You may find some new ones on this list...ministry-to-children.com

If you're doing kids' ministry in a small church check out Smalltownkidmin blog.

10 things that'll ruin your childrens ministry at Childrens Ministry.com

New e book "What Matters Now in Children's Ministry". A review here at Dan Scott's blog

Jamie Doyle blogged a series "These Kids are Bored" back in August if you didn't see it.

A list of lists & this.

and the CM blog patrol. There are actually a couple of blogs doing what Kidology was doing...anyway...

Now that you're totally overwhelmed...consider it a Christmas present - more resources ...

No Mediogre Kids

Interesting, interesting, interesting! Check it out!

Ideas Unlimited. Very simple, potentially interactive ways to tell Bible stories to your youngest audiences...

deep at the heart of our Wresting with Cultural Shifts...

A furthering of the discussion David Wakerly started.....thoughts from Bishop Paul Butler (UK) .

It may look long to some of you but please read it through to the end, you'll be glad.

(Thanks, Mary!!! This is great!)

If you guys want to go back to the original post at kidinspiration, there are more comments you might find interesting.

Another blog for you. Tainted Canvas. I'm a lousy business person (not into marketing. music, worship, yes...) but I found this post worth reading as an expression of "emergent" thinking...

We Made the Top 100 Children's Ministry Blogs! Ok. The only reason I know is because when lots of people on my site meter come from the same site I go and see what they're saying about us. This was a neat surprise! The badge is cool but I guess they recalculate each year. If I don't put it up, I don't have to take it down again... :-)

The big reason to click on the above link, out of 100 sites, there's bound to be one you haven't seen yet - lots I haven't seen . . . Enjoy!

If you regularly frequent my site, thanks for coming! :-)

A long list of Childrens' Ministry Blogs from Ministry-to-Children.com.

Emergent Conversations in Denominations

As usual, I'm a little behind the times on this one if you look at the dates the articles on the sites here were originally posted. But the other day, I came upon an Emergent blogger from the Church of Christ. Then I found an rather large Emergent network in the Presbyterian church. Artisan is an Evangelical Covenant Church. Being the curious creature that I am I went looking at other denominations wondering if every denomination has an Emergent contingency. If so, does that make what's happening something different than just a "conversation" or a "movement?"

So here is an interesting list of "Emergent" cohorts, statements, conversations, or blogs (disclaimer: that may or may not be representative of individual denominations) for those of you who may be wrestling with this. I'm sure there are more. Some are individual bloggers, some are networks within denominations. Some are strong, what I would consider very well-written, clear observations about those who call themselves "Emergent". Check a denomination's website or just search the name of the denomination + Emergent church and see what you find. If you feel drawn to a particular denomination but also feel strongly about some of the areas that Emergent churches seem to focus on, this gives you a chance to investigate, ask questions, network a little or make contacts.

Presbyterians

This guy is an individual blogger with 3+ posts specifically wrestling with similarities and differences between the emergent church & the Church of Christ from his perspective.

Evangelical Covenant Church - scroll down to the end of the article. (Artisan is an ECC church.)

Anglicans & Episcopalians. The way I understand it, Anglicans and Episcopals are different but you will find both here. (When you get there, scroll down)

Methodist

one Baptist perspective (Ed Stetzer, Baptist Press) and another (William Lloyd Allen at Mercer).

this very recent conference included Catholic participants. I'd venture to guess this is just a beginning.

an interesting video from the Ooze with Phyllis Tickle* + comments.

some resources from Ryan Bolger, a professor at Fuller Theological.

livingroom.org (Darren Rowse in Melbourne Austrailia) which I think was or is a House Church movt blog. This was the initial blog post. Again, you'll have to search for the follow up post.

Non-denominational and autonomous churches, from my experience, are a mixed bag like anything else even if they love Jesus, the Word, and each other depending on the people, internal leadership model, outside networking, involvement in the greater community. Apologies, but my comfort level with non-denomination/autonomous models (in general) is less now than it was 30 years ago.

Does being associated with (or breaking away from) long-established Christian denominations give a movement or "conversation" more or less credibility? Not sure. What do you think? Our choices as adults ultimately impact our children.

*Phyllis Tickle's book for children

1/25/10 Emerging Spirit (an arm of the the United Church of Canada)

2/17/10 Emergent Pentacostal they also include some of denominations above. Not sure if the websites are the same.

Resources 8-09

If The Child in the Bible peeked your curiosity or got you pondering check out The Child Theology Movement"

Also check out Dwellingwell.

Another blog and an interesting question to think about. What can CM provide to kids that parents can't? If it's no longer the latest post, it's probably there somewhere.

Blogging about kids and church - "what about the kids?"

