I came across this infographic about parent’s monitoring their children’s activity on Facebook.
I was actually encouraged that the research seems to indicate that parents take monitoring their children online seriously.
HT YouthMin.org
Ninja Feet // Game
How to Play the “Ninja Feet” Game:
Two participants stand facing each other with their fingers interlaced with their opponent. The object of the game is to be the first to step on one of the opponents feet. before they step on yours. In the process of stomping, the two participants cannot let go of each other’s hands.
We played this game at Middle School Youth at Hayward Wesleyan Church.
HT Youth Leader Stash
source YouTube
Wreath Relay // Game
How to Play the Wreath Relay Game:
Form teams based on the number of participants who want to play. We broke the group into 5 teams of 5 each. Then you pit two teams against each other with a Christmas wreath for each group. The participants may not use their hands (have them clasp them behind their back) and they must get the wreath from the first group member to the last group member by passing the wreath with their heads.
If a wreath falls to the ground, they may use other parts of their body to get the wreath back in play, but they cannot use their hands!
We played this game with grades 1-6 @ Main Street as well as middle school students @ msy.
Creative Attention Getters // Breakout Session @ CPC 2012
Notes from: Creative Attention Getters
Breakout Session @ CPC 2012 Orlando by John Tasch
- People make a decision in 8 seconds whether or not they are going to listen to you.
- If you don’t put on a program for the kids, they will put one on for you!
- If you’re not exhausted after your ministry, you’re not doing a good job!
- Feed them on the level they understand.
- You’ve got to make what you do ATTRACTIVE.
- The attention span of a child is directly related to the level of their involvement.
- You want kids to ask their Mom on Monday: “Is it Sunday yet?”
Game Ideas:
- High-fives. Give 5 people a high-five. Give 5 more people high-tens. Jumping high-fives.
- Shake as many hands as you can in 17 seconds.
- Meet 3 people and ask them 2 questions: 1) favorite ice cream flavor, and 2) favorite season
- Say “Jesus” when hand goes up get louder, goes down get softer. Boys versus girls.
- When hands cross, clap
- 1st person to bring me something
– notes
– white sock
– $1
– house key
– pen
– used Kleenex
– ABC gum - Award tickets (use for 3 weeks, then shelve)
– PAT (Participation Award Ticket)
– SDS (Super Duper Saint)
– Smiling Faces
– Happy Hearts
– looking for back against the seat, hands in your lap, smiling faces facing forward. - Junior Monitor could award tickets because it gets a kid involved
- Prizes:
– candy
– school supplies
– McDonalds coupons
– DQ - Cardboard Dice – roll it and hand out that much candy
- Fill it Up cups
- First person to wave
- First person to stand up when say a certain word (i.e. attention or North Carolina)
Holy Spirit Comes @ Pentecost
After Jesus gave his disciples their very important job description, he left. Which was difficult for his people. But, Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come and empower them to do his work (because they wouldn’t be able to change the world, without the Holy Spirit).
Kathy and the Main Street students act out what happens when the Holy Spirit shows up shortly after Jesus departed.
Holy Spirit Comes @ Pentecost [y3_w26]
Story Lesson (711.06kb, pdf)
Audio File (5.98mb, mp3)
Video Link (2.26.12 @ vimeo.com)
Video Link (3.1.09 @ vimeo.com)
How Preschoolers Learn and Grow | Breakout Session @ CPC 2012
Notes from: What Makes ‘Em Tick? How Preschoolers Learn and Grow
Breakout Session @ CPC 2012 Orlando by Karen Apple @ 1stthings1st.org
Preschoolers learn more by what you DO, than what you SAY.
Kindergarteners are more like preschoolers than school age kids (1st grade)… in Karen’s opinion.
Greet kids first, then their parents.
When a child shows you their “artwork” never say: “What is it?” Instead say: “Wow! Tell me about it!”
Children learn most abstract concepts in concrete relationships.
Ask specific questions of a preschooler: NOT the generic “What did you learn today?” Rather, “Who did you play with today?” or, “What was the story you heard?”
