Events – Page 13

February 2, 2011

Please Mr. Groundhog, Send Us Spring

Today is Groundhog Day. It’s the day that a rodent emerges from his home to give us weather predictions. We’ve had lots of snowy weather this year in Nashville, so I’m ready for a little springtime. Spring always makes me think of "waking up" as the trees bud and flowers push out of the ground.

Spring may be a time that your ministry begins to "wake up." Many times, kids ministry falls into a predictable routine during the winter months (especially after the holidays). As the weather turns warmer, more opportunities occur to minister, to learn, and to play. Here are some things your ministry leaders can think about and plan for as spring begins to appear on the horizon.

Spruce It Up – When I think spring, I always think of spring cleaning. I’m not sure why. My mother espoused "all year cleaning." But usually we begin to think of ways to freshen up our environment as spring dawns. Look around your ministry. Has some clutter begun to build in the classrooms or resource rooms? Is the corner of your office stacked with materials that you could donate or recycle? Maybe rooms need some fresh teaching materials. (I love a new set of markers myself.) Maybe bulletin boards need new backgrounds and borders. For the really inspired, new paint or refurbishing furniture would spruce things up. Maybe teachers need some new inspiration. Invite them for a day of fun and training. Some new teaching ideas…or just a fresh jolt of energy…could really help your ministry.

Celebrate – Spring also makes me think of Easter. We celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, our Savior, in the springtime. The new life of the season helps us celebrate and thank God for the new life He gives through His Son. Begin to plan for ways to celebrate Jesus with kids this spring. A few years ago our children’s ministry sponsored a church-wide Passover dinner on the Thursday before Easter. We gathered around tables as families and ate some of the foods that Jesus and His disciples would have eaten. We talked about Passover and what it meant orignially. Our minister connected that to the sacrifice that Jesus gave. That dinner helped me and others connect with the Easter story. Think about ways you can engage kids in the message of Easter.

No matter what the groundhog’s prediction, spring is on its way. Use this Groundhog Day as a launching pad for your spring ministry. What preparations for spring are you making?

(Check out Lifeway’s Levels of Biblical Learning products for the concept area Jesus for products related to Easter.)

Events, Fun, Preteen

January 31, 2011

Valentine’s Day Games Your Kids (and Teachers) Will Love!

By Jeff Land

Hey All. It’s getting close to that time of year when the whole universe seems to go gaga over cardboard hearts filled with chocolates, heart-shaped mylar balloons with cutesy messages, stuffed animals, and of course, the unforgettable conversation hearts.

Valentine’s Day stands out in my mind not because I was a big “celebrator” of the holiday growing up, but because I worked at a pharmacy/gift shop during high school and I remember how insane it was working on Valentine’s Day. I do know, though, how excited my almost four and almost three-year-olds were recently when their Uncle Bill bought them some valentines.

Kids get excited about Valentine’s Day because they may have a school party, will most likely be getting some sort of treat from their parents, and they get to exchange fun-themed Valentine’s Day cards. I sure wish that the cards they had when I was a kid had candy attached like the ones have today!

So, if you are planning a special Valentine’s event for your kids at church or just want to add a few fun games to your Wednesday night before Valentine’s Day lineup, I’ve come up with a few games that your kids are sure to enjoy.

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/images?q=conversation+heart&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=tMNGTfT1CM7PgAew_OzxAQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=2&ved=0CDwQsAQwAQ&biw=1304&bih=794″>conversation heart into different containers. Attach 4-8 disposable bowls to a table using tape. Form the same number teams of kids as colors of conversation hearts you have and assign each team a color. Place a boundary line about 4 feet from the bowl-topped table. Tell teams they have 1 minute to try to get as many of their team-colored hearts into the bowls as possible. Add up the number of hearts each team got into the bowls and declare a winner. Variations: make it relay style for each team instead of “free for all,” or assign point values to each bowl.

Conversational Speed Stack

Place all conversation hearts in the center of a table. Invite kids to gather around. Explain that on “Go” each kid will attempt to build the tallest tower of conversation hearts. Caution kids to not touch the table with their bodies. Variation: After 1 minute narrow the group down to the top five, after 30 seconds more narrow the group to the top 2, allow 10 more seconds and declare a winner. Use larger conversation hearts for small kids who have less developed fine motor skills.

