Children’s Ministry Online

Here’s what Soul Revolution is all about. Read the first part of John 15. It talks about God being the vine and us being the branches. If we abide in him, he will abide in us. The result? We’ll produce fruit. We’re supposed to stay connected. So, how do I grow spiritual fruit? Just like a branch produces fruit. Stay connected to the vine. Could it really be that simple?

Here’s the deal. I’ve taught many times about how God doesn’t just want one part of our day. He doesn’t just want Sundays. He wants all of us… all the time.

How many times have we said that God is our number one priority but then felt guilty because we spend way more time on 4 or 5 other things than on time with God? How does this even compute?

What about when hours and hours and hours pass by and I don’t even think about God. Not even once. Why does this happen? It’s not because he’s not important, because he is. I just forget. We all forget. If we forget, are we abiding?

Then I think about when we first fell in love. I met my wife at college and we did spend a lot of time together. But even when we weren’t together, we were thinking about each other… a lot. Even when we got busy and didn’t get to hang out, our thoughts were of each other. Shouldn’t that be what our relationship with God looks like? Too bad we have this pesky habit of forgetting.

Oh, that’s what the 60-60 experiment is about.

I can say, "oh, I’m going to be more aware of God from now on." I’m lucky if that lasts a few hours. But what would happen if I intentionally set up a system of reminders? What if I was constantly being reminded that God is here, that God loves me and that God desires to abide in me and I in him? In some ways it sounds pathetic, but if my desire to connect with God all day long is so strong that I’d be willing to do anything to stay connected, then I say this system is genius.

So the 60-60 is simply about being reminded. I set me watch (in my case it is my phone) to ring/beep/sound every 60 minutes. Every hour I’m reminded that God is here and that he desires to be involved with my life at that very moment. I don’t have to pray, sing a song or anything like that. I just think about him and be aware of him… maybe even invite him into what I am doing right now. Intentional reminders every 60 minutes for 60 days.

Could it really be that easy?

I’ve been doing the 60-60 for over a month now and I would say that I’m more aware of his presence now that I have ever been. The reminders help me re-focus, recalibrating and put things in the right perspective.

What would happen if thousands of people in your church banded together in relational small groups and did the 60-60 experiment together? I think that would be a revolution.

written by Kenny

My church began a revolution this week. Actually the revolution has been in the works for months and months (depending on how you look at it, this things been developing for years). To be honest, it’s one of the most exciting things I’ve ever been a part of. I guess a lot of churches did the 40 days campaigns several years ago and those were usually a big deal, something the whole church can rally behind. Back in 2000, my church in Indiana was very involved in the Louisville, KY Billy Graham Crusade which also was an amazing thing to be involved with. However, there is something different about Soul Revolution. I really believe it has the potential to make a lasting difference in the lives of people which in turn can radically change our church and have a huge impact on our city!

It’s already had an impact on me and I look forward to seeing what else happens. Basically it’s all about being in community with others and doing the 60-60 experiment, the most practical spiritual practice I’ve ever done, and it’s changing me forever.

written by Kenny

Last year when I was helping my parents with their tax business we attempted a marketing strategy. We printed coupons for tax returns on post-it note pads. They were sharp. The idea was for them to get posted on car windows in parking lots. We ordered 12,500 notes, or 500 individual pads. Unfortunately I only had time to utilize 1200-1500 notes… so they have a lot for next year. They got 4 or 5 clients from the notes I distributed which easily paid for the $200 expense for the pads. I kept this information stored away for when I would need it again.

We’re launching a campaign in our church next month that every area of our church will be engaged in. I’ll talk more about that next week. For one of the ways we’re going to experience this church-wide even with the kids requires these sticky notes. So I ordered 500 pads yesterday. They take 5 working days to print and since they’re located only about 80 miles form here, we should get have them in house just a day or two later.

So for a little over $200 I am getting 500 note pads (with 25 individual notes each). The pads I ordered are 4″x3″ pads with full color printing. I’ve only done a graphical layout for these note pads but I’ve been very, very impressed with the quality of the product. Here is what our sticky notes look like:

If you want to see who I use our what else they produce, visit their web site here.

written by Kenny

It’s that time of year and the buildings are bulging at the seams. Although the parking lot is totally full, there are still some seats available. We do what most churches do in this situation. We use off-site parking. We’ve been able to get a fair amount of people to park in these extra lots, but we really need more.

