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Archive for the 'News' Category
I’m real excited about the new cmconnect.org. Today I talked to Michael Chanley on the phone for about 30 minutes. He’s the guy who got the idea to start the site. Bravo. He’s an elementary children’s pastor at SouthEast Christian Church. The social networking available on this site is great.
Join Jim Wideman, Roger Fields, and a bunch of other great people on cmconnect.org. Once you’ve joined, be sure to join the K! Magazine and the KidzMatter groups.
Same action brings same results… I’ve found out these past 53 years on the earth you can’t keep doing things the same way you have always done them and get different results. For the last 12+ years I have been teaching a monthly audio leadership lesson that I call the children’s ministers leadership club or theClub for short. Every workshop, book chapter, magazine article and blog post I do has come from a club lesson. TheClub has been a blessing to me and the lifeblood of income and support for JWM. They have also blessed a lot of leaders. In January I made the Young Guns Program available to CM Leaders under 30 so they could get theClub lessons free. I’ve had a great response. But I feel led to do something crazy over the next 3 months I’m going to give my June, July, and August club lessons away free to anyone of any age who signs up for my newsletter on jimwideman.com. Call me crazy, call me generous, call me a nice middle age gentleman who looks a little like the guy on the chicken bucket. Hurry and sign up before June 15th so you won’t miss a single lesson. I’m excited to see the growth that will happen when you dare to expand how you think about leadership.
Now…”that’s the way I see it!”
It’s scary what some idle time in the car will do to the mind of a children’s pastor. Here’s an example. I came up with 15 ways for a senior pastor to lose his children’s pastor in 10 days.
1. Tell him that if he keeps up the good work you’ll promote him to youth pastor.
2. Base her pay on a commission from the weekly kids church offering.
3. Call on Friday night and tell her that the ladies need a babysitter at the church on Saturday morning.
4. Tell him the board voted that goldfish crackers are banned from the building.
5. Make him to spend twelve weeks in kids church teaching through the book of Leviticus.
6. Blame him for every new carpet stain in the fellowship hall.
7. Encourage the parents to peak their heads in the door at least twice each service to check on their kids.
8. Announce to the church that VBS will be outside this year.
9. Ask him to babysit your kids while you go on vacation this summer.
10. When he says he needs more nursery workers, tell him that running an announcement in the bulletin should be good enough.
11. Tell him that if the old metal chairs were good enough for him when he was a kid, then they’re good enough today.
12. Encourage the kids church leaders to join the choir.
13. Give her a gift card to Sam’s Club as a Christmas bonus.
14. Tell the ladies ministry that they can start using the resource room for storage too.
15. Decide to start a new weekend service without talking to him.
Ask, and you shall receive. Bible works, doesn’t it? Here’s the pictures you all requested from our rock climbing wall, as well as a couple more from our Easter celebration this morning! These pictures were taken by Aaron Pickering and his wife, Briana , both volunteers in our Liberty All Stars children’s ministry. Enjoy.
Tina Houser (K! Magazine contributing editor and friend) just brought a gift to my house tonight. It’s her new book, hot off the press from Thomas Nelson! It’s called “Building Children’s Ministry: A Practical Guide”. It has a beautiful cover and is jam packed with 200 pages of great tips. Jim Wideman and I had the opportunity to write the endorsements on the back of the book. Don’t wait, get your hands on this book now. I just bought 20 copies to give the leaders in my church.
Great work Tina! Keep writing!
If your 30 or under and in full time ministry you can get theClub monthly audio leadership resource at no cost.
Log on at www.jimwideman.com/theclub for more information
January 31 is a very, very important day. It’s Justin Timberlake’s 27th birthday! Aren’t you excited?
OK, so yes. It’s his birthday. But you could care less. However, I just so happen to share a birthday with Justin Timberlake. Yes, that’s right, today is Evan’s 17th birthday!
We’re just so excited, we wanted to share the birthday joy with you through the first-ever Way We See It Blog giveaway! Each of us here on the blog have something that we think is cool we’d like to give away.