More discussion at Subversive Influence, this time about people leaving church and kids. Not leaving their kids. Taking their kids with them. Just the tip of the iceberg but take a look - whether you are among them or whether they are leaving you.

Here's Esther's blog [the Hudson Valley being near and dear to my heart] with more comments. She commented at Subversive Influence. She links to the Evergreen and the Well. Haven't seen these before.

I don't send you places because they offer you some authoritative final word about an issue, but to give you opportunities to listen to people talking about what they care about - particularly Christians, kids, and faith. Most of these people are wrestling - with thoughts and ideas - and looking for God in the midst of it all, not because they need to be converted but because they want to know what God wants them to do and they're willing to think outside the box.

Not all cultures value thinking outside the box. For better or for worse, people came to this country already thinking that way so, again for better or for worse, it's in our DNA so we have to figure out how to deal with it - maybe more now than over the past 400 years because what we've traditionally known as "community" is up for serious re-definition.

For better or for worse, the fruit of our western genetic programming keeps getting riper.

But these blogs (and comments) are some new voices tackling our favorite ongoing discussion of the past 4 years, - 'what about the kids?"

Now, I'm going to let my dogs out (again), grab a cup of coffee, and go back to read what they're saying.

Check out Kidology's CM Blog Watch!

There are some really really good articles up at the top of the list at Kidology's CM Blog Watch right now. Some about dealing with lots of different kinds of people, experience and innovation, thoughts going into 2009 - some interesting insightful practical articles.

virtual community

Brother Maynard, at Subversive Influence, is drawing attention to a rather fascinating and important discussion about virtual community . If you follow the links you'll find a number of different voices (and books) to hear/read/ponder on the topic. (So far) there are no comments at Subversive but many comments on the blogs that he's linked.

They may still agree to disagree when it's all said and done but I am beyond impressed that rather than witnessing the igniting of a bombshell of dissension, you are witnessing an amiable conversation among friends. I'd like to imagine how pleased God the Father must be seeing us willing to try to hear one another when we disagree . . . I'd like to think that something like this might actually be some tiny answer to the prayer Jesus prayed 2000 years ago . . . "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." (John 17:20-21 NIV)

Words and stories

I was reading Lois Lowry's blog this morning. She is a children's writer. In her post, It Is My Hope That glub glub glub, she's protesting fiction writing for the sake of sending a message as opposed to focusing on writing a great story that kids want to read. In No smoking, please. Or Guidebooks she's protesting the use of guidebooks because "guidebooks keep us from creating independent readers" (meaning, in part, kids who love to read on their own.) It also isn't uncommon for kids to read the guidebooks instead of the book, reading only for the purpose of answering the questions or passing the tests and as a result they never read the actual book.

She says, "In the west, guidebooks . . . are not advised in schools. Instead, students are encouraged to make their own interpretations of texts with guidance from teachers. As long as our students justify their answers with good reasons, they are right, considering that no two readers will interpret the same text in the same way."

An alternative to guidebooks? She says, "Most importantly, teachers could use strategies and techniques that require complete reading of the text, and make their classroom activities so stimulating, thrilling and satisfying that students may never feel the need to use guidebooks. This will go a long way in instilling love for reading and creating life-long readers."

At it's best, reading God's stories and wanting to read God's stories is more than reading. Any reading of good fiction and non-fiction will be more than reading. I think that's the power of the "word." But I think her thoughts have implications for the way we handle the stories of the original Word.

Can the stories of scripture be so stimulating, thrilling and satisfying (without changing the text) that we don't need to be didactic? Can we set up the stories of scripture in such a way that the stories speak loud and clear? We can take a moralistic, lesson-oriented, didactic approach or we can try to instill in children a love and passion for what they're reading and for this God we want them so badly to know. Which do you think will last longer and have the greater affect on a child's life? Some might say the two approaches don't have to be mutually exclusive. I'm not sure. Are the morals in the text or have we devised them ourselves? I have to go back and look.

Emerging Parents

In case you haven't noticed, Emerging Parents is up and running again. New design and everything! Consider visiting. Join the conversation but be a good listener. The scriptures tell us to pray for one another and encourage one another, among other things. (There's a whole post on one-anothers in this blog somewhere.)

When we first decided to home school a zillion years ago (my youngest is 19 now) my mother-in-law (a Russian Orthodox-Episcopalian, a mother, teacher, and lover of kids) cautioned my husband not to experiment on our children. It wasn't our intention to experiment on them, but I won't say it wasn't scary to attempt to do something so different with so much potential (both good and bad). You screw up homeschooling and you haven't got anyone else to blame but yourself. I say that as someone who did it for 17 years. We had a church and a homeschool community and a greater community to participate in and God met us there. Kids survived. I hope they did more than just survive.

