I think I stole this from Jim Wideman’s Blog… but I just had to post something on this because the last entry was written while Jesus was still turning water into milk.
“It doesn’t take leadership to change something that not’s working. It does take leadership to change something that’s going good and make it great.” Willie George
So true!
The test of leadership is to take a Ford and turn it into a Ferrari. advair diskus prices
So I had not really heard of John Piper until recently when I started to check out the Desiring God website. They also have a ministry targeted to children.
They make excellent use of the net and apparently the website contains all Piper’s sermons and articles since he started in ministry. I love seeing a dude giving away all his stuff!!!
Messages (audio and written) and books are all over this site.
They have a great blog which is where I found out about the Children Desiring God conference, that was just held in April. And has begun my fascination with John’s writing and speaking.
He talks about kids A LOT.
Just search for children on the site and it brings up over a thousand results of message and articles that reference kids…
So…
To the conference.
Check out the sessions from the conference blogged in great detail! You can listen to John in Session One delivering the message.
I love seeing ministries just giving away stuff… going beyond a ‘podcast’ advair diskus generic or free samples… they literally give away the farm…
For an idea to spread it needs to get out to the people. Your idea could be the exactly the right thing the world needs, but if no one ever hears it… it’s just a good idea.
John Piper is taking his ideas to the world.
One of his articles had a great impact on me recently taking a passage from Psalm 78 and building a message about God’s plan to pass on the word to children.
Check out Johnny boy! You could learn a lot (I did)!
Creativity is something everyone possesses.
If you don’t feel you are a creative person, someone probably told you that and it stuck. Or maybe you even heard someone else told they weren’t an artist, or had a good voice and you thought, “Man, I’m not even as good as them! I must suck!”
Creativity is tenuous. Much like self esteem it can be obliterated with a single negative word.
So here is the word of the Lord into thy life: ‘Thou art creative”.
Feel better?
The hose is turned on. The water is flowing, you just had a kink that was killing the flow.
Here’s the thing now: you may have to clear a little deadwood.
Chuck Jones, the great Warner Brothers animation director, once recalled that one of his art instructors once greeted the class by saying “All of you here have one hundred thousand bad drawings in you. The sooner you get rid of them the better it will be for everyone.”
I have written countless bad songs in my life. Only a few are good enough to be presented to children.
There is a significant song in the journey of Beci (that would be my wife) and I that stands out.
I’m Really Happy – From our first Hillsong Kids album “Jesus is my Superhero”.
We had written some seriously lame tunes before this song came along. Finally we both felt we had made a breakthrough and it was one of the first songs to be locked in for the album.
I would like to say that creativity and excellence comes easier now, but there are still deserts between the oasis of great songs (not sure of the plural of oasis – oasi?).
So GET IT OUT!
Clean the pipes.
Unkink the hose.
Keep writing.
Keep singing.
Keep composing.
Keep believing that the ‘Best is yet to come’.
(Thanks Brian).
adalat no prescription color=”#330000″>Religion does seem to be good for young children. The religious attendance of parents and a cohesive religious environment in the home yields significant benefits for children’s behavioral, emotional, and cognitive development, and such outcomes are most pronounced when both partners attend services frequently.”
Early Childhood Longitudinal Study by researchers at Mississippi State University
Article from Rick Warren’s Ministry Toolbox — Church is good for children.
That’s the message of a new study that says young children of churchgoing parents fare better behaviorally, emotionally, and cognitively than do children of parents who never attend church. In fact, the more often the parents attend, the better off the kids are.
Nice.
When I started blogging in November of 2004 there was not much in the way of blogging going on that had anything with ministry to children. I actually blogged only twice that month, but that has since grown to 340 posts, but since then millions of blogs have been added and the list of blogs relating to serving children on this earth has grown.
Technorati lists 1,150 blogs that discuss Youth Ministry, and 232 blogs that discuss children’s ministry. Both those number are lower if we count only those blogs that are strongly focussed on ministry to youth/children.
I now actively follow 50 blogs that relate to CM… some of them loosely related, some fully engaged conversation about how to reach children for Jesus Christ.
But I have been pretty pumped to see the rise in recent times of quality blogging exploding like a coke bottle full of mentos… like an out of control object lesson involving baking soda…
So here are my top ten blogs, some of these are new, some are ancient (more than a year old):
But seriously when he speaks, I listen.So there you have it. I have a bunch of other favourites, but they have all been punished because they don’t write enough
The message is clear… if you are reading this and don’t have a blog. Get one… and start writing.
UPDATE: Corrected link to Matt McKee’s blog.
If you are in Victoria or even close to Vic — Rob Bradbury has an event going that you need to get to!
REV 2007 – RX3
It will give a fresh vision actos prices for your ministry and inspire you with ideas on how to better reach the children in your community.
But don’t just bring yourself, bring your team!
It truly promises to be two days of fun, information, inspiration, and impartation.
Pastor Rob Bradbury, the Kids R Us National & State Director, is looking forward to partnering with you and your team to do all we can to reach this generation for Jesus Christ.
