January goals

Getting own site and learning wordpress, which will have some nice privacy controls among other things.

Teaching children to lead in worship, despite controversy.

Strong focus on making sure that kids make connections with what they are learning and retain it.

Revamp website and other uses of technology in CFM.

Intense prayer for the incoming pastor and pastor nominating committee--that they have strong commitment to children and to seeing them as part of the body of Christ RIGHT NOW, not merely as decoration or entertainment.


That's a good start.

Seeking ideas

Any ideas for the following?

• All church retreats? (ideas, activities, unique ways to include kids in worship?)
• curriculum or other creative ideas for teaching the Parables? (we're doing a weekend series for adults, and I'd like to have a kid component)
• starting a kids' worship team (ideas, suggestions, etc.)
• ideas for teaching kids about how to be leaders in all areas of worship
• ideas for incorporating more technology--we use computers in SS as teaching tools, but I'm thinking more along the lines of having something they can log into from home (e.g. a Sunday School blog or message board; a component of the website that's interactive, etc.).
• parents--getting parents more involved at church AND at home, reinforcing what's learned in SS

How's that for a list?

Evening of Advent

The evening of Advent was a success. First of all, a "cold snap" came in (literally, it was 70 degrees one minute and then clouds flew over and it was 35). That was a good and bad thing. It certainly got me in the mood for Christmas, as well as the other people who were there, but it did deter a large group of folks from coming. Texans don't like cold. ;o)

That said, numbers weren't spectacular, but WHO CARES??? What I saw as I walked around last night was that new families to the church were involved! They were gathered at tables with other new and long time families, making wreaths and discussing plans for the holidays. Also, TONS of the OAKS (older adults keeping spiritual) were there, visiting with families and helping out the kids with their crafts. I, for one, chatted with people I've never had the chance to visit with before (because their kids are grown). Another plus: usually Grinchy members of the congregation were wearing holly bow ties and SMILING!!! Choir members were caroling through the halls. I was immediately cured of any bah humbug feelings (and there is certainly a lot of bah humbugging going on nowadays) and brought back to my youth, to days spent at my home church with my church family decorating the church with greenery and drinking wassail and hot chocolate.

My hope is that the Christmas spirit has spilled over contagiously to the worship services this weekend and into our greeting of visitors. We have the welcome mugs all ready, but I'm hoping our spirit is what embraces people, not a decorative mug.

Speaking of Christmas spirit, my cats have it for sure because I just spied one dragging HER present out from under the tree (she won't touch others). Gotta run before she opens it!

Young Disciples of Christ seeking Involved Parents...

How do you get parents more involved in children's ministry?

How do you respond to a person who drops their child off in the nursery and then goes HOME, not to worship but HOME????

How do you get parents to volunteer in SS when adult SS is going on at the same time, even if they only need to volunteer once or twice a semester?

How do you get parents to stay occasionally on Wednesday nights to help out at a Midweek program instead of saying, "yeah, but this is the only time I can get things done"?

How do we show well meaning people that CM is important for more reasons than just because they raise adult numbers in worship and because they are the "future" (nevermind the present)?

Maybe I'm too idealistic. Maybe it's because my parents were children's ministers and PTA members and youth group helpers and roomparents and choir parents and..." I dunno.

I'm blessed with a load of great volunteers who come every week and who juggle hundreds of volunteer responsibilities from teaching, leading childrens' choirs, handbells, shepherding, decorating and even baking cookies! But those people are the parents of a handful of kids. Where are the other 85%?

ADVENTures

Big discussion at our church:

Advent wreath litany--hope, peace, joy, love or prophets, shepherds, magi, angels?

Which do you use?

Ivy Beckwith talks about the importance of traditions in building community. What Advent traditions do you cherish, both with family and in ministry?

A little downtime--thinking "outloud"

Last week was pretty crazy. KidsInCers worked on their service project, the mugs for the visitors during the holiday season. I got the idea from a back issue of CM magazine, but I couldn't remember which one. Seriously, it was from several years ago. The kids enjoyed it, though, and we ended the session with a devotion about serving others. It always amazes me: the kids were a little rowdy during the actual project (always are right before a holiday from school), but when we sat down for the devotion, they were silent and attentive.

I'm going off on a tangent here, surprise, but I was once a public high school teacher, and I remember that when I would actually sit in front of the class and read from a book, they immediately focused. They LOVE being read to, and I wonder if, in this busy world of bussing kids to soccer, dance, and band practice, if we ever take the time to read to our kids. Hmmm...just a thought.

Anyway, KidsInC is off for 2 weeks, so in December we'll make Advent calendars and trim the tree. We'll also make the gifts for the teachers as I said, although I think that I'm going to switch from cookie fixings to making hot chocolate mix to allow for more time.

The Santa movie went...well, it went. It was just one of the organizers and me. I think that with all the hubub and changing the date, it just went kaplooey. Oh well. In other news, the Thanksgiving Feast for the Day School was precious, and consequently, I learned about a new cookie craft: a shortbread cookie (keebler) turned chocolate side up, a marshmallow coated in chocolate and stuck to the cookie and then yellow icing piped to look like a buckle. It makes a pilgrim's hat. Plus it was yummy.

