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Kid Ministry Time Fillers

At Fourth Avenue we often have some extra time at the end of our children's church and need to fill the time with an activity or two until the parents come to get the kids. 

Here's what I am curious about:
1. What do other children's ministers find to be a useful way to spend that time?
2. Where do you gather ideas for what to do?
3. What sort of burdens do you feel as you try to fill the time? (Do you feel the need to review the lesson, use the time for "holy" activities, etc.)

Thanks for commenting!

~JK

Kid Ministry Time Fillers

You Have Come To...

-Mount Zion
-The City of the Living God
-The Heavenly Jerusalem
-Innumerable angels in festal gathering
-The assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven
-God, the judge of all
-The spirits of the righteous made perfect
-To Jesus, mediator of a new covenant

What an incredible gathering.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:W Main St,Franklin,United States

You Have Come To...

Rules Without Relationship

After the D6 conference, I received an open invitation by Lantz Howard to guest blog about my experience.  The opportunity was open to anyone so I decided to write about Dr. Kevin Leman's talk on how parents can get their kids to understand parental authority and ultimately the authority God has in their lives. 

Check out the blog post here!

~JK

Rules Without Relationship

What do you look for?

I am curious.  What are the most important things families look for when it comes to being a part of a church?  It is very easy for me to assume that certain things are important but I want to hear it from you.  Fill me in!  Thanks!
~JK

What do you look for?

Out of the Overflow

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
       he leads me beside quiet waters,

 he restores my soul.
       He guides me in paths of righteousness
       for his name's sake.

 Even though I walk
       through the darkest valley,
       I will fear no evil,
       for you are with me;
       your rod and your staff,
       they comfort me.

 You prepare a table before me
       in the presence of my enemies.
       You anoint my head with oil;
       my cup overflows.

 Surely goodness and love will follow me
       all the days of my life,
       and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
       forever.


When I was a kid, the church we went to had a huge tapestry in the foyer.  Depicted on it was a pasture with nearly a hundred shades of green. Etched around the edges was this psalm of David.  Passing by this every Sunday morning, evening and Wednesday night numbed me to it's beauty and the power it's words have for life.  I can't say that I have ever heard a sermon preached on it. I don't think it was ever one of my required memory verses. I have recently come back to this neglected verse and it has become a source of strength for me.


God is always doing one better.  It is not enough for God that he provides physical nourishment with green pastures - he restores my soul. The journey he is taking me on wanders deeper than beside quiet waters - he guides me in paths of righteousness. The darkest evils are ignored when we realize his presence is greater, his rod and staff mightier and his comfort so assuring that we can feast at his table right in front of our enemies. When God anoints with oil...

He 

keeps 

pouring

and

pouring

and 

pouring. 

Abiding in him, love and goodness follow.


This is where I want to serve from.  What would happen in my family if I lived in the 23rd Psalm. How would the ministry God has given me be affected if it is out of the overflow of what he is doing in my life? If I were walking in paths of righteousness for HIS namesake instead of mine, what would look different?

The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want ... but to follow.

~JK

Out of the Overflow

Ministry Philosophy

I recently finished reading Collaborate: Family + Church.  I decided to revise my personaly ministry philosophy to incorporate some of it's concepts as well as other things I have been thinking about.  I would love to hear your own personal ministry philosophy as well!

Personal Ministry Philosophy

My goal in ministry is to bring children, families and volunteers into closer relationship with God by engaging them in His story as we journey together in a faith-filled community. The basis for every decision I make in life comes back to my calling to share the love of God with those around me. My hope is that at every opportunity I will encourage others into a greater lifelong journey of discipleship.



Bringing people closer to God has to begin with His story. When we first introduce someone to who God is, a story must be shared. God’s story is revealed in His word. His desire to be in relationship with people, their rejection of him and His relentless pursuit to draw them near is His story. When we understand God’s story, finding our place in it leaves us breathless at His love. As we challenge people to journey deeper into His story through study of His word, we find that ministering to people is about responding to His love through discipleship. Not simply accepting Jesus but, more importantly, following Jesus (Luke 9:23).


Participating in God’s story is not something that can be taught. We must be invited into it through a relationship. By design, the best place for the invitation and the response to occur is in the context of a family. In families, we have the ability to live our discipleship in ways that are transparent and authentic. As parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, foster siblings, neighbors and others walk the journey they show those close to them, especially children, what it means to serve a risen savior. For some parents this journey and the twists and turns it reveals are quite intentional. For others any sort of spiritual growth is happenstance. Ministry to families means joining them on their journey and helping to share tools which will better equip them to walk and plant seed on the good soil (Luke 8:1-15).


