OLD SCHOOL, originally uploaded by jcisonline.

Old School is a series that was an incredibly huge win for us.

Goal for this series-try to provide some answers to some basic questions that they might have about the Bible.

6 weeks
1)What is the Bible?
2)How do I use my Bible?
3)How did we get our Bible?
4)What is the Bible about?
5)Why is the Bible Important to me?
6)How do I read my Bible?

We introduced an “Old School” game called Bible Drill. It allows kids to begin to get comfortable with their Bible by searching through it to find books in a race format. I’ll tell you a little secret. by using candy as a prize. This game has become a favorite game for our kids and I’m totally serious, like unbelievably serious.

Anyway another fun element we introduced was something that we called Morning Announcements. We had kids play the role of news anchor and introduce the lesson. We would also have a staffer aka an adult, play a role as a person at the school. Pretty funny. Kids loved them, cool way to introduce some good questions.

Great series. I’ve heard stories of kids reading their Bible, with their journal in tow, answering questions about how the Bible is structured and understanding the role of the Bible in our communication with God.

Big W for us. Great series. That is all.

I’m shocked, Dad…., originally uploaded by Tampen.

While I hate to admit it, I get torn alot on this issue. I grew up in the church and I know some of the waysthat the teaching affected me. I’m currently writing a series on Abraham for the new year. Obviously some things in the story of Abraham aren’t necessarily kid friendly.

Abram/Sarai/Hagar ring a bell.

And this quote will help paint a picture of what I’m talking about.

“All of childhood’s unanswered questions must finally be passed back to the town and answered there. Heroes and bogey men, values and dislikes, are first encountered and labeled in that early environment. In later years they change faces, places and maybe races, tactics, intensities and goals, but beneath those penetrable masks they wear forever the stocking-capped faces of childhood.” -Maya Angelou

And I’m not gonna lie, it’s a really tough place for me. A couple things that I’ve realized that might help you in developing some things for kids and maybe the line you are drawing is very gray or grey if @funnymandan and @kidinspiration

So here are a few things that I have learned in the process of what to teach and what not to teach on age appropriate things in scripture.

1. Gradual Revelation

Just like the Bible our lives are a sequential process. Things aren’t always revealed to us at one time. It would be disingenuine to push that process especially in areas that are meant to be learned over time. Sex and violence are two of those things in my mind. Sometimes they are just revealed too early however, that doesn’t mean that we should be afraid to confront these issues with Scriptual backing. However, in what is generally anywhere from 7-25 minute teaching isn’t enough to teach an all encompassing lesson on either of these matters.

2. Trust

This is the one that I struggle with the most. I take on a heavy burden teaching kids the Bible. I want them to grasp spiritual things and sometimes get down on myself that I can’t teach them everything in the time alotted. Or that maybe I said something that could damage their foundation of living a life for Christ. But I have to remember that the spiritual matters have to be left up to God. I must do all that I can but not more than I can. And this is always a tough place for me.

3. Will you leave unanswered questions?

This is really a pet peeve of mine. So if this example I’m about to throw out there is you, I apologize beforehand. I don’t understand using rhetorical questions in teaching.

“Like have you ever imagined a world without hypothetical situations.”

I’m not sure if our job as teachers to kids is to present them with more questions. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think that we must try and answer the questions. Yes there is a value in posing new questions for sure. But I don’t want to leave my pupils without an answer to the questions we were going to answer.

4. When in doubt teach something else.

Again I feel torn about this particular situation with ol Abram. I know that I got to my teen years and was studying alot of these characters that I knew about and then was like, they did what!!!!!????!?!?!?!?!?!

Maybe it’s just me but didn’t hear about Abe and his infidelity, Noah and his issue with alcohol, and Moses and his anger issues. (Which feel free to throw both of your hands up at your desk and thank God for grace. Seriously. Do it now.) Now hear me on this please.

Do Not I repeat DO NOT ADD OR TAKE AWAY FROM GOD’S WORD. However, teaching things that kids more than likely aren’t dealing with should not be our goal either.