Now I've got a 1/2 week and have a little downtime. We're decorating for Xmas this week and wrapping up the Thanksgiving unit.

Next week, though, starts the Advent rush. Here we go...

On the Evils of Santa and PG movies

Ok folks, here's another time when you get to hear Kim (that's me) say: "COME ON!!! GET A LIFE!"

Once a month we have a Church Family Play Date, an intergenerational fellowship event. I've tried to keep it pretty low key so that our department has at least one event that doesn't involve months of planning. So far we've gone bowling and have carved pumpkins together (some controversy there). The event for November is a movie--seems simple enough, but it has been the toughest thing we've planned yet.

Play Date is usually on the first Friday of the month, but that was my bday weekend, and others were out of town, so we changed it to the following Friday; however, I made the decision to change it to that Friday on the cell phone AT MY BIRTHDAY DINNER with no calendar in front of me and thus forgot that it was on the same day as a smaller event at the church. This prompted hurt feelings that needed to be smoothed over.

So we had to change it again to this weekend, which means that the original movie that we wanted to see is not playing anymore. Now, I figure that there are a lot of great movies out now (and keep in mind that this is intergenerational), but parents were complaining about my pick of PG movies, so we picked the only G movie around: Santa Clause 3.

Now I didn't like SC 1 and certainly didn't see 2, mainly because that sort of Tim the Toolman humor just doesn't appeal to me, but it's a harmless movie, it's holiday related, and it's rated G is my thinking. OH THE BACKLASH! It's Santa! Santa is evil. They start going after Santa like illiterate villagers after Frankenstein's monster. So I say, Ok, there are the PG movies I offered: Flicka, Flushed Away, Open Season, blah blah blah... The response: "Oh no, I can't have my child watch a PG movie! That's worse than Santa."

K, now here's my take on this. Um...PG means what? Parental Guidance, which means...gasp...you are supposed to watch the movie with your child and hopefully have a dialogue with them about anything you find objectionable. Point 2, again why is Santa evil, and why are we teaching kids that Santa is evil??? Good lord, if they tell their friends (who love Santa) that Santa's evil, can you imagine what that would be like?

You know what I hate about Santa? Nothing, but I hate the devisiveness his image brings about--from Christians! More and more I feel that Christians are turning into this frightening caricature from a Bradbury novel, damning imagination and promoting the Thought Police. It's really starting to freak me out. What was supposed to be a calm, fun activity, has turned into a nightmare.

Ok, ok, I'm done. Tonight is KidsInC, which is my favorite part of the week (I count the days until Wednesday), so I'll have a wonderful report to post about after tonight.

But for now...HUMBUG!

I'm back

Wow. I haven't posted in awhile, so I guess I should catch up on things.

Fear Not Festival went really well. We actually had enough time to let the parents rotate through the storytelling stations, and that was a big hit. Parents were glad to have experienced exactly what their kids experienced, and it made for great family conversation that evening--exactly what you want out of a church festival.

Halloween night, I was able to be home passing out candy to the kids. The numbers were low this year on trick or treating. I think they were all out at YMCA festivals and such. It kind of makes me sad, but in this crazy world, I can see why parents would want to take their kids somewhere safe. Still, what a sad tradition to lose.

After Halloween was my birthday. I took some much needed vacation time and went to Austin to meet up with some friends for a 5 day excursion. I wish I could say I rested, but when you haven't seen your friends in 2 years, not much sleep is going to happen! I came back to find that some little birthday fairies had decorated my office with signs, streamers, and much much much confetti. Brought such a smile to my face that when I was sitting in a very serious staff meeting, the interim pastor called me out for smiling: "Well, it looks like you are sitting over there with a post birthday smile. Why don't you tell us what you think about this serious issue we are discussing." It was like I was back in school again, and I just smiled and said, "Yep, looks like we've got a tough situation on our hands," and went back to my smiling. He wasn't happy.

Now, it's back to the grind again, planning for advent. I would've planned advent months ago, but for some reason, it hasn't been a high priority at the church. In fact, we still haven't had a full meeting about what we're doing.

This reminds me, does anyone have a cool preteen activity for advent? The church family is making wreaths together and having a "What is advent" night. In SS we've got thousands of things going on for advent, including a birthday party for Jesus where we're collecting diapers and formula, etc, for a local pregnancy center. The kids are also doing a Tree of Lights, where they can dedicate a light on a tree in honor or memory of someone. Each color costs a certain amount (1 penny, 1 nickel, 1 dime, 1 quarter and then an angel ornament is a dollar). The money goes to a charity that they vote upon.

But for the KidsInC program, I'm trying to think of something cool to do. We're having a tree trimming party and are making welcome mugs with hot chocolate and candy for visitors during the Christmas season at church. We're also making cookie jars for teachers and shepherds in SS--the cookie mix is layered in the mason jar so that the recipient only has to add eggs and oil.

But I want them to make a nativity scene for their own rooms or an advent calendar of their own--something that is theirs and connects them personally to Christ's birth. Any ideas?

Can't wait!

Tomorrow is the FNF, and I am psyched. To the left is a picture of one of the sets--the empty tomb. Of course, tomorrow it will be dark and the tomb itself will be backlit, making the "rocks" appear more realistic.

I'm actually quite calm now, which is good. We've planned all we can, and I'm now at the excited phase. Can't wait to see what God has in store.