Every generation of children is different. As God has revealed himself throughout history, he has made himself known in ways that were real and made sense to people. Ministers are given the privilege of partnering with God to accomplish this. The challenges of reaching children in an age where their hearts are saturated with media and conflicting messages are huge. Many parents feel they cannot compete. My responsibility as a minister is to help parents see that the Gospel is more real than anything their children encounter on a daily basis. By living according to this truth in ways that are authentic, parents will have a voice which speaks louder than IPods or internet.

As I am invited to participate in the spiritual journey of families I join the countless others who have walked with them before. These communities are made up of those in church settings, home settings, and less recognizable places where God’s presence can be felt. The potential for multiple generations, all with different gifts and abilities to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24) is a lasting assurance of the legacy which can be inherited when faith communities journey together.


Interacting with children and families in a community of openness and grace models for them what participation in Kingdom living looks like. Ministering with them in ways that are fresh and experiential reaches them on a level that goes much deeper than the head. In turn, children and families see that journeying with Christ is more than knowing the Bible, it is knowing God. Realizing His love for them calls them to be part of His mission to be extensions of His grace to others.


~JK

Ministry Philosophy

Smell Good

There's nothing like a baby being plopped on top of you and the smell of ammonia rousing you into wakefulness. Being a dad has it's perks and lately they seem to come in especially pungent smells.  With the addition of cloth diapers into our family's daily parenting rituals, fatherhood has entered an all new state of nasal excellence!  

While on the one hand, being woke up by the smell of diaper death does not make for a happy morning, it was a sweet reminder that I am a dad.  I can think of a million more pleasant smells that remind me I am a dad - playdough being squished under my feet, a bowl of soggy cheerios, melted chocolate on the car seat, baby shampoo, macaroni and cheese or peanut butter and jelly. Sometimes we can quite simply "smell" our kids coming from the other room.  


I wonder what we smell like to God. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 2, Paul says, 

 "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life." 

He says that we are to God the aroma of Christ but then says we are the smell of death to some (those who are perishing) and the fragrance of life to others (those who are being saved). I once had a friend who looked down on Christians.  He would say things like, "that reeks of Christianity."  He had been burned by some Christian's and the deathly smell of smoke still burned his nostrils.  For him, the aroma of Christ was an unwanted scent that unfortunately was probably tied to a well intentioned Christian who just wanted to smell good.  We never want to be the smelly kid in class.  Sometimes the smelly kid was the one who tried too hard to smell good! In order for our aroma as Christians to be one that makes people salivate, it cannot be too overpowering!    


We underestimate our sense of smell sometimes.  It really is amazing how what we smell can give us cues about the world around us.  Walking in the door and smelling onions being sautéed.  Fight or flight mechanisms in our brain going into alert mode when we smell smoke. We say "something smells fishy" when we feel unsure. Smells remind us of familiar places and long lost memories. This morning I woke up with the smell of diaper death beating up the sunrise.  For some reason, it made me think of all the smelly situations we can get ourselves in and how the aroma of Christ is clouded by a foggy stench of our own sin at times. Paul says that when we smell good, God leads us in triumphal procession! We are the smell of defeat or the smell of victory. 


Smell good to those around you today!

Smell Good

God Palace

I'm in a blogging mood today...

I have been thinking all week about a conversation I had with a boy named Andrew.  I am not sure how we got on the subject but my wife asked him if he ever had any dreams.  Andrew replied that a few nights prior he had a dream about a Jesus and God palace!  This sounded very interesting to us so we started asking him questions about it. 

"What does the palace look like?", I asked.
"It looks like a human body," he replied.
"Wow, that sounds neat! How do Jesus and God get inside?"
"You just ask them and they go in through your heart!"

I think at this point Andrew got distracted by a noise in the other room.  He is seven years old yet I learn from him nearly every time we get together with his family or see them at church.  He is truly remarkable and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for him.  He is already using him mightily.

