When I first started with Cory Center I went though a series of post asking what you were reading and extolling the virtues of reading. It’s still true that reading is fundamental to leadership – but not just reading books.

If you are involved in Children’s Ministry, it helps to know you are not alone – even though it often feels that way. One of the best ways to find help, hear what others are thinking, learn from some of the leaders of the #kidmin world, and simply get some encouragement is to read some of the many Children’s Ministry blogs that are out there.

Some blogs come and go and others have been around for ages. Tracking these down could be painful – but thanks to Tony Kummer, it isn’t. Ministry-to-Children.com, Tony’s site, publishes a blog list that is kept pretty up to date. Each year they also publish a top 100.

In addition to doing all that work, Tony’s also created a fun way to peek interest in some of the more active blogs. Each March, in honor of March Madness, they host a children’s ministry blog madness. 60 some blogs go face to face, one round at a time to find the winner. The best part is that you get to choose that winner!

Take a moment and head over to http://ministry-to-children.com/kids-ministry-bm-2012/ and check out some of the best children’s ministry blogs on the web. After you browse, give them some props by casting a vote.

Most importantly, I want to introduce you to some connection points – but if you are so inclined, we wouldn’t mind if you voted for Cory Center and I wouldn’t mind if you voted for my personal blog, Coffee With Dad.

Enjoy the fun!

I’m coming off a few weeks where my schedule was crammed full of activity, planning, and more activity. In fact, I’ve had a season where life has simply been full.

I’ve spent the last 8 years in full-time ministry.  One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that ministry is done best in collaboration.  Yet, there have been so many times in ministry that I have pulled away from conspiring with other children’s and family ministry leaders and as a result become far too self-dependent.  However, asking questions and networking with leaders is a great way to spur personal leadership development and grow in ministry.

This is why I’m so excited about Office Hours with Michelle Anthony.

Michelle Anthony, Family Ministry Architect at David C Cook and author of Spiritual Parenting and The Big God Story, is making herself available to you.  You can ask questions, share struggles and victories, gain encouragement and insight, and investigate best practices for spiritual development and family ministry.

Office Hours with Michelle Anthony Schedule:

Complete disclosure: I host Office Hours with Michelle Anthony, but that’s not why it’s a great idea.  There are a few things I love about Office Hours that make it a great resource for children’s and family ministry:

• No cost – Just sign up online, log on, and ask away. What’s not to love about free?
• Collaborative – You will hear questions from other children’s ministry leaders, Sunday school coordinators, and family pastors who are navigating the same ministry issues as you.
• Access – Michelle Anthony is a highly sought after speaker, typically you would have to pay to hear her in a conference setting but now you can access her directly every month.
• Personal – Some of the best ideas in kidmin do not outwardly change the program you run or the curriculum you use; they simply bolster your confidence, spiritual health, and leadership ability.

So check out Office Hours with Michelle Anthony on February 16!

I’m going to jump on Matt’s bandwagon for a moment and share a tool with you that I have been trying to put to better use.

Many of the parents at my church use Facebook – and, regardless of my personal preference, it’s good to have a presence there as well. But, I don’t have the inclination to spend much time on Facebook and I often forget how useful it can be.

That’s where Hootsuite can help. Hootsuite has several levels of support and function, but the base level is free. The free version can support up to 5 “streams” and if you need more you can move into the free version. If you tweet, your twitter account (no matter how many lists) all count as a single stream. Facebook accounts and Facebook pages/groups are another stream each.

Having one place to go that has everything saves time, makes things searchable…and best of all (for me), I don’t have to try to figure out the whole timeline thing.

But here’s the best part – and why you need this: With Hootsuite, you can schedule messages to your social network. So, on Friday’s when I am polishing the lessons for Sunday and thinking about the coming week, I can schedule messages for my facebook and twitter account and other messages for our children’s ministry facebook page. I use these scheduled messages to give a daily reminder about what we’re doing the coming weekend and how parents can begin the lessons at home. If I need to edit a scheduled message, that’s no problem either.

If you’re looking for a way to be present on facebook or twitter every day and not have to actually be there everyday, take a look at hootsuite.

When corycenter.org launched three years ago and I began blogging, my desire was to share my passion for learning, technology, and children’s ministry.  In 2012 I want to focus that intersection in an simple, ongoing blog series called “Children’s Ministry Ideas.”

Children’s ministry is a community of practice, where leaders from all over the world are engaging in the same ministry and help one another learn how to get better at it.  I invite you to add to these ideas because by exploring ideas for ministry together, we can provide an even more powerful tool for leaders to use.