Spoonful of Hearts Relay

Place conversation hearts in two bowls on a table and form two teams of kids. Place two empty bowls on another table at the opposite side of the room. Give each kid a plastic spoon. Explain that teams will compete to fill the empty bowls with hearts by scooping hearts into their spoons and carrying them across the room relay style.

Chocolate Hearts

Choco-Chopstix

Show the kids the two hearts filled with chocolates. Tell them to study the compartment in which each chocolate is placed. Form two teams of kids and then assign each kid a partner. Explain that they should lock arms with their partners. Tell teams they will take turns coming to the heart and refilling it in the correct order. The catch is that each partner has one chopstick and he has to work with his partner to lift the chocolate into the correct compartment. Give teams 20 second intervals to work to keep the game fast-moving. Keep playing until one team has completed the task.

Quick Organize

Sort of “cup stack” style have two kids compete against one another to be the first to refill their chocolate hearts in the correct order.

vbsvday from Jeff Land on Vimeo.

(The above video was made during our recent VBS Preview event here in Nashville, TN.)

Marshmallow Catapult

Form two teams and give each team member a plastic spoon. Place two bowls on a table in another part of the room. Give each team a bag of heart-shaped marshmallows. I found mine at Target. Tell kids they have to catapult the marshmallows across the room and into the bowls. Note: This game shouldn’t be played on carpet! Variation: Allow a team member to hold his team’s bowl and catch the marshmallows.

Heart Stopping Creations

Give kids a selection of marshmallow hearts and pretzel sticks. Tell kids to make their own Valentine’s Day sculpture by using the marshmallow hearts to connect the pretzel sticks.

Please use good judgment when playing games. Always make safety a priority. Have fun and enjoy watching your kids laugh and play.

Since I’ve already started thinking about Valentine’s Day, I guess there is no excuse for me not to get my wife an awesome present!

Events, Fun

January 20, 2011

We’re back from New York!

By Courtney Baker

We’ll that’s not entirely true. We were only in New York for about ten hours each day. The rest of the time we were in sunny Florida (although still sunny it was pretty cold).

Still confused? Well, last week several of us from Lifeway Kids (that weren’t at the VBS Preview event in Texas) headed to Orlando for Children’s Pastors Conference. So while we were working the booth it was all New York…

CPC Booth.jpg

Once we stepped off the fun green grass we were back in chilly Orlando. We had a lot of fun talking and meeting children’s ministers, and of course talking about Big Apple Adventure.

I thought I’d share a couple of the things we used to create our booth. First, it really all started with the grass. Isn’t it fun? We got the grass from Joseph M. Stern Co. and it really helped create that "New York Park" feel we were going for.

The second thing was the fencing, and you can get it at just about any Home Depot or Lowes! Now, before you head off to check it out, you’ll need a truck (probably obvious, but when I went, I went in my two door Honda Accord).

Thankfully I live close to Lowes, and I made it home with four pieces of fenching hanging out the trunk!

In March we’ll be headed to San Diego to talk about Theo and Flyte (our new preteen curriculum coming out in June). If you’ll be there come say hi!

Events, Fun, Leadership, Preteen

January 19, 2011

Bible Drill makes a SPLASH!

By Bill Emeott

Children’s Bible Drill is one of my favorite things to teach boys and girls at church. Each year 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th graders come together for some pretty intense Bible skill work. These awesome kids learn and memorize 25 Bible verses, 10 key Scripture passages, and the books of the Bible in order. They are able to quote the 25 passages from memory via the reference and are able to complete the passage when they hear the first few words of that passage. Additionally, Bible drillers are able to find any book of the Bible in 10 seconds (or less) and then name from memory the book that comes before the called book and the book that follows the called book (example: the child was told to find Matthew, he can locate the book and then name Malachi, Matthew, Mark). The key passages are also located in 10 seconds (or less) when the title of that key scripture is referenced. It really is amazing to watch a well prepared Bible driller. It’s also quite rewarding to see some quick gratification of your work with the kids.