~JK

God Palace

Messy Sunday

What would happen if we decided to give up going to church and decided to be the church? Would we find ourselves surrounded by people who look like us, behave like us, believe like us and belong like us? This article on the Emergent Village webpage has me thinking about what it would look like for me. Jared Enyart and his wife for the last two years have given up going to church - unless you consider church breakfast with a dozen or so homeless people under a bridge. They have begun calling what they do, "Messy Sunday." Eating with people who smell like urine, swear, teach children how to throw sand at others is messy, but the Enyarts have realized that kingdom living in the steps of the king gets messy sometimes. Or as Jeff Walling sometimes puts it, "If things didn't get messy, we wouldn't need a Messiah. It's a bold move. One that requires a lot of compassion and faith. It doesn't take a long look at Jesus to realize that sometimes His work is going to require us to roll up our sleeves and get a little bit messy.

~JK

Messy Sunday

A New Kind of Christian

I just finished reading Brian McLaren's A New Kind of Christian. I was not sure what to expect when I picked it up other than the fact the McLaren was rethinking how Christians think about things and sharing his insights with the world. After completing the first of the trilogy following the spiritual journey of Dan and Neo, I feel very similar to how Dan descibed himself at one point - very excited but mildly depressed. I am excited because I feel that McLaren has captured much of my own frustrations and anxieties over the current state of Christianity and the dialogue between Neo and Dan captures many of the questions I have had for some time and allows for dialogue - not necessarily answers - about them. The mild depression I find myself in is the result of a "now what" feeling I am left with. I think I am going to let McLaren's words marinate for a while before trying to move on to the practical side of things. Right now there are certainly more questions than answers.

A New Kind of Christian

Professional Vices & Swimming for Life

~Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart

“Anger in particular seems close to a professional vice in the contemporary ministry. Pastors are angry at their leaders for not leading and at the followers for not following. They are angry at those who do not come to church for not coming and angry at those who do come for coming without enthusiasm. They are angry at their families, who make them feel guilty, and angry at themselves for not being who they want to be. This is not an open, blatant, roaring anger, but an anger hidden behind the smooth word, the smiling face, and the polite handshake. It is a frozen anger, an anger which settles into a biting resentment and slowly paralyzes a generous heart. If there is anything that makes the ministry look grim and dull, it is this dark, insidious anger in the servants of Christ.”

Ministry can be frustrating at times. I will occasionally vent to Krista about different things and she will ask me if I am angry. I usually reply that I am not angry, just a little frustrated. Its funny how the “frustrating” things can be stifled enough for a smooth word, smiling face, and polite handshake but deep down those little frustrations turn into what Nouwen calls hidden anger, frozen anger, insidious anger. How can we keep our frustrations for building up into such things which create biting resentment and paralyze generous hearts. I think we have all known ministers who have fallen into this. We can see it in the ministries they lead and hear it in their conversations.

This section from The Way of the Heart is actually the first part of a chapter on solitude. Henri Nouwen talks about how the Desert Fathers would “swim for their lives” into the desert to escape the temptations of this world. I find it ironic that he is using swim to describe anything that happens in the desert but when we think about the release that is found in intentionally stepping back from our frustrations to let the Spirit guide us, His counsel satisfies our thirst in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So much so in fact that we can swim for our lives.

“If there is anything that makes the ministry look grim and dull, it is this dark, insidious anger in the servants of Christ.” We are not called to lead people using grim and dull ministries. The Gospel of Christ is cause for celebration. Celebration flows from a generous heart, heartfelt words, genuine smiles, and nail-scarred handshakes. Frustrations get in the way of celebrations. How can we swim for our lives and free ourselves from professional vices (like anger) without stepping out of contemporary ministry settings?

~JK

Professional Vices & Swimming for Life

BOOKS FOR SALE!!!

I am selling a bunch of my books on amazon! CLICK HERE to visit my storefront and buy my books!

~JK

BOOKS FOR SALE!!!

Hopping Fences

This morning I woke up and went for a bike ride. Miriam woke up crying and after I helped her go back to sleep, I realized that by being woken up by her, I had been granted a few moments where the house was quiet and I could have some time alone. Since Krista has been encouraging me to get a hobby and was pleased I was okay with one as active as bike-riding, I figured going for a little ride would be a good chance to focus my thoughts today. I really do love mornings and find that when I push myself to actually make the best of them, I am particularly contemplative.
I rode around our neighborhood (looking at googlemaps.com first so I wouldn't get lost) and created for myself a loop that I could complete in about 20 minutes. When I returned, everyone was still asleep and I realized, I had more time to spend with God. That's when I began my search for some type of devotional literature. I looked around the house and didn't find anything worthy so I turned my search online. I went to some of my favorite spots only to find that nothing was particularly inspiring. Then it hit me....I could read the Bible!