Yesterday, the KidsInCers trick or treated for canned goods for a local food pantry. We gathered 3 wagons full of food, but the most amazing part was how the kids were able to minister to a couple of the local residents. One woman began crying, telling us about how she had just lost her husband. One of the kids, a usually rambunctious 4th grader, asked if we could pray for her, and the kids gathered round and prayed with the woman. It was amazing to see how these kids were touched by meeting and by praying with this woman, and I was just stunned, and still am, to see God work in their lives. It just reiterates what a fantastic ministry we have, and how much these preteens have grown in only a short while. Wow! I'm still speechless, as you can probably tell by the fact that I can't write well today.

I'm glad God knows what's going on!

So the Fear Not Festival was originally supposed to be an inhouse/invite your neighbors sort of thing. We planned for about 300. Everything was smooth. Everything was fine until...

word got out to the papers. The local churches (including the megachurch down the street) have quit doing festivals because they grow out of control. One medium sized church down the street had 1000 people. Now, I'm a bit worried.

I'm an organized person and a doer. If I see that something is not going well, I'll just jump in and do it. I have a vision, and I make it happen, whether I have hands to help or not. God's really been working on this with me and prompting me to delegate more, to equip his people to use their talents in service--to present the plan and stand back a little bit. I tried this and was pleased with the results. My team had great ideas. They were working together, making subteams and equipping other volunteers. Everything was perfect until...

word got out to the papers. Now that inner control freak in me is going a bit crazy. God keeps whispering, "Trust." And I'm trying, but how do I know if it will be 300 or 1000. What do I plan for?

Trust. Such a simple word and such a hard concept.

Like a tumblin' tumbleweed

I'm reminded of an image from the beginning of The Big Lebowski as a tumbleweed rolls through LA picking up debris. That's what I've been like for the past few weeks. Just when I think I'll have time for blogging, a gust of wind comes by and I move on to something else, picking another item up on my to do list.

Whew! Life is coming together on the Fear Not Festival. Halloween is such an icky time. Kidology.org just sent out a newsletter talking about finding common ground within the two viewpoints. My view is that Evil has had enough fun with this holiday and it's time to take it back. If we, as Christians, avoided everything that has been twisted into evil, we'd all sit in a padded room singing Kum Ba Yah.

I am certainly not the majority on this issue. In a meeting yesterday, I even had a member of the team tell me, almost in tears, that she is only helping me on this festival because she loves and supports me, but she feels it is "all wrong." This pains me because the last thing I want to do is to go against someone's convictions.

But what is so wrong? If anything, these kids (not just ours but the community's kids) are getting to step into an interactive story--interactive BIBLE stories. They will sit in the belly of a whale with Jonah (complete with open cans of tuna for smell effect!), in the lion's den with Daniel, in the palace with Esther, and learn that people, no HEROES in the Bible were scared, too, and God helped them through it! Little ones will watch Where's God When I'm S-Scared?, and what better lesson is that? Kids will sling "stones" at Goliath (bean bag toss) and the best part--kids will enter a cemetery, witness a stone rolling away, and an Angel telling the women not to be afraid because Jesus Christ has risen! And the best part is that they will experience it, not just hear about it.

What is so wrong? Yes, it was a pagan holiday, but so was every holiday originally. We Christians just took the pagan time periods and attributed them to our purposes. Isn't the important thing that we are reaching out to these kids with the message of how awesome God is?

Back to the barre

I love Cyberspace. I love that we, ministry professionals, can get together and support each other from miles away with the click of a mouse.

I'm a dancer. I used to be in a ballet/tap/jazz company in Chicago, but moved to Houston and haven't found one here that doesn't think I'm too "old." I still dance, though, and am in an Irish company, but I digress. My point in this, beyond rambling, is that I like the movie Center Stage. At some point in the movie, the dance instructor tells a struggling student that she needs to remember her "home" which is the ballet barre. Whenever she's stressed, she should just go back to the barre.

There is a point to this (I told you I'm nonlinear sometimes), and that is that when things are rough at work, I feel like I can always go back to my home in Cyberspace where I can read others' struggles and solutions and get support from my Crossroads friends or from people I've never met and know only by their blog names.

It's tough being in ministry. I've worked for big corporations like Worldcom, but ministry has it's own set of problems, mainly because you don't expect Christians to behave the same way people do at Worldcom. I guess that's a perception problem on my part, but it is still frustrating. The constant backbiting, the control freaks, the patriarchal leaders who disregard women in ministry, the people who seem to want to completely sabotage children's ministry and the people who seem to forget that we even exist as they stomp all over us, trumping us out of meeting space or money and worse, head pastors who don't have the guts to stand up to the trumpers--all of these can wear you down and make you want to run away screaming. I'm at that point today, if you can't tell. But I know that I can always come back to the barre--back to people who struggle with the same problems and who remind me that I am called to a purpose high above human issues and to discard my tunnel vision, which gets wrapped up in the negatives.

I wish, that at some point, we could all meet up and have a retreat of sorts to get away, share ideas and notes, and support each other in person. Maybe we should.

Presentation

I gave a presentation this weekend on Generation Mosaic, how to relate to them, and how to get them connected to Sunday School and to the church in general.

