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Sketch and Slap Stick Comedy “I Love It”
2008-06-01 02:36:00
  In my opinion an all time great comedian left us this week, Harvey Korman. I loved the years that he starred on The Carol Burnett Show in the 60’s and 70’s and then Mama’s family in the 80’s. Back in the day Harvey and Tim Conway were unstoppable and could make me laugh until it hurt way down deep in my gut, it was great. Check out what the Los Angeles Times had to say about Korman and then watch my personal favorite video of him and Conway in action and I hope you will laugh as hard as I did. By Valerie J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer May 30, 2008 Harvey Korman, an Emmy-winning comedic actor best known for playing the self-described “luminous second banana” for a decade on television’s “The Carol Burnett Show” and for starring in such Mel Brooks films as “Blazing Saddles,” has died. He was 81. Korman, who had undergone several major operations, died Thursday at UCLA Medical Center of complications from ...
More About: Comedy , Love , Love it , Sketch , Stick

Great Family Ministry Resource - Partnering With Parents Leadership Lab
2008-05-27 13:58:00
Check out this awesome resource that I believe can help you minister to the families in your community even better. This is one leadership resource that is a must have and that I am currently ordering myself. So I hope you will check it out below and maybe even order it for yourself and your ministry. Partnering with Parents , is a special edition Leadership Lab written by Karl Bastian. It is packed with great training materials and tons of bonus features! WPvideo 1.10 Download!   If the very thought of ‘family ministry’ and ‘partnering with parents’ stirs up feelings of failure and discouragement, maybe it’s time to change the way you think about ministering to kids and parents! In this Leadership Lab, Karl offers a fresh approach that will both challenge and energize, offering a unique perspective on the topic.   Purchase the Leadership Lab Download Kit for the complete training experience, at a special limited-time price by clicking t...
More About: Family , Great , Ministry

Wow What a Miracle - Final Uncle Charlie Update
2008-05-20 22:51:00
Over the first several months of 2008 and last several months of 2007 I had posted several times about a guy who has ministered to thousands of kids over the years through music. His name is Uncle Charlie and he has been recording and performing great christian praise & worship songs for kids and children’s ministries all over America for years. Towards the end of 2007 Uncle Charlie was involved in what should have been a sudden death experience for him in a nearly fatal head on automobile collision. God had other plans and so Uncle Charlie has been a walking, talking miracle ever since. He came out with a video a while back that gives a final update on how he was and is doing in his whole recovery process. I hope while you watch this video that you will truly thank God that He still very much in the miracle business to this very day.   WPvideo 1.10 Download!
More About: Miracle , Update , Final

“I’ll Go This Time.”
2008-05-07 21:36:00
  Here is a great article that I found today through All Pro Dads and their daily email blast that I recieve. I have had a lot of parents over the years ask the question ”How do I get my kids to go to bed on time or when I want them to?” This article say’s it as good as I can and I wish as a leader that I would have had this kind of information years ago.  My hope is that as a leader of a children’s or family ministry this information would not only help you and your family but that you would be able to help the families in and around your ministry as well. So here is the article and again I hope the information is helpful. “I’ll go this time.” With relief, Mary rolled over in bed when her husband got up to answer their newborn’s cries. “Will I ever get to sleep through the night again?” she thought. Sleep - or lack of it - is probably the most-discussed aspect of baby care. New parents discover its vital importa...
More About: Time

The Orange Conference - The Final Product
2008-05-01 16:22:00
  That Look’s So Good! Well I am back at home and I have to admit it was good to get back home to my family. It is always a great thing to come home and be with the people that truly love you know matter what.   My head is about to explode and believe it or not that is a good thing because I feel like The Orange Conference that I just got back from helped me to have a renewed sense of purpose and passion for what I do, which is ministering to families. I think a lot of times we get to going at such a fast pace (By the way their is nothing wrong with a fast paced environment, but their does need to be a balance.) in our churches and ministries, we really can lose that spark from God that ignites that true passion and purpose for the ministry that God has entrusted to all of us. When this happens we can get stuck in a rut and even though we are still doing some really good stuff we are only operating in the that “second best zone” for our lives. You see God...
More About: Product , Final

The Orange Conference - The squeezing of the orange
2008-04-30 14:59:00
  Let me start out this post by just saying WOW! I have been to a lot of conferences in my time, but I can’t really remember the last time that I could really say that in every single breakout and genereal session I really recieved something. I hope there are others out there that can relate to this? It is the last day of The Orange Conference and I can officially say that I have been SQUEEZED! To point out just one time that God has been dealing with me personally and the way that I do ministry currently, would be a great understatement. Even though I came to this conference by myself, I have definitely not been lonely at all. I have had some really God appointed opportunities to meet and talk with some pretty awesome fellow ministers in my opinion. God is not only squeezing me through this whole orange environment but He is also challenging my very purpose and menthods for which I currently do ministry today. WOW! I will blog more later about this subject when I am...

