid side while the adult side was getting set up. Then we immediately went to the adult side and set up for the next kid game. Etc Etc Etc. So there were no lulls in the program.
Our arena looked like this: minute to win it set up (We used masking tape to mark it out).

6. Have someone running the music. My husband downloaded a techno CD from Itunes for $10 with 30 songs on it or something. They were perfect for the games, but they needed to be turned on and off so we could hear the host announce what was next.

DON’T DO THESE THINGS:

1. Give people extra lives. We only game them one life, but we had a few contestants playing for 30-40 minutes and we ended up running out of time (not everyone got to play). So, one shot folks! The games were pretty easy, so maybe if you pick harder games, an extra life is needed.

2. Bother giving out practice packets. We picked out 14 possible games, copied the instructions, made packets and handed them out to all the Sunday School classes. Then, on the big night, pretty much everyone confessed they hadn’t even looked at them. You can always make a list of potential games and direct them to the website. Or just keep them guessing!

3. Play Fishhead. It’s impossible to set up and even more impossible to play!

What about you guys out there? Any tips you want to share? I’ll love to hear it, because we’ll be repeating this event as a Family night in the furture. Thanks!

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More Minute to Win It Posts:

More Minute to Win It for Church (part one) * Minute to Win It Summer Edition * The Do’s and Don’ts of Minute to Win it for Churches * Last Beauty Standing * Double Trouble * Back to School Bash Videos * Coffee Break * Back to School Bash Game List * Perfect Strangers * National Heroes * and more!

Click on the Minute to Win it tag below for all the M2WI posts!

Check out today’s post on Growing Kids Ministry!

Appleseeds Program: A Review

By | May 26, 2010 | Reviews, Small Groups | 6 Comments


We’ve been doing the Appleseed program for about 8 weeks now, and I am really pleased with the results. I’ve gotten a chance to connect with a small group of girls on a really meaningful level and we’ve had a lot of fun in the process! I thought I’d share some do’s and don’t's of the program in case you were considering it for your own church.

DO THESE THINGS:

  • Have the program! It is a great way for the girls to get to know other ladies in the congregation and for some adults to connect with the kids program in a way they might not have otherwise.
  • Read through the book before launching the program. I found that some of the chapters/crafts were a little over the girls head or just plain not applicable. I love the concept of exploring what we’re looking at, listening to, talking about (all chapter themes), but it might be worth taking the best of the book and adding your own stuff to it. Email me for more details on what I thought was the best of the book.
  • Have snacks! The first week the girls were really shy about eating. However, by the end of the night, they had cleaned up an entire pan of brownies (and there were only four girls!). I found having some snacks on hand really helped to loosen the girls up a bit.
  • Be aware of cliques. We had a few girls drop out because they weren’t super good friends with some of other girls, so be prepared for that. There was no bullying or teasing, but I guess they just felt uncomfortable. If I run the program again, I might spend the first week or two doing some “community building” activities in order to solidify the group and keep girls (hopefully) from dropping out.
  • Have mentors. Whether you use the Appleseed curriculum or not, be sure to include other ladies in your congregation. It is very rewarding for everyone involved.
  • Consider having the mentors come two weeks in a row. One of the ladies shared with me that it was tough getting into the groove of things because she had no background experience. It would have been nice, she explained to come one week to observe and other week to teach/share.

DON’T DO THESE THINGS:

  • Run the program for 10 weeks. We’re on week 8 and attendance is starting to fizzle out. Do an 8 week program or even a 6 week program. Better to keep them wanting more than to get tired of it.
  • Necessarily buy books for all the girls. Only one of our girls really did the Bible study part at home, and it might just be an added frustration and cost you don’t need. The girls can complete the Bible study all together each week and still get lots of application.
  • Be surprised if the girls head off on all kinds of rabbit-trails. The girls we had were FULL of questions, and I was happy to take detours and answer them. I think that’s what small groups are all about. Talking about things that matter to the participants personally. We’ve had chats on spiritual warfare, girl troubles, family situations, and more. The weeks I really enjoyed were the weeks that the girls got “down and dirty” with their questions. I felt like we were really connecting faith to life in those moments.
Other Posts You that May Interest You:

Truth or Dare Book Review

Lads Curriculum Review (preteen curriculum)

Bible for Boys?

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Culturally Relevant Jesus

By | May 24, 2010 | Elementary Age, My Thoughts | 4 Comments

It was Missions Conference weekend at our church and we had missionaries from Burkina Faso, Africa (their blog is here). Debbie and Steve (missionaries) did a great job giving a snapshot of their ministry overseas. During the Sunday School hour, Debbie talked with the kids. Of course, they were fascinating by the trinkets and relics she brought from the country, but I was fascinated with the pictures she used while teaching. She showed us this picture and then asked what Bible story it was:

It took me a minute to figure it out because I’m so used to seeing it illustrated a different way. These pictures were completely set in an African context and I was shocked to suddenly be thinking, “No, that’s not right. They’ve drawn that all wrong!” How quickly we become ethnocentric without even realizing it!

Another thing that struck me about the pictures she displayed was the fact that most of our kids had never heard the stories the pictures were illustrating. They didn’t know about Jesus at the temple when he was twelve. They didn’t know about Jesus’ first miracle! Now, I understand that parents are the spiritual leaders, but what am I teaching these kids?

I always struggle with this one — do I teach them immediately applicable things? Obey your parents, pray, be self-controlled, etc, etc, etc. Or do I give them a biblical background and let the stories speak for themselves? I don’t want kids walking away from my ministry with a head full of knowledge and no application. Neither do I want them walking away with a life of “good character”, but no foundation to base it on. So what’s the balance?

Either way, I’m completely impressed with the pictures and wish I could get my hands on a few just to mix things up at church a bit. I found some more here. Take a gander. This was one of my favorites:

.

Let me know what “out of the box” resources you use in your ministry, and how do you feel about story/character building balance? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Legacy Blog

By | May 22, 2010 | Parents | 3 Comments

Found a blog today that might be a great resource for parents and for Children’s Ministers who work with them– dealing with topics about spiritual milestones, staying at home vs. career, single parenthood and more. Worth checking out!

Check it out here!

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