Children remember:
- 10% hear
- 15% see
- 20% hear & see
- 40% discuss
- 80% do
- 90% see & do
If a ball is involved, boys are onboard… if a ball is pink or sparkles, girls love it!
When the body moves, the brain engages.
Communicate With Families | CPC Initiative #3
Initiative #3 – Communicate with Families
Reggie Joiner | whatisorange.org
Notes from General Session #3
@ CPC 2012 Orlando
Invitation to: ACT like family is IMPORTANT
No one has more potential to influence a child’s relationship with God than a parent.
Many churches don’t need a tweak, but rather a systems overhaul
- Families don’t need a BETTER PICTURE, they need a BIGGER STORY
– there is not an ideal “family” or a perfect “picture”
– biblically there is NO SUCH THING as a perfect, or “biblical” family (try it, go through the stories…)
When you invite families into the BIGGER STORY, which is about redemption and restoration, you:
– see EVERY family’s potential
– give EVERY family hope.
Parents need to partner with a church and churches need to partner with parents God is at work telling a story of restoration and redemption (Parenting Beyond Your Capacity). - Parents don’t need more to do, they need to do something more STRATEGIC
– churches need to define what a practical, spiritually engaged family is
– you will always have parents who don’t get it
– celebrate small changes (baby steps, simple stories)
– make it easy for parents to win - Churches should do less for KIDS and more for FAMILIES
Start acting like:
– what happens @ home is more important that what happens @ church
– what happens in Youth Ministry is just as important as what happens in Children’s Ministry
– what happens in YOUR house is more important that what happens in YOUR ministry
Anyone can do your job/ministry… you are replacable… however, no one can be your kids mother or father.
Nehemiah 4:13-14
Don’t stop fighting for the heart of your kids, relationships, and family!!
Spiritual Parenting: Resourcing Your Parents to Be Spiritual Leaders
Notes from: Spiritual Parenting: Resourcing Your Parents to Be Spiritual Leaders
Breakout Session @ CPC 2012 Orlando by Kit Rae
Core Values (@ Rock Harbor):
- Parents are primary
- Church is supportive
- Holy Spirit works when He chooses (on His own time table)
Temporal vs. Eternal
carpool, laundry, TV Studying the Word, worship, fellowship, prayer, devotion, sleeping, house cleaning, sports
Redeem the time
Spiritual Parenting is not perfect parenting… it is simply parenting with eternity in view
- Parent in such a way that honors God
- Creates environments that place our children in the path of the Divine
God: “this is how I created your son/daughter’s personality, so cooperate with how I’ve made your children.”
Pitfalls
- Controlling behavior
- Merely exposing them to other Christians or church
As spiritual parents our goal is to…
Pass on a vibrant faith and authentic faith
- Our kids know and hear God’s voice
- Desire to obey it, when they hear His voice
- Obey not out of their own power, but in the power of the Holy Spirit
Parental Spectrum:
Either: Away from the WORLD -or- In the WORLD
We are called to be in the world, but not of the world.
What would we want our kids to declare with their lives?
Word “faith” has three connotations at its core:
- firm conviction
- personal surrender
- corresponding conduct resultant of the prior two
Results of focusing on behavior:
- Simply hide their sin and live a double life
- Cover their sin by doing good and they deal with their sin by trying harder and harder to be good
- Simply to give into the world, fill themselves with what the world has to offer, and rebel
10 Environments
(I think this is from and included in the “Spiritual Parenting” DVD teaching series)
- Storytelling >; story of God and our own personal story where God has redeemed and transformed us
- Faith Community >; traditions
- Identity >;
- Service >;
- Out of Comfort Zone >; constantly being stretched
- Responsibility >;
- Course Correction >; biblical discipline is about restoration and redemption (season of pain, speak in, set on a clear path)
- Love & Respect >;
- Knowing >;
- Modeling >;
Leading Multiple Ministries | Breakout Session @ CPC 2012
Notes from: Leading Multiple Ministries
Breakout Session @ CPC 2012 Orlando by Jim Wideman @ jimwideman.com
Most kidmin folks have multiple ministries to oversee
How do you do it all and do it well?