At the Orange Conference - Orange What does that mean?
2008-04-28 18:45:00
Well I am here at the Orange conference in Atlanta. Even though I have been thinking Orange for a while, this is my first time attending Orange. So I had my first pre-con breakout session (Family Ministry Around The Table) this morning lead by the Darren Kiser who is the family pastor at Parker Hill Community Church. Man was it ever awesome! In fact it was so good in my opinion that I could go home right now and feel I got my money’s worth so to speak, but I won’t.  So why was it so awesome you might ask? I am glad you asked, because it can be summed up in only one single statement that really rocked my world. Are you ready because here it is. What do I need to do to have a significant impact on the families in my region, city or whatever? Sounds simple right, but have we really ever asked any one in a meeting or on our teams this question? By the way this question just wandering around in our minds does us no good until we take action and put it out there in our mi...
More About: Conference

Heading to Orange
2008-04-28 00:24:00
  I am heading to the Orange conference put on by the reThink Group in Atlanta, GA.. I am so excited because even though I have been thinking Orange for years this will be my first Orange conference. I will be live blogging during the conference, so if you are going and are on my blog please leave a comment and if you are not going I hope you will still leave a comment and get some good useful information that you can apply to your ministry.  
More About: Heading

Worship Pastor Job Opening
2008-04-23 20:08:00
Richmond Community Church is looking for a new Worship /Creative Arts Pastor and if you or someone you know, might be interested. Please have them check out the link below.  RCC is a large contemporary high impact mutil-site church in Richmond, VA. that is reaching those who are unchurched and leading them to a relationship with Jesus Christ. I am looking forward to the person God has for this position and I know this person will help take us to the next level in our ministry here at RCC.  http://www.churchstaffing.com/cgi-bin/job s.pl?_cgifunction=form&_layout=a_Job_ Search&keyval=churchstaffing.churchst affing_id=6011371009358605
More About: Opening

Ministering with the end in mind
2008-04-10 04:40:00
I was honored about a month ago to be able to write this article for Ryan Frank’s email newsletter for kidzmatter.com and I also wanted to post it here on my blog. I hope it will reach and encourage even more children’s ministers to reach out to entire families and make a difference in their lives for God. I am hearing a lot about family ministry these days, there are children’s pastors it seems like everyday that are jumping on to the bandwagon. This is a great thing I think, but at the same time you have got to wander why are they jumping in at such a fast rate. Don’t get me wrong the water is good in the family ministry area and I think we as children’s ministers need to jump in. Though this little question keeps coming to mind, are we ministering with the end in mind?   One of the first things I think that we need to do when we are even thinking about this whole family ministry thing is to simply ask the question that I posed in the first paragraph. A...
More About: Mind

Internet Safety Classes for Kids
2008-04-07 22:41:00
I was watching the news this morning as I always do and a particular news report really caught my attention. It was entitled “ Virginia first state to require Internet safety lessons“, my first thought was this is a good thing. So after thinking about it more the question came to mind. How do we as children’s ministers help families to make the internet more kid and family safe in their homes? Let’s face it the internet is here to stay and has become the main stream for information, fun and study within our homes and communities. I really think though we as ministers need to take an aggresive stance when it comes to internet safety for families. I found an article back on February the 11 called “Five Things You Can Do To Internet Protect Your Kids ” that I posted to my blog and not only do I think that we need to check out this previous post, but I think that we need to provide as much information for families as we possibly can. The state ...
More About: Safety , Classes

Separation Anxiety
2008-04-05 06:11:00
I seems like here lately in my children’s ministry we have had some of the nursery and toddler age kids having more than normal seperation anxiety issues. So I have been traveling around the internet gathering up some very resourceful information that I believe will help me put together a plan to help the parents in my church steer as far away from that long road of childhood anxiety as they can. I receive an email blast each day from a Florida based ministry called Family First and normally I skim through it and then delete it, not today though. I love how God works he’s always right on time. So can you guess what the title of the article was? That’s right “SEPARATION ANXIETY IN YOUNG CHILDREN.” WOW! How cool is that. So I thought, maybe their are some other children’s ministers out there that might like some very practical advice on how do deal with this whole anxiety thing on a Sunday morning in a ministry setting. So if you are intere...
More About: Separation , Separation Anxiety , Anxiety