Twitter.  I have learned more about ministry from Twitter than any other tool, book, or magazine in the past two years.  Here’s why:

1) Twitter is intuitive. It’s easy to sign up for an account on Twitter.  Once you sign up, you do not have to post anything.  Many people get scared by using a new tool because they do not have time or because they are afraid the tool will be difficult to use.  Once you get on Twitter, make it a habit to search daily/weekly for all posts tagged with the word “kidmin”.  There is a 24 hour conversation happening about children’s ministry that you can listen to and participate in.  Searching for the “kidmin” tag is the easiest way to jump into that conversation.

2) Twitter is a tool for conversation.  Ask a question, get a response.  I ask lots of questions on Twitter.  Do you want to know more about a product, game, curriculum, or Bible story?  Use Twitter to ask.  Last month I had great conversations with Wayne Stocks about video games and young children.  I also had a fantastic exchange with Andy Johnson about using digital Bibles in children’s minstry.

3) Twitter is a global networking tool.  With Twitter I can interact with incredible leaders from all over the world.  Tim Shiels is a children’s pastor in Northern Ireland.  Dave Wakerley and Funny Man Dan work with and lead Hillsong Church’s children’s ministry Hillsong Kids in Australia.  Mary Hawes is the National Children’s Adviser for the Church of England.   I can find and network with leaders from all over the world – people that I will not meet at conferences or would have access to without Twitter.

4) Twitter gives you access to amazing people.  I’ve already mentioned several people that I follow on Twitter.  Here’s a few more.  You have to follow Ruben Meulenberg.  He is on staff at Saddleback Church and is one of the most prolific kidmin writers/idea generators on the planet.  His Twitter feed takes me to school every day.  Kenny Conley is a pastor in Texas.  Glean from his leadership wisdom.  Amy Dolan is a profoundly brilliant leader and an amazing source of ideas.

I hope you sign up for Twitter in 2012.  Your ministry will change as a result.

Your Turn: Who would you recommend to follow on Twitter?  What will a Twitter newbie learn from them?

Pew Internet released an exhaustive study profiling the presence of social media in everyday life.  The report is part of a comprehensive series called the Social Impact of Technology.  Download the entire report here.

Overview:

Questions have been raised about the social impact of widespread use of social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter. Do these technologies isolate people and truncate their relationships? Or are there benefits associated with being connected to others in this way? The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project decided to examine social networking sites in a survey that explored people’s overall social networks and how use of these technologies is related to trust, tolerance, social support, and community and political engagement.

The findings presented here paint a rich and complex picture of the role that digital technology plays in people’s social worlds. Wherever possible, we seek to disentangle whether people’s varying social behaviors and attitudes are related to the different ways they use social networking sites, or to other relevant demographic characteristics, such as age, gender and social class.

Highlights:

• Americans spend more time on social networking sites that any other single online activity.
• 79% of American adults said they use the Internet and 59% of Internet users use at least one social networking site.
• Facebook users are more likely to comment on another user’s status than update their own status.
• Half of Facebook users comment on photos at least 1-2 times each week.
• Private Facebook messages are infrequently used.
• Only a fraction of users’ Facebook friends are people users have never met in person or met only once.

I think the cultural impact of these findings and this type of research is astounding.  Think about it – children in our churches and programs are being raised in an environment where friendship means commentary, where close social ties equals taking and rating pictures of your close friends, where conversations are rarely private – in fact, conversations are taggable, searchable, and archived for all to see.  Social media is the greatest single influence on relationships today and leaders in children’s and family ministry need to take note and provide leadership for families and kids to navigate these waters wisely.  How do you see social media influencing relationships within your ministry context?

Several months ago there was an incident in our home that has caused me to ponder my over-connectedness.  It was a cool spring evening.  My wife and I were settling in for the night and I began, what was then, my nightly routine.  Checking last minute e-mails on the laptop, checking Facebook on the iPad, sending a Twitter update on my iPhone, and pulling up the newest book on my Kindle.  It was this sight that prompted a slightly sarcastic remark from my wife, “are you serious…I think screens are little to important to you these days.”

At the time I didn’t want to admit it…but my wife was right…I was in love with my screens.  But it was more than just my screens, it was the connection that they represent.

When Katie and I got married 10 years ago I didn’t have a cell phone.  I didn’t have a laptop.  Smart phones and tablets were just a twinkle in Steve Jobs eye.  And I didn’t even have a Myspace account, let alone Facebook and Twitter.  It was a different world.  A world where the only screens I owned were far from mobile.

This has all changed.  And for the most part I am thankful. The connections and networking that is possible because of technology and social media is incredible.