I remember having a conversation with a staff member at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY (A church many of my friends affectionately called "Six Flags Over Jesus"). She said that the biggest group of people to use the off-site parking (and they had many off-site lots) were families of young children, mainly preschool and lower elementary. Why? Because these kids love riding the bus. Many of these kids never get the chance to ride the bus, so for them its a total treat. In a world where kids have great influence over parents, sometimes it helps to cater to the kiddos.

We’re giving it a shot this weekend. For the last several weeks we’ve have two shuttle busses making rounds between our offsite lot and the church, which is about a mile away. This week we’ve rented a very different kind of shuttle bus. We rented the "Austin Duck."

The "Austin Duck" is an military amphibious cargo vehicle that has been converted into a tour vehicle. Being amphibious it travels across land and sea… er, lake. It’s pretty famous around Austin and who wouldn’t want to rind on the "Austin Duck?" We’re communicating to parents this week about the shuttle opportunity and we will see how many more people use our off-site parking this weekend.

written by Kenny

Yes, I think I’ve thoroughly covered my experiences (and opinions) on Bible Bucks programs. I sense that this is one of those "touchy" areas where many people have their strong opinions, and it seems that most people have very strong opinions on the matter. I think that’s great! All the more reason to hash stuff out, push the envelope and get some good ideas. As Jonathan said, Sacred Cows make good hamburgers.

There is one place though where I have done an incentive program. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite, I don’t know. Although we didn’t do this at Gateway this year and I don’t know if or when we’ll do one in the future, but I’ve always put incentives in place at our Venture Quest (VBS programs). We did this two ways. We had an offering contest and we gave away prized for kids who brought friends. I certainly had an agenda.

1. We were raising money for the work my friends Joel and Heidi are doing in Burkina Faso, West Africa. What they are doing is literally changing the landscape of a Muslim nation through Children’s Evangelism. As they continue to do their work, Burkina Faso my look completely different when the next generation becomes adults. So I do a boys vs. girls offering contest. I strongly urge the kids not to simply get money from mom and dad (although I’m sure many do). I encourage them to find ways to earn money, do extra chores or set up a lemonade stand, and many do. The last VQ I did this was my biggest yet. The kids raised over $6,000. I think the boys won. Do I give out a prize? No, just bragging rights. No really, I hype it up really big and the fact that the boys brought in more money seems to be enough. Usually I set an overall goal where my head gets shaved. That summer both me and another CP got his head shaved. It was classic.

2. Our VQ program has been evangelistic in nature. I would close off registration at 60-70% capacity. Then when the kids get there I encourage them to bring their friends. We equip them with the opportunity telling them that this is how they can see their friends come to Christ. Again, we highly urge them to bring their friends and neighbors who don’t go to church anywhere else. We then give away tons of prizes to those who bring friends. Every night we do give away tons of prizes randomly, but we usually have the big prize give-away at the pool party the Sunday night after VQ.

So, that is what I do. I have my own agenda. I want to see the unchurched come into our church and find Christ and hopefully find a church home. I also want to enable people doing amazing things around the world. I believe the kids would respond in a positive way regardless, but I do believe the incentives of the prizes and contest puts the kids over the top. The deal is that at my last VQ, we have around 1000 kids come. Only about 70 or so got prizes. Only two people got their head shaved. However, every kid had an amazing experience.

So, that’s what I’ve done. What about you?

written by Kenny

Yesterday I talked about my thoughts on Bible Bucks incentive/award programs. This was all inspired by Sam’s posts here, here and here. Anyway, my experience has been only negative or neutral, so I’ve had the pesky little habit of getting rid of them at the churches where I’ve worked.

So, thinking about getting rid of your Bible Bucks system? It’s easier than you’d think. I’ve done it three times and I’ve had exactly the same experience every time.

First of all, your biggest reaction will not be from the kids, it will be from adults. In all honesty, the most noise I heard from were volunteers, not parents. Usually it’s been the “we’ve been doing this for 7 years” thing or “Why would we get rid of something the kids love so much?” reaction. The solution to this is just clear and honest communication. I’ll communicate to parents and volunteers something like this:

Although we’ve had success with the prize store over the last few years, we’re looking to makes some changes to see if we can provide an even better experience for our kids. Maintaining the prize store costs a large amount of money and requires a lot of our volunteer resources. We’re looking at ways to free up these resources and do something special and different that the kids aren’t expecting and will totally love (maybe give some examples like a big party bash with inflatables and games at the end of every series or an end of the school year lock-in that’s totally free).

