Many of you have come to appreciate the music ministry of Uncle Charlie. Late last night I received a phone call at home from Uncle Charlie’s mother that he had been in a car accident just a few hours earlier. It was a very serious head-on collision. Charlie is okay although he has a long road ahead of him. He has some fractured ribs, a fractured sternum, and his right arm was broken in several places. We are praising the Lord that God’s hand was over Charlie. The Lord must not be finished with him yet! Amen?
Here are two things you can do for Charlie right now:
1) Lift Him before the Lord in prayer and get as many people as you can praying for him. Have your kids pray for him Sunday morning in Kid’s Church.
2) Send him a card of encouragement. Let him know you love him and are praying for him.
Cards can be sent to:
Charlie Bancroft
Upward Bound Ministries
4729 S.E. Sunnymead Drive
Lawton, OK 73501
“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”
Dwight Eisenhower
Disneyland in Anaheim, California will close down the “It’s A Small World” ride for a year beginning in January to retool and refurbish. The reason? Bigger passengers.
The problem, quite simply, is that the flume that the boats ride in, and the boats themselves, were designed and built in 1963 on the assumption that the male adult riders would average 175 pounds and the women about 135, which they pretty much did at the time. The ride now must accommodate adults who frequently weigh north of 200 pounds, which it often cannot do. Overweighted boats get to certain points in the ride and bottom out, becoming stuck in the flume.
We all understand that American’s are getting larger. How well are we doing teaching kids in the church to glorify God with their bodies, and their diet? I must confess, I don’t remember the last time I talked to the kids about pleasing God with the way they eat and take care of themselves.
Maybe this Sunday is a good time to start… the weekend before Thanksgiving.
About five years ago I decided to take a break from Veggie Tales on Sunday mornings. Don’t get me wrong, I never played Veggie Tales week after week, but occasionally would show one for something different. One day I decided that the kids had seen enough Veggie Tales in Kids Church. Maybe it was me that had seen enough Veggie Tales in Kids Church. I figured they all have the videos at home and I wanted them to have something different at church.
Last week I had a few minutes to kill (waiting for a haircut) and stopped at the local Christian bookstore. I saw a POP display with the new Veggie Tale’s movie, “The Wizard of Ha’s”. I decided to buy the DVD and add it to the library in the resource room at church. Without going into the details, I decided to show a video yesterday morning in our second service Kids Church. I decided to show my new Veggie Tales DVD.
Boy was I surprised. Here’s why.
Continue reading ‘Bob, Larry and bus kids’
The church that I attend and at which Ryan is a pastor had the Children of the World Choir in for this morning’s service. They are known as the musical ambassadors for World Help. Made up of children from all around the world singing songs of praise, they are nothing short of amazing. The choir also helps to raise awareness for AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.
While I was listening to them and their program, I noticed three main things:
Continue reading ‘Lessons from children today’
Yesterday I had breakfast with one of my best friends in our church. He’s a WW2 Veteran that flew Boeing B-29 bombers over Japan. We go out for breakfast about once a month and I have grown to appreciate him as friend and patriot.
Yesterday were talking about Dwight Eisenhower (”Ike”). My friend, John, said that he never felt that Eisenhower was a great General, but he knew how to surround himself with great people. Because he surrounded himself with the best people, he did the job and did it well. If you’ve studied your history, you know that he was responsible for successful invasion of France and Germany in WW2.
My point is not to debate what kind of General Eisenhower was, but for you to think about the statement my friend John made. Eisenhower surrounded himself with strong people.
A good leader learns to surround himself with the right people. What are your weaknesses? Find people strong in those areas and get them on your team. Your setting yourself up for disappointment if you think you can do something great by yourself.
We have a close family friend who is a pediatrician. In fact, our KidzMatter offices are in the same building as hers. Like many physicians, she is one busy gal. She starts most morning at 7:30 and six nights out of seven doesn’t hit the pillow until 1 or 2am. She is single with no kids at home which makes this work load easier. I visit her office at least once a week to find a room full of patients, a desk with lab results that need reviewed, prescriptions that need called in, phone messages that need returned, and a stack of paperwork that needs completed and filed. There is no way she could manage all of this by herself. That’s why she has a staff. Her staff at the office and hospital make it possible to meet all the demands. She surrounds herself with the right people.
How about you? Who are you surrounding yourself with? Choose great people. You will maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.
We’re working on our next ad for the back of Children’s Ministry Magazine. What do you think about this idea? Click the image to see the full size copy.
It is estimated that 70% of learning takes place on the job. Part of your job as a children’s pastor is to train and equip others to do the work of the ministry. Successful ministers learn to work themselves out of a job.
Here’s the problem. If you never sit on the bench, your volunteers will never get the “on the job” training that they need. If all your kids church leaders do is sit with the kids, don’t be disappointed that you can’t miss a Sunday without things falling apart. If you’ve never let your volunteers preach in kids church, don’t be bummed the Sunday you lose your voice and no one steps up to the plate. Take some time to sit on the bench and give someone else some playing time.
The Barna Group sent an update today saying that one out of every four pastors admit that they don’t screen the people who work with their kids. A little scary huh? This update is worth your time reading. Click here to get the whole story.