This year we’ve really kicked our Bible drill into gear with a big “splash.” On January 2 (a very cold day here in Nashville), we took our Bible Drillers SWIMMING! Don’t get too concerned… we were able to secure an indoor pool at one of the local hotels here in town and everyone was able to stay pretty warm.

At the “Splash Party” we really made a splash toward accomplishing our goals of introducing and starting this year’s learning process. Let me share with you some of our fun:

Noodle Mania: I took two differently colored swim noodles and cut them into 39 disks (I used my electric knife to do the job) then, using a permanent marker printed the individual books of the Old Testament on separate disks. When finished I had two sets of Old Testament books that I laced on to two different ropes. After establishing two teams (for us it always seems to be boys against girls… and to tell you the truth the girls usually dominate), I dropped the loose disks into the pool. On "start," the two teams jumped in and as quickly as possible threaded the disks of their team’s assigned color in Bible book order. The first team to complete the task correctly, won! They loved it.

Pool Noodle Mania.jpg

Pool Rings of the New Testament: Similar to Noodle Mania but different because this time I wrote the 27 books of the New Testament on pool diving rings. Recently at a garage sell I spotted hundreds of pool rings. I knew immediately that I needed them for the Splash Party. So, I purchased, printed, and threw them in the pool. At go the group (as a whole) worked to dive in, find the rings, and place the New Testament books in order.

Bible Drill Rings 2.jpg

Beach Apparel Verses: For this activity I collected some “beach apparel” (two sets of swim fins, two sets of arm swimmies, two sets of swim masks, and two floaties. I printed on two sets of index cards the individual words to one of our memory verses and then placed each card into a zipper bag to protect them from the water. After placing the group back into two teams and on “go” the first player put on all the “swim apparel” and rushed through the water to the other side of the pool, chose one of the words from the memory verse and returned to her team. The second player did the same and the game continued until all the words of the verse were collected. The first team to arrange the verse in order won! Again, there was lots of energy, lots of splashing, and lots of fun. AND, I think they learned the verse!

Beach Ball Match Up: This game was designed to help the kids match the key passage titles with the key passage references. On ten beach balls (I purchased at a 90% end of the summer close out sell) I printed one of the key passage titles (example, “The Creation”) and on ten other beach balls I printed the matching references (example, “Genesis 1-2:3”). After reviewing the titles and passages I gave the girls the titles and the boys the references and on "go" they had to match them correctly. I thought it worked as a great way to introduce this year’s 10 key passages.

Regardless how you do it, helping kids learn Bible skills is very important. Helping them acquire the skills to use God’s Word will have eternal results. As an adult I have tried hard to memorize scripture. Sometimes I’m successful, sometimes not so successful. But if you ask me to quote Psalm 100 (the first scripture passage I memorized as a child) I can do it without hesitation.

What we plant in the hearts of young kids is likely to stay with them forever. Let’s take advantage of every opportunity and teach kids Scripture, what It means, and how to use It in their everyday lives.

Bible Drill Bill.jpg

“Thy word have I hidden in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” Psalm 119:11 (One of the verses I learned as a Bible driller, King James, no less!)

Events, Fun

December 10, 2010

Telling the Christmas Story

By swiley

As we celebrate Christmas, we want kids to hear, know, and understand the Christmas story. These Bible passages relate events surrounding the birth of Jesus–Mary and the angel: Luke 1:26-56; Joseph: Matthew 1:18-25; Trip to Bethlehem and Birth: Luke 2:1-7; Shepherds and angels: Luke 2:8-20; Wise Men: Matthew 2:1-12.

Recently I polled my colleagues for ideas about telling the Christmas story. Here are some of their ideas (and a couple of mine).

Light It Up
Place candles on a table, one candle for each person or group in the Bible story. Choose a different color and/or style of candle for Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, angels, shepherds, and wise men. Read the Bible passages or tell the story; light the appropriate candle when that person is first mentioned. Review each person’s (group’s) role and blow out the candle after you talk about that person or group.