Richmond Community Church gets it’s first Google Ads for our Internet
2008-04-03 06:23:00
  Richmond Community Church gets its first Google Ad!!! Check out my churches internet campus on Sundays at 10:45 AM (EST) at http://icampus.rcc-impact.com
More About: Internet

Just greet them, invite them in and make them feel right at home.
2008-04-02 05:58:00
I wrote a post back on September 29 of 2007 entitled “Customer Service and Churches what if ?“ Then I started to think about this in a total family context. I started to ask myself do I do things before, during and after my children’s services that help make whole families not just kids feel welcome on a Sunday morning? I was asking this question not only in the context of our regular attenders but for our guests as well. So how do you accomplish this feet of making whole families feel very welcome at your church and mine? I actually think it’s pretty simple. Treat the families in our churches like they were coming over for dinner. Greet them at the door, take their coats, offer them a drink while they wait for dinner to begin and indulge them with some great conversation. At this point, I hope you are saying how can we apply these principles to an actual service on a Sunday morning? Let’s discuss this very issue. It all starts at the front door of ...
More About: Home , Make , Invite , Feel

Welcome Kansas JayHawks to the Final Four!
2008-03-31 03:11:00
In dramatic fashion, the University of Kansas men’s basketball team defeated Davidson 59-57 today at Ford Field to advance to the NCAA Final Four. The Final Four trip is the 13th in school history. (more) I used to live in SanAntonio and the Final Four is there, how cool is that.   Kansas will play North Carolina on Saturday, April 5 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas in the second game.   If you are a facebook and Kansas JayHawks fan like I am then click this link below: http://apps.facebook.com/kansasbasketball /invite.php?id=1586403

A Cool New Christian Resource Directory
2008-03-19 16:17:00
I am always traveling the internet looking for new, creative and ingenious ways for we as children’s ministers and children’s volunteers to be able to minister on a weekly basis just a little bit easier. I found a site and it is a really cool new Christian  Resource Directory called The CrossNetwork.   Here is a quick summary and link so you can check it out for yourself. The CrossNetwork was developed to provide Christians with easy access to current, faith based resources. It is our goal to provide the best possible resources that provide our users with quality information and a family safe environment. Each link provided in The CrossNetwork Directory has been tested, and the content reviewed on each site. We elected not to have automated link submittals to help ensure the quality of the resource links we provide. There are a tremendous amount of resources available on the Internet, and not all can be provided here. However, new resources are added to The Cr...
More About: Cool

Virginia Motor Trend International Auto Show
2008-03-10 17:44:00
My family and I went to the Virginia International  Auto Show  put on by Motor Trend Magazine over the weekend and we had such a great time. I have a pretty extensive sales background in the automotive industry prior to being in full-time ministry and so I really love automobiles of all kinds. Their were vehicles that were concept, exotic, main stream, antique and my family loved them all. My kids felt that then needed to get into to ever single vehicle in the place and so my wife and I were exhausted when we got home. But it really was great to see them so excited and it truly was a great time had by all.  Check out the short video I put together below.   WPvideo 1.10 Download! Make a comment and let me know which vehicle you liked the best?

Can we show kindness to others more than we are showing it now?
2008-02-21 18:54:00
This month in my children’s ministry we have been talking about a subject that probably will be my favorite of the year and that subject is Kindness . I have lived a lot of places in my life and have determined that their is kindness everywhere if we are willing to look for it. By the way let me give you the definition of kindness it is showing others they are valuable by how you treat them. For the most part, most people are pretty kind. The question I have been asking of myself and the kids and families in my ministry is this. Can we show kindness to others more than we are showing it now? The general answer I have been getting is yes. So why is it so hard for us to show kindness over the long term, I believe it is pretty simple. We are afraid of two simple words that have to follow kindness for it to have a lasting long term effect on others, it is “follow up.” Check out this short story below that was written by Kelly McFadden that really spoke to me about t...
More About: Show