All you have to do is send an email with your name, address, and a reason you love the blog to contests AT thewayweseeitblog DOT com. (You’ll need to change those ATs and DOTs to actual characters. Spam stinks.) You’ve got a week (3 PM 1/31 to 11:59 PM 2/6) to send us an email. Next Thursday, we’ll announce the randomly chosen winner here on the blog. You have to live in the 50 United States or District of Columbia. (My apologies to our international friends.) Other than that, no strings. No catches. Just free stuff. How cool is that?
That’s all well and good, but here’s what we’re sure you want to know: What do you actually win? Here it is:
From Evan:
a. A copy of unChristian, a revolutionary new book from Barna Research, the Fermi Project, and Baker Book House. Here’s what the book is all about: “Christians are supposed to represent Christ to the world. But according to the latest report card, something has gone terribly wrong. Using descriptions like ‘hypocritical’, ‘insensitive’, and ‘judgemental’, young Americans share an impression of Christianity that’s nothing short of … unChristian.”
This book will give you a terrifying yet motivating look into the minds of America’s kids and teens. Even if you don’t win, it’ll be a book you’ll want to check out!
b. A bag of Dale and Thomas Popcorn, which is only the best popcorn ever!
From Ryan:
One copy each of KidzMatter’s Home Run Sermons Volumes 1 and 2. Just need a quick lesson? Just grab these off the shelf, throw in some games and songs, and you’re ready to go! Volume 1 is all about the life of Christ and basic Christianity. Volume 2, MythBusters, covers 12 questions that every kid wants to know.
From Jim:
a. A free MP3 membership to “The Club”, the monthly coaching and training subscription from Jim Wideman Ministries. Designed especially for children’s ministers and those who want to take advantage of over 30 years of children’s and family ministry experience without taking 30 years to learn it.
b. Two books: Volunteers That Stick and Children’s Ministry Leadership: the You Can Do It Guide, both by Jim Wideman. You can check these great books out by going to kidzmatter.com.
All in all, you’re receiving around $290 worth of free stuff to use in your ministry. So get to sending those emails. You don’t even have to pay any shipping.
Important stuff: Be sure to read the obligatory Official Rules. You can check them out here.
We recently launched a new church website at my church. I decided to go with Advanced Ministry for our website (they are awesome). One thing I liked about Advanced Ministry was the ability to create several blogs.
I asked my pastor if he would ever consider blogging. I honestly expected him to say no. He said yes. Today I finally took the time to show him how it’s done and he posted his first blog post.
I appreciate his willingness to stay culturally current in his ministry. The easiest thing for him to have done was tell me no and move to the next thing. However, he understands the media age in which we live and hopes that this blog can help him connect with the church family.
Speaking of being culturally current, if one more person asks me when I am going to create a FaceBook account… ha ha. Every week someone asks me about my FaceBook account, to which I have to tell them, “It’s a goal for ‘08″. Maybe one of these days soon it will happen.
Make my pastor’s day. Post a comment on his blog and encourage him. I did.
There is not a day I live on planet earth that I don’t network. I have been amazed at the doors that open everyday if you are looking for them. I joined Facebook the other day. It has been amazing the “young” Children’s Pastor’s I been able to connect with by taking advantage of a free tool. (If you are on facebook, please invite me to be your friend also sign up to talk about leadership on my group “theClub”.) Another wonderful book to read if you are serious about growing your sphere of influence with others is the book “Never Eat Alone.”. This book is the best I’ve ever read on the power of networking. Make a people to connect to list and call or email them with 1 short question. (Depending on your relationship.) I am amazed at the people that I give my cell phone number to that doesn’t take advantage of that relationship. If I have some one’s cell phone I try to call them at least once a year to stay connected. It’s Wednesday and just off the top of my head I’ve talked to over 35 Children’s Pastors by phone and email to learn something. I guess what I’m wanting you to do is stop and thinK about the relationships you are taking for granted that God has presented you to grow and learn from. He’s the one that created the whole iron sharpening iron thing not the leadership, and personal growth coaches.
That’s the way I see it.