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Monday, May 05, 2008
Conspire 2008 Highlights

Amy_dolan I am completely overwhelmed by all that God did last week while we were together at Conspire. Our team knew from the very beginning that God was up to something – that His plans were bigger than we could imagine or dream. It felt like together we were creating a new movement in children’s ministry – a movement that says – The days of ministering to children alone are over, a new day has come – a day in which we reach children and families with innovative ways that are created as we collaborate and work together. I’m interested in that movement!

Here are some of the highlights for me:

Session 1: I just loved Christine’s honesty and powerful reminder to erase our fears!

Session 2: I really connected with David and Jon’s powerful worship as they encouraged us to stay connected to the vine.

Session 3: How exciting to imagine a new way for reaching families – I appreciated Kurt, John and Pat’s honesty as they explained what they had been learning.

Session 4: What a treat to hear from Glen, Rick and Aaron all in one session. I had goose bumps the entire time Glen was talking about his faith story.

The highlight of Conspire for me personally was the Point Leader Summit on Thursday.
Our team had hoped that 200 Children’s Directors would attend who  could be built into and trained in advanced skill development. We were shocked to find out that 300 Children’s Directors had actually attended and that we had maxed out the room! What a privilege it was for me to watch as so many directors spoke encouragement to each other and shared learnings from their own experiences.  I had the opportunity to pray over many leaders who were feeling tired and uninspired, and I had the joy of watching those same leaders walk out of the room with a new bounce and joy in their step.

And finally – Friday! What a great day!

Session 5: David Stall and the Promiseland team brought us great inspiration around the idea of owning your burden and loving one another. Very powerful!

Session 6: What a joy to hear Phil Vischer’s story – I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room when Phil talked about Thomas’ story.

Those are my thoughts – please continue to share with us your experience!

Amy Dolan


We’ve already received dozens of emails and phone calls about how great Conspire was for your personally. Keep the notes coming!

And ... be sure to visit our new Childrens Ministry Forum




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Friday, April 25, 2008
Session 6 -- Don't Eat The Glue

Agneswinnfred










Buck Denver interviews Agnes and Winnifred



Jonklinepeter








Jon Klinepeter

Rock of My Salvation
Joyful, Joyful


Phil_vischer







Phil Vischer

Your ministry to kids doesn't start with an X-box and a big screen TV. It doesn't start with a job description written by a senior pastor. It doesn't start with facilities and a budget. It
doesn't even start with a great conference filled with tips and "best practices."
Your ministry to kids starts with God's love. Not his love for kids - his love for you.
Christ is calling to you - to "all you who are weary and burdened." Bring your burdens to the cross - and lay them down. Let them go. Then stay there - at the cross - resting in God's love. Not his "love for the world" in abstract, but his very real love for YOU.




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Friday, April 25, 2008
Session 5 -- Notes from Your Best Friend

Windwaves_3











"Water & Waves"
from Jumping Into God's Story, Promiseland's Preschool Curriculum




Whatif_3
















What If?"







David_staal







David Staal






Make no mistake, my fellow children’s ministry friends…Heaven invites you on a journey. A divine journey that’s already taking place. So in response to that invitation, stand strong on your commitment to Own a Burden; stand strong on your commitment to Love One Another—knowing that it’s all for Jesus, the One who really makes the great stuff in ministry happen. And when you do stand strong on both, it will be as though your life, yes your life, sings a song to the King that says “You can count on me: my ‘within us’ is all Yours!” Because what if… What if God is ready, ready right now on His journey, to do something in your ministry, in your church, in your kids, something immeasurably more than anyone has asked for or imagined—






Lovegodloveall











Love God, Love All"





Outloud_3











Promiseland Outloud Worship





Sing to the King
Never Gonna Let Me Go
I Wanna Shine
Everything Glorious
Sing to the King




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Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Session 4 -- Crayons and Megaphones

Disneytrivia_2



Disney Trivia





 



"For nearly 85 years, The Walt Disney Company has been in a unique position to reach millions of people around the world.  We’re fortunate to work with the best filmmakers, the top talent and the most creative people, but in the end, it all comes down to the one element that holds everything else together:  a great story."

Session4_3 "One of the keys to Disney’s success over the years, has been its ability to populate our stories with fun and interesting characters and put them in a believable and exciting environment.  It’s been my privilege to ensure that the Disney characters, and the worlds they live in, are preserved throughout the company – Whether it be filmed entertainment or in a foreign language, in our theme parks or an interactive game…It’s my responsibility to develop and preserve characters that consistently entertain audiences from project to project and generation to generation."

"So by telling stories that have biblical and spiritual truth in them, we are essentially imitating the way Christ taught His followers while He was here on Earth.   Subsequently, our kids should be able to draw spiritual truths and life application from the stories we tell."




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Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Resource Carnival Highlights

Carnival1










"Make Some Noise" songs were featured.


