Did you know that Facebook recently became the most popular website in the United States?  They have more that 450 million users world-wide, with millions being added every week! Chances are pretty good that some of the people who belong to Facebook are folks who are involved in your ministry or are people you'd like to reach with your ministry!  

Just have a social media presence.  There are many options to choose from, but we've found that most parents and volunteers use their Facebook account more often than Twitter or other social networks. Determine what network your parents and volunteers are using and add them as a friend them so they see your messages!  Be specific when you name your page. There are lots of "FBC Kids" ministries out there!

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE!  Facebook is a free, quick, and easy (and sometimes even the best!) way to communicate with parents and volunteers.  If you already have a personal Facebook account, (which you probably do if you found this blog!) you know how easy it is to communicate a message to your friends.  

Be safe.  Do not post full names of kids, especially accompanied by pictures.  Make sure that if you post an image of a child, you have consent from a parent or guardian.

Be consistent.  If your goal is to create a place where parents can count on updated information about schedules/changes/cancellations, etc., be consistent in your approach. Respond to questions from parents and volunteers in a timely manner.

Have FUN.  It's surprising how much fun interacting with your online community can be! Parents love hearing (and seeing!) what their kids are doing at church.  When they see how much fun you're having in the kids ministry, they may even be more inclined to volunteer.  Who could pass up all that fun!?

Those are the basics!  Think you're ready to get started?  If you need help, grab a an older youth group member or college student to help you get rolling.  If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email at katie.decillo@lifeway.com.

I'll be back with more tips and trips soon, so stay tuned!

tagged as: facebook, ministry tools, networking, social media || category: Encouragement , Fun , Media , Resources
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Things are getting weird! And who doesn’t love a good contest!? 

 

Grab your fifth and sixth graders and make your own “Weird of the Day” video. Your video could be featured in a future volume of FLYTE!

 

Need some Weird of the Day ideas? Check out some in the video lounge!

 

The contest is being hosted within our LifeWay Preteens Facebook page.  “Like” the page and click on the “Weird of the Day” app (featured just below the large banner image at the top of the page) to check out some great example videos and check out the official rules!

 

To submit your video, you’ll have to fill out the form within the Facebook app and include a link to your video.  Make sure you’re using Safari or Internet Explorer, as other browsers have given folks some issues!

 

Contest ends May 18th, so hop to it!  Best of luck!

 

tagged as: Contest, Flyte, Video, Weird || category: Encouragement , Fun , Media , Preteen
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Probably my least favorite part of spring the expectation that I would take some time to clean my home from top to bottom.  Yuck!  I like a clean house, but I don't like to clean my house.

As a children's minister I felt the same way about deep cleaning our ministry area. Did it need it, yes... do I like to do it... NO! Must it be done... definitely. It's not the day to day cleaning (that gets done), it's the deep get on your hands and knees or up on a latter cleaning that I so dread.

This past Saturday at the church I attend the Children's Minister organized a "spring clean-up" day.  It was just a few hours during the morning, child care was offered, and lunch was provided. The results, a really nice and clean space for the kids on Sunday morning.

One of the keys to effectively reaching unchurched families is our demonstrating the importance kids have in our fellowship. Nothing says "this is important to us" more than clean space. Think about it... when you walk into a room that looks unkept or smells a little fowl what do you think? Most of us think, "I don't want to be here and I'm certainly not going to leave my kids here!" On the other hand... you walk into a room and it's freshly painted, the carpets are clean, and the room is kept... we all want to be there, right?

The other day I walked in to my house, did a couple things around the kitchen and started up the steps to put in a load of laundry. On the way up the steps I found myself dodging a book I had left there over a month ago.  I have a plan for that book... I want to give it to a coworker... but somehow I had let that book sit there for over a month. Quite frankly, I had forgotten it was there, yet everytime I traveled those steps I had to dodge it! 

The same thing happens at church.  Some of our classrooms are cluttered, dirty, and smelly and we don't even know it.  Some of our teaching space is offensive and un-kept and we don't even see it. 

Make a decision now that you're going to clean up a little this spring.  Take a fresh look at your space or have a friend who's not in there every week take a look and tell you what she sees... then do something about it!  You don't need an official "spring clean up" day... you just need to decide it's time and you need to get in there and do it.