My research led me to a few conclusions about this generation (younger Y and Z): they are charitable and volunteer oriented (ideal missionaries), tech savvy, very sensory, well educated, and a little bit of everything. Problem arises between the generations because Ys and Zs aren't linear thinkers, as a whole. For example, when watching the CNN screen, Boomers will look at mainly the anchor talking and ignore the rest of the screen. Xers will selectively look at both, and Yers will see it all at once, taking it all in and not necessarily prioritizing one piece of news over another (do they need to, really? depends). Fast edit video and video games have contributed to this style of thinking, which is not a fault but a difference. The problem is that past generations, though different in thought and values, could still communicate those values effectively amongst each other, whereas the older generations are frustrated with Yers because they don't think in the same left brained, linear way.

How do we relate to them? through the 4 R's: being real, relational, relevant, and rigorous. Mosaics want adults to be authentic. Being real communicates integrity and helps foster trust, something they want to have with adults but don't readily have with them. They know adults don't have it all together, and they want to hear that. Gone is the 1950s Cleaver perfection.

Relational is what post moderns are searching for in churches anyway--a community. Mosaics are no different, except that they probably desire it more. My Space is booming with kids looking for community/relationships, and don't tell them that their "friends" list (known for a few weeks) isn't as important as someone mom and dad have known for years. Their friends are just as valued, even if they haven't met face to face, which is the beauty of Cyberspace really. So building on being real, establish relationships with these kids outside of SS.

Relevance--educational theory supports a need for kids to connect what is learned to real life. I know I'm preaching to the choir on this one, readers, but relevance helps those lessons stick.

Rigorous--this one is the hard one bc rigor has a negative connotation of stiffness and rigidity. By rigor, I mean persistance. Don't give up on these kids, and be rigorous about helping them iron out priorities. Helicopter parents have hovered so much that Mosaics can't make decisions on their own--they've lost their voice. Any coach or teacher is going to tell them that their sport/activity is #1 priority. Problem is, these kids are so overprogrammed and have let others prioritize for them for so long that they try to do EVERYTHING as #1, burning themselves out in the process.

Church, however, has become one of those things that parents put on the back burner bc God will forgive an absence but Coach won't. The rigor comes into play when we remind kids of the first 2 commandments when setting priorities and have them learn to make Biblically based decisions on their own through prayer and Biblical insight.

Also we need to be rigorous about making sure that they have internalized the Bible story/lesson. Workshop rotation is cool and exciting, but if they can't connect the science project to the Bible lesson, there was a breakdown somewhere (probably in linear vs nonlinear communication). Use KWL: find out what the kids already know, then what they want to know, and what they've learned at the end. Ask for clarification. Involve them in analysis throughout (What do you think is going to happen? Why did Jesus do that?). And, again, WR has its downfalls because of having a different teacher from week to week, but make sure you ask, "What did you do last week? And how does that relate to the 1o leper story?"

Anyway, a 4 hour workshop is hard to summarize in a blog posting, but the presentation went well, and I've been asked to give a modified version to a parent SS class soon. I'm on the cusp of X and Y, so I can see both sides and am sometimes linear and thinking and sometimes more right brained. I see neither as negative, but if we don't bridge the gap in communication, we're going to lose these kids.

Stream of Consciousness

Went to the conference this weekend which was a bust, really. JCM was right--it's good for first timers and for getting craft/game ideas. I did get a few tidbits of good information, but networking was almost impossible, and really the whole thing felt like a giant resource fair. I felt like each seminar was just to advertise the products they had to sell on the back table. This is why I stopped going to conferences years ago.

I was, however, introduced to the God Rocks videos. They're reminiscent of Schoolhouse Rock but designed to help with memorization of Bible Verses. Why did I not see these before?

Planning 2 big events back to back (what was I thinking): Fear Not Festival Oct 27 and Art Auction on Nov 11. After much prayer and brainstorming, I figured out a way to make my team comfortable forming sub committees. Originally, I had them each taking up a section of an event and forming a subcommittee from that, but that was too daunting for many of them. So I now have groups of 4 forming subcomittees together, and they are just exploding with excitement. In fact, I may have to reel them in a little because they're treading on thin ice budgetwise (not a bad problem to overcome really).

Art Auction: I need to think of a name for it. We're not only having it set up like a gallery with a silent auction for the kids' art, but we're going to have music, a coffee bar, and poetry readings. It's more like an art celebration than just an auction. The theme is The Glory of God, and kids aged 2 to grade 5 can submit.

Lots of behind the scenes stuff going on. I've been involved in ministry all my life (my parents were CMs), but I'm always surprised by the amount of underhanded backstabbing and control issues that happen in the church.

Going to change the name (and possibly location) of this blog soon, so I'll let everyone know where the new site is.

Ok, it's Monday, my day off, so maybe I should get some things done around the house for once!

Conferences

Headed to INCM's Children's Ministry Seminar in Fort Worth this weekend.

Anyone else know of any good conferences/worshops? I know there's an INCM children's pastor's conference. Is it a good one? How about Promiseland? APCE?

Others?

I need a retreat

It's my day off, but really, I have so much to do at home that I can't find time to refresh. I need some time, though, because too much is happening all at once.