God is wanting to do something big in the children’s ministries across Victoria, and He wants your team to be apart of the adventure!
Artwork is up at kidsongworld.com for this years Hillsong Conference! Our 5 day kids conference… it is going to be AWESOME! Great new ideas and creative surprises.
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I have the best team in the world!
Last weekend over 8 services there were hundreds of awesome volunteers serving the children of Hillsong Church.
8 services!
That is two months of church for a LOT of churches around the world.
And that’s what I keep telling our team. My role is to give the ministry away, to our awesome volunteers, and eventually to our kids.
I would LOVE nothing more than a child to come up to me and say ‘Wow, what a weekend… we did it!”
…
…
Don’t get all uptight on me… I know it’s God that does it…
BUT actos prescriptions 2005 he chooses to use people, I plan to make dang sure he has the opportunity to use children.
Leader: Give away your ministry (it ain’t even yours).Â
I just read the best newspaper article ever.
Would you like to read it?
But what if I do and then you don’t read it all the way through… and watch the video clips on the page?
I guess I will have to take that chance.
Pearls Before Breakfast by Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post.
Can one of the nation’s greatest musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour? The newspaper sets out to discover if violinist Josh Bell — and his Stradivarius — could stop busy commuters in their tracks. Read On.
Have a thorough read of the article… take your time, it may take a few minutes to really read it all.
Done?
Okay, just love the premise and experiment.
You can probably guess the one section actos prescriptions that I loved the most.
Yep.
Its was this paragraph.
There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who stayed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who hurried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away.
The point I would like to propose to you is this.
NOT that parents can often be too busy to notice their children.
BUT that every child in their first year of school considers themselves an artist/painter/sculpter. Then with every subsequent year when you ask the same question less and less children put up their hands to admit to their creativity.
Until you have a classroom with no artists by early high school.
(Teachers, try the above in your classroom).
This from the aforementioned article.
The poet Billy Collins once laughingly observed that all babies are born with a knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother’s heart is in iambic meter. Then, Collins said, life slowly starts to choke the poetry out of us. It may be true with music, too.
Maybe life just chokes the poetry out of us.
When kids notice beauty… life…
I want to let them enjoy it.
And teach them how to live with poetry.
Little Zachary was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything… tutors, mentors, flash cards, special learning centers. In short, everything they could think of to help his math.
Finally, in a last ditch effort, they took Zachary down and enrolled him in the local Catholic school.
After the first day, little Zachary came home with a very serious look in his face. He didn’t even kiss his mother hello.
Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying. Books and papers were spread out all over the room and little Zachary was hard at work.
His mother was amazed. She called him down to dinner. To her shock, the minute he was done, he marched back to his room without actos mg a word, and in no time, he was back hitting the books as hard as before. This went on or some time, day after day, while his mother tried to understand what made all the difference.
Finally, little Zachary brought home his Report Card. He quietly laid it on the table, went up to his room and hit the books. With great trepidation, his Mom looked at it and to her great surprise, Zachary got an “A” in math.
She could no longer hold her curiosity. She went to his room and said, “Son, what was it? Was it the nuns?”
Little Zachary looked at her and shook his head, no.
“Well, then,” she replied, ?Was it the books, the discipline, the structure, the uniforms? “WHAT WAS IT?”
Little Zachary looked at her and said, “Well, on the first day of school when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew they weren’t fooling around.”
You don’t need a title to be a leader — by Mark Sanborn — This is the kind of book title I love!
Haven’t read the book yet… but it is on my to read list!
Great review from Kem Meyer, the Communications Director at Granger Community Church.
(Post is from May 06, but better late than never).
Here is an interview with the Author Mark Sanborn:
Mark Sanborn – A couple years ago, I was talking with the vice president of a multinational technology company in the south Denver area and he shared a story. He needed someone on his team to lead a mission-critical project. It wasn’t enough to find someone who would do a good job. He needed a leader who would do a great job. After careful thought and consideration, he approached a colleague, who I’ll call Bob, who was considered an up-and-comer. Bob had demonstrated tremendous potential and his work on previous projects had been exemplary. As past performance is one of the best indicators of future performance, the VP decided to sit down with him.
After explaining the project and what he wanted Bob to do, the VP extended an invitation to him to lead the project. After a brief pause, Bob responded, “I assume you’ll make me a director if I take this on.” His unexpected response caused the VP to pause. What were Bob’s real motivations? Was he a person driven by the need to contribute, or the need to gain? Would he act in the best interest of the organization, or only himself? After brief hesitation, he explained that the title change didn’t go with the invitation. Furthermore, he went on, given Bob’s concern, the VP was withdrawing his offer to lead the project.
The VP went back to the drawing board. After more deliberation, he came up with an alternative candidate. The person who came to mind was a woman, Gail, who had also shown great promise. Gail wasn’t actually a member of his team – in fact she acted in a freelance capacity. But the VP knew Gail’s can-do attitude and strong people and problem-solving skills were what were needed. Despite her lack of an official position within the company, the VP decided to ask Gail to lead the project. Given his previous experience with Bob, he approached her with some apprehension. In extending the offer, he added: “I actos generic equivalent want you to know that if you accept this challenge, and succeed, I can’t automatically make you a director.” Gail didn’t even hesitate. “That’s all right,” she said. “I don’t need a title to be a leader.”