Sometimes I’ll even be direct and say, “Did you know that we spent $5,000 on prizes last year? Essentially that was $5,000 on pencils, erasers and yo-yos.  Can you imagine how we could totally blow these kids away if we used $5,000 differently?”

I’ve never had a volunteer or parents argue with the simple truth. Usually when we announce it to the kids we will get some push back. We’ll get some complaints and questions.

However, usually we’ll explain to the kids that the Prize Store is taking a break. We don’t know when or if we’ll open it up again, so be sure to spend all your money at this last one. We usually amp it up and make sure we’ve got enough prizes as well as some new items that the kids will enjoy. Then we close it. By saying it is taking a break, we’ve left ourselves some space to open it back up if we really need to (like if the kids totally rebel against the idea… although they never have). Then when we do a big Christmas party or end of school year blast, we communicate to parents and volunteers that we’re doing this because we’re not doing the prize store. They’ll see the light.

In the 3 to 6 months after the prize store is closed, you will have a parent come up to you asking if their child can use their bucks as they were gone for the final prize store. I always say yes. If I still have prizes, I’ll put together a little gift bag of prizes their kids will love. If I don’t have any prizes, I’ll give them a $5 or $10 Wal-Mart gift card. In all the places I’ve closed prize stores, I’ve only had to do this with 4 or 5 people… combined. Within a week or two of closing the prize store, kids stop asking about it. Literally, they forget about it. Yeah, you’ll have the one or two kids complain, but 98% of all the other kids won’t mention it again. That’s usually my sign that it was a good move.

So, if you’re looking to close down your prize store because you have or are building an experience that is fun and exciting in the context of connecting kids with leaders, peers and Jesus, then go for it! You’ll be glad you did.

Tomorrow will be my last post in this little series. There is one thing I’ve used incentives for. I did this for nearly 7 years at three different churches. I won’t apologize for it and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Who knows, maybe I am a prize store hypocrite. You be the judge.

written by Kenny

This week my friend Sam Luce wrote about using Bible Bucks in Kids Church to motivate/reward children. Honestly, a lot of churches do it. Many programs actually have rewards built right into the fabric of it’s DNA. I’ve dismantled this type of program at three different churches (including Gateway where I’ve just landed). I’m not at all saying their wrong. For me it’s been a matter of personal preference. I just don’t like them. Not all the kids are inspired by it, it’s expensive, it can be a beast to manage and too often there are kids who feel left out on the day they get to go to the store (I know, that’s the day the leaders give out Bucks to everyone so that everyone has something to spend and those first time visitors can get at least the smallest prize).

Let me tell you , dismantling the Bible Bucks system is a little daunting. There aren’t people out there who “hate” it and are glad to see it go. The only people who’ve ever told me they were glad to see it go were the staff members who had to stock it and price everything. In fact, most of the kids LOVE it… but that doesn’t necessarily mean its the right thing either.

The question I have to ask is, “why are you doing it? Why is it a part of your program?

For many it is the thing kids are most excited about coming to church. It actually motivates them to come every week, learn their memory verse, bring their Bible and sometimes even bring a friend. However, are kids falling in love with Jesus and his word or are they in love with their Bible Bucks? Are they really connecting with their leaders and other peers or are they motivated simply to earn enough for the scooter in the prize store?

Call me an idealist, but I think our programs should be so good that the kids just don’t want to miss out. Maybe they’ve got such a good relationship with their small group leader that they don’t want to miss them. I understand that we want the experience to be fun as “fun” is the language of kids. However, when the main “fun” part isn’t really associated with connecting with kids or helping lead them to spiritual maturity, then you’ve got a problem (regardless whether it’s a prize system, and environment or games). I’ve been at churches that have spent thousands of dollars on a prize store. My question would be, “what could you do with that extra money that would make a big difference immediately?” I’d figure out the answer to that and then do it.

I certainly don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade. There may be people out there who have a fantastic experience with their prize store and it only “adds” to an already exciting and fulfilling program. If that’s the case, then go for it. I can only speak from my own experience and every prize store experience I’ve had has been negative or has added nothing to the overall experience for the amount of work and resources it took.

