[Kid Inspiration]

A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn’t seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator, in a calm soothing voice says: “Just take it easy. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy’s voice comes back on the line. He says: “OK, now what?”

Just saw this posted on the Fast Company Blog:

You can’t build anything great in life if you’re worried about failure. When you worry about failure, you put your energy in the wrong place. You end up focusing on escape routes and contingency plans instead of success. And you kill the passion and drive you need to bring your creative ideas to life.

1. In your mind, paint a clear picture of something big you’d like to make happen.
2. Describe the details. Where are you? Who’s there? What are you all doing?
3. Continue to fill in the picture with more and more detail.
4. Notice how fears of failure slowly dissipate and courses of action start to emerge.
5. Take a risk and follow one or more of those courses.

Love it… Love it… Love it…

Just get a picture of something… Describe!! and then describe some more!!

Try this with one thing you are facing!

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I aim right here in the next couple of paragraphs to enable you to get a new perspective on your service in the kingdom of God. I believe it will propel the blessing and influence you currently have! Get these words into your spirit!

Briefly…

Think… if you will… about your ministry situation.

Your senior minister/pastor/shepherd has created your ministry platform. Whether he has been leading for 2 or 20 years align yourself with his vision and slot right in there with his heart for people. Please, for the sake of everyone that has not heard the good news, support him 100%!

Got that…

Your senior minister in effect… having created this platform for ministry…
given away the ministry to the children of your community to YOU.

Now if you are leader in the ministry team, or pastor/leader overseeing the ministry… he trusts YOU.

Pastor — Don’t hold onto the ministry, you have been given this gift, do not withhold it… GIVE IT AWAY to your leaders. Let them know you trust them and believe in them wholeheartedly to ‘do the work of the ministry’.
(That’s your job!)

Leaders — Hey, if its good enough for your senior pastor, if its good enough for your children’s pastor, then its good enough for you…

‘Well who do I give it away to?’ I hear you say… ‘I mean i’m not on staff, I don’t work at the church, I don’t have a team of people’…

We MUST give away the ministry to our children. A child who has discovered how to serve her LORD and saviour Jesus is a powerful testimony. God delights… he delights in the heart of children. COME ON, don’t hog it all for yourself… give away the ministry to our kids.

Hang on…

It’s messy…
It’s frustrating…
It’s more work…

Hold it…

It pleases God…
It changes lives…
It impacts families…

What does it look like in your context? ummm? dunno?

God knows… and he’s happy to tell you.

What does it look like in our context? A year 4 and 5 leadership program, worship leading kids, praying kids, kids starting bible groups in schools…

Not every day, not every kid, but more each year…

There is nothing that blesses my heart more than servant hearts beating strong and loud in our children.

Mark Twain had a bad habit of using profanity in his speech. Twains wife was as refined and cultured as her husband was raw and coarse. Her husband’s uncouth manner of speaking offended her sensibilities, and she tried many ways of curing him of his bad habit. In desperation, she tried the shock technique. “Maybe if he hears what he sounds like and I become a sounding board, he’ll be so shocked at what he hears, he’ll change his ways.” So when he came home one afternoon, she met him at the front door with a stream of obscenities, throwing back at him every bad word she could remember coming from his lips.
The classical curser listened quietly until she finished, and then said: “My dear, you have the words, but not the music.”

A historians job is to tell the truth about the past.
A dentists job is to tell you the truth about your root canal
A theologians job is to tell you the truth about God…

A leaders job is to rise to the occasion, to imagine the best possible future,
and to tell you the truth about how to get there.

Put aside vision for a moment… vision is vital to your success (“Where there is no vision, the people perish” Proverbs 29:18), but what leaders are judged most on is the music to their words.

“I have a dream” - 30 years later Martin Luther Kings voice remains.
George Bush is ridiculed most… not for his vision, but for his voice. Think of all the ‘Bushisms’ you have heard, better yet do a search for some at Google!
Mohammed Ali – “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”,
Ali’s voice not just his sport remains!

What we must do for our teams and leaders, is not just fill them with vision, but help them find their voice – think of your team boldly and confidently speaking — music in their words as they proclaim the very truths God has placed on their hearts. Do they speak of underprivileged, homeless, street children? Do you get tired about hearing how the children need more of the word of God? Does your leader constantly remind you that ‘we need more personal contact’ with the kids?

Raise them up, let them speak, give away the ministry to them! Help them find their voice and spur them to action… believe me when a passion is unearthed, you won’t be pleading for leaders to come back after one year.

One of our key team found her voice over a year ago… she lives and breathes underprivileged kids! I certainly don’t have to remind her of the Saturday morning program we run for these children. She has found her voice and nothing is going to take her away from the ministry that God has placed in her hands.

Lets create an atmosphere where leaders are constantly growing and discovering
their voices!

Ages & Stages for Media-Wise Families

The Imagination Stage – ages 2 to 7*

Has a very active imagination, often confusing fact and fiction. Has difficulty integrating the elements of a story and drawing a conclusion. Protect from frightening or mesmerizing images.

The Concrete Operational Stage – ages 7 to 11

Judges characters by their attractiveness and by their motives. Is more likely to imitate movie violence if it goes unpunished or is presented as necessary.