Something strange is happening at the church, and I can't tell if it is good or bad. I think it's the chaos before the good really. We have an interim pastor and a pretty young/new staff right now, so that always shakes things up, especially in a Presbyterian church.

I didn't grow up Presby and have always worked/worshipped in Methodist churches, so the culture is a little new to me, more new than I thought it would be. Plus, the area is pretty affluent, and I'm used to working with either inner city kids or less affluent suburban families. I mean, many of the issues are the same with all CM work or any work with volunteers really (apathy, lethargy, misuse of time, etc), but there's some spirit in this church that I can't quite put my finger on. All I know is that I have the strongest urge to fall down literally on my knees and pray for us without ceasing.

For the past few weeks, I've had several somewhat negative encounters. They aren't negative outright but in a way that I can't put my finger on. They just feel negative. I know I sound like a nutjob, but there's something just weird. There's much much much miscommunication, and I am usually the queen of communication (English major, afterall), but I'm having trouble getting people to correctly hear what I have to say. Also, there's intense division happening. The different services are divided against each other. People with different backgrounds are dividing against each other. Parents divide against each other into little cliques--parents of preschoolers don't mingle with parents of elementary or parents of jr high, etc., and they all vehemently fight for their group without regard for another.

Sunday school groups are fighting to steal people (to be the popular group), and small groups aren't open to receive others. It's like rush week at college. I hated rush week, and I hate seeing that culture permeate a church, the success driven culture.

Another weird thing: The school district is the new church. School activities trump any church activities, and man, let me tell you, these people have themselves stacked with school activities. And if their kids are homeschooled, they are stacked with park district activities, particularly sports. The swim team forces parents to attend and work every meet, and they do so without questioning (well, I have to do it or little Suzee will get kicked off the team and won't get scholarships, and I know that she's only 6, but you've got to plan ahead for her future), but they won't volunteer at a church event. Again a focus on success, whatever that means.

Where is the future? Is the future in little Suzee's college years, when empty nest mom and dad have no idea what to do now that they aren't micromanaging her life? According to an article in Psychology Today and further discussed on A Nation of Wimps, with cell phones, they will continue to micromanage. Suzee needs them to.

Or is the future much farther ahead (or closer than we think)? What about her future with God? What about her present with God?

I'm not articulating my thoughts well because I can't even get a grasp on them, but I just feel like weeping or praying or both for the church, and though I think that we are headed for something great, the "right now" is very troubling.

Recruitment Ideas and weekend recap

Saw this article in Christianity Today. Most of it is pretty much a nobrainer, but it does have some good ideas like parent day and bring a friend to volunteer day.

Back to work after a weekend away on vacation. Our numbers only dropped by 10, which was good for a holiday weekend. My 5th grade shepherd is doing a fabulous job of connecting with the kids offsite (Away from SS). She put a stack of little notes in my box for me to mail out for visitors and nonvisitors alike.

Friday was the Church Family Play Date. We met at a bowling alley and had great fun. Watching the kids was precious, especially watching the youth play with the kids. I loved the mix of family types (youth, elem, preschool). The Older Adults would've joined us, making it an intergenerational event, but they had an event scheduled already. Next month is pumpkin carving.

My vacation went well. Celebrated my friend's 30th at a South American restaurant in Austin. So much good food. I think I ate my weight in plantains. It was good to get away. My brain feels much more rested.

Roger's 19

While I'm not sure about his FAT style of recruiting, I do like his 19 Simple Rules about CM .

Some of my favorites and why:

• The facilities/maintenance supervisor will not be permitted to give the Children’s Pastor mean looks in the hallway.--Oh, man do I have this problem, especially since I painted chalkboard paint on the wall in one of the rooms. The Building and Grounds committee could not (even after full explanation) understand why I painted the wall instead of installing a chalkboard. It raised such controversy that they brought it to Session and approved a new policy of approval for paint selection. Good thing I painted the orange and lime green room before the policy came out.
  
• No matter how disruptive children’s church becomes during the adult service, ushers are not permitted to enter children’s church and “shush” while kids are singing.--Had this happen last Sunday when the kids were so excited about receiving their Bibles and were asking a multitude of questions. The usher actually came in and told them to be quiet, as they were disturbing the worshippers. Stuffy church!
• The names of children’s ministry workers who fail to show up without notifying the department director will be printed in the church bulletin the following week. Second offenses will result in a public reprimand by the Senior Pastor during the adult service on the following Sunday morning.--Ha! In my dreams.

FAT Ministry

An article I recently read was "How to Recruit a FAT Ministry Team" by Roger Fields. It basically talks about shedding the old begging routine with ministry and making it appear like an almost elitist position to serve. Note his thoughts:

"Put out the word that working in the children's ministry is by invitation only; no volunteers will be accepted. You can ue the bulletin for this announcement. Make it known that from now on working in the children's ministry is an honor. People who are truly called to this ministry will let you know."

I believe that we shouldn't just recruit willy nilly, but should we actually put those words in the bulletin? If I were new to a church and saw that working in CM was by invite only, I'd not only tell them to stuff it, but I would leave and find a new church.

Time for a Breather

BTSW--check
Tea--check
start of SS--check
restructure SS for more kids--check
3rd grade Bible presentation--check

Now I can rest for a little bit.