We walk with God and He knows our hearts. We can't wrestle with God and tell Him we're not. He knows when we're wrestling. Sometimes we're not wrestling with God we're wrestling with everything else. He knows where we are and where we're going. He knows the way He made us better than we do. He knows when we're just going through the motions. I'd like to think that if we're actively seeking God some of us find ourselves wrestling more than most people understand. Even Jesus wrestled. Israel wrestled with God and it left him permanently crippled. God didn't heal him, either. But that's a separate topic.

Fortunately or unfortunately, whatever the case may be, our children take life's journey with us by default even when we're wrestling with God. They have no choice. Our relationship with God and His people is largely our responsibility and our children are our responsibility and making it all work in everyone's best interest is just flat-out-hard especially if you aren't one of those people who do what everyone else is doing just because everyone else is doing it, even if it's "the right thing to do". "Hard" doesn't even do the word justice.

If it isn't hard for you, don't worry but understand that there are people who will always wrestle not because there's anything wrong but because they're human beings with all of our limitations seeking desperately know the God who made them in all the ways that God will allow them to know Him. Sometimes they're wrestling because they want God to do something new or maybe it's the spirit of God in them wrestling to see God do something new. Who knows!

If you're a childrens minister, understand that the voices from Emerging Parents may not be representative of those who are still bringing their kids to church but more representative of believers who aren't. As I recall, Jesus is a Good Shepherd - the best!

One of my favorite verses in my 20's from Proverbs 4:18 "The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day." I have always been an early morning person, much to my mother's dismay. I learned pretty young that she didn't want to wake up early in the morning so I'd wander out to the barn with cookies for my dad and sit on the fence and watch the sun come up. If you ever get up around daybreak, it's pretty dark early in the morning. But even though it's dark we sit there knowing that the sun is there somewhere and it will get brighter and brighter until the full day.

exploring digital connections - safe or unsafe

In the dog bite prevention program we teach at the shelter we show a great video from the dog's point of view and then go through the choices kids have and label them "safe" or "unsafe".

These sites are about kids and computers. There is also a thread on Kidology's Blog Watch.

The sites and info to explore

grownupdigital.com

connectsafely.org

It's just another source of info to sift through.

Challenging Kids resource

The site - From Dave's Desk. The newsletter - Child in the Midst. The article - actually many articles about "Challenging Behavior" after you click and go to the website. But you had to see the face! Twice! I haven't read the articles yet but there's a nice long list. You might find something useful!

comment on relationship and community

This was posted on Kidology's Blog watch. The site is Children's Ministry and Culture. I'm posting this because Henry's comment is worth reading. His thoughts about the relationship between spirituality and religion are really interesting as are his thoughts about educational models, community and relationship. Just to get you thinking, of course.

I think one of the biggest challenges we face is growing a community of faith and serving the greater community without being cliquey or ingrown (for all ages).

I think Jesus and his disciples succeeded at the community part, though I never really looked at it that way before. Need to go back and look at Jesus in relation to religion and spirituality.

"...non-educational model...to create faith-filled homes..."

Can you tell I'm sitting at my computer today?

Keep your eye on Carla's column. That's not what she calls it but she's starting The Discussion again. (January 09 is pretty recent!) WE ARE STILL LOOKING FOR THE CONVERSATION!!! People more in tune with the emerging church than I am are STILL LOOKING FOR THE CONVERSATION!

But maybe we're still formulaic . Maybe it will just happen and not be a conversation. Maybe the spiritual formation of children will stop being institutional, organizational, what other words would describe where we're coming from as we wander into the unknown?

Scary? Not if the result is a faith-filled generation who can pass that faith on to their own kids.

Here is the part to think about - the part I liked: ". . . we need to start providing families with resources that don't rely on the educational model to help them create faith-filled homes."

Interesting? Interesting! Too bad I just started a series of posts on a book! But we all know how easily distracted I can be . . . found my glasses but I can't find my dog book . . .which is why I'm still sitting at my computer...

a couple new stories, blogs, and resources

This is a special story I found on this blog along with Emerging Kids (special to see it there,thanks!) and Emerging Youth.

Enjoy!

Interesting project

My daughter was collecting supplies to do this with the two little boys she babysits for. A fun project for older kids from someone else's blog. You should make one ahead of time and read her comments about what NOT to do. The jars can run $3+ a piece around here unless everyone saves baby food jars. You can also cut costs if everyone brings in a little toy to glue inside or share the cost of a bag of cheap plastic creatures or collect tiny manger scene ornaments from a flea market that you can disassemble and glue inside. The aquarium sealer takes 24 hours to season so it may be a two-three week project. But it looks like fun, doesn't it?