The Reflection Stage – ages 12 to 15

Abstract thought gains strength. Teach early teens to analyze plot, character, setting, and to draw out and evaluate a movie’s premise. Still unable to foresee the consequences of their actions. May imitate characters’ behavior.

The Relationship Stage – later teens

Accepts that others are different. Learns to relate to others by accepting their differences. Conceptualizes the consequences of actions and takes steps to reduce risks. Teach them to recognize the ways media try to manipulate them.

*All ages are approximate. Adapted from The Media-Wise Family by Ted Baehr (Chariot Victor, 1998).

Over at Children’s Ministry Magazine they have a poll going…

Question: For children to clearly understand the message of Easter, there should be no mention of anything related to the Easter Bunny or Easter eggs.

Well I voted and don’t usually leave a remark or anything… mainly because I don’t have much to say. But after reading some of the other remarks… thought I might as well… here is my contribution.

I do believe it is important to mention the easter bunny to our kids… One of our most important roles is to redeem the culture we live in. Children must learn to see the God whispers in every area of their lives and culture… God speaks loudly through the praise and worship of His church… but often softly through the popular culture of our world. Teach kids to seek out God in every area of the culture they come into contact with. The devil is not behind every rock and blade of grass… GOD IS!!!!

Have a look (You
need to vote in the Poll)

Are you a leadership wimp? If you are “feeble or ineffective” in any leadership function, the answer may be yes.

The good news is that leaders are rarely wimps in all aspects of their job, peak performance expert Dave Anderson writes on his website, www.LearnToLead.com “Normally, there is just an area or two where a leader must tighten up and toughen up to increase his or her overall leadership effectiveness,” he says.

In an article titled “How to Face and Fix the Top Five Sins of Leadership Wimps,” Anderson suggests that wimpy leaders are prone to several destructive attitudes and actions, including:

Blaming outside conditions for a lack of results. No, you can’t control the weather, the economy, the competition or the time of year. But “even in the worst of times, you can still control your attitude, your work ethic, where you spend your time, with whom you spend it, your character choices and your devotion to daily disciplines,” says Anderson, author of Up Your Business: Seven Strategies to Fix, Build or Stretch Your Organization.

Being too dependent on themselves. “If you think you’re indispensable to your organization, I have great news for you: Relax, you’re not that good!” Anderson writes. “The greatest measure of your leadership is not how [your people] perform while you’re breathing down their necks; it’s how well they do in your absence.”

Making “easy, cheap, popular and convenient decisions.” “If you lack the emotional strength to make the tough calls, resign your position immediately and go find something you’re cut out to do�because you’re not fit to lead,” Anderson says.

More information here: Wimpy Leaders

Well, I have searched around the web for Children’s Ministry Blogs, but have not had much success.

I would love to know about YOUR blog…

Simply post a comment using the link below and we can start our own little community… of blogs

If you need to start one then simply visit blogger.com, or any of the free blog creation sites on the net!!

Okay… this post from Puppets
and Stuff

Sunday, February 06, 2005
I can no longer keep silent. It’s time to blow the lid off a campaign of puppet neglect. A little bird told me that the Henson company shot a pilot for a reality show called America’s Next Muppet where puppet wannabe’s get to audition to join the Muppets. Why has this show not appeared in my television program? Why is it not in production? What television executives are depriving me of enjoying this series? What fools do not realize that the American public needs this show? Disney/ABC must pick up this show or they will be perpetrating an act that will live in infamy. Go to your windows right now. Open them up and shout, “I’m mad as hell and I want to watch America’s Next Muppet!”

This from the official site.

The muppets are pretty much my Holy Grail of entertainment memories as a child… and teenager… and adult.

If there was any show of which I could become a cult follower of it would be this one!!

Well… we will see what happens with it!

The Internet Evangelism day is coming up soon

The Internet Evangelism Coalition (an umbrella group of outreach ministries) has initiated a worldwide focus day on Sunday, April 24, called Internet Evangelism Day. This is purely a web evangelism awareness day — there is no fund-raising element. The purpose is to communicate the outreach potential of the Web among the worldwide church.

Find out about it here:
READ

Here is the official site:
READ

George Barna’s Latest Report:

Parenting is a controversial and complicated issue. Bookstores are filled with volumes written about the most effective methods of raising children, and millions of adults attend parenting courses and conferences each year. A new nationwide survey of parents, conducted by The Barna Group, offers some surprising insights into the outcomes parents are most eager to achieve in their children, the qualities they believe are most important for parents to have in order to be effective, and some of the critical choices and tradeoffs they make in their child-rearing efforts.

Click Here to read on

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Is your “next act” (Service, Program, Phone Call, Meeting) up to the Cirque du Soleil Standard?

…Is today a “Masterpiece”?

In your service to God today are you leading an orchestra… or just playing in the band?

Cirque du Soleil, for the uninitiated, is the human circus originating from Montréal, Canada (http://www.circusnet.info/cirque/circarte/soleil.htm).

Every performance is a triumph of audacity, of the relentless pursuit of perfection, of reinvention, of mastery.

Can that be said about your ‘performance’ today as you serve God with all your heart and mind and soul?

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