As children’s pastors, we’re used to working with dozens of kids. Maybe hundreds. But billions?! These are big numbers. And really quite overwhelming.

But there is good news.

Good news about what’s going on around the world in children’s ministry.

Last week, I represented the Cory Center at the Global Children’s Forum (GCF) in Nairobi, Kenya where hundreds of ministry leaders committed to reaching kids in their region of the globe gathered. Hearing their stories had me hopeful…

• In India, kids direct, produce and star in KidHubTV, a weekly television show that explores real life problems through the lens of Scripture.
• In Uganda, kids who are never allowed to cook learn how to make an omelet and how much God loves them in a local KidsHub.
• In Kenya, an estimated 10,000 kids gathered to pray for the better part of a Saturday morning for their friends, neighbors and their nation.
• In Pakistan, ministry leaders recognize an unreached people group among the children enslaved in brick factories.

All over the world, there’s an awakening to the importance of children and their value in the kingdom of God. It seems we’re in a mini-revival or, at the very least, a revival of focus on our little ones.

The Cory Center is committed to supporting and training those called to this awakening. In partnership with GCF, Bethel is helping develop a one year certificate in global children’s ministry for those with leadership potential but unable to commit to a seminary degree. It was exciting to meet with men and women from Australia, India, South Africa, Canada, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nepal and beyond to dream big on behalf of the world’s little ones.

On our own, we don’t have much to offer. Indeed, the story of the boy with five loaves and two fish came to mind often last week. The numbers are overwhelming and our little offering so inadequate. But in the hands of Jesus, little becomes much and there’s more than enough.

Looking for inspiration on what you might do? Check out this video…

Aim Lower

What is your most important calling?

Seven years ago I had lunch with my good friend and mentor, Dave Bechtold.  Dave and I had shared a few meals together, spent a morning together once every couple of months to talk about life and children’s ministry, but on this day – Dave dropped a bomb on me.

You see, I was leaving a smaller church to serve at a mega church.  And I was ecstatic. I talked about work often with Dave and shared ideas and side projects to get his feedback.  Dave knew that I was an absolute workaholic.  Before we said goodbye outside of one of the best burger joints in Wisconsin, Dave told me: “Matt, God can call anyone to be the KidsWorld Creative Arts Director.  He can ask anyone to do that job.  But He has only called one person to be the husband to your wife and father to your kids – and that’s you.”

Unforgettable.

A light bulb went on and I realized that being a dad and husband was God’s most important calling in my life.

Dave and I still get together from time to time and I just try to soak up everything I can about being a dad and husband from this man of God that I admire.  If it wasn’t for Dave’s influence, I would have never even glanced at 52 Things Kids Need from a Dad by Jay Payleitner.

In this book, author Jay Payleitner lays out 52 simple things dads can do.  Jay leaves out all the stuff you can’t do – this is stuff you can actually get done!  He doesn’t yell at dads or emasculate them – he just guides them to do some stuff that may not even make a lot of sense (like whipping a bucket or water around).  Jay’s words in 52 Things Kids Need from a Dad have continued to inspire me to be the dad God calls me to be.

With Father’s Day coming up, I recommend getting a copy of 52 Things Kids Need from a Dad by Jay Payleitner.  I’ve made it a habit of giving it away as a gift to new dads and making it available to men in my community group.  Great book for your most important calling.

Just a few weeks ago my Senior Pastor, Jim Nicodem, launched a “Bible Reading Initiative for our church’s four campuses.  One of the center pieces of the initiative was getting hundreds of people on the same Bible reading schedule.  In the past we highlighted a four year Bible reading plan for adults, offered middle school and high school students different reading plans, and created a plan for children that went along with the weekly curriculum.  Everyone was on a different plan!

We choose Scripture Union’s “Encounter with God,” a daily reading plan that takes you through the entire Bible in 5 years.  One of the benefits of this type of plan is that you only have to read 10-20 verses a day.  It’s incredibly simple.  The booklet Scripture Union provides, for just a couple of bucks, also includes a short commentary for each passage you read.  The study notes are not always scintillating, but they are helpful.  If you don’t want the paper version, sign up for the daily email or download the eBook.

I’ve been diving into this plan for the past month alongside the hundreds from Christ Community Church.  I’d encourage you to take a look at Encounter with God if you need to give your own study habits a boost.  Consider the possibilities within your ministry context as well.  I’m excited that everyone in my family is on the same reading plan.  What an awesome thing!

Check out Encounter with God by Scripture Union here

Watch Super Bowl winning Coach Tony Dungy talk about the value of daily bible reading through Scripture Union’s Daily Bible Guide Encounter With God.