Cool thing from this weekend, though. We had 7 kids RSVP for their Bibles, but 30 kids came up to the front. Thank God I had enough Bibles up there. Several of those kids were visitors and had never had a Bible before and didn't know how to use it. In SS, now that we have broken up into smaller groups, the teachers were able to focus on teaching those kids about their Bibles, and I think they are going to come back. One of the things I've found in my ministry at this church and at others is that if you give them Bibles, they will come (to play off a phrase). Seriously though, at our preteen ministry on Wed nights, we give free Bibles to anyone to take home, and those kids come back. It is the coolest thing to see them treasure a Bible and come back for a Bible, not an mp3 player or some other freebie. It's very powerful.

Plus, in the 3rd grade group for SS, we had a teacher mixup, so there wasn't a teacher available. Before the shepherds and I could even scramble to think of what to do, one of the kids said, "Can we do what we did in KidsInC last week since we got our new Bibles?" What we had done was make bookmarks out of 4 different colored ribbons (Learning to Use My Bible--Cokesbury) for them to mark the Table of Contents, the OT, Psalms, and the NT. I was nervous because I ran out of ribbon, but we pulled out a bucket of yarn, and the kids were braiding it together. Kids were teaching the new kids and helping them find the sections. We didn't even miss not having a teacher.

Such a cool weekend! I left that day and on the way to lunch I just screamed out, "I love my job!" It's so cool to see that even if things have "failed" on a physical plane, God knows exactly what He is doing! It gets hard sometimes, especially when everyday someone has to complain or question a decision that I've made, but when I stop and see that the Lord's hand is in every bit of it, even the "mistakes," I can just smile and tell those people that God knows what He's doing. It stops them dead in their tracks and preserves my joy!

Education

So some of the people in the church are encouraging me to get my MACE (MA in Christian Education) from Union PSCE. I, however, have one masters already (albeit in literature, but that's no matter), so I'd prefer to go straight for a doctorate in education. One of the pastors suggested that the doctorate in education would serve as a more well rounded degree and would serve me better in the future. The MACE, of course, is distance learning and is easy to obtain (much easier to embark upon while working full time). Things that are easy, though, tend not to be as well received in the world, so I don't know what to do. Deadlines are approaching. Any suggestions?

The Wild Ride has begun

The teacher tea was yesterday and was a big hit with the ladies and the gentlemen teachers. The theme was A Little Taste of Children's Ministry, and we did a tea tasting with 5 different teas, finger sandwiches, and desserts. My committee decorated beautifully with purple, sage green, and ivy, and the breakout training sessions were very helpful, according to both new and veteran teachers. It was a nice way to start off the year, and everyone was pleased with the changes I made for the fall, which was a relief to me.

Last week, of course was the BTSW, which brought back 50 visiting families who had fallen out of touch with us and brought in 11 new families who are interested in joining the church. Plus, it really pumped up the kids and youth, who have told their parents that they are bringing friends to church from now on.

That known, I worked hard to make sure that all the last minute details were in place, ensuring that we had 2 shepherds for each group (1st graders, 2nd and 3rd, and 4th and 5th) and filling all but 2 off the teaching spots for the entire fall rotation. A little nervous, I kept consoling myself with the fact that everything was smooth sailing--that is, until today!

You know, I think that God waits for the exact moment that you become comfortable to do wonderous upside down twirls in your little rollercoaster of a ministry. I walked in confident and secure only to find that we TRIPLED our regular attendance, and I didn't have nearly enough adult volunteers to even out any sort of ratio of adult to kids. Kids brought 3 or 4 friends apiece. My volunteers literally stood there shellshocked, and even the most gentle of shepherds showed a little agitation.

Now, of course, this is a WONDERFUL problem to have in CM, and it was so great to see so many kids pumped up about being in SS. I mean, they were so full of vitality and energy that the building rocked. It was chaos, but we made it through with what we have, and if I can get my volunteers to come back next week (I kept coaxing them saying, "It will all be fixed next week"), we are going to have one heck of a ministry on our hands. Not only are we going to have to split into 5 groups (one for each grade level), but we may even have to split some grade levels into As and Bs. Children's Worship doubled in size, as well, and the coordinator for that was pretty stunned.

So, back to the drawing board it goes for me (and back to the lovely job of recruiting--ugh, I thought I was done with that). But where God opens a floodgate of little lambs, He surely has plans for shepherds to lead them, so onto my knees I go with nothing but faith and open ears.

Volunteering

A little rant here:

My biggest problem is that I work in a church where everyone flocks to "volunteer," but then when it comes to actually signing up for a particular day and time, they waddle away backwards like frightened ducks. It almost feels like they just want to say, "Yeah, I volunteer at my church" but not really do it. Plus, it's a consumer church--they expect others to hand them things because they pay for it (in tithes).

Call me jaded , but I've just come to the point where I'm logging all the times when I don't have volunteers, and come spring, I'm disseminating that information and saying plainly that we're not running [insert program here] until people step up. I don't mean it out of animosity but out of pragmatism. The same core people cannot keep running something. It leads to burnout. It pains me to keep calling on my CFM team members all the time. They need a break.

