It’s been a while since I suspended the Saturday morning video segment of this blog. I can’t promise a video every Saturday, but I’ve found so many good ones that I wanted to start sharing them again.
This is a fun little video that depicts the story of creation. I used it several months back with our Kindergarteners and First Graders, and it was a hit!
How is that for a mouthful! Maybe I should have gone with “Meet Me at CMX 2011,” but that seemed a little self-centered to me. Anyhow, I am excited to be going back to the Children’s Ministry Expo this year in Lexington, KY on July 7, 2011. I went to the very first CMX last year and had a great time, so I am really looking forward to going back this year. More on what will be there later, but first I want to give you the details of our meet-up. Last year, my one regret was that I was not more proactive about meeting people at CMX. I assumed I would just “run into” people. That happened, but there were a number of people that I missed that I only found out afterwards. So, this year I am putting together a pre-pre-conference meet-up.
The CMX preconference runs from 6:00 – 10:00 PM on July 6th. So, we are going to get together from roughly 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM in the food court in the arena where CMX is being held. So, if you’re coming in early, make plans to join us. There is no invitation necessary, no agenda and nothing other than a chance to get together with other like-minded people, talk children’s ministry, make some new friends, reacquaint with old friends and just have a good time! I know I’ll be there, and I hope you can make it too – the more the merrier!
If you’re coming and you can make the meet-up, leave a comment below to let us know. If you’ll be at the expo, but not in time for the meet-up, let us know that too. Leave a comment, and I will track you down during the conference. I want to meet as many people as possible this year!
Every once and a while, I come across a tool which is so useful to me that I feel the need to share it with you. Zotero is one of those tools! If you been keeping up with my writing here on Dad in the Middle, over at Kidmin1124.com or on Ministry-to-Children.com, you’ve probably picked up on a couple of things:
I won’t go into all the details, again, of my research into Children of Divorce but needless to say I have spent hours and hours online searching out articles and authoritative literature. Last week, I decided I need to find a way to organize it and produce a bibliography. I was lucky enough to find Zotero. The Zotero website describes the program as:
I need your help! I don’t often use this vehicle for personal reasons, but today I am making an exception. I am making an exception because I believe it is of critical and urgent importance to our churches and to our children’s ministries. As you read the article below, you will learn about the wide path of devastation that divorce leaves in the lives of our children. You will read about the impact that this has on kids. I believe with all my heart that we, as the church, are called to fill the void left in a child’s life when their parents’ divorce. In order to do this better, I am currently conducting a short, confidential, online survey of people whose parents divorced before they reached the age of 18. You can find that survey (which asks 8 simple questions) at http://www.Kidmin1124.com/divorce/.
The goal of this survey is to help those of us who work with children to recognize the needs of children of divorce and serve them better. If you fall within the group targeted by the survey, please click on the link above and take 5 minutes or so to help us to positively impact kids who are currently going through the divorce of their parents. If you know of someone who fits the criteria, please forward the link to them as well. The more people we can get to fill out the survey, the better the results will be.
God has laid this issue heavily on my heart. As such, it is my intention to publish this article on Ministry-to-Children, Kidmin1124 and Dad in the Middle at roughly the same time. I apologize to those of you who will stumble across it more than once because of that, but my desire is to reach the largest audience possible in hopes that some in that audience will help me to spread the word. Thank you so much for your help. Now, on to the article!
At Dad in the Middle, we were excited to be a small part of the blog tour for the new album Seeds of Character from Seeds Family Worship. We wrote more about it this past Monday. We were selected to premiere the video for the song Put on Love based on the verses Colossians 3:12 & 14a:
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, and above all these put on love.
So, without further introduction, here is the world premiere of Put on Love:
For regular readers of this blog, it will come as no surprise that I am huge fan of Seeds Family Worship. Their music is based entirely on scripture, and it’s catchy to boot. I think I’ve shared before that there are passages of the Bible I can no longer read without a Seeds Family Worship song running through my head. We have featured several of their songs on this site including:
I also wrote an extensive review of Seeds Family Worship for Ministry-to-Children.com last July called What’s the Deal with Seeds Family Worship?,
Several months back here on Dad in the Middle, I reviewed the book Spiritual Parenting by Michelle Anthony. In that review, I wrote:
This is not a book about controlling our children’s behavior so that we are not embarrassed or inconvenienced by their behavior (a very man-centered approach to parenting) it is about parenting in a way which brings honor and glory to God and set our kids on a spiritual path towards God. Ms. Anthony describes her own goals for passing on a transforming faith to her kids: