It doesn’t matter if you are a volunteer, a part time children’s ministry director, a preschool coordinator, or a children’s minister in a mega church.  No matter your ministry context, CMconnect is the place to rub shoulders and network with others who have the same concerns, interest, passions and challenges that you experience on a daily basis. Learn, exchange, resource, meet, share…do it all at CMconnect.

I am on this site weekly…sometimes daily.  As a member of a children’s ministry team myself,  CMconnect.org has been a huge help to me.  Check it out!

Know anyone who is involved in CM in any capacity?  Be sure you tell them about CMconnect!

Our church is in the middle of a sermon series titled “Ten Squared: 100 Verses Everyone on Earth Should Know by Heart.”  As a help to the congregation, our church staff have created flash cards on a ring (like the picture to the left), and it has been so helpful!  I am brushing up on verses I memorized in college and at the same time learning new verses!  This has been so much fun and quite effective.

If you are a teacher, pastor or leader trying to give your team/people a tool that will help them memorize scripture (families in particular) this is a huge help. This is even helping our kids!  Most people are not going to go through the trouble (lack of discipline) to make flash cards on a ring.  However, if you (as a leader) can take the time to do this or have your support staff do this, people will use these:

• in the car
• while brushing their teeth
• waiting in line at Wendy’s
• on their lunch break
• during an oil change
• in the airport
• around the supper table
• or on a flight to Cleveland

For more information about these, you can contact Curt, Adult Mininster at  The Donelson Fellowship, by calling 615.871.4767.  Peace out!

I saw this video about three months ago and let it fall off of my radar screen.  Then yesterday a friend of mine reminded me of it and I wanted to comment on it.

This is Penn of Penn and Teller.  I think that his comments on “proselytizing” or evangelism here (especially coming from an atheist) are extremely interesting.  He brings up the point that if you really believe God’s Word, than “how much do you have to hate someone to not to tell them about the love of God.  How much do you have to hate someone to not tell them that one day they will live in either heaven or hell.”

It’s interesting to me to hear these words come from a non-believer.

I had lunch wiht Jay a while back and was blown away by how much he has wrestled with this issue of “faith transferance” between the generations.  Impressive guy.  He has put together an incredible strategy in place for Brentwood Baptist Church.  I look forward to hearing him speak in the power session on Thursday afternoon at D6.

Here is his bio:  Jay Strother is the Emerging Generations Minister at Brentwood Baptist Church.  He’s been working with students, children and their parents since he was 19 years old.  Jay graduated from Greenville (IL) College in 1997 and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 2006.  Currently he is planting the South Campus of Brentwood Baptist in Spring Hill/Thompson Station, TN.  His favorite stories come from the adventures of life with his wife of 11+ years, Tanya, and their three lively little girls, Eliza, Lexi and Ella.

Welcome Jay!

I have always been fascinated with this small yet powerful passage.  Something about it remotely reminds me of the visuals of some of the final scenes of Shawshank Redemption…yet much more powerful!

The message of this passage will be my passion and pursuit in 2009.  I want to pursue the King and his kingdom with all of me, and shed away everything that hinders me from being near Him.

As Christ said “all [my] heart, soul, and strength.”  This means all of me…not some sort of half hearted attempt.  Here goes!

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Katie and I were watching Return of the King (Lord of the Rings III) just the other day and this scene in the movie just jumped out at me like a monkey in my closet.  I couldn’t stop thinking about it.  It owned me!

Mostly because we have tried to work diligently with our boys in trying to instill in them a sense that we do not belong here.  We belong in the Kingdom with our King.  The life we live now, although very important, is only an opportunity to prepare for our ultimate home in the Kingdom with our savior, hero, and rescuer, Jesus Christ.

Disappointments and hardships are guarantees in this life.  If we fail to teach our kids that what we are living here and now is not their home, then we are doing them a huge disservice – perhaps even giving them cause to get “caught up” in the things of this world.  Once they do face difficult times, they become disillusioned with the myth that what happens here on earth is what it’s all about.  Scripture communicates that we must live with eternity in mind.

For example, when I was growing up, to me heaven was described as some cloudy, white, misty place where we will stand around singing in white robes, with no sleep and no need for food.  Honestly, as a kid, these types of descriptions of heaven terrified me.  Maybe we will wear robes at times…or even all the time.  Perhaps we will spend a decent amount of time singing, praising God.  And, we may even fly up to the clouds from time to time.  Yet, the kingdom of heaven (the new heaven and new earth) will be packed with so much more that our finite minds can possibly imagine.  The best adventure of this life, cannot compare to the pleasure, thrill and majesty we will experience in the presence of God and the wonders of His new Kingdom.

