Children’s Ministry and Culture

http://www.philvischer.com/?p=103

Scoot over to www.philvischer.com and read up on his pulling “Pulling Back the Curtain” posts. Phil has announced the upcoming launch of a new website that will allow children to experience Christian media online. We’ve posted about the digital shift and how educationally the church is stuck in the “digital flannelgraph” stage of using tech in the church.

This new iniative has the potential to be a another step in the right direction on reaching media saturated children.

Also of value in Phil’s posts…his contention that Christian video for children is taking a step backward. (Wal-marts will only carry the tested and true. Its not a market that invites upstarts.)

Maybe its being a bit punchy from the 5:30 AM start today, but Chris Yount Jones’ new blog had me laughing. Or perhaps because she unashamedly wrote about “poop balls” in one post and neurotically wondering if she recognized sex offenders-at- large during a shopping spree after researching an article on safety in children’s ministry.

Stroll over to http://blog.childrensministry.com/ to see what Chris is up to.

I’ve got a post up at Willowcreek’s conspire blog, the Monday, Dec 10. post. 

http://www.willowcreek.com/children/

Please post your url in a comment for this post. If your blog is a) children’s ministry oriented, and b) doesn’t PRIMARILY exist to sell something then there’s a good chance we’ll add your link in the next two weeks.

A great CP I know recently asked me why I didn’t have his blog linked. My only answer was “time.” I’ll take time this weekend to get you all added.

A story has been going around throughout major news sites that an anonymous “Gabriel” has “given away” the ending of Deathly Hallows, the final installment. You can read it here http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2007/Jun/0380.html but what is interesting for the children’s minister is the REASON he lists at the end of his disclosure. Whether the motivations are accurate or not it is revealing that the spoiler has religious motivations for being ANTI-Harry Potter!

Got a ping from an old friend from my Billy Graham days, Matt McKee, the Children’s Pastor at Horizon Community Church (www.horizoncc.org) and he tells me he is blogging at www.3cords.org which I posted on our Blogroll and checked it out. Check out A Children’s Curriculum Idea for some cool insights!

http://www.jimwideman.com/blog/

I’ll add this to links on the left column. One if his children’s pastor’s Steve Posey also has a brilliant blog.

 http://stephenposey.typepad.com/childrensministrybydesign/2007/03/6_ministry_trap.html

OK, I have to confess that I liked the following SOURCE for this bit of information and I hadn’t heard of this site till today. The article at http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/archives/2007/04/understanding_a.html highlights the often ignored but highly read aspect of people who are disgruntled in the church and who happen to blog about it. A great read for the sense of proportion and caution in this age of instant information (though the Wall Street Journal Editors call what we are doing, “shouting in an echo chamber” or basically repeating what is already news).

Click here for a link to Donald Miller’s recent sermon “Story.” You can download a free mp3 file off the church website. I’ve listened to this sermon twice now. Miller references a book on screenplay entitled “Story:Substance, Structure, Style, and  the Principles of Screen Writing” by Robert McKee. (The book was featured in the movie “Adaptation.”) McKee argues that there are a few key principles in the development of a good story. Miller uses the Joseph account in Genesis to illustrate those principles and then challenges  us to edit our lives in a way that makes a great story.

Here’s a blog entry by Miller that highlights these principles:

I’m ruminating on a question Miller asked: “If you were to die today, what dreams would die with you?”  

Pastor Doyle found this story and posted it on his ministry blog. Apparently a church in MN is charging for Sunday Morning children’s ministry. That’s a baffling model to me. Perhaps regular attenders might be coersed to accept this model, but visitors?

What the story doesn’t mention is that Minnesota has regulations regarding the certification of the nursery workers. I visited a mega-church in Minneapolis years ago and it was explained to me that they needed to hire early childhood workers from outside the church to meet the state reg’s.