- Study to show yourself approved
– Peter F. Drucker “Effective Executor”
– Jim Wideman “Beat the Clock” - Find a coach
- You need the right tools… the right tools make any job easier
- You need the support of your family and permission to work
– the 40-hour work week is not biblical (result of the great depression)
– biblical mandate for work is sun up to sun down six days a week - Master Time Management
– Planning: make appointments by priorities (assuming a previous list of priorities)
– Preparation: set steps in order to the things that need to be done; set alerts, reoccurring
– Evaluate your time: what was done? What was not done? How can you do better tomorrow?
– Schedule time with Jesus
– Schedule time with everything
– Ask: “Have my priorities changed?”
– Using the time of someone else: train others; borrow other people’s time; difficult to delegate, you have to let someone else sorry all over the kids like someone else let you sorry all over their students! - Know what’s expected of you in every areaAre your expectations what your supervisor’s expectations are?
- List everything you need to manage… making routines
- Build your team (we’re in the people business)
– Are you a dumper?
– Are you a delegator / duplicator? And a trainer?
Don’t spend your time doing routine things (doesn’t mean that you are more important than anyone else, or that routine tasks are beneath you…). Make a list of things that other people can do, and keep doing (or start) doing the things that only YOU can do.
10 Steps to Oversee Multiple Ministries:
Spiritual Formation for this Generation | Breakout Session @ CPC 2012
Notes from: Spiritual Formation for this Generation
Breakout Session @ CPC 2012 Orlando by Kit Rae
How do we grow into the image of Christ? What does it take? Process?
Galatians 4:19 – Christ formed in you
Do I really know what it means to have a relationship with Christ?
Reflect on a word that describes the feeling or what happened when you accepted Jesus Christ:
- comfort
- broken
- transformed
- need
- love
- freedom
- acceptance
- joy
- peace
- hungry
- compelled
- relief
- undone
Bait & Switch?
- what started as a relational endeavor (faith in Christ)… became autonomous
- we start to strive for approval
- Christianity becomes about doing and striving
Three Temptations:
Impart God’s Truth to This Generation | CPC Initiative #1
Initiative #1 – Impart God’s Truth to This Generation
@KyleIdleman | notafan.com
Notes from General Session #1
@ CPC 2012 Orlando
“what you win them with is what you win them to”
Luke 9:23 – “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
Jesus wasn’t interested in the “crowd” (travelers and followers)… he was interested in the level of commitment
- to be a “fan” is just to be an admirer
- Jesus wants committed disciples, not admirers
COME AFTER: passionate pursuit toward a relationship with Jesus
- what would it look like if we passionately pursued Jesus?
- It’s easy to confuse knowledge with intimacy
- Jesus says: “Depart from me for I never knew you”
- Can we raise our kids in “church” but we didn’t raise them in Christ?
- Not downloading Jesus as info
DENY THEMSELVES: total surrender
- we become comfortable w/ compartmentalizing our lives
- it’s a daily decision to die to myself and live for Jesus
- A guy was in Kyle’s church and complained about Kyle’s preaching – he said: “Your preaching interferes with my life.” Kyle: “That’s like my job description!”
- We like to be comfortable
FOLLOW ME (by taking up our cross)
- it’s all or nothing
- one mother wanted to confront Kyle that her son was taking his relationship (she said religion) overboard, like it was all or nothing for him and she wanted Kyle to help correct him… tough spot
Raising Children to be Independent, Responsible, and Jesus Following Adults Someday
I love my children. They are great! We have lots of fun together… we laugh… we cry… we dance. I cannot imagine my life without them. They are truly a treasure.
However, someday my children will grow up, and God-willing, be independent, responsible, and Jesus following adults. In order to accomplish that goal, we as parents must guide and train them now (when they are in our care) to be
- independent,
- responsible,
- and Jesus following kind of people
These are the questions I ask myself all the time:
- What am I doing today to help my kids be independent?
- What am I doing today to teach my children to be responsible?
- What am I doing today to train and guide my progeny to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love their neighbor as themselves?
What do you think?
source YouTube
Photo Matt Botsford on Unsplash