Right now, go to Keith Ferrin’s website and buy 10 Tips for Liking the Bible. I’m not kidding.

I love to read.  Each year I read about 50-70 books (not including the picture books I read to my kids).  10 Tips for Liking the Bible by Keith Ferrin is one of the best books I’ve read in the past 5 years.

I don’t know about you, but I grew up in church.  I was taught from an early age to read the Bible with regularity.  Having “devotions” everyday was a mandatory thing around our house.  And yet, as a kid, even through Bible college, I did not love reading the Bible.  In fact, it became more of an obligatory, studious type of exercise.

I wish Keith’s book had been around for me years ago. He coaches readers with simple steps to fall in love with God’s Word. 

If reading the Bible doesn’t float your boat – pick up 10 Tips for Liking the Bible by Keith Ferrin and put it into practice.  Make sure you tweet about your experience with the hashtag #LiketheBible

Available at http://keithferrin.com/store – be sure to pick up the study guide too!

November is National Novel Writing Month. I have no idea how official that is, but at the end of last year it sounded like an interesting thing to try. Essentially, it’s a challenge to write 50,000 words during the month of November. I took the challenge and ended with about a day and a half to spare…for me, it was no small feat.

What’s that got to do with summer reading?
Last month I read an article about improving your reading. Near the bottom of the list was a bullet point about writing. The author said that if you want to read more, write more. I wasn’t sure of the validity of that comment until I looked back at my read list and found that since November, my reading has more than doubled.

I won’t give NaNoWriMo all the credit though, I also joined a group that is challenging one another to read 52 (or 26) books this year. I’m aiming for 52.

So, with all that said, he’s a challenge for you: over the next week or so, Cory Center will present you with some book ideas…try to read at least one book each month this summer.

And now, here’s my suggestions:

The Chives Trilogy (the first book is The Sword)
Fictional book about a post apocalyptic world that has essentially reverted back to the middle-ages. Bryan Litfin, the professor of Theology at Moody Bible Institute authored the trilogy that features a couple other quest to discover the God of the Cross.

Gospel Powered Parenting
Unlike usual parenting books that launch into advice, this one spends a little more than the first half of the book describing who God is. Then, when it gets to advice, it does so in light of the character of God.

Leadership and Self-Deception
This one is hard to describe, but has great potential to impact your ministry, especially if you counsel anyone. Good insight on why we do what we do.

Fatherless
I didn’t think that Dobson would be a great fiction writer, but was impressed with his tale of where we could wind up if certain agendas continue to be pushed and succeed.

Family Ministry Field Guide
Solid reminders and sound thoughts for anyone working through improving or starting their family ministry.

Those middle 3 books are among the best books I’ve read in a while.

For many ministries I know summer means it’s time to take a break. That’s good, we all need a break…but that’s not the way it is for my church. Summer is one of the busiest times for our children’s ministries. Here’s some things that I’ve learned over many summers that can help you to think about what your summer can look like:

Stopping

In our context, we stop two of our children’s programs: Awana and Children’s Church. Awana isn’t meant to be a year long program – it’s a “during the school year” program by design. We could do Children’s church all year, but stopping does 4 things for us:

• It gives our leaders a break
• Children join in the main service with their parents which:
  • causes children to be seen by the larger body
  • allows parents to model corporate worship to their children
• gives us a chance to relaunch in the fall

Each fall, these two programs receive a natural boost of momentum because the leaders are refreshed and because a restart is a natural momentum booster.

Switching

We want to keep our Sunday School running year round, but that could mean that we expect that the leaders in that area to neglect their own summers. There’s a couple of solutions to this: You could switch up how this program runs and combine classes or rework the program for the summer. What we do is offer our teachers a 3 month break.
This does two things:

• Our regular teachers get a break
• New workers get a chance to fall in love with leading

Starting

This is where things can get crazy. Summer is a natural time for trying out new things and for parents looking for things for their children to do. Many ministries use a week or two to conduct Vacation Bible School or Back Yard Bible Clubs. These are great ways to introduce families to your church.

Many years ago, our church went a step further and began a summer camp that, essentially, last all summer. Perhaps I’ll write more about Camp Agape another time but this was an idea that stretched out thinking even further and has made a huge impact not only on our church, but on the community. Many people when hearing about our church now say, “Oh, your the church with the camp.”

My point here is, that if you decide to start something this summer, consider stretching your thinking…or using this summer to reach further next summer. What does your community need? What can you do that is different, yet still shares the love of Christ?