Use a Nativity Scene
Read or tell the story. Add a figure from a nativity scene as you talk about that person’s part in the story. Use a nonbreakable nativity scene you have. Or make figures by cutting out the appropriate people from teaching pictures or Christmas cards; decoupage the pictures onto pieces of wood.

Act It Out
Provide simple Bible times clothing–robes, towels or plain napkins and elastic headbands; lengths of fabric to drape over the body. Choose a narrator and choose/assign roles. As the narrator reads or tells the story, actors pantomime the action.

You may want to omit the narrator and tell actors to act out the story. You could create a rough script or just ask actors to improv their lines. Make sure you talk about what the Bible tells us about Jesus’ birth and what is not found in the Bible.

Read a Book
Read a book that approaches the story from a different perspective. Choose your book thoughtfully and be prepared to discuss anything in the book that differs or adds to the biblical passage. One book suggested is My Birthday, Jesus’ Birthday.

Make a Time Line
Gather a variety of teaching pictures or Christmas cards that show various parts of the story. Or ask kids to draw various portions of the Christmas story. As you read/tell the story (or after telling the story), place the pictures in order. Tape them to a wall or clip them to a length of yarn.

Sing It
Read a portion of the Bible story. Sing a related Christmas carol after each portion of the story. Songs that could be used: "Away in a Manger"; "Angels We Have Heard on High"; "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks"; "O Come All Ye Faithful"; "Silent Night."

Touch It
Bring a variety of items that relate to portions of the Christmas story–hay, wool, soft cloth strips, stone (for the manger). Pass around the items as you tell or recall the story.

Remember, kids learn in all kinds of ways. If you can involve different senses or ways of learning, more kids can connect with the story.

These articles on Lifeway.com contain more ideas about telling the Christmas story or celebrating Christmas:

These products from Lifeway could help:

This video series from Worship KidStyle could also help you talk about the Christmas story:

What other creative ways have you used to tell the Christmas story?

Events, Fun

November 3, 2010

Happy Cliche Day

By Courtney Baker

Yes, that’s right it’s Cliche Day (and no, we did not make it up). CentriKid Camps is built on the fact that ministry happens best through the context of relationships, and we believe that in our office as well! Our version of building relationships today is celebrating Cliche Day with this video.

Happy Cliche Day! from CentriKid Camps on Vimeo.

Don’t miss out on bringing your children’s ministry to CentriKid Camps this summer! You won’t have to go "back to the drawing board" for camp again next summer and you won’t want to "abandon ship." Instead, you’ll be talking to all your friends about how CentriKid Camps is the "bee’s knees" and the "cat’s meow". After all, "birds of a feather, flock together" and we certainly want to see your ministry "busting at the seams" with spiritual growth.

Events, Training

October 25, 2010

Early Registration for KMC 2011

By Bill Emeott

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve shared with you a lot about Lifeway’s Kids Ministry Conference. This past year in Birmingham was really great. The worship was incredible, the workshops were challenging, and the networking and fellowship was the best ever. At the conference we had the opportunity to be refreshed, to be encouraged, and to be trained. It really is an awesome time.

In Birmingham we announced that next year’s conference will be in Nashville, TN on October 10-12. We’ve already begun to line up our platform guests and God is working thorugh the team to put together a really great line up of talent and inspirational speakers. Check out this video that was played at this years closing session:

Not only have we scheduled the Duggars. we’ve also enlisted Dave Hunt to lead worship, John Acuff (author of Stuff Christians Like), and Michael Kelley (author of The Tough Sayings of Jesus) to encourage and inspire. These are just a few of the incredible folks who will be at KMC ’11! And don’t forget the over 50 ministry workshops to choose from as well as the great early bird workshops, too.

Here’s the best news of the day… If you register before October 31 you get the super low registration of only $200.00. Yep… that’s $125.00 less than the regular registration for the 2010 conference!

Nashville is a great city to visit in the fall and KMC is a great conference to attend. I hope you’ll consider joining us next year and I hope the crazy low registration will help you be able to do it!

See you in Nashville!

Events, Fun, Networking, Training

October 15, 2010

KMC 2010 was GREAT!

By Bill Emeott

I hope those of you who were able to attend KMC10 had as much fun as I did. "The Ham" was a great place to expereince a Brand New Day for KMC. Part of that Brand New Day was awesome and great speakers like Mike Satterfield. After Mike spoke (or should I say INSPIRED) I had the privilege of interviewing him back stage:

Don’t miss the opportunity to save on next year’s registration. We’ll be back in Nashville on October 10-12 and registration is currently $200.00! That’s a $75 savings over last year’s earlybird registrations… We’ve already started working on next year’s line up… you won’t want to miss it! So get registered now and save!

Events, Fun, Resources

October 14, 2010

The Rubyz at Kids Ministry Conference!

By Klista Storts

So, here I am at the Lifeway Kids Ministry Conference with hundreds of great children’s ministry leaders from across the country, when Courtney comes up to me and says she wants me to interview The Rubyz! I have to confess, this is a new group for me, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Let me tell you, though, these girls were awesome! They have a great message to share with preteens and I enjoyed getting to meet them. Isn’t it wonderful when you get to see kids who want to make a difference in this world? Someone just like YOU made a difference in their world – now they’re passing that on to the next generation. Take a look at our video below to have the chance to get to know them a little better!

Behind-the-Scenes at the Kids Ministry Conference with the Rubyz from Lifeway Kids on Vimeo.

Events, Fun

October 8, 2010

Fall Festival and Ministry?

By swiley

This is the time of year that churches are planning fall festivals and fellowships. Most of the fall festivals that I have attended…well, all of them…are a time of fun and outreach. Fun for the kids and families who regularly attend the church. Outreach to the community, to bring in kids and families who may not come to your church but could.

Now I’m all about finding new families that need to learn about God and Jesus. And there’s nothing wrong with having some fun with your friends at church. But could your fall festival be a way that kids could minister? Here are three ideas that use your fall festival as a way to help kids connect to the larger ministry of the church. (If you don’t have a fall festival, these ideas could be incorporated in your kids ministry in other ways.)

1. Create Something – Include an arts/craft station in your fall festival. But not just making something for yourself. Make something that can be used in a ministry of your church.

NAPKIN RINGS – Cut paper towel tubes into 2- or 3-inch sections. Kids can glue squares of orange and yellow tissue paper to the rings; provide glue sticks for easy, no-mess gluing. Add fall stickers (or other stickers) for additional decoration. Use the napkin rings in your homebound or nursing home ministry. Or use the napkin rings as a part of a church-wide special meal. Your kids will be excited that they could contribute to a church event. (And you can use up all those paper towel tubes in your resource room!) If napkin rings won’t work for you, pick something else to make for a ministry of your church.

2. Ministry Store – Set up a ministry store at your fall festival and help your kids give to a specific ministry.

Ask church members to donate items that will support one of your church’s ministries–food for a food pantry; toiletries for a homeless or prison ministry; school supplies for a school ministry; special items for a missionary. Choose whatever will support what your church is already doing. Place the items in the ministry store with "price tags" on each item – each item worth a certain number of tickets. During your fall festival, give out tickets instead of candy or prizes at your carnival games. Kids can come to the store and "purchase" the items to give to the designated ministry. Kids have fun playing the games but also help support what your church does to minister to others.

3. Reverse Trick or Treat – Help your kids give instead of get during the fall festival…and reach out to your neighbors.

Make care packages of cookies or popcorn for the neighborhood around your church. Ask families or Sunday School classes to go to the houses around your church. Knock at the doors with lights on but give away your special treats rather than take anything. If lights are not on, just leave the treat at the door with a note. (Print notes ahead of time.)

Fall festivals can be a fun time. And a time for kids to be involved in ministry. What ideas do you have?

Need some help planning a fall festival? Check out these key questions and some more party ideas at lifeway.com.

Please Mr. Groundhog, Send Us Spring

Valentine’s Day Games Your Kids (and Teachers) Will Love!

We’re back from New York!

Bible Drill makes a SPLASH!

Telling the Christmas Story

Happy Cliche Day

Early Registration for KMC 2011

KMC 2010 was GREAT!

The Rubyz at Kids Ministry Conference!

Fall Festival and Ministry?

All Ministry Sites

Digital Resources

Lifeway Network