The associate pastor (with the encouragement of the head pastor) actually cancelled the All Church Retreat because no one stepped up to be on the committee. People are outraged, but she quietly stated that they were welcome to be on next year's committee. I wholeheartedly support her; sometimes you have to wake people up. This is a church, not BK "have it your way" drive thru. We all work together as the body of Christ to glorify and worship Him. The arm can't be the only one working while the leg and head wait to play. Hmmm, maybe we need to read The Little Red Hen in the services.

Another thing we've prayed about at staff meetings is priortizing. Parents have their kids overscheduled in 55 different activities and can't find time to fit church in. One parent told me that she doesn't have a problem letting her kid stay up until 8 for baseball practice "because it's baseball, you know" but she can't see letting her kid stay up at church until 7:45: "He needs to have some night that he goes to bed at a decent hour."

Or they want Chuck E Church, so that it is so overstimulating that it trumps the other activities. Where has the simplicity gone?

KidsInC kickoff

The kickoff went well. I'd say we had roughly 15-20 kids (good mix of boys and girls) . I have the exact numbers, but they are in a bag far away from my computer and my cheerios. All the people at the kickoff signed up to attend next week for the first real session, so I'm pleased. Also, there were a lot of new faces there and a lot of 4th graders, which means they'll be around next year.

It was a pool party, so the kids wore themselves out in the most beautiful pool (a member graciously donated her house to us). The parents seemed to get along, too, and offered to help.

BTSW a Sucess

BTSW went really well. My team worked well together, and everything looked great. We had several new families express interest in our program, and the kids had a blast and made a gigantic mess, which was great to see.

Pictures to come. Now to finish the teacher tea plans, but first a staff outing to Minute Maid to see the Astros play the Cubs. This is a tough call for me, as I was born in Houston but "grew up" in Chicago. What to do...what to do?

The big weekend is here

Well, after much planning and many nightmares of me waking up and forgetting that I was supposed to be at work and then running to work in my PJs while everyone is tearing all the decorations down (whew!), the weekend is here in exactly 7 hours. What am I doing to prep for it? I'm sitting in my PJs eating cheerios, reading blogs, drinking cherry coke, and talking to my cats. I'm trying to have a few moments of sanity before the chaos begins.

Tonight's the easy night: dinner and a movie. Tomorrow's a different story.

I've been thinking a lot about a post I read about Chuck E Cheese Church.
That's sort of what I feel like we're doing. The goal, in theory, of this BTSW is to minister to kids--to pray for them and to pray for their teachers before they go back to school, but I feel that goal has gotten lost somehow into this madness of trying to corral new members. All the meetings focus on getting visitors to come back, and while that is important, I feel like if we keep our focus on praying for the children, God will work on those families.

Don't get me wrong. We need to be an inviting church, but games and rides and tickets and flashing lights aren't in anyway as powerful as praying for a child or teacher who needs it.

This is what I've learned over cheerios and cherry coke, and I think that keeping my focus on what really matters will help me brush off any little things that go wrong this weekend. Who cares if one of the games is a dud, if we can send one child to school with the armor of God surrounding him/her?

BTSW is almost here

2 more days until BTSW!

It's an all church event.  Every ministry area has a booth with a kid activity, and there will be carnival type rides and a rock wall.  They're planning for 1500+ people.  Whew! 

Fire and Brimstone

Well, I decorated for BTSW this weekend, and put up fabric over the doors to look like mosquito nets and tents. Someone, without full information, wrote a detailed email to me and CCd to everyone in the world about how my cloth was a fire hazard.

This person has done this numerous times in the past and apparently has it in for the CM dept. His wife actually calls him a Pharisee, strangely enough. Anyway, he has been told that the fabric we use has been fire treated in the past, but he still wants to make issues out of it.

Because he CCd the world, this tiny issue which could've been resolved with one little email saying "it's fire treated" ended up being this gigantic legal matter, which still has not been resolved by the head pastor. My whole day was wasted dealing with this.

Art Auction

In the spring (yes, I'm already planning the Spring--SOMEBODY STOP ME!) we're going to have an art auction. It's something I did at Friendship UMC, but this one is going to be on a grander scale due to the fantastic facilities of this church (e.g. rooms with great stained glass windows and coffee bars).

Usually, we have the kids make art in SS and then mat it, label it, and frame it. This year, we want to make it actually look like a gallery and add soft music (we have a piano) and coffee. Then I saw this cool blog about poetry readings. Wouldn't it be nice if we added poetry to the mix?

Whew!

Trying to gear up for fall. So much to do. We've got the Back to School Weekend coming up. Then the teacher tea. Then we have the KidsInC kickoff (preteen ministry). Plus the start of SS--I think for the first weekend, we are just going to have the kids and teachers play games and get to know each other--no official lesson. That's it for August, but it's a significant amount. I still have all the little details to work out.

Well, I think I'm heading home for the day. Can brainstorm there. It's about to pour!

Testing

Just testing to see if I can remotely publish to my blog.

Halloween Alternative

I went to Family Bookstore last night, and they had the Heroes Unlimited Sample for me to look at. It’s a great program, but it’s set up as an outreach event (lots of work), and I think with BTSW and Joy of Sharing (A big Christmas outreach), we’ll spread ourselves too thin if we try to do it. Plus, it’s pretty costly if you want to do it right. It includes giving a special Bible to every kid visitor. They’re cool Bibles, but wow.