Time Management
2008-02-14 21:48:00
Have you ever gotten to the end of your work week and found that you have hardly made a dent in the goals you had for the week?  Click on the link below to listen in as my Senior Pastor Rick McDaniel  gives you some simple to follow, step-by-step instructions to help you make sure you get done the things that are most important to you. http://www.highimpactliving.net/highimpac tliving/wordpress/  Check out this promo video that our technology department put together for last Sundays message, it really spoke to me.  WPvideo 1.10 Download!
More About: Management , Time , Time Management

Great Science Ideas for Children’s Ministry Object Lessons
2008-02-14 05:12:00
My wife was telling me about this guy named Steve Spangler of Steve Spangler Science that appeared on the Ellen Show today. She said he did some really great science expirements and it would be so cool to use some of them as object lessons on a Sunday morning during our children’s services. So I checked it out and sure enough this guy is really awesome and his experiments are really off the hook. So check out his latest appearance today (2/13) by clicking on the Ellen Show link above and I hope you get some great ideas going on just like I did. He also has a lot of the experiments that you see on his video channel on You Tube  and a lot of his experiments are right on his website for you to purchase.   Check out this video below I really love the deep voice experiment!  WPvideo 1.10 Download!
More About: Ideas , Children , Great , Ministry

“Lil Evil” Goes To Church
2008-02-12 18:43:00
This Sunday, February 17 my church Richmond Community Church , will have special guest Jens Pulver.  Jens will be sharing his incredible story of life transformation. From an abusive child hood to now being a champion and more importantly a Christian. This is going to be a great Sunday. Now you may ask why would a church invite a guy with a nick name of “Lil Evil ”. First of all he has an incredible story and second a true contemporary high impact church will explore and try things that will get people to come to church that may not otherwise come. Think about it especially guys that would never think about coming to a church service might come to hear Jens. I hope you will take the opportunity to come and hear Jens story and bring some friends with you. I believe it is truly going to be a life changing weekend.  

Five Things You Can Do Today to Internet Protect Your Kids
2008-02-11 22:57:00
I found this very informative article in my inbox written by Jim Burns. This was to good to pass up I had to post it because I believe a lot of parents just don’t have a clue on how to protect their kids on the internet, but they really want to. I personally will be printing this article out and putting it at my Promiseland children’s ministry Informational center for Parents to take on a Sunday. Plus I will have my children’s ministry greeters/registration workers pass them out to each family that enters our ministry on a Sunday. Then I will make them available to our Youth Pastor Kevin Carter so he can distribute them to the families that he ministers to as well. I hope if you’re reading this post you will pass this article on so parents can be fully informed on how to protect their kids. In just a few short years, the Internet has gone from a school luxury to a social necessity for kids. There are 24 million kids, ages 12 to 17 in the U.S. and 87% of ...
More About: Kids , Today , Things

Howcast.com
2008-02-07 15:47:00
I really enjoy my morning news, maybe sometimes even more than the nightly news. Their is this small news report on our ABC affiliate WRIC here in Richmond called Tech Bytes and I always seem to catch this small news piece. They usually give three our four new advances in Technology and for some reason this new website called Howcast caught my attention. So I checked it out and it is really cool. It turns out it is founded by veterans of Google and YouTube and it brings together the personality of user-generated content with the quality of a professional video studio to create engaging, informative, and free how-to videos for consumers. I have already watched some pretty fun and informative videos myself.  So click the picture below and check it out for yourself.    

The Busyness of Life, Family and Ministry
2008-02-07 00:39:00
What happens when we get so busy in ministry that we sometimes feel like we are drowning in a world that thrives on an instant result environment? I know everyone is super busy these days and everything seems to be moving at the pace of instant. So how do we take long enough to stop, take a breath and then jump right back in. I believe we have to do just that STOP! This world say’s give me, give me, and give me and so many people do the same thing. At this time I am reminded of a saying that my senior pastor Rick McDaniel say’s which is “schedule your priorities, don’t let your priorities schedule you.” This is so true, but a lot of times for me personally and I am sure for others this is so hard to do in the daily reality of life, family and ministry. So how do we do that four letter word STOP and get away with it successfully. I believe the first step is to create and build into our lives on a daily and weekly basis a plan. This should look di...
More About: Family , Life , Ministry