I have the opportunity to see a lot of kids ministry space... some better than others.  Below are a couple pictures of resource centers (usually the #1 place spring cleaning could start) that I recently took while in Texas. I like both spaces for different reasons.  I like both reasons mostly because they were clean!

SHARE YOUR PICTURES:  We all love to see other folks ministry space.  I'd love to share on this blog some picures that you might send to me.  Email the photos to bill.emeott@lifeway.com and we'll get some pictures/ideas heading your way.  If the picture needs explaination, explain away.  I look forward to hearing from many of you in the near future. tagged as: Kids Ministry, Resource Closets, Share, Spring Cleaning, Stories, Teaching Sunday School || category: Leadership , Media , Resources
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More than once in my tenure at LifeWay have I heard the quote: "Everyone needs an editor." Can I just emphasize the EVERYONE? Even editors need editors.

I've lived the results of not fully exercising the full value of that quote several times (OK—so maybe more than several) since I've worked here as an editor.

 

Today, we are going to take a break from the norm and talk about some funny typos or misses that we've caught or published here in Childhood Ministy Publishing.

 

 A few years ago, my team worked really hard to publish the super-duper books. We were so excited when they came in. About 30 seconds after I had given Alyssa Reeves (then production editor) her copy, she came in an showed me the tab above. That's right, in the first book that I had worked on for publication, and I had printed CHURCH incorrectly! Yikes!

 

In the same book we had another typo. We misspelled one of the contributors names. Jennifer told me how her daughter said she wanted to find something wrong in it. Jennifer told her that we were very conscientious at LifeWay and there were probably not many errors. Imagine Jennifer's surprise when her daughter found we had misspelled her name!

Please note: The Super Duper Fun & Exciting, Absolutely Thought-Igniting Bible Activities for Kids (Babies thru Kindergarten Edition) was recently reprinted and the above errors are now history! Jennifer was supplied with a new copy with her name spelled correctly.

The above error came very close to being printed. Yikes. Can you imagine how hard it would be to find children for the other children to wave and move?

 For most of you out there, you probably have fond memories of Game Day Central VBS! You might not have had such a fond memory if you had bought your visual pack and found this poster in it. Unfortunately, the word perfecter was printed pefecter.

For several days it was all-hands-on-deck, as we all gathered downstairs in our former shipping area to pull thousands of these posters from the cardboard tubes, add the new corrected poster, reroll the posters, and insert them back into the tubes. LOTS of paper cuts. It was a big event, but it was also fun because we got to spend time with each other!

Just this morning, we were planning birthday lunch for my friend and coworker, Cheryl, when we discovered another business's typo. A local restaurant advertised via their facebook that ribeyes were $2.00 today in honor of its customers. Guess where we are going to lunch? Unfortunately, they printed a correction, but that didn't deter us. We still love that restaurant. Since we too have felt the pain of unfortunate typos, we'll let them off the hook.

Now it is your turn, tell me your "everyone needs an editor" moment.

tagged as: editor, fun, typo || category: Fun , Leadership , Media
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2011 is almost complete! Can you believe it? When I started working at LifeWay five years ago, I never imagined I would have the opportunity to work with so many amazing people on so many amazing products. It has truly been one of the most exciting times in my life. (That doesn't even take into consideration that I've become a Daddy FOUR times since I've been working at LifeWay!) Truly, my life is quite exciting.

 

2011 proved to be quite exciting as we launched FLYTE: faith. life. together. for preteens. Since the release of FLYTE, we've heard from children's pastors all over the United States who are thrilled to have an exciting new resource for their preteens to really grasp God's word with. It really makes me happy to know that God let me be a small part of His big work.

Back in October, we had the chance to hear from three children's ministers who are currently using FLYTE in their churches. Here is what they had to say.

 

FLYTE - What others are saying about this preteen curriculum! from LifeWay Kids on Vimeo.

Currently, Volumes 1, 2, and 3 are available for purchase. Volumes 4 will be releasing starting March 2012 and the series will conclude with Volume 8 releasing in March 2013. No matter how you use FLYTE, you will find LOTS of great Bible content and amazing videos that will really get your kids excited.

Here is one of my favorite videos from Volume 3. It's definitely not the silliest FLYTE video, but it really makes you think. Tell me what you think? Have you used FLYTE? Have you seen The FLYTE Blog?

 

tagged as: FLYTE, kidmin, preteen, youthmin || category: Leadership , Media , Preteen
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