MakesomenoiseSearch Me
With All of My Heart
I'll Worship You
In The Name
Why Do I Do
I'm Gonna Praise You
I've God The Feeling
I'm Gonna Shine
I Want You to Know
How Do I Know
A Brand New Day
Love God Love All




Click here to hear song samples

Wedlunch



"Oh What A Special Night"








NEW Promiseland Preschool Curriculum
Jumping Into God's Story

Jumping

Click here for lesson samples and more












Jumpforjoy150_2




Click here for song samples and motions





Away in a Manger
Jump for Joy
Happy Birthday Jesus
He Is Born
In A Stable
Oh What A Special Night
Oh I Love Christmas
God's Gift
The Best Thing
Good, Good News
It's Christmastime
Who Was There
It's Christmas Day

Fx

FX (Faith Experience) Videos

Click here for details




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Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Session 3 -- Color Outside The Lines

Agneswinnfred_2

Agnes and Winnfred enjoyed their lunch and are "connecting"









Evolutionoffamily




Evolution of the Family






Modelbehavior











Model Behavior


Kurt_bruner




Kurt Bruner





John_trent





John Trent

“Something doesn’t add up”

Church programs have never been better

But Faith Transference has never been worse

Because Family Challenges have never been greater.

The church is fulfilling its role.  Our job is to declare The Word as clearly and creatively as possible.  It is time that we declare what’s really going on.  The problem is NOT what’s happening at church, but what desperately needs to happen in our homes.

Gowingafaith

Find out more about the Innovations Alliance




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Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Session 2 -- Running With Scissors

David_weil






David Weil

David Weil, Pastor of Family Ministries at Christ Church Lake Forest, Illinois, joined with worship leader Jon Klinepeter to provide a carefully crafted worship experience that fueled our connection to God. Leaning on their expertise in personal spiritual development, team-leading, and corporate worship, they helped us discover practical ways to keep our relationship with God as fresh and alive as He intended - the very best way we can serve kids.

Jon_klinepeter






Jon Klinepeter

I Need Thee
Just As I Am
Be Thou My Vision
Return
Blessed Be Your Name
Amazing Grace
Angus Dei

Klinepetercd Eucharist CD Available in the Seeds Resource Center


Lyrics and Charts available at missionband.net










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Friday, May 02, 2008 - 11:03:46 PM   
Leadership-Re: Best Leadership Books

Our senior staff have been going through the book/DVD series, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell. 



Friday, May 09, 2008 - 11:15:01 PM   
Large Group Programming-Re: Creative Communicator Discovery

We have an amazing large group teacher who tried just about everything--nursery, preschoolers, small group leader... wherever her children were--before becoming a large group teacher. Each place wasn't the right fit for her, and then she started teaching large group in our elementary department. And it has been great! I think one of her best credintials is that she was a cheerleader in highschool--so she knows how to be enthusiastic in front of a crowd!



Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 10:27:37 AM   
Leading Adults-Volunteer Recruitment

Share your best ideas for recruiting volunteers.



Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 10:22:58 AM   
Leading Kids-Top Small Group Challenges

What are the top challenges faced by the Childrens Small Group Leaders in your ministry?



Friday, May 09, 2008 - 11:22:03 PM   
Operations-Re: Electronic Check-In

We're in the process of switching to Connection Power. While it's not perfect, there are a lot of great elements that will serve our church as a whole (which is great because we've all been using seperate systems since the main one didn't work well for individual ministries). The Power Visitor element is working SO WELL!



Friday, May 09, 2008 - 11:24:28 PM   
Curriculum-Re: VBS

We're in our third year of creating our own VBS. This year our title is "Follow the Golden Road". The preschool kids will be on a journey down the golden road to the castle. The older kids will be more Wizard of Oz like on a journey to meet the Wizard of All. On their journey, they'll be learning all about the Bible--that it's the place to go wisdom, to know what love is, for direction, courage, and finally that the Bible is God's story and they can be a part of it too!



Monday, May 05, 2008 - 8:20:45 AM   
Family-Re: Faithful families and REVEAL

 

That's a really interesting idea!  I'd love to hear more about it--does your church have a website or anything I could look at?

Thanks for sharing this :o)

Kim



Friday, May 02, 2008 - 11:08:13 PM   
Conferences-Re: Conferences

I just attended the Conspire Conference and plan on attending the CPC conference in Nashville next January.  Nothing else before then.



Saturday, April 26, 2008 - 12:52:37 AM   
2008 Childrens Ministry Conference-Re: Session 4 -- Crayons & Megaphones -- Glen Keane, Rick Dempsey, and Aaron Reynolds

 

Wow! I'll say it again... Wow! This was a great session. It was great to hear from these people from Disney who are serving Christ and injecting their faith in real ways in what they do. I kept thinking, "And these are the people that some of us were trying to boycott..." I'll never watch a movie the same again. It was cool seeing Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast from a different perspective. It was also cool to see some stuff from Prince Caspian :)

I didn't think that Aaron "connecting the dots" was unnecessary. I think we should've been left to connect the dots ourselves and in our conversations with each other. I don't mean to say that I didn't enjoy Aaron. I did. I just think we should've been allowed to connect the dots for ourselves instead of being told what we should be getting out of the session.