Have you heard of this new Game Show on NBC called “Minute to Win It?” It’s really cool and features a ton of games we can use in Children’s Ministry. Most of the games do not involve any elaborate set up or props, so they are very doable. You can check out videos on each of the games (instructions) here. Check out an example below. If you can figure out a way to pull the NBC videos off of their site to use them in kids church, let me know!
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.
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.
Christianaudio.com provides a free book download per month. They are usually pretty good. Check them out and grow your walk!
This blog post is going to be a little different. I have found a website with various “game show controls” for games like Deal or No Deal, Wheel of Fortune, Press Your Luck, Family Feud, and others. These are downloadable applications which you can customize to fit your needs. You could use them for review games in a kids class, for fun games at a retreat or camp, or with your volunteers at an appreciation event.
I’m not giving the link yet, though. In order to get the link posted, I have to see 10 comments about the picture above. Just jot a quick comment about what you sarcastically like the best about that pic. I’ll get the ball rolling:
“I like the energy, however, I’m wondering if I am pushing the limits by showing adult “midriff” on a Children’s Ministry site!”
Give me 10 comments, I’ll give you the link!
Congrats, you did it, here’s the link:
Today’s post comes from a post by Tony Kumner at Ministry To Children.
Tony came across some great free MP3 Bible stories told by a grandmother who wanted to record the Bible for her grandchildren. You can check out Tony’s post here. From his post you can read his take on the MP3′s as well as follow the link to download them.
I’ve listened to a few of them and they are pretty cool. They would be great for car rides. I plan on putting them on a CD and letting my preschool daughters listen to them for quiet times and on trips. There are no copyright issues here, you are free to copy and distribute to parents and kids as you would like.
I try to stay on schedule with posting Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but I came across this forum post on Kidology, and just could not resist the urge to pass it on. I actually saw the link to it on the Kidology Facebook Fan Page. I don’t know why I did not think to throw this up on the blog because my wife has been doing this with my two girls for 3 years now! What I’m talking about is free kids movies throughout the summer!
Nancy Keith posted a nice list of free and VERY cheap movie deals with Cinemas around the country. I have not checked all of them, but I looked at the one in my area (Regal) and it is legit. Obviously, given the nature of this blog, I can only with good conscience endorse the no-cost ones! You could advertise this to your families as a summer activity or arrange for kids within your ministry to meet up at the theaters for a ministry fun day. Here’s the list:
Regal Cinemas Free Family Film Festival
Cinemark $1 Summer Movie Clubhouse
Clearview Cinemas Free Summer Movies
Kerasotes Theaters Free Summer Movies
Cobb Theaters Free Summer Kids Shows
Marcus Theaters $3 Kids Rule Summer Film Festival
Rave Motion Pictures Free Family Film Festival
Dickonson Theaters Summer Vacation Family Movies
Harkins Theaters Summer Movie Fun
Cornerstone University Radio has a great resource out there for you to pass along to families. It is a place where a good deal of Christian radio progamming for kids comes together. This is a quote from their site:
We’ve gathered the best in children’s Christian programming and put it in one place so you can easily find safe, entertaining, and enriching content just for kids! Our alliance of broadcasters and partners work hard to make HisKids.net a place you and your child want to be.
Kids can listen to shows like “Down Gilead Lane” and “Paws and Tales” on demand. Or you can stream the His Kids Radio station. If you contact them, they will set up a custom logo of your church on a special site of theirs. You can provide a link in your own website to the His Kids Radio site with your logo on it. You can see an example of mine here. This is all free, however, they do offer a paid service where you can stream your sermons, podcasts and trainings if you would like. This particular aspect of their service is charged by how large your church is.
There are a ton of internet filters to choose from and they pretty much all cost money. You can choose Safe Eyes, AFO, bsafeonline, and Net Nanny. They will cost you $40-50 and/or a monthly charge. These are all adequate filters and have received good reviews, however, K9 Web Protection is a diamond in the rough. It is completely free and has been downloaded over 1 million times. It offers real time protection and updates and works seamlessly in your existing browser without any extra search bars, plug ins or add ons.
The parent company, Blue Coat makes its money by securing network systems for Fortune 500 companies. They seem genuinely concerned about helping families keep a safe and secure home and that is why they offer K9 Web Protection for free. It uses the exact same database and technology as their commercial system. You can look here for details about what K9 offers.
This program is free for home use and would be a great resource to promote to the parents of your ministry. We use this in my home and only my wife knows the password. This keeps me (and my brother in law who lives with us) accountable and encourages us to live above reproach. It is very easy to check for sites that have been visited via the web-based administration page. It is also impossible to deactivate or uninstall without the main administrator password. I hope it can be of benefit to your home and the homes of families in your ministry.
