Thursday, April 02, 2009 - 12:13:51 PM Conspire '09-Re: B52 The Grade 4/5 Experiment: What We've Learned by JillNelsonSomething we wanted to do at the end of the session at Conspire, but ran out of time for, was to have everyone think of one thing (big or small) that they can go home and do differently for fourth and fifth graders in their ministry.
What one thing could you, or will you, do differently?
Monday, March 02, 2009 - 10:30:48 AM Childrens Ministry Books-Re: Best Books by Laurensurp I believe Sue Miller/David Staal's book, "Making Children's Ministry the Best Hour of Every Kids' Week" is the best read by far. I use it, recommend it and quote it all the time. Of the plethora of books on my shelf, this is my most used in this area.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 1:57:27 PM Conspire '09-Re: Conspire '09 by DexterStationI'm looking forward to just getting there!
Do you know how I can contact others in Michigan (Ann Arbor) or Ohio (Toledo) area to see if we can carppool?
Tuesday, February 03, 2009 - 4:02:40 PM Childrens Ministry Books-Best Books by pricelWhat is one book you would recommend for any Childrens Ministry Leader?
Tuesday, February 03, 2009 - 9:46:59 AM Music-Kind-Grade 5 Music by pricelPlease share questions and comments regarding the Kind-Grade 5 Music available from conspirechildrensministry.com.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009 - 9:40:08 AM Curriculum-FX by pricelPlease share questions and comments regarding the FX DVD series.
Thursday, January 22, 2009 - 3:46:36 PM Large Group Programming-metamorphosis set photos by jbyerlyWe are doing Metamorphosis for our 3 day summer family production. Does anyone have any photos from the Promiseland Metamorphosis conference that we can reference for set design? The tips on the curriculum CD are helpful but we have a big stage to fill.
Sunday, November 09, 2008 - 4:03:52 PM Operations-volunteer rotation by livnfrogFirst of all, THANK YOU for your thoughts! I am SO excited about this forum! I pray that God will just continue to lead and guide all of us!
At our church, we have a sunday school hour and then a worship hour (like your traditional church service...) The preschool classes have a sunday school teacher who teaches every week. During the worship hour, ALL of the parents are rotated through. So, the kids practically have a different teacher every week for the worship hour. Our one and two year old classes are really struggling because there is NO stability in the worship hour. They are meeting a "new" person each week. However, I don't want to ask anyone to serve every week or even every other week and miss church that much. Do you have any ideas??? The parents are exhausted. I am praying for a better solution! Thanks for your input and ideas!
God bless!
Tuesday, November 04, 2008 - 12:55:13 PM Conspire '09-Conspire '09 by pricelHave a question? Ask it here.
What are you looking forward to?
How can we best serve you and your team?
Saturday, August 16, 2008 - 11:47:26 AM Operations-creative displays by all about preschool Help! We have a new church building and need creative alternatives to just taping preschool items on the classrooms walls.
We have preschool Sunday school and also Sunday and Wednesday evening programming as well as a full weekday preschool education program (Child Development Center) that all share the same space. The weekday program of course needs to display educational items, circle time items like calendar, weather, birthdays, etc.
We are looking for another creative way to display these items in an attractive, functional creative way without using tape.
We do have bulletin boards and gripper strips, but preschool teachers always want to display more items on the walls to make the room visually inviting.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 3:16:24 PM Leadership-Re: Best Leadership Books by ChipperOur staff really appreciated going through "Next Generation Leader" by Andy Stanley.
Very practical and to the point.
Also, might I suggest reading anything by Patrick Lencioni. A good one to start with is "5 Dysfunctions of a Team".
-Chipper
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - 10:18:00 AM Leading Adults-Re: Volunteer Recruitment by mistyd65Anytime we have a children's event (Bible Quiz, VBS, field trips, etc.)we usally designs from www.newlifeshopper.com's clearance area which means they have limited availablilty and you only have to order 12 to get your church's name printed on them for free. People see the shirts and want to know how they can get one . They are told about volunteering with the children's ministries and getting the neat shirts for free.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - 12:34:32 AM Curriculum-Re: VBS by ColeWe have a week long morning VBS. This year our church is using Gospel Light's SonWorld Adventure Park. We are really excited.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 5:07:57 PM 2008 Childrens Ministry Conference-Re: Session 4 -- Crayons & Megaphones -- Glen Keane, Rick Dempsey, and Aaron Reynolds by pkirklandOur team LOVED this session and were disappointed to not be able to obtain a cd or dvd of the session. I'm sure there are copywrite issues galore that prevent it. Am I right?
Friday, May 09, 2008 - 11:24:28 PM Curriculum-Re: VBS by JillNelsonWe'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!
Friday, May 09, 2008 - 11:22:03 PM Operations-Re: Electronic Check-In by JillNelsonWe'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 - 11:15:01 PM Large Group Programming-Re: Creative Communicator Discovery by JillNelsonWe 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!
Monday, May 05, 2008 - 8:20:45 AM Family-Re: Faithful families and REVEAL by Kim Vine
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 - 11:09:56 PM Curriculum-Re: VBS by Debi LuskWe use Group's VBS. Our program is in the mornings, usually the first week of August.