I don't know if it is just because I have been preoccupied with church stuff or home stuff but for some reason, it is often easier to turn to devotionals rather than the Bible for spiritual nourishment. This morning though, after my "aha!" moment, I turned to John 10. I think it may have been because I rode past this large field with a horse in it, I was thinking of a pasture that my thoughts were focusing on Jesus the Good Shepherd. Here is what John said to me,

"I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture."

While I do not think that reading devotionals will save me, I do think they will deepen my relationship with God. At those times when I am in need of pasture, I quickly go to my favorite authors in hopes that they will give me just what I need. This morning, it was just the Good Shepherd. he called me back to him by the sound of his voice. Entering through him brought me the salvation this morning I needed. He allows me to "come in and go out" and it is there that I find pasture. He knows the places where this sheep can be fed and where the best feeding place are at. Funny what happens when you try to enter the pasture through the gate instead of trying to hop over fences.

~JK

Hopping Fences

Dogs and Rocks

Excellent use of the marquee. Glad the catholics resolved the issue.

Dogs and Rocks

Dear God and Amen

The practice of informal, spontaneous prayer contributes to an integrated spirituality in children in which they begin to perceive that all of life connects with transcendent realities; prayer is not compartmentalized but available and appropriate in everyday life needs and situations

~Mara Lief Crabtree, Nurturing Children's Spirituality, p. 90



When in history did our "Dear God" & "Amen" bookends become a part of our prayer life? More importantly, how did prayer become an aspect of religious life that is confined to the church walls and the dinner table? I admit that the type of prayer described above is very difficult. It wasn't until I was required to read The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence that I really began to see prayer as a conversation instead of a monologue. I have read much about the "Just a Little Talk with Jesus" ways of praying. It should be so natural that your speech sounds no different in prayer than it does when you call up a friend. I like this. Especially as my daughter begins to talk, which she does nonstop unless she is asleep or eating, I think about ways that I can help her make prayer her primary speech. How can I get her to see that everything she does can be shared with God. I am certainly not good at it myself and it is hard to branch out beyond praying for ambulances and firetrucks as they pass by to praising him for wiggly bugs and chances to share toys.

As Miriam and I learn to pray together, I hope that she can become as comfortable and excited telling God about the pizza made of sand as she digs in the backyard sandbox as she is with me. As Miriam develops her own prayer language, I learn from her. She listens to her heart and knows when God's voice is louder than all the others.

God, thank you for the informal and spontaneous moments when we are called to share our lives with you.

~JK

Dear God and Amen

Change in Communion?

I just started reading a new book, Nurturing Children's Spirituality: Christian Perspectives and Best Practices. At the close of the first chapter, the editor retells a story of a two year old girl, Elizabeth, who is "playing" communion in her bedroom. Elizabeth, a catholic, has a cup for the wine and small white disk representing the bread. The mom asks the her if she was hoping to change the small white disk into Jesus (catholic theology of transubstantiation - bread becomes actual body of Christ). The little girl replied, "Oh no, I change Wizbef {Elizabeth) into Jesus."

We meet each week to share in the communion with one another and with our Lord. While I do not believe the bread becomes actual body and wine becomes actual blood, I do believe the emblems represent Christ and his sacrifice. Sadly, we often put much more emphasis on how the bread represents Christ than on how WE represent Christ. I think it is important to focus on Christ's sacrifice each time we take the Lord's supper. Thanks to Elizabeth, I may start focusing on how sharing in the communion changes me to be more like Jesus.

~JK

Change in Communion?

God is Near

This morning I preached a sermon that has developed out of some spiritual awareness I have had recently. I have been thinking a lot about God's nearness. God has been much nearer than I have known and felt. As I was preparing my sermon, I began tracing God's presence throughout history in the Bible. I worked my thoughts into my sermon and thought I would share them here.

When God created the world. His desire for intimacy with his creation is seen as God walks in the garden in the cool of the day. God is near his People and now we claim that nearness as our own.

When Abraham feels as though the Covenant God made with him is being threatened by a command to sacrifice the very son promised to him. God’s story shows us a God that is so close He can halt a dagger as it pierces the air before it pierces the son of a covenant.