Without this taught or caught worldview (or “Kingdomview”), our kids will lose perspective.  We tend to get so wrapped up in “this life”, that we forget that the real purpose of this life is actually to prepare our hearts for eternity.  Acts 7:6 says “Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own.”

I try to create opportunities on a regular basis to talk about what my boys like best in this world.  I ask them “what’s the coolest place you have ever been?”  “The most fun you have ever had?”  “What are you most thankful for?”   “What food tastes the best to you?”  You fill in the blanks.  But whatever those items are, the kingdom (our new home) will be one thousand times more amazing than our current home (I am being conservative in my numbers .

So, like Pippin, when our kids look to us and say “I didn’t think it would end this way” or even “why do bad things have to happen to me?”  We now have the opportunity to remind them that our hope does not rest in our government, our job, our broken relationships, or our status symbols.  Our hope rests only in our Redeemer, and the kingdom He is preparing for us right now.  Let’s spend our days getting ready and bringing our kids along so that they will be ready, too.

9. The McKinney Trolley

8. The National Cowgirl Hall of Fame

7. The Fort Worth Zoo

6. Six Flags Over Texas

5. The Fort Worth Stock Yards

4. The Dallas Zoo

3. The New Cowboys Staduim

2. Frisco (Norther Suburb of Dallas)

1. The 2009 Home of The D6 Conference

The D6 Conference CLEAR Advantage Registration ends on October 1 (in about 6 weeks). It’s definitely worth registering by this deadline for pastors because you can save a HUGE chunk of cash. Most pastors will want to take leaders or leading parents with them, and there is some pretty significant savings there as well for those who register by the Oct. 1 deadline.

Here is some other info you might be lookig for:

• Info about the Embassy Suites attached to the Convention Center
• Dallas – Frisco Convention Visitors Bureau (GREAT Pictures)
• D6 Conference Info
• Other Dallas – Frisco Hotels

A lot of guys I know also use some sort of filter for their computer to protect their eyes from evil. After all Job says “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl” and Psalm 101:3 says, “I will set before my eyes no vile thing.” With all of the junk on the Internet today, it’s wise to have a plan for how you spend your time on the Internet and to have a plan for how you will protect yourself.

I want to be very open, raw and honest with you and share two easy things you can do to create a winning strategy.

First of all, don’t just get on the Internet to “surf.” Give me a break! We know better. How many of you have stumbled because you were just wasting time on the Internet, just burning time because you had nothing better to do? Far too many of us have. Not any more. Make a covenant with your self that if you get on the Internet, you are going somewhere with a purpose in mind. Act with purpose and intent, and you will be sure to cut down on opportunities for the enemy to attack you.

The second item that many men are finding helpful is an accountability software that works 100 times better than a filter. For a long time I used a filter to protect my eyes and truthfully it was a pain in the neck. Here’s why.

Each time I traveled I was unable to conduct business because most of the time, my filter prevented me from being able to connect to the Internet, check email, do research, etc. I got tired of this problem and began looking for a better solution, and I found one.

I now have accountability software that sends out an email to my 2 chosen accountability partners (my wife and a buddy of mine) twice a month. This works 100 times better because now I do not have Internet connect-ability issues. And for those of you who are tempted to view content you may not want to view, get this…if you turn the software off, it immediately sends a report to your accountability partners and tells them what just happened.

This is the best stuff I have seen as far as “filter” type of programs go. In my raw opinion, if you are man enough to begin these types of honest conversations with your wife, this will catapult you forward in your fight against lust. Oneness is the goal with your wife, and this kind of openness and communication with her will be beneficial to your relationship. This accountability software places more emphasis on the “relationship” of your accountability partner, which will cause you to make a choice as to how you will act, which seems to me so much better than a filter.

If you are interested in knowing more about this software, email me at matt.markins@randallhouse.com and I will get you more information.

Let’s be real, lust is a huge challenge, especially for men living in a culture that upholds sensationalism and exhibitionism. If it were not a challenge, Jesus and Paul would not have talked about it. Let me share two wonderful resources that I know are making an impact on helping Christian men around the US.

First off, my good buddy Steve, recommended this series that has been around a while and I am enjoying it still…the Every Man’s Series (several books within the series dealing with purity). More specific, Every Man’s Battle. This book, an honest conversation & story by Fred Stoeker (with a little bit from Stephen Arterburn).

The battle of lust and temptation is a battle every man deals with. Some more than others and in different ways, but it is clear from scripture and from the lives around us that this battle is real. This book is an honest, raw story of how Fred Stoeker partnered with Jesus to take up every man’s battle and fight with courage, all the way to victory. You can win with Jesus…this book is simply a weapon to help fight the enemy.

Tomorrow I will introduce another resource that I have found to be helpful.