Friday, May 02, 2008 - 11:08:13 PM Conferences-Re: Conferences by Debi LuskI just attended the Conspire Conference and plan on attending the CPC conference in Nashville next January. Nothing else before then.
Friday, May 02, 2008 - 11:03:46 PM Leadership-Re: Best Leadership Books by Debi LuskOur senior staff have been going through the book/DVD series, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell.
Friday, May 02, 2008 - 4:41:27 PM Family-Re: Faithful families and REVEAL by Jami KellerYour insight is right on. We have been moving the direction of integrated small groups. This has to be a fully integrated program with leader training and accountability, and usually works best in homes during the week. This is a multigenerational group where a portion of the time is devoted to singing and praying with the children. This allows discussion and training for parents. It is very difficult to do this type of thing at a church service because parents are just not aware that getting their spiritual needs met and sharing there Christian walk with their children can be critical.
Jami
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - 6:29:54 AM Leadership-Re: Best Leadership Books by BeckyDarkside of Leadership and Critical Journey
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - 4:18:11 PM Operations-Re: Electronic Check-In by DoubleJWe use Arena Check-In (www.arenachms.com) and we are very impressed with it. We upgraded to Arena from Shelby about a year ago, and are excited about Arena's interface and ease of use by our staff.
Monday, April 28, 2008 - 11:48:23 PM Conferences-Re: Conferences by henryjzI just attended the Conspire Conference, and I was at C3 Kids' Conference at Fellowship in February. I'm not planning on any others this year.
Monday, April 28, 2008 - 11:46:15 PM Curriculum-Re: VBS by henryjzWe do a day camp format with the morning using Group's VBS curriculum adapted for our situation and then field trips during the afternoon.
Sunday, April 27, 2008 - 10:46:06 PM Operations-Re: Electronic Check-In by henryjzWe use Lambs List. Although I'm not a fan of the name, it is a great check in program. It does just what I need it to do, and it is all online! Plus the tech people over there are great to work with.
Saturday, April 26, 2008 - 12:52:37 AM 2008 Childrens Ministry Conference-Re: Session 4 -- Crayons & Megaphones -- Glen Keane, Rick Dempsey, and Aaron Reynolds by henryjz
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 9:07:47 PM Operations-Re: Electronic Check-In by jgilesWe use Connection Power, which is a web-based program. It has several components that you can purchase separately, and has a great care ministry section that allows you to communicate with other departments in notes and it notifies you if you there are needs. It provides a list of kids who have missed 1, 2, or 3 times so that they can be contacted before you have lost a family. The program price varies by your church size.We love that Connection Power's staff listens to our needs and works to improve the product and release new features monthly. The reports have been tough to maneuver, but we're learning to call their staff if we can't pull up what we need. We made the move to Connection Power from Shelby and some of our staff wishes that the servant module from Shelby was in CP, but other than that, we're very happy with it.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 11:13:28 AM Conferences-Conferences by pricelWhat conferences do you plan to attend in the next 6 months?
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 11:11:44 AM Family-Innovations Alliance by pricelThe Strong Families Innovation Alliance, led by Kurt Bruner and Dr. John Trent, is a coalition of leading churches committed to an open architecture methodology for discovering, implementing and sharing cutting edge family ministry programs targeting three areas of concern.
- Strengthening Relationships: Children need to experience a loving relationship between mom and dad that reflects the gospel and between parent and child that makes kids want to embrace their parents' beliefs.
- Winning Our Kids: The overwhelming majority of those who ever become Christians do so as children, most before age thirteen. Most parents recognize it is there job to pass faith to their kids in the context of the home, yet feel ill-equipped to do so.
- Keeping Our Youth: An alarmingly high percentage of teens raised in Christian families abandon their parents’ faith during the teen and young adult years. And while this is trend has created tension between parents and youth ministers, partnership between church and home is vital to keeping our youth.
Share your thoughts ....
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 11:02:53 AM Curriculum-VBS by pricelWhat are your VBS plans for this summer?
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 11:01:53 AM Operations-Electronic Check-In by pricelWhat electronic check-in system does your church use?
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 10:27:37 AM Leading Adults-Volunteer Recruitment by pricelShare your best ideas for recruiting volunteers.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 10:26:44 AM Large Group Programming-Creative Communicator Discovery by pricelIf you have a great large group Creative Communicator in your ministry, describe what they were doing before joining your team.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 10:22:58 AM Leading Kids-Top Small Group Challenges by pricelWhat are the top challenges faced by the Childrens Small Group Leaders in your ministry?
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 10:19:51 AM 2008 Childrens Ministry Conference-Session 4 -- Crayons & Megaphones -- Glen Keane, Rick Dempsey, and Aaron Reynolds by pricelCreative story telling is one of the most important tools God has given you for bringing His message alive for your kids.
Learn how to capture the imagination of this changing generation by telling the most important stories of all with new joy and creativity.
Please share your thoughts and feedback.
Monday, April 21, 2008 - 6:23:18 PM Leadership-Best Leadership Books by pricelWhat is the best book about Leadership that you've read within the last year?
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.