As a half million former slaves leave Egypt for a land promised to them, God’s presence leads them by fire at night and by smoke during the day, only to marvel this baby nation by paving the way through a mighty river.

As two rebellious nations make Israelites choose sides, God’s story brings us “in your face messages” ending with “thus saith the Lord” from reluctant prophets.

God’s story takes us into a foreign land where Jews mourn the loss of a Holy City. Other prophets emerge to help them know that while they are in a distant land they worship a not so distant God who shuts lion’s mouths and visits friends in a fiery furnace.

From the least likely places God shows just how involved he is by moving the heart of King Cyrus to deliver his people back to the promised land. His involvement guides prophets to expect an even more incredible deliverance from a coming Messiah.

Here God’s story takes the most exciting turn yet. Limiting the distance more than ever, God comes down to dwell in one man. Emanuel, God with us. The very God of creation walking and talking, breathing and hurting among those he created.


Just as quickly as God makes his dwelling on Earth, it appears that he makes an about face and leaves his own Son to die. In reality his ultimate attachment to you and to me is shown by attaching his own son to a cross.

When we think that God couldn’t get any closer to showing his love for us than a nail splitting wood, God’s own spirit splits our hearts and once again God’s dwelling place is not just among his people but now inside his people.

As we join God’s story we remember Jesus words before leaving his disciples. That as we go out into the entire world Jesus says, “Surely I am with you always.”

God is near.

~JK

God is Near

Empty Tombs

Mark 5:1-20

I wonder what Jesus saw when he looked at this man. As soon as Jesus gets out of the boat this man comes out of the tombs to meet him. Did Jesus know that he too would one day be spending time in a tomb? Perhaps he also knew that, like the demon possessed man, no one could bind him. Chains could not hold the demoniac, hell couldn't hold Jesus. The man knew who Jesus was instantly. It was as if all the evil in the world, bound up in this one man, knew the power of "Jesus, Son of the Most High God" to put an end to the suffering. As a fellow chain-breaker, Jesus knew what freedom would mean for this man. The man (or rather the demons inside) did not want Jesus to send them away, but Jesus - perhaps seeing in the man his own after death experiences, sent them away, leaving the formerly demon-possed man in his right mind. Later something interesting happens. Everyone around wanted Jesus to leave and the man, now without demons wanted to go with him. Throughout the entire book of Mark, Jesus is commanding people not to tell about their healing. Over and over again, he commands them to keep quiet. Here, but not only here, Jesus commands him to go and tell. The only other place in the entire book that Jesus commands someone to go and tell is after his own resurrection.

When tombs become empty, then people are told to go.

~JK

Empty Tombs

At it again.

Today is the last day of the class I am taking this week at ACU. It is the second to last class of my Masters in Christian Ministry. Somehow, it escaped my advisors attention that I would be saving an introduction course to the end of my graduate career but it has been nice for me. I am taking Advanced Introduction to the New Testament. What makes an "Introduction" course "Advanced" is beyond me but I am imagining it has something to do with the fact that we are required to write 500 word book reviews on 750 page books and that we discuss some things which would be a little more challenging to handle in a Sunday Morning bible class.
Dr. Curt Niccum from Oklahoma Christian has been teaching the class. He considers himself a textual critic and has an incredible understanding of Greek and how the Bible has been handed down to us. I have been soaking up the study of textual criticism like a sponge. It really is a fascinating study of how the fragments of manuscripts of a given book are often different and it is the text critic's job to decifer which reading is more accurate. It requires a depth of knowledge and understanding I will likely never obtain.
I will be getting back to Abilene around dinner time tonight. I will have enough time to do my laundary and catch up on some sleep before I leave for Brazos Valley Camp tomorrow to spend the week with the other group of people who teach me about God, preteens. The preteen age group is so exciting. They are not quite at the age where they care immensly about what people think about them but they are beginning to realize that the world of independence is much more exciting. They desire to know God and how he works in their life teaches me things that I cannot learn from those who can quote verses and diagram greek sentences. I am looking forward to the change of pace for the next week.
Keep my wife Krista and daughter Miriam in your prayers. They are in our nation's capital along with my mom (she reluctantly agreed to go vacationing in Washington D.C. so that Krista could go to a nurse practitioner conference without a stroller and child in tote...). They will be getting back to Mesquite next Wednesday.
Blessings,
~JK

At it again.