I love coffee. I am the only one in my family that likes coffee (my mom says it’s a bad habit I picked up from Ryan). But I hate the room temperature coffee that we have in the Sunday School classrooms at our church. It gets brewed before 7:30, and sits for at least 2 hours, and I typically, if at all, don’t get to drink it until 10:45 or 11, so there’s only so much I can complain about. Now, I do appreciate that someone gets there early to make it, but it’s just nasty 3 hours later. (I have submitted a petition to put a Starbucks in the church, but Ryan just laughed at me.) I like coffee either icy cold or steamy hot, but room temperature? Blech. No, double blech.

So why am I ranting about coffee on a ministry blog? Because Jesus doesn’t like icky coffee. OK, so actually he doesn’t like lukewarm Christians (or ministries!). But you get the idea.

Revelation 3:15-16 (ESV)- “I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

That passage was Jesus talking to the church in Laodicea (I had to respell that about 15 times). He was speaking specifically to the church members, but he was imploring them, “Either be cold or hot, but not room temperature!” He was basically telling them to either be all for him, or all against him, but somewhere in between was unacceptable. He didn’t want them to simply be “room temperature”, changing based on the environment they were in, because it looked bad! It was a poor testimony. Jesus was out and out telling these people that he would rather that they not tell others about him and live a life of sin than tell other about him and have a poor testimony! Wow!

Apply this to your ministry. Jesus wants you to have a remarkable ministry. He would rather that you did not do ministry at all, than give it a half-hearted, pathetic attempt and call it ministry. What it the reputation of your ministry with the kids of the community? Is it cool and welcoming, or old-fashioned and stodgy? If your ministry has a bad rep, ask what you could do to fix it! Don’t simply change the tone of your ministry based on the “room temperature”, the “trends in ministry”, but change it to meet the needs of kids to make an eternal impact. Have kids in your ministry, and parents as well, who remark on your ministry. The promise of “sitting on the Throne of God with Jesus” sure sounds better than “getting spit out like room temperature coffee”, doesn’t it?

The Indiana State Fair, officially “The Great Indiana State Fair”. (Yes, I know it’s cheesy, but every state has a State Fair. And Indiana’s is by far the coolest.) On August 9, I was at the Indiana State Fair. It almost hit 100 Fahrenheit (that’s 38 celsius for our overseas friends) that day, and it was downright oppressive. We were there to see Jeremy Camp and Casting Crowns at 7:30 that night. Before the concert, we had a ton of fun. If you ever get a chance, visit our awesome state fair (I would say most awesomest state fair like ever, but that might get me arrested by the grammar police), and swing by KidzMatter on your way through.

But that is all beside the point. Here’s some good ministry insights gleaned, from all things, the State Fair:

(more…)

Here’s a thought that popped into my head a few days ago that I thought I would share:

Variety makes a ministry good, selective variety makes a ministry great.

I’m sure you’re wondering: What is that supposed to mean? What it means is that you should always be trying something new with your kids and changing things up. Keeping it the same is boring. But at the same time you need to make sure that you aren’t simply using the first idea that pops into your head or shows up on Google and calling it “variety”. Make sure it’s a quality idea that kids will love.

This may take some crazy thinking. What about some of these ideas:

• Tech-free week- Support TV Turnoff Week, and have a totally technology free week (except for necessary things like a CD player and microphones). Leave the projector off, and do things the old school way. Once upon a time, not too long ago, people had never even heard of video projectors.
• Game-free week- Eliminate games for an entire Sunday. “But Evan, how could you possibly fill all of that time? I NEED GAMES!” Spend more time on your lesson and community-building. Some kids may just learn how cool that “nerdy” kid in the front row really is. (Just so you know, I was the nerdy kid in the front row
• Outside week- Take your kids (yes, all of them, even the misbehaving ones) outside. Have a Kids’ Church “Fun-out”. Maybe even have hot dogs and chips at the end.

What ideas can you come up with? I’m excited to see.

WE INTERRUPT YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING FOR THIS IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:
Hello, this is Evan Doyle reporting for the Way We See It Blog. This morning in Kids Church while writing this blog post, I caused our media application to crash. We were watching a DVD, and it stopped. It never got started again, because I was tediously fast forwarding at just 2x the regular speed. The moral of this story: Don’t do other stuff on the computer during Kids Church. It’s a bad plan.
WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING.

The 10/40 window. We always hear about this area between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator. It is reported to be the part of the world where the fewest people have heard the true Gospel. It is the focus of most missions.

But that’s not the 10/40 window I’m talking about. The one I’m talking about is right here at home. Perhaps right next door. It’s the $10K-$40K a year income bracket. The most, perhaps, unchurched income bracket in the entire United States. How is this, you ask? It’s simply how churches have been and continue to be run.

(more…)