We’re excited that K! Magazine is showing up in all new places.  One of these places is Magazines.com.  It’s the same price you’ll find on KidzMatter, but it’s yet another place we can get the word out.  You can help us too.

If you love K! Magazine, we’d really love it if you’d leave a review on our Magazines.com page and let other people know how much you enjoy the magazine.  We’d appreciate it, and you’ll be helping others to make their decision as well!  Check it out.

Do you know how to know when the economy really, really stinks?  When college students are so poor they can’t afford wiper blades.  Today I was out at our local university doing some work.  (They have faster internet!)  As I got ready to get in my car, I noticed that the car next to me had a sock over both wiper arms.  After a little bit of sleuthing, I determined that the wiper blade had finally given up the ghost and in place of a blade, they were now using the closest thing that was most absorbent: a sock.  I was so humored by this that I completely forgot to take a picture to share, so I recreated the situation using my own car.  It’s not nearly as funny, but it communicates my point.

That got me to thinking: that guy would be a great children’s pastor.  He could probably rebuild the entire used sound system from “big church” using gum, duct tape, and some old socks.  (Admit it, you’ve used creative tools before.)  Children’s pastors seem to have a unique knack for making something out of absolutely nothing.

So in celebration of that spirit, we want to know what the most creative thing you’ve ever done to stretch your ministry budget was.  Whether it was giving every kid half a Tootsie Roll Midgee for being quiet to building a new children’s ministry building using only popsicle sticks and glue sticks, we want to hear about it.

As a little incentive to get you to share, we’re going to have a giveaway!  Just put in your name and email below (your email won’t be seen but anyone but us!), then tell us your budget-stretching story.  On March 7, I’m going to pick the most outrageously creative story.  You’ll win a children’s ministry music prize pack, containing at least 6 CDs, and more if we randomly decide to!  Make sure your submission is in by 11:59 PM EST on March 6, or it doesn’t count.  We all look forward to seeing your crazy ideas!

 This weekend, some of us on the KidzMatter team went to the Spark Children’s Ministry Conference in Milwaukee.  We had a really  great time, and the Spark team were super people.  In my downtime in the resource center, I got to browsing around at what the other  providers had to offer.  Group Publishing was right next to us, so they were a logical place to start.  They had one product that really  caught my eye that I wanted to share.

 It’s called Hope Lives.  Hope Lives is a book by Amber Van Schooneveld about compassion and poverty.  I’ve just flipped through it,  but it looks great.  In conjunction with the book, Group has released  curriculum to go along with the book.  They have a  children’s ministry kit, youth kit, pastors kit, and small group kit.   They’re cheap too: your whole church could get involved with Hope Lives for less than $150 for a 5 week series.  

The whole purpose is to help you encourage your children to develop a compassionate response to poverty.  It reminds them that hope lives.  It helps them put it into action.  If you’ve been looking for a way to get your kids involved in poverty outreach, Hope Lives is a great way to start.  You can check it out at group.com/hopelives.

It’s winter right now in Indiana.  That means that spring is just a few months away.  (I went to school for 12 years to learn that!)  Here in Indiana, spring means time to plow and plant for most farmers.  They tear up the old stalks and roots, and bring fresh soil to the surface.  That allows them to plant new seed on top that will flourish and grow.  But what happens if that farmer doesn’t plow his field and just throws seed on top of it all?  (Some of you from in the city may have to think harder about this one.)  Very little grows.  Shocking, I know.  Scripture points this out to us too:

Proverbs 20:4 (NCV) “Lazy farmers don’t plow when they should; they expect a harvest, but there is none.”

I find myself like that lazy farmer a lot.  It’s hard to part with old things.  They’re just comfortable.  I’m pretty sure you know what I’m talking about too.  What are those policies, programs, ideas, or people that are comfortable and are so hard to get rid of?  They’re like the old crops for the farmer.  We try and tell ourselves that we can add this new thing to the old thing, and it’ll be better.  Take this hypothetical classroom for example: you have an old, grumpy, generally angry guy teaching a class.  So you think, “Well, if I just put someone less grumpy in there with him, it’ll all be OK.”  The thing is, the problem is still there.  You’re just masking it.  You can throw fertile new young hearts out onto that soil, but few of them will take.  You haven’t plowed the problem.

Sometimes, plowing things up and getting rid of the old is painful.  It takes a sharp blade to plow.  You’ll make people mad.  It’s guaranteed.  I realize you can’t just go around offending everybody.  That’s poor leadership.  There’s also a point at which you let yourself be walked on too much.  That’s poor leadership too.  It all comes down to what’s more important.  Offending a few adults who have had years to grow in their faith, or turning an entire generation of kids with fertile new hearts (seeds) off to the Gospel because you weren’t willing to plow up the old stuff?  Take a look at your ministry today: what can you start plowing up?

Tonight was the Christmas cantata at my home church, Liberty Baptist.  Our music pastor, Chas Singer, and our choir did amazingly as always.  As I sat there this evening, listening to the words they sang so beautifully, some things hit me.  I wanted to share some of those with you.

1.  Imagine being Mary and Joseph, lying in the stable looking the living, breathing Son of God right in the face.  Imagine the task of parenting a perfect child for the next 30 years!  (Most parents probably wouldn’t complain.)  He’d be courageous, relentless, and brave.  He’d love a world of sin.  Nothing we could do would keep us from the intimate love he would give.  He overcomes it all.  This is our God.  These are some of the ideas from the song, “This is Our God” that our choir shared tonight.  Remember that you serve a living Savior.  He came as a baby for you.  Even when you’re burned out, you have the knowledge of His unspeakable gift to you to drive you on.  That’s a crazy thought.  Here’s some of the highlights of the lyrics from this song:

Who is this child asleep in the manger?
Tender and mild, this intimate Stranger?
Recklessly, wildly loving a dangerous world
Who is this light invading our darkness…

This is our God, living and breathing
Call Him courageous, relentless, and brave
This is our God, loving and reaching… Continue Reading…