Recently, during the preaching Pastor Jonathan Shoemake asked me if I remembered a family that we were picking up, where we picked up a few of the kids and before we left with them on the bus, the mom said, “hold on, take this one too”, literally giving us a little baby in diapers.   I nodded yes, but also thought to myself, “which one of those situations are you referring to?” … [Read more...]

Your Sunday School, Bus and Kids Church kids may not be the ones selecting your nursing home, so this doesn't directly apply, but it sure does bring a chuckle, probably because it doesn't quite hit home for me yet.  In that same vein though, if we were to take something serious from this, don't let them get away with murder, but it is worth keeping in mind that they may some … [Read more...]

I think stewardship is a powerful yet delicate concept to grasp.  As a parent, when we say “our” kids, they really are God's kids.  We have been given them to love, nurture and train.  Stewardship means loving and caring for something as if it were your own, while knowing and respecting that it isn't.  The best stewards are the ones who most love the true owners of whatever … [Read more...]

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe - What to Give Our Children A quote to ponder … [Read more...]

I think people count themselves out of things far too easily. Especially people who say they are "too old" for Sunday School and that they aren't hip and cool or whatever. Kids need all kinds of people to help them be who God wants them to be. There is a specific guy I'm thinking of as I write this. His name is Gary. He is everyone's grandpa. Kids, years after graduating from … [Read more...]

I have a little boy who is almost 2.  My wife and I are constantly shocked to know that he's actually listening even when we don't think he's paying attention.  We'd have no idea except that every so often in our conversation we'll here him repeat a word we said.  What we do and how we live matters, if not for us, definitely for them.  They say integrity is doing the right … [Read more...]

Who doesn't want to see their kids win.  Whether your own children or your class, or your route or whichever kids you feel close to, it's natural to want them to have the best and never have to feel what losing feels like.  But is that what's best for them?  Life is full of disappointments.  Not winning is ok.  Winning is wonderful, but knowing how to handle not winning, and … [Read more...]

"Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you." -- H. Jackson Brown, Jr. Sometimes kids in our classes, streets and groups are from wonderful homes with parents that are healthy role models. Sometimes they don't. For many kids, if you have a bus ministry, and sometimes even when you don't, we have to act as their stand-in … [Read more...]

Short and simple.  Do you see your time with kids as an investment or as an expense?  Whether you feel what you do is remembered, or if they will remember exactly how you did that lesson that you spent hours on, or the countless minutes and hours you get them on and off a bus, every minute invested leaves impressions on kids, even if it is just the memory of being loved and not … [Read more...]

Though there are Sundays that I'm sure we all come home tired, frustrated and not knowing why nothing went the way we expected, this quote helps me think about exactly why I do what I do and probably why you do what you do. Youth Ministry is such an important ministry, and for that, gets a ton of support and attention, but if you look at the statistics, most kids have well made … [Read more...]