Here’s the deal. Many of you have low budgets. Times are tough. You’d really like those three new dry erase boards for your elementary class rooms, but you feel like chalk will still have to do for now. Well, I suggest you let you parents, volunteers, and the congregation know what you need through WantsThis. This is essentially a “wish list” website that allows you to load online shopping finds into a sharable list. I think this could be a great tool for garnering resources from people in your ministry. Often people really feel good about buying “things” rather than just giving extra money. You can see some of great features here.

Well, I’m at camp again this week! Aside from my own camp with Grey Stone Baptist Church, I’ll be doing 3 other church camps this summer. I’m in the second of three right now. Needless to say, I’ll be brief in the next few posts. But that reminds me…if you are looking for a retreat/camp speaker or worship leader, feel free to get in touch!

Here’s a blog similar to Free CM Stuff. It’s called Children’s Minister Blog. He has some ideas and reflections, but also links to free or low cost resources.

Rose Publishing is a company that produces some excellent Bible reference materials. Although their resources are available for a price, they do offer a free “sampling” of some of their materials through a weekly email. By signing up for their email, you can receive free Bible eCharts about every other week. The free charts they make available are pulled from various resources they offer. Some examples include:

• 10 Names of God
• Then and Now Bible Maps
• Christianity and World Religion Comparisons
• Armor of God Diagram

If you know anything about education, you know that graphic organizers (charts, timelines, descriptive illustrations) are exellent ways for people to grasp certain concepts. These emails provide you with a few tools to store in the “Bible Teaching” folder on your computer to pull out for future reference.

Rose sends out about one email per week, so they do not flood your inbox. Each email is obvioulsy a promtion for their material, and every other week, it includes a link to a free eChart. I do not recommend a lot of newsletters to you, only ones that provide a good benefit, so I definitely commend this one to you.