So as I went to sleep last night, I thought of another alternative that we could sort of do from scratch. Fear Not Festival. The younger kids would have a movie, like Rack, Shack, and Benny, and little party because I think it would be fun to gear this festival toward the schoolagers just in our church.

What I’m thinking is to have the kids come in and grab a sticker or name badge that has a particular color or character on it. Break them up into groups that way. Then each group “tricks or treats” together, led by a teen or something, going to each room where they see a person dressed as a Bible Character ready to tell them a story and give them treats/prizes. The rooms would be themed from different Bible stories where a Bible character faces a scary challenge and with the Lord’s help, overcomes the fear and the situation. Examples: Daniel, Joseph in the pit., Moses and the Red Sea, Esther, etc.

I picture the kids, for instance, walking into a room which is dimly lit decorated to look like the lion’s den. Daniel is there on a stool and tells the story from a first person point of view and then passes out little tokens of remembrance (prizes/candy) like Milky Way bars with a card that says: “Remember that God is bigger than the entire Milky Way. Fear Not!” or something.

With dimmed lights, the rooms can easily be transformed with paper. Then in Celebration hall, we can have games like use a slingshot to kill Goliath or something like that.

Is this feasible?

Preteen Fun

Decorating ideas are in progress for the new preteen room: magnetic paint so that big foam pieces with magnetic backing can be moved around; rolls of butcher block paper hanging from the walls to make instant graffiti pads; a rock climbing wall.

AWESOME!

And Super Sloppy Saturdays are now a part of the ongoing curriculum for the preteens--last Saturday of every month.

So much planning right now. I can't even keep it all straight! Must get sleep. Nite nite!

Scheduling

I hate last minute things, especially trying to find teachers at the last minute, so I've tried to plan through the beginning of October (really I'd like to plan through December) and plug in teachers. Problem is that the teachers say, "Oh, yeah, that time should work, but if something comes up, I'll just call you and cancel." So then I've got them on the schedule, and they cancel the day before.

For example, before I started, the prior director scheduled people for the summer so that I wouldn't have to worry about it. The only problem is that people are calling left and right and cancelling. Actually, no, that's not true. I am calling to remind them that they are teaching, and they cancel then.

The other weird thing is that I planned a teacher tea for August to honor them for commiting to teach, and they aren't even sure if they feel like going to that. What is with these people? REally, what is with the world. I feel like the world has no commitment to anything anymore.

Virtual Meetings

Thinking about doing a blog for virtual meetings. Created one at www.cfmteam.blogspot.com. We'll see if it works.

Exhausted

Today was a housekeeping day. I finally got around to rearranging my office. So far, it's been sort of a dumping ground, so I've had to go through and figure out what is mine. I'm halfway through, so that's good. Plus, I'm setting up an archive room and a preteen hang out room. Moving things around gets pretty tiring. I'm ready to go home and nap. Forget the gym tonight!

Rally Day

Rally day has changed this year due to the interim pastor's new vision. We're doing a Back to School Weekend, where we pray for the kids, teachers, and other school staff/administrators in the community in each service. On Saturday night, we're also doing a "drive in" movie (indoors, though, because Texas is so hot and the state bird is the mosquito). Sunday is a festival type of thing with a moonwalk bouncy thing and booths representing every committee in the church (like a volunteer fair would have).

The theme is Exploring God's World Together, so we're having Treasure Maps to wind people through the building. I think in the CM area, we're going to have an archaeology dig (sandbox with toys buried) and a craft like putting jungle spots on bags (so that they can carry all of their prizes and a CM brochure). Any other ideas? I think we're all going to wear Safari hats, too.

Saturday is an exciting day, too, because we're having a brainstorming blitz for the whole year! Yea!

Sorry, I've been holding the dam together

It seems that lots of people here have had their fingers plugged into little holes in the dam, and now that I'm here, they're ready to let go, only I don't have enough fingers!

Whew! What a first week. So many intangible little issues, that I couldn't begin to even explain them. Such a different dynamic from what I was used to at Friendship, which is good and not so good.

Well, off to the VBS mission trip. I'll be doing mambo dancing complete with maracas at a local special needs resident center. Should be pretty fun!

Also, I have to give a speech tonight about missions, so prayers please!

Well, here goes

I started this blog to document what's going on in CM at our church. Last weekend, I went to a workshop in La Porte, and several people said that they wished there was some sort of networking available in the Houston area for people in CM. I figure that this is a first step.

For those of you new to blogging, you will need to know a few housekeeping rules. First of all, remember that anything posted on the blog is public knowledge, so monitor your responses accordingly. Secondly, you'll need to know how to comment. Basically, you'll just click on the comment link under any post (this is a post, btw) and then type in your comment. You'll then need to put in your blog information if you have one or just type in your name or click anonymous. Finally, you'll need to type in a word verification. This verification just keeps my blog from getting spammed, as there are a lot of horrible people out there who love to ruin good things. If you have a blog or want to start one, I suggest clicking on the word verification feature to save yourself much grief.

What is a blog? Well, it's short for weblog, an online journal basically. I plan to use this to keep track of everything I've done for the year for my own purposes and to bounce ideas off of people who live here in Houston and far far away (Hi, Lynn!). Think it's a good idea? Let me know. Comment!