Tomorrow I’m going to blog about how to dismantle a prize store, just in case you’re thinking about doing it.

written by Kenny

I just made this video in minutes. Cool, huh? (Just realized that this video isn’t showing up in Firefox but is in IE and Chrome… so not sure why). Click here if you can’t see the video.

I got this from a blog I read and I was more than intrigued. I decided to give it a shot and WOW, it’s amazing! To be honest, I couldn’t make a better photo collage video in 10 times the time with all the right tools. It’s also the perfect business model in my book. I can make little 30 second movies like crazy, all for free. If I want to export the video in DVD quality, I have to pay for it. If I want to make a longer than 30 second video, I have to pay for it. Sounds fair to me.

Uses? My goodness there are so many fun things to do with this kind of video. The best in my book is use this for the end of the day slide show at camp or VBS. It takes all of 10 minutes and is ready to go in no time. Will using Animoto for all your little slide show videos start looking the same? Maybe, but when it comes to ease of use, you can’t beat this at all. You have to remember the audience too. Kids are more excited about who is “in” the video than what transitions are used over and over (but I do think that Animoto mixes it up well so that no video looks the same.

Dont’ take my word for it… make your own video. Click here to visit Animoto!

written by Kenny

Just throwing this question out there. What are you using to page parents? Do you use pagers or do you somehow put a number up in the auditorium? If a number is put up in the auditorium, how do you do it? Do enter the number yourself from the kids area? Do you call the tech booth and have them put it up? Share what you’re doing please!

In the past I used pagers, but it was really expensive. I know that it’s one of the best alternatives if you have an adult Sunday School program. I’ve also used the simple LED light displays where either we called the tech booth or walked up there ourselves to and entered the number before. Most recently here at gateway we had a system rigged up on a laptop in the kids area where we could type in the number and it immediately displayed on the lower right corner of the screen in the auditorium. Unfortunately that system broke about 3 weeks after I got to Gateway and now we use AIM to IM the tech booth and have them put up the number. I’m contemplating moving toward just texting parents though as many don’t respond to our pages.

What do you do to page parents?

written by Kenny

It’s been over a week since my last post and I’m playing catch-up. I realized that I never posted the results to my little contest/request for help on this blog post.

Well, I ended up going out on my own; however, it was one of Sam’s suggestions that got my brain leaning in that direction. So, although I didn’t really use anyone’s exact idea, I’m treating myself to a Starbucks gift card… I love being in control. Actually, I promised Sam I’d treat him to a meal the next time (which will be our first time) to meet up.

Thank you though for the suggestions. They do help, even if it gets stored away as an idea for another lesson on another day. In case you care to know, I’ve posted that particular activity below.

Memory Match-up

SUPPLIES: Set of 24 responsibility cards

You will have a set of 24 responsibility cards containing 12 pairs of actions that either show responsibility or irresponsibility such as taking out the trash or cheating on a test. The 24 cards should be mixed up and put face down in the center of the group. Kids will take turns turning over two cards at a time looking for matches. If a child does not find a match, the next child will take a turn. If a match is found the leaders will ask the following question: Does this action show responsibility or irresponsibility? (Some are very obvious such as cheating on a test; however, several are a little fuzzy such as playing with friends. For some of these actions, feel free to ask the child or the rest of the group when might playing with friends be a responsible action and when might it be an irresponsible action.) In order to give all the children a chance to play, children who make a match do not get to pick again right away, but the turn passes on to the next child.

Depending on how quickly the first game went, shuffle the cards and play again. This time ask a different question when a match is made. We have been learning that “when you can be trusted, with little, you can be trusted with a lot.” If you acted out what was on this card, would it show that you could be trusted with more or with less? (There are some cards that could go either way depending on the situation. Probe the kids to see if the question could be answered the other way as well. Say: Many of the same actions could show either responsibility or irresponsibility. Part of learning to be trusted with little means deciding to make the right choice depending on the circumstances.

SMALL GROUP LEADER: “At your age in life, you are constantly building trust. You are building trust with your parents, with your teachers and even with friends. When you show that you are responsible with something little, you might be trusted with something bigger. Today you might be trusted with feeding the pet and taking out the trash. When you are older and have proven that you can be trusted with the little things, you may be allowed to drive the care (when you’re old enough of course) Remember, [Impress] when you can be trusted with a little, you can be trusted with a lot.”

[Personalize] Share with your small group about something small that you were trusted with even as an adult and how being responsible with that grew into something much bigger (maybe a small job or task at work that grew into a promotion).

written by Kenny