I have been in Kids Ministry for 15+ years and have used a small variety of curriculums. The thing is once you find a curriculum that works for the lead and the kids, you stick with it. Over the past 7 years, I have used a popular curriculum that I have loved with our elementary […]
Observations on Watching a Coach Lead Your Kid
This summer led to a new experience for our family: swim team. To be honest, this was about the farthest thing from our minds as we started summer with two non-swimmers. But our oldest was eager to jump off the diving board, and that required swimming the length of the pool. When school let out, […]
What I Have Learned from the Swim Team
A few years ago, I had my first swim team experience as a sideline cheerleader. I had a few kids at camp return home to swim in a meet the evening camp ended. So, as any good kids pastor would do the night of returning home from camp, I promised to show up to the […]
Mid-Year Update for Leaders
What you do matters, and it’s important to celebrate and remember. Remember what you trained about at the beginning of the year. Remember why you do what you do. Remember why it’s important to lead small.
Making Friends
We have started a new phase in our house. Elementary school. And it is a fascinating place to be. My daughter went to a Christian-based preschool, housed in the church where I am a part of the staff team. So over the years, I have come to know the teachers, the families, and the kids. […]
See You At the Pole
Last month, I was asked to lead our school’s See You at the Pole morning of prayer. My immediate response was gratitude for being asked. Then it turned to, “What does this entail? Do I have time for this?” And I thought back to conversations I had been engaging with over the past six months, […]
Acceptance
Kids are kids are kids. The first step to being loved is to be accepted. We quickly learned in Haiti it is a privilege to attend school, and this school shows kids they matter.
Running Matters
Today, I went for a run. I’m not a runner. Nothing about me says run or runner. But today I ran. Well, it was more like run for a bit, walk a longer bit, run for a bit, walk a longer bit. I’m really a walker. I like to move. Today the sun peaked out […]
3 Tips for Having “The Talk” With Your Kids
Do your knees shake and your breathing get heavy when you think about having “the talk” with your kids? I, most certainly, am not ready. Thankfully, it’s still years away… …except it probably isn’t anymore. I recently heard on the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast (episode 121 link) that kids as young as 11 are exposed […]
Helping Kids Help Aleppo
“With-ness” breaks brokenness. Even in the middle of the busy Christmas season, we paused to help our kids understand how they can stand #WithAleppo