Read the rest of the interview.
Bottom line: I love looking for people who are passionate and not looking for the recognition that comes from a leadership role.
Every believer is a minister of the gospel — not just the professionals. That’s why we don’t really use titles in our church culture… Pastor is a function… NOT a title.
The downside to day care?
These kind of articles become a LOT more interesting when you have a one year old child — in day care three days a week.
It seems that children who are looked after by their mothers up to the age of 3 do significantly better in developmental tests than those cared for by nurseries, nannies, childminders or relatives.
Of course, statistical studies on behavior and grades and development alone cannot measure the full impact on children of spending their days away from both parents. The presence of a parent provides children with a sense of safety and well being, personal love, the instilling of family values, and a stronger family bond. Parents are parents best when they are actually actos 6o mg present. A nanny or other child care provider may be able to love a child and teach him to follow all the rules. But more than the feminists will admit, children often…simply need Mom and Dad.
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. – Proverbs 22:6
Related Links:
A Downside to Day Care? – MSNBC
•Study: Day Care Slightly Weakens Child-Mother Bond – CNN
•Mother’s Care is Best For First Three Years – The Times
•Number of Hours and Length of Time in Child Care – nces.ed.gov
•Blueprint For Action – Healthychildcare.org
•Official: Babies Do Best With Mother – The Guardian
Quotables from Phil Baker
Snakes on a Plane.
There are snakes on our journey through life we need to be aware of:
Wisdom:
Nice article about ‘contemporizing’ the bible for kids.
A pain-free way to get a little blip on the attention-o-meter is to look for strategic places you can contemporize the language. actos 30 mg In other words, add some modern lingo, even pop culture references, to tug them in.
Author Donald Miller wrote this after attending screenwriting course:
It did not escape me, as I listenend to 36 hours of story deconstruction, how powerful story is. The overwhelming majority of the Bible, in fact, is story. We often think of the Bible as creeds and precepts, but it is anything but. Instead, the stories of the Bible work to create an internal map, a guide and compass, teaching us what is worth pursuing and what is worthless, what is meaningful and what is not. Right and wrong, then, are not often taught by lists (truth without meaningful context) but rather through the tools of story. The seminar made me wonder why religious institutions who aim to teach ancient texts don’t have story departments alongside their systematic pursuits. It seems that one might benefit from the other.
Keeping kids attention.
But…
Is there a line?
Can we put too many words in the ‘mouth’ of the bible?
I read an article that talked about the development of childrens bibles from the 1800′s until now.
It seems that there are some extra-biblia (that a word?) additions to some of the stories in the kids versions. Or they cut off the story at a happy ending not a tragic one – and it is getting more widespread every year.
When are we giving kids false information?
A lot of my mental images of bible stories are pictures/artwork/movies that I have seen as a child… nice line of animals ldeaing into the ark (It was 2 of every unclean animal, 7 of every clean one Gen 7:2-3)
So there is a line I guess – and there is nothing I love doing more that shattering a bible ‘myth’ that was created by a church culture or a line taken out of context (eg. Only God can understand you when you speak in tongues).
The bottom line (I love a good bottom line).
Children need to understand the bible as ONE narrative, extending from creation to the end of time, teaching them the reality of the world around them.
(I am sure there is a better bottom line, maybe you could write it?)
Godtube.com
Why?
WHY?
From MSNBC
GodTube is the best example of a new group of Web sites that aim to do the same things regular Web sites do, but with a Christian (or Christian conservative) point of view. Like the idea of MySpace, but hate the thought of your children as prey? Try Famster, a secure online community for families. Like Wikipedia, but chafe at what you see as its liberal bias? Read On.
Somewhere along the way someone has a brilliant idea. Let’s take an element of culture and prop up the word Christian in front of it. Then it is now safe for people of faith to participate in culture.
A Christian MySpace, a Christian music genre, a Christian movie, a Christian email address, a Christian bookstore.
So we separate from culture and live in a Christian gated community.
If there is one skill I REALLY want to impart to generations of children growing up right now around the world is how to engage culture… and FILTER it. What is bad, what is good? How can I tell the difference between art and obscenity?
Let’s teach kids how to make decisions on what media they consume, instead of training them to retreat from culture and build a Christian theme park.
Let’s be honest… the creation of Christian cultural ghettos are usually tied into profit.
It may be impossible for me to protect the children in our ministry from viewing pornography at a young age (average age is 11)… although I will fight to keep our kids pure.
But teaching, training and inspiring our children to make the right choice is my plan to populate the world with Godly adults who move from being just consumers of every cultural wind to creators of profound/Godly/entertaining/moving/beautiful works of art.
Slavery may still be with us (in the West) if William Wilberforce had decided to create a Christian Shipping Company instead of engaging the political arena actos 15 mg and standing up for justice… and for Christ.
UPDATE: Here is another article on a similar theme. Link
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