I’ve come across this really awesome band for kids called The Lads. They are from New Zealand and have a great sound. There is a movement in Children’s and Family music to make music more culturally relevant and this is a great thing! On their site, you can download several of their songs. Just look for the brown box with the orange arrow at the top of their site. I can’t link you straight to them because the site is flash based.
Kids Worship artist Brent Weber is the focus of our Wednesday Give Away this month. Brent is kind enough to give away 2 of his worship DVDs. They are:
Two lucky people will win (1 DVD per winner). Here’s how to enter:
Next Wednesday, I’ll randomly choose two lucky winners from all the entries. One entry per person.
CBH Ministries has a great component on their site which provides devotionals to kids. Kids can get “Keys” over email, through regular mail, archived on the website, or as a podcast. Be sure to link these on your church website and promote them to the kids in your ministry!
A ministry called Faith Inkubators has a unique game site called FaithInk Games. They are pretty cool and a great resource to have on ministry computers or to share with parents.
Cullen Wood has an extensive website full of videos geared toward preschool teachers. She has a lot of videos that teach activities to do with preschoolers along with the accompanying craft templates. She also has a good selection of Christian focused videos teaching preschoolers songs like the one below.
Many of you know that Child Evangelism Fellowship offers a ministry to kids called the CEF Mailbox Club. You probably didn’t know that the Mailbox Club is not just a CEF ministry, but a ministry for any kid anywhere. this is something you can make available to your kids and families, especially as a follow up to their decision for Christ.
Recently I have commented on several tools for communicating to others in rough circumstances. One was called Make a Child Smile and the other PrisonerAlert. Both of these are great opportunities for the kids and families in our churches to share love and encouragement along with the gospel message. Another one of those opportunities is called Let’s Say Thanks. It is mostly supported by Xerox, but you can see the list of partner companies here. The front page is a little difficult to operate, but it becomes easier if you choose the “View All Designs” link on the left side of the page. When I did it, I choose “other” as a message and wrote my own message thanking them for their hard work and sacrifice. I also wove the gospel message into it. It’s just another creative way that our kids and families can share the gospel with people all over the world!
If you are like me, you want the kids in your ministry to realize that there is a big world out there filled with needy people. If there is one thing I want them to remember that I taught, it is that the middle class life they live is not all that’s out there. I want them to know that there are people around the world in need of Jesus and that it takes sacrifce to reach them.
One way we can encourage our kids to impact other children for Chirst is through Make a Child Smile. At this site, your children and their families can review the stories of very sick children and write notes to them. What a great way to share the gospel of Jesus Christ in a caring and loving way! Kids could mail home made cards with tracts and Bible verses or care packages with Christian videos. I hope you’ll tell the families in your ministry about this opportunity.
I have had an increasing conviction about teaching the kids under my ministry about how good we have it in the western church. I want them to have empathy and compassion for our persecuted brothers and sisters. One way I have recently done this is by using one ministry of Voice of the Martyrs called Prisoner Alert. On the Prisoner Alert website, you can write letters using a “wizard,” print those letters out, and mail them to imprisoned Christians featured on their website.
I recently did this with the Awana ministry at our church. I printed out a good deal of letters and had the children decorate them with Christian symbols and colorful pictures. They really enjoyed it. VOM will also send you a promotional video you can show your children to make them aware of how Christians are persecuted as well. I showed this prior to giving them the letters to decorate. Even though the letters cost money to mail, I thought this activity was well worth it to feature on this site.
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Upon reading Sam Luce’s blog today, I was made aware of a really cool effort at bringing families together for worship during the Christmas Season. You can read the blog post here. I have already signed my family up and we’ll be participating. This looks like a great resource to share with the families of your church! It is sponsored by Dayspring and is called the Happy Birthday Jesus Project.
Congratulations also to Derek Fielder who won the Alan Nelson KidLead book!
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