A Good Friend off To The Military!
2008-02-01 03:38:00
My wife Rebecca and I have built a good relationship with several of the college age students that regularly attend RCC.  Normally we will all go out to lunch on a Sunday after church, this week was a little different though.  Kenny Burns who is the younger brother of Anthony Burns (Technology Director at our church) was heading off to the Marines on Sunday. So we moved lunch up to Friday and had a little get together at TGIF to see Kenny off to the Military .   He will be gone to Basics for at least 13 weeks and I know his brother and myself will miss him. My wife really loves my oldest sons Flip Video camcorder. She just happened to have it with her and created this video, so check it out. WPvideo 1.10 Download! Kenny is the one with the sunglasses! 
More About: Friend , Good

Great Family Event Ideas!
2008-01-30 04:24:00
One of my goals this year is to offer as many family oriented initiatives that will bring families together in order to build relationships among the families here at RCC. Pastor Kevin and I are calling this initiative Family Outfitters. Our plan is to come up with bi-monthly events that will bring whole families together for the sole purpose of building stronger relationships with each other and with other families. I really enjoy the ministry of Jim Burns called HomeWord. He really speaks my language because he is all about building up the entire family. So as I was looking into some ideas for different family oriented events I turned to HomeWard for some ideas. So I thought I would pass these ideas on to those who read my blog. My hope is that these ideas by Jim Burns will spark your creativity and give you an increased desire to plan more events in 2008 for the entire family. Family Event s Date: 1/29/2004 12:00:00 AM Author: Jim Burns, Ph.D. Develop and Plan Family Event...
More About: Ideas , Great

Today’s Tech Savvy Kid Society!
2008-01-29 05:39:00
I started thinking about how truly tech savvy this generation of kids is when I was watching the preview of the new Knight Rider movie event on NBC. I am like all excited and my three kids are like what is so big about this. Then I realized they are not impressed with any of the cool features of the new Knight Rider car “Kitt.” When I was a kid, it was totally cool because we had never seen anything like that before. I mean come on, the car talked and drove itself. Now it is normal fare for kids to see a DVD movie in their car, get directions from a talking GPS and get online virtually anywhere.  So in a last ditch effort I started to explain the features of that cool Knight Rider car “Kitt” and what they did and still nothing they were like no big deal. Then I realized this is old hat to this generation of kids. This is there society and they are growing up in an instant and tech savvy driven culture. So I hope in our ministry ventures we will kee...
More About: Society , Tech , Today , Savvy

FREE reproducible art for children’s ministries from Dick Gruber!
2008-01-28 04:08:00
I have known Dick Gruber now for around 7 years and he truly has a heart for kids, families and children’s ministers everywhere. I think this is a great resource for any volunteer or full-time children’s minister. So I hope you will take advantage of this great FREE resource and please pass it on. over 40 pages 385 picture words 124 scripture pictures All artwork is provided in .jpg format and can be easily incorporated into any word processing, desktop publishing, or presentation software. To request a FREE download of Dick Gruber’s Art, simply complete the download request form at http://www.cmuo.com/resources/evangelart. You will then receive an email with more details for downloading your free copy. This is a lot of artwork and hope you will incorporate it into your ministry and again please pass it on!
More About: Children , Free

Continued Update on Uncle Charlie!
2008-01-26 03:33:00
I was doing my usual travels around my favorite blogs in the blogosphere and I came across this great update on Uncle Charlie . For those of you who may not know Charlie Bancroft also known as Uncle Charlie, he is a national kids worship leader and founder of upward bound ministries. My children’s ministry is still praying for him and so I wanted to give this quick update that I found on Karl Bastians blog.   Charlie Bancroft(aka Uncle Charlie)on the left and Karl Bastian(aka The Kidologist)on the right.   Charlie was in a head on collison two months ago that should have given him a “Straight To Heaven” pass. An oncoming car going 65 miles an hour crossed the center line hit him head on as he was also going 65. Both cars were instantly crushed into each other and came to a halt only 8 feet from the point of collision. The couple in the other car perished instantly but God was not finished with Charlie yet and spared his life. You can read more detailed updates on...
More About: Update

Dancing with the RCC Stars!
2008-01-25 15:35:00
My wife and I are taking a class at our church called “Dancing with the RCC Stars .” The response to this class so far has been amazing we had 55 couples last week and it was pretty cool. It is a little harder than I thought or maybe I’m a little rustier than I thought, I wonder which one is it! Oh well enough about me, let’s move on. So my wife is really starting to have fun with our son’s Flip Video camera, she even captured a video of my son’s sweet dancing skills. Now I am even more convinced than ever that he truly got his sweet skills from his dear old dad. So check it out and you be the judge. WPvideo 1.10 Download!