As ministry leaders, connection is at the center of our ministry.  Relationships are everything.  They are the foundation for growth.  But if we are not careful, our connectedness can actually lead to neglecting the relationships that are the foundation of our world.  We are so connected everywhere else that we forget to be present…here.  at home.  at work.  at play.  with Jesus.  And when it comes to building healthy relationships, presence is key.

We have amazing technology that holds incredible potential for the movement of the gospel.  We just have to use it wisely.

Is your connectedness keeping you from being present?

What’s your story?  How do you fight against the ever-increasing difficulty of presence?

KB

Unlimited Justice is worthy of a visit for a few reasons:

• It is a website dedicated to social good, recently in the news for its campaign against corporal punishment in public schools

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3ZsY8EWc_8&feature=player_embedded

• Unlimited Justice has taken a real-life problem and turned it into a game.  Each campaign is structured like a game.  Users (players) earn points for participating in some form of social activism like recruiting friends, creating discussion,  spreading the facts through Facebook or Twitter, connecting with government officials, and signing the pledge.

• Unlimited Justice is an example of how to get people, mainly children and teenagers, invested in issues by using digital tools.  It is a serious game, intended to enact real-world change at the highest levels of state government.

Imagine if missions and global issues in the church were addressed in the same way?  What do you think would happen?

Facebook has age guidelines that restrict children under the age of 13 from having a Facebook account.  But recent reports from the UK and here in the US reveal that children under the age of 13 are getting on Facebook en masse.  According to Fast Company:

Pre-teens around the world are revealing a remarkable amount personal information on Facebook. Despite bans in schools and Facebook’s own security roadblocks, 43% of 9 to 12-year-olds in Europe admit to holding a personal account and 12% reveal sensitive information, such as a phone number, on social networking sites. This has led the U.K. department of education, Ofsted, to recommend that schools teach students how to use the Internet safely, rather than ban it outright.

The London School of Economics survey of pre-teens use of social networking corresponds to similar numbers of children in the U.S., 46% of whom use social networking sites. The survey went further to find out that 23% have a public profile, meaning that anyone can see their account, and in some cases, photos and other more revealing information.

Almost half of pre-teens are on Facebook.  Education is not helping them log-off.  Rules, parents, or Facebook alternatives are not helping them log off.  So how do you respond to the 11 or 12-year-old child in your ministry who invites you to be their friend on Facebook?

This week I witnessed and participated in a fascinating Twitter exchange between Stephen Posey and Ruben Meullenberg, two children’s ministry leaders that I respect.  I jumped into the conversation after reading this simple statement: “ If u use #kidmin object lessons w/ success, keep it. But I’m done with most of ‘m #ThingOfThePast”

You can read the entire exchange here.

I want to highlight a few important issues raised from this Twitter exchange by commenting on some of the salient tweets:

Ruben Meullenberg, “In order to innovate, I often temporarily dislike things that work well, forcing me to use new ways. The last 2 years, it’s object lessons. By temporarily forbidding something that works, u force yourself to find even better ways.”

Ruben is a great example of a leader who “pokes the box.”  In Seth Godin’s latest book (Poke the Box) he recalls a story about a dad who created an electronic box with knobs, switches, and buttons to place in his newborn baby’s crib.  The baby learned to “poke the box,” discovering along the way what happened by pushing, turning, and flicking each component.  Leaders need to “poke the box,” try new things, and innovate.  I love the way Ruben frames creativity (which is challenging enough) by adding additional challenges of not taking the easy way out.

Stephen Posey, ” What I disagreed with was the idea of banishing a ministry tool… Its like what happened with puppets (another tool) Somewhere some influential #kidmin decided to condemn them. Concomitantly a new gen of #kidmin leaders (in effort to be taken seriously) decided “puppets aren’t cool”

First off, Stephen uses the word “concomitantly.” In a tweet.  Impressive.  But even more impressive is this notion that there are certain groups of influential leaders that set the course for the rest of the field.  Stephen is absolutely right.  With the explosion of social networking tools, blogging, and the introduction of myriad new children’s and family ministry conferences and networking events, there is a robust pool of leaders shaping the kidmin conversation.  His remark is perhaps the most interesting point of the entire Twitter exchange because this is where Stephen and Ruben respectfully disagree the most.  See Ruben’s response:

Ruben Meullenberg, “I fully agree. I think many said “puppets aren’t cool” because they weren’t used cool. Same with object lessons.  but I don’t believe smaller #kidmins took the “puppets aren’t cool” motto just from big #kidmins. They got cues from culture”

So which is it?  Did a class of influential leaders blacklist certain ministry tools or did children’s ministry leaders stop using them in response to cultural cues?  This is a critical question and I’d love to hear more responses in the comments!