From a Journal Entry Dated: June 24, 2012 I have no problem disciplining. I understand both the power and the difficulty inherent in correcting behavior and patterns—ultimately the heart. I’ve been doing this for a while, so I have a lot of experience with it. I learned something new the other day, however, that I […]
How God Changed My Heart and Transformed Our Youth Group It was just a simple eBook. I had downloaded hundreds of articles and eBooks over the years as a pastor. I loved finding simple, yet profound articles that helped me learn and grow. This eBook was just one among many. Why would this little eBook […]
A couple of years ago we were teaching the high school students how to engage in basic conversational skills. Then we had them practice on middle school students that same evening! The goal was to engage in relational conversation (asking questions in order to get to know the other person) that led to spiritual conversation […]
The Five Thresholds The Five Thresholds is training material on disciple-making from InterVarsity college ministries. This is what IV has to say about the Five Thresholds: “This is the journey of how people tend to explore faith. Once we understand the process, we can be more helpful to friends moving through each threshold. God is […]
I’m always trying to make signing up for things as efficient as possible, but in order to communicate with our youth group participants and their parents, I need accurate, up-to-date information. So there has to be a system in place to be able to collect this information and I find that using the computer to […]
This article first appeared at Wesleyan Kids on September 17, 2013 I’m noticing various approaches in ministry lately. Traditional, contemporary or blended worship services. Seeker sensitive, holy huddles, and house churches. Chronological Bible storytelling, series-based, or topically-based. Large-group/small-group, rotation stations, video-based, or classroom format. Purpose-driven, Gospel-centered, etc. Family equipping, family church, family-suppored, or family educational. […]
This article first appeared at Wesleyan Kids on December 9, 2013 There is a municipal water park in Spokane, WA that my daughters like to frequent when we visit my in-laws. It’s a really neat place. They have a bucket that fills up with water, water spouts shooting streams of water all over the place, […]
This article first appeared at Wesleyan Kids on January 11, 2014 My body encountered a strain of strep that it had never seen before and it knocked me down for a week prior to Christmas. Ten days of Penicillin later I was feeling mostly better, with a twinge of an earache. About a week later, […]
How does a connect-the-dots activity, made into a contest, where a prize is involved, become a disaster? I’ll tell you… I wanted to do a game with the Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade students when we were doing the story on the Temple being built by King Solomon (second link). My children’s coordinator found an elaborate […]
“Do you think we should not use chairs today? I’ve seen children’s ministry in churches where they didn’t have chairs and the kids had room to move around and sing.” This was a question I posed to of my children’s ministry volunteers a number of years ago. I wanted to switch things up and try […]
The following board report was from July 2013, which was one month past my 10-year anniversary of working at Hayward Wesleyan: Board Report Pastor Jeremy Mavis // July 2013 10 years ago, I started working @ Hayward Wesleyan Church. I had never been a pastor before and yet I felt somewhat confident in what needed […]
This post first appeared at Wesleyan Kids on March 15, 2014 This past week, Hayward Wesleyan Church hosted a “leadership summit” where we invited all the leaders of our church (those serving in all the different ministries of the church) to a collective gathering where we would celebrate, encourage, and exhort one another. The pastors […]
I’m always trying to exegete our current culture—both the good and the bad—to get an idea what effect it is having on the children and teenagers I and our small group leaders interact with on a weekly basis. Culture is always a moving target than I’m trying to understand. So I wondered where our children […]
Sally Lloyd-Jones on Parenting Children Into the Christian Worldview Story “IF A STORY CAPTURES OUR CHILDREN, THEN NOTHING ELSE COMPETES.” Stories from books seem to capture a sense of wonder, adventure, a “secret world escaped into.” Video games seem to make children worse and addictive. “PLAYSTATION PUTS KIDS’ LIFE ON HOLD, WHILE A BOOK SEEMS […]
Article originally appeared at Wesleyan Kids on May 12, 2014 One of my good friends is an elementary gym teacher. If he were to ask his students what they wanted to play during gym class, they would reply: “Pom, pom, pullaway!” This is their favorite game. If they were given a choice, this is what […]
When we built an addition on to the Hayward Wesleyan Church, I knew that I eventually wanted to install a bouldering/rock wall along the back wall in the new, large programming room. However, I didn’t know how to go about accomplishing such a task. Here is the process I went through to propose and have […]
Sally Lloyd-Jones on Parenting Children Into the Christian Worldview Story “If a story captures our children, then nothing else competes.” Stories from books seem to capture a sense of wonder, adventure, a “secret world escaped into.” Video games seem to make children worse and addictive. “PlayStation puts kids’ life on hold, while a book seems […]
Article originally appeared @ wesleyankids.org on May 17, 2014 This past Monday my children’s ministry coordinator and myself hosted a post-op on our after school program called Followers. There were some opinions and suggestions voiced from some of our volunteers after the last day of Followers and we wanted to hear and evaluate them among […]
Article originally appeared @ wesleyankids.org on May 29, 2014 Jared Martin shared an amazing insight a while back. I’ve reordered the question: Are we stained or painted with the gospel? I think for many who teach children, we just teach kids the Bible and about Jesus and it sticks to them. It might stick for a […]
Matt Norman wrote an article a while back using a great metaphor: Football. I remember watching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play. One of the players caught an interception and ran it all the way back, 91 yards, for a touchdown. This was a very exciting play to watch. The Bucs took the lead, and this […]