10 lessons learned from watching rubber chickens fly

This past weekend we had the children's ministry team The Rubber Chicken Company host the kids during our Refresh weekend at the church.  They are so much fun!  We had such a blast with them and the children loved them.

As I watched 'Matilda' the rubber chicken get tossed from one end of the room to the other, I thought about the many lessons we can gleam from having special guests visit your kids ministry.

Here are my top 10 lessons from the chicken for teachers and leaders on Sunday morning:

1.  Kids love to laugh...if your kids aren't laughing and having fun while in church then they are not having the opportunity to be...well...kids.

2.  Fast pace sustains the long race.  This doesn't work for running a marathon, but it seems to work well for a two hour kids service.  Keep things moving and changing and you'll be able to keep kids attention for the long run.

3.  Music...don't underestimate the power of music (in the background, in the foreground, or all around).  Music creates atmosphere.  Do you want the room to sound 'fun', 'mellow' 'reflective' or 'high energy'?  Add some music and see what happens to your classroom.

4.  Silly sells.  Billy Bonkers is a nerdy, pop bottle glasses guy with chicken overalls pulled up around his ears, and the kids love him!  Put your silly on once in a while with the kids and watch them come alive with excitement.

5.  Ask questions.  Throughout the two nights we played several gameshows with a ton of questions.  Questions keep kids connected to what's going on and help them feel a part of the lessons being told.

6.  Expect respect.  Over fifty children sat quietly as Cindy told her story.  She didn't speak over them, she didn't have to yell at them.  The Rubber Chicken Co. started their weekend with clear expectations that were communicated to the children regarding what kind of behaviour was expected and it worked.

7.  Involve kids in leadership.  Mark and Cindy have two wonderful children who participated in key points during the evening.  Having kids involved in leading other kids is powerful.  Give it a try!

8.  Know your stuff.  Always be prepared to deliver your message with enthusiasm and ease.  It's amazing how much more interesting it is to watch someone lead when there are no lesson papers in their hands. 

9.  Cheese is in the eye of the beholder.   I haven't seen puppets used in our kids ministry for years.  However, our littlest kids were so excited to see puppets telling the story.  I found myself laughing hysterically at some points.  What may seem cheesy on the surface may be just the thing to engage the most cynical child to listen.

10.  Keep your heart in the moment.  The Rubber Chicken Company have been leading children's programs for years, but it is always evident that their hearts are truly focused on having children receive the love of Jesus. 

Thanks Mark & Cindy, and the many volunteers in preschool and kidz church who helped make this weekend a wonderful one!

Connect to Your Beginning

When I was between the ages of "womb-child" and five we lived in a small subdivision in the south end of Barrie (the city I grew up in).  In our backyard was a gigantic willow tree that stood strong and tall.  Gigantic not only because I was five but tall in stature and canopy.  It will be forever embedded in backyard photographs and memories from when I was a kid.  Often it would blow gently in the backyard, providing shelter and shade on a sunny day.  Sometimes the tree was messy as it shed it's leaves, but for the most part everyone loved that tree and I still think of it with fondness to this day.

Each one of us comes from different beginnings in our faith journey.  For some our faith is like a big willow tree that has always been there, tall and strong defining our sense of right and wrong.  For others their beginnings were messy, perhaps littered with hypocrisy, disappointments or ambiguous when it come to faith.

Connecting to our own childhood spiritual beginning is the first step to embracing the significance of what we do in children's ministries.  It's traveling back to early childhood memories and rediscovering how God was speaking to our hearts at even a young age.  Ask yourself: What it was that first brought you to Christ?  How old were you when you remember first praying to Jesus?  Did you have a church family you belonged to, or a neighbour who talked about God?  Who did you think God was when you were 8 years old?  Were your images of God consistent with flannel graph cut-outs, or were they reminders of curse words heard often in your head?  There's no shame in connecting with your beginnings.  It's from our beginnings that God added His revelation and light.

What was your beginning?

The Biggest Influence

If you had to name one person as the biggest influence on your life as a child who would it be?  Would it be a parent? A celebrity? A pastor? A grandparent?  Or maybe a friend?  There have been times when doing children's ministry when I've thought "these kids aren't really listening" or asked myself "In 10 years from now are they going to even remember a word I've said?"

Then I remember her. 

Our pastor's wife lead the Christmas and Easter choir every year, and when I had grown too old for kids choir (which she lead) I was added to the adult choir where I sang alto every year.  Mrs. Courtney was a mentor to me.  She was a school teacher by day, the church pianist on Sundays, and Sunday nights she lead the adult and children's choir practices dependent on the season.  She loved us all equally.  She scolded and corrected us sometimes rather sternly.  Nonetheless she spoke Jesus' words of life over me time and time again.  Each time I saw her I knew words of life would flow from your lips effortlessly.  Even when she was in the final stages of terminal cancer she continued to play the piano exuberant in worship Sunday mornings.  In the last year of her life she "co-directed" my first children's choir with me.  In both her living and her dying, Carol Courtney was one of the biggest influences of my entire christian life.

I don't remember a single lesson she ever taught.  There are very few 'profound' statements she said that I could quote.  However the witness she was to the love and abundant life there is in Jesus was made known to all those around her, and particularly to those of us who were so young, so moldable, so wanting to have someone to look up to.  She is the reason I know what I do is significant.  She is the reason I know we were born to make a difference in the lives of the next generation.

P.S.  I'm the kid with the big bangs in the top right hand corner.

Who was your biggest influence?