So anyway to conclude I’m still torn. I really am. But from the people in my life that are very wise, they’ve told me to find a way to acknowledge that mistakes were made without going into the mistakes or skip it. I know very uncomfortable piece for me to write today but I hope it helps someone out there. Again just an issue for me to trust God more than my own ability to teach these things.

But what about you. I’m sure you’ve got some insight. I’m just a youngun teach me, please.

Simple Life Blog Piece, originally uploaded by jcisonline.

Well I’m excited and nervous about my first book review. Why? Well I know that it took alot of work to write a book, just like it takes alot of work to write a good blog piece. But in all of these reviews I plan to be honest and forthcoming in my critique.

Anyway let’s get started. I was originally drawn to this book because of my experience with Simple Church. Great book for me mainly because I was trying to figure out some basic church philosophies and methodology on ministry. It was written by Thom Rainer who is also co-author of Simple Life. So that is why I was interested in this title.

Over 1,000 people surveyed confirmed that their lives are really stressful and lack focus. The Rainers intend to give insight on how simplifying your life can lead to joy and meaning. This book lays out a plan for simplicity in people’s lives.. Why simplicity? Well because we get bogged down by things that aren’t necessarily what we would call priorities. They show you four areas to key in on: Time, Relationships, Money, & God. Then for each area they guide you through a process consisting of four steps.

• Clarity-defining a goal

• Movement-doing something about it

• Alignment-making sure what you are doing is matching up

• Focus-final push to move from bogged down busyness to a renewed Spiritual walk.

My Thoughts:

Practical Plan with Effective Guidance

They give you a simple plan. They give you encouragement to get it done. Effective and short. May a little more detail but I believe they accomplished their purpose.

Spiritual Perspective

It’s nice to hear how to focus your daily tasks on life changing behaviors. I think they do a great job by showing the need to focus on the things that matter most. Our relationship with God, family, and other people.

Geared Towards an Older Crowd

I thought that providing everyone with a plan for creating a more meaningful, goal oriented push in their daily lives is an encouraging thing. I quickly realized however that this book seemed to be geared toward a bit of an older crowd. I don’t have kids, a house, or overwhelming amounts of extracurricular activities so later in life this book could have a more meaningful place. But for now alot of the situations didn’t apply to me.

Commercials

Don’t get me wrong I don’t have a problem with an author pushing their other resources, however, a break would be nice. It was a little bit uninspiring to hear about the Love Dare and Facing the Giants so much.

Lack of Statistical Analysis

Now forgive me because I am a stats guy personally so the lack of statistical analysis is something that I really missed. However, most people as they clearly state in the book probably aren’t interested.

Overall an ok book. Again alot of the stuff I felt didn’t really apply to me and my current life situation, however stuff to remain in my mind when the time comes. It you’ve got kids and you just feel like a plate spinner hoping it doesn’t come crashing down, then this is a must read for you.

For more info on Simple Life, check out Thom Rainer’s site or pick up the book on Amazon.

John Saddington said everything that I wanted to say about GLO!

Main thing I will add is WOW!

Alright #kidmin peeps this post should be right up your alley. If you are in #kidmin you know that one of the major elements in place in your environment and programming should be fun. Why? Well it’s well documented on countless blogs and sites that the two questions asked to kids in the car after church are:

What did you learn? Did you have fun?

And as a Production Director I know that fun is an essential part of the equation. Why? Well many reasons. Fun gets seekers to come back. Fun helps you build relationships. Fun is fun and people like fun. In fact Dale Carnegie (didn’t know he liked to have that much fun) said that

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”

I mean it’s true, go into an organization that has fun and compare it to an organization that doesn’t have fun and I’ll tell you the more successful organization. Now again fun is an essential part but it is not the whole. But let’s focus on the fun.

Go to thefuntheory.com to check out what the guys at Volkswagen are doing to make ordinary things more fun and the effect it has on people.

Now the question for you in #kidmin is there something that people are having a difficult time buying in to? Is there something that people dread to do? )Sorry for the hanging prepositions but I can’t resist) Will FUN save the day?

Open up and see if fun can take an ordinary, mundane practice and turn it into something that people love to do.