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Last night I returned home from spending a few days at North Point Community Church attending the Drive Conference. It was amazing, to say the least. I gained a ton of insight and clarity for Kids Ministry and ministry in general. I came back full of vision and direction. I look forward to putting in to practice some of the principles and ideas that I took away. I’ll share some of what I learned in a future post, but in the meantime check out this highlight video below.

DRIVE 2010 Highlight from North Point Media on Vimeo.

One of our rockstar volunteers, Mike Koehler, sent me his Top 10 Reasons to be a Kids Ministry Volunteer at People’s Church. Even if you don’t go to People’s Church I think you will agree with some of these reasons for your church as well.   

10. Who needs caffeine on a Sunday morning when you have a room full of 3-year-olds?

9. Six-year-olds never leave you hanging for a high five.

8. Too rushed to wash your hair? That’s why 2 year old room has a bubble machine.

7. The “Round the World” worship song is a great aerobic workout.

6. Gives you a chance to memorize every Veggietales movie - ever.

5. When the kids aren’t looking, you can sneak into the moon-bounce.

4. Some of the kids are old enough to tell you about the days at the Movie Theatre. (We use to meet at the AMC)

3. We know your secret. You’ve always wanted to dress up like Mary and Martha. (An inside joke for one of our volunteers, Brent.)

2. Hugs!

1. Some adult in the future will look back and remember how you changed their life!

Thank you to Mike and to all of our volunteers that change lives every Sunday. 

I recently listened to a teaching by Reggie Joiner of Orange Leaders on the topic of spiritual growth. This is an important subject for those of us that are ministering to the next generation. It really encouraged me to be more strategic about creating environments that cultivate spiritual growth. We can assume because people are showing up that they are growing. Here is a brief summary of his talk entitled the “Catalyst for Spiritual Growth”.

1. Life-Changing Truth – Teaching applied in context
2. Spiritual Disciplines – Prayer, reading Scripture, giving, fasting
3. Personal Ministry – We gain by giving
4. Significant Relationships – Teachers, coaches, mentors, leaders, church leaders
5. Pivotal Circumstances – Key decisions, discoveries, and experiences

Check out the entire teaching here.