building a culture of volunteerism Eric Echols (Executive Pastor @ Mountain Lake Church) lives and breathes this idea. At his church they are always asked 2 questions: 1) where are you in community? (small group) and 2) where are you serving? Echols said that 60% of the 2500 people that attend Mountain Lake are involved […]
On Saturday, during the Beyond Atlanta Tour, we did a couple of touristy things, one of which was visiting one of the largest aquarium’s in the world: The Georgia Aquarium. I had fun taking pictures because I knew my girls would love seeing the colorful fish and sharks! source YouTube
Over the next several days I plan to post some reflections on my trip this past weekend to Atlanta, GA on the Beyond Atlanta tour of church’s children’s ministry areas and strategies. About 5 years ago I went on a trip/tour similar to this one. We went to Southern California and visited sites like: Saddleback […]
Followers is an after school program held every other Monday @ Hayward Wesleyan Church. On October 25, 2010, I took the camera around during the program and snapped shots of the students while they were in their various stations. The video above is a snapshot of “a day in the life of Followers”. source YouTube
The cycle of sin continues. The Israelites have been around the cycle 11 times up to this point. Samson (the next Judge) is the 12th. I don’t think the Israelites are quite getting what the LORD wants them to get: “To be the special representatives of God in the world is to show the world […]
The television. Also known as: the TV. Love it or hate it, the TV has been an influential force in the last hundred years. From its early, crude transmitted silhouette images, to black and white with no sound, and then eventually sound, and later into color and recently high definition sets that hang on the […]
This evening, October 31st, Hayward Wesleyan Church held its 5th annual Trunk or Treat from 4-6pm. It was a blast! It’s funny, every year the week leading up to our Trunk or Treat event, I wonder if anyone is going to come, or if the last year was the best and it’s just going to go […]
What a neat video and a great song! source YouTube
On Thursday, November 4, 2010, I’m flying to Atlanta, GA for 4 days to tour 5 different children’s ministries. I get to spend time with other Wesleyan vocational children’s pastors from around the country. We are visiting these churches and groups in the Atlanta area: 12Stone Church First Baptist Atlanta The reThink Group / Orange […]
I really like this web app. This week’s Wordle cloud.
Back in the Spring, The Wesleyan Church headquarters asked if I would write a 4-week series of children’s lessons on Advent. It was a fun project to write for an audience outside of my own ministry context. Week 1 – Hope: The Lord is With You Week 2 – Peace: Have No Fear […]
Last weekend, October 24, 2010, Hayward Wesleyan Church met at the LCO Convention Center for one combined church service. It was pretty neat. Dr. Jo Anne Lyon shared the message because we have been talking about what it means to be blessed these last several weeks. She talked about “The Blessing of Reconciliation” which is […]
We had a contractor come by our house the other day to bid up some work we needed done. As he was leaving, Amanda and I ended up talking with him about our girls and all the activities they start to get involved in. Sari and Macie were outside with us playing in the leaves […]
My wife and the girls recently got some corn stalks from some friends of ours, and we carved some pumpkins up as a family a couple of weeks ago. Little did we know that we were providing the local squirrels with stuff to “nibble” on! Update: Here is another picture of our deteriorating, squirrel feasting […]
On Wednesday, October 20, 2010, we continued our “Minute to Win It” challenges @ msy YOUTH. How to Play the “Breakfast Scramble” Game The challenge was to put BACK together a cereal box that had been cut up into several pieces. Our intern, Sarah, put magnets on the back of these pieces and set up […]
How to Play the “Will It Float?” Game Will it float? @ msy YOUTH we filled a small aquarium of water and attempted to submerse various objects into the water. The game is in choosing whether the object will sink or float. It’s fun to find objects that we think MIGHT float or sink, but actually […]
Michelle and Susan (and Judith) are the girls’ daycare providers for 3 days a week. Sari and Macie just love them, and so do Amanda and I. Birthdays @ daycare are special days. They throw meaningful and special parties for their kids. It’s always a fun day when someone has a birthday party @ Michelle […]
Macie Lynn was born 2 years ago. And she knows it! It’s her birthday! Earlier this week, Amanda wanted to practice on Macie’s cake. She was experimenting with fondant. I think it turned out pretty cool. We did a preemptive candle lighting and Happy Birthday song to break Macie in and get her ready for […]
My wife, Amanda, loves doing projects. So much so that when the girls hear the word “projects” they start salivating or foaming at the mouth. They jump for joy at the sound of projects. The other day when I came home from church, Sari greeted me and showed me the project they had done that […]
Loretta and I put on a CORE group (youth) retreat for Friday, Sept 24 – Saturday, Sept 25, 2010. We call it CORE 24 because it is literally 24 hours that we are on the retreat. This was our second CORE retreat, and we have found that the simple act of “retreating” and devoting some […]