Each of these three things, starting, stopping and switching can have a great impact on the energy level and momentum of your children’s ministry. Combined, they’ll have an even greater affect…

So, what are you going to start, stop, or change this summer?

One of the things I look forward to in the summer is time away from technology on a beach, at the pool, or in front of a campfire, reading.  Here’s my kidmin summer reading list.

Encounter with God by Scripture Union

On Easter Weekend our Senior Pastor, Jim Nicodem, introduced a Bible Reading Initiative for our church.  Part of that initiative is to get hundreds of people on the same Bible reading plan, using Scripture Union’s “Encounter with God” materials.  The short daily reading (10-20 verses), accompanied by a page of study notes, takes you through the Bible in 5 years. It is my new Bible reading plan.  What better book to put in your beach bag than your Bible and a solid reading plan? E-book RSS

To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink

Yes, this book is about sales; however, Daniel Pink frames traditional selling in new terms.  Many people spend a large part of their time “moving others,” attempting to convince, change, motivate, and influence people.  As a pastor, I serve as primary shepherd to a group of people that need to be led.  My entire job description is “moving others” and it may be yours as well.

Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini

I heard a podcast between Daniel Pink and Robert Cialdini a few months ago unpacking the principles of Cialdini’s foundation book, Influence.  He has captured the fascinating science and principles behind how influence works.  Ministry is influence.  Volunteer recruiting is influence.  I can’t wait to dig into this one.

The Pastor by Eugene Peterson

A few weeks ago I had one of those days where you start to question where God has you.  In that moment, I remembered my friend and co-worker Pete Sutton’s recommendation for Peterson’s memoir about being a pastor.  I bought the book long ago and it has never moved from the shelf.  After a quick glance at the Table of Contents, I read the short chapter entitled “Letter to a Young Pastor.”  It was one of the most encouraging moments I’ve ever experienced.  I’ve been picking at the book ever since, but this summer I’m finishing it up.  Eugene Peterson’s storytelling skills are par excellence.

The Unexpected Adventure: Taking Everyday Risks to Talk with People about Jesus by Lee Strobel

This fall I will celebrate 10 years in ministry.  In that time I’ve served at 2 churches and at each church I have lived 25-40 minutes away from my church.  Confession: I have never brought someone from my neighborhood to church with me.  I’m an inviter, but I haven’t found a seeker who wants to drive 20 miles to go to church.  This summer, we are moving closer to our church and my plan is to step up my evangelism game.  Strobel’s book was recommended to me as a practical guide to follow.  Bring on the adventure!

Just came across this video resource for Easter from What’s In the Bible.  Must see #kidmin TV!

(Hat Tip: Amy Dolan)

For example, my church has a worship service for children. Part of any worship service is music and I believe that it should be done well. If we are trying to help children understand that they are important to the church and that worship through praise is important to God then children need to have more than “main-service leftovers.” It needs to be done well.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the people resources to do live music well. Likewise, allocating the finances for good presentation software means that we’ll have to cut out something else – this is a people and a financial problem. While we may get more musicians, good presentation software can cost in the hundreds and requires someone to setup and run the software.

Here’s the route we went:

We purchased a large screen TV (though a projector or smaller TV would work depending on your setting) for our children’s worship space and to that, we added an Apple TV (it’s only $99).

Apple TV allows you to mirror a mac or iPad (what’s on the screen is on the TV) and it also will play anything from iTunes (mac or PC). Then we shopped around for some quality DVD worship music. Honestly, I haven’t found a ton of stuff out there, but depending on your style, there is quality stuff available (see below).

Now, each week, all I need to do is create a playlist of music videos, add a countdown video to the beginning and wirelessly (or wired) connect to the Apple TV. Once I hit play, it’s all automatic.

Once we’re into the teaching portion, I can use my iPad to run a Prezi or some other presentation, view a video clip through iTunes, or powerpoint from a PC – whatever is needed.

For our setting (about 40 children) I’ve found that 4 songs tend to work well, but I’ll talk on that some other time.

Here’s a few places that have DVDs that could help with your services:

• Integrity’s iWorship
• Uncle Charlie
• God’s Kids Worship
• Shout Praises Kids
• Yancy

The Cory Center staff is excited to announce a new partnership with INCM to provide an Advanced Certificate in Children’s Ministry.  You can check out all the details of the Advanced Certificate in Children’s Ministry on our website or through INCM.

Are you looking to increase your leadership skills as a children’s and family ministry leader?  The Advanced Certificate is an avenue for you to develop your ministry leadership through the latest resources and the highest quality academic program. For more information, email AdvancedCertificate@incm.org