Kingdom Kidz

Back to Work

Kingdom Kidz Ministry — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 07:47:41 +0000

I have been blessed with 2 weeks at home. The first week was a staycation and the second was a planning week where I was able to read through notes and books and do some planning and dreaming and praying about the future of Kingdom Kidz Ministry at FBC. It was a great time that I am truly grateful for. People have asked me if I accomplished a lot during this time…. and from the outside, I don’t have a lot to show for my time.. but internally, I feel like I was able to ask some key questions and am working toward the answers. Problems and Questions are the opportunity we have to find solutions and be creative. I need to remember that as I move forward. 2 of my goals for this year are to take better care of myself emotionally, spiritual, mentally and physically. I started a second blog entitled www.getyourbuttoffthecouch.com If you need some comic relief watching me chronicle the ups and downs of my journey to a healthy life, you are welcome to stop by. The second goal is to create a team of people to help me do some of the planning and dreaming with me in ministry. I am confident that the Lord is in this and will help me find those people. As Pastor Joe shared at our Deacon’s meeting tonight… we need to make the most of every opportunity to share the love of Christ with others. One of the best ways to do that is in tandum with like minded people. I want Kingdom Kidz to be a great, fun, exciting place for kids to come and learn about Jesus love for them. Let’s see what 2012 will bring.

Here comes 2012

Kingdom Kidz Ministry — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:03:57 +0000

Is it me, or is time going by faster and faster? It seems that as the years go on, it speeds up. This week, a few events have reminded me of how limited our time is on earth. We are only here for a season. Yes, we have the hope of heaven and eternity with Christ and I am so thankful for the assurance of that future. However, I still want to make the most of every opportunity I am afforded in this life. So, what is important for me to do and be about while on earth? For me, I think the most important thing is to cultivate and appreciate the relationships I have with family and friends. My “peeps” are scattered all over the globe and it is hard to stay connected as well as we would like. And I have to admit, that I have been lazy about keeping connected…. but that is not an excuse. I don’t want to wait until it’s too late to tell them that I love them and appreciate their presence in my life. And for those who are close by, I don’t want to take them for granted. We have a finite amount of time together and I am grateful for each of the people God has placed in my life. Happy 2012 to everyone!

Merry Christmas

Kingdom Kidz Ministry — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:35:37 +0000

It has been way too long since I have blogged. I could give a whole litany of reasons for the delay but in the end, they don’t really matter. 2012 is right around the corner, and with it comes a chance for a fresh start, right?

The week between Christmas and New Year, I will be on staycation to relax and decompress from a busy ministry season. The following week, I get to spend doing some long-term planning, studying, and digging in to God’s word and pray about His plans for Kingdom Kidz ministry in the new year. I am looking forward to what he will be showing me that week.

Today I was compiling my collection of books that I am hoping to look at during the week. It is a bit ambitious. Some I have read before, some are new.. all of them have been collecting dust on my office floor for way too long. Here’s the list for those who are interested.

“How to have a Great Sunday School
“Creative Storytelling Guide”
“Better Safe than Sued”
“The Ministry of Nurture”
“The Growing Leader”
“Teaching for Spiritual Growth”
“Children’s Ministry that Works”
“Touching Hearts/ Changing Lives”
“Raising Children of Promise”
“Think Orange”
“Shift”
“Teaching Kids Authentic Worship”
“Everything you need to know about Teaching Kids: 1-6th Grade”
Plus notes from the Kidsmin conference and some curriculum samples I have been meaning to look through.

It feels a bit scattered.. which is really how my mind has been feeling the past year or so. I feel a bit out of focus and off track. My prayer is that the week will be one of distractionless focus on God and His plans for the Children’s Ministry of First Baptist Church.

On Sunday, we talked to the kids about the Wisemen who followed the Star to the baby Jesus. At anytime, they could have turned back, given up, gotten distracted or bored with their pilgrimage. But they didn’t. They knew that their journey was important and they were determined to go and see this King who had been born. I want to have that kind of focus. I want to be so impassioned in my pursuit of God and His kingdom, that I will stay on track and not get distracted.

My prayer for us this Christmas, and into the New Year, is that God’s love for us will be so REAL to us and our enthusiasm for him will be so contagious that we will seek him with all of our heart, soul, mind and spirit. God says that if we seek him, we will find him and if we keep on knocking the door will be opened to us. Praise Him making himself known to us.

Summer

Kingdom Kidz Ministry — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 23:56:39 +0000

Hi Everyone, It has been too long since I hast updated my blog. I will be updating it much more often now, so leave lots of comments and suggestions so I know you’re out there. We finished an amazing week of VBS on June 17th and I had a week of R&R last week so I am ready to hit our summer programming head on. We have some fun things coming up in our Children’s Ministry including a Family Movie Night on July 15th. Everyone is invited to this free event. We’ll watch Ratatouille and have some fun. We also have Summer Camp for 4th-6th graders the week of July 24-29th. Plus for the whole month of July, we will be learning about Jesus at SonSurf Beach Blast on Sunday Mornings. There is so much going on that you don’t want to miss so mark your calendars now!

Vacation Bible School

Kingdom Kidz Ministry — Tue, 10 May 2011 23:37:45 +0000

We are about a month away from our Hometown Nazareth Vacation Bible School. I love VBS! As a little girl my parents sent me to a VBS that was being cooperatively hosted by a few churches in our downtown area. I remember walking from church to church for different activities. I remember learnig to sing “Jesus Loves the Little Children” and I remember being able to punch out a record from the back of my workbook. I was so excited to take that record home and play it on my scooby doo record player! (Gee.. that doesn’t date me or anything). Our family did not attend church regularly so VBS was one of the few introductions I had to God’s love. It was through ministries like VBS that many children are first introduced to God. I am excited to see how God will use VBS at our church (and at churches across the country) this summer.

If you are in Riverside and would like your children to attend, go to www.fbriv.org to sign up. It is a free event that is open to the public. If you would like to help at VBS, e-mail me at karin@fbriv.org

Our Hometown Nazareth VBS is June 13-17th from 6:30 PM- 8:30 PM at First Baptist Church of Riverside (5500 Alessandr Blvd. Riverside, 92506)

For more info, call us at (951) 683-1711.

Holy week

Kingdom Kidz Ministry — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:56:29 +0000

To a very small extent, I can identify with Lazarus… the man whom Jesus raised from the dead. This past week has been a real emotional and physical struggle for me. I got sick… something that happens to all of us… but this was the second semi-long illness of the season and it really brought me down emotionally. I wasn’t sleeping well, I had a splitting headache and sore throat, high fever, insistent cough… and I have to admit, at the lowest point of my week (when I was really feeling sorry for myself)… I just wanted to crawl into a cave and go to sleep for ever. The difference between me and Lazarus is that he didn’t just feel dead, he actually was dead. He died for three days. Through the prayers and petitions of his sisters, Jesus came and raised him back to life. I had many brothers and sisters praying for me as well… and the power of God has brought me back to health. What a great way to start Holy Week… remembering how much we have to be thankful for. God cares about our struggles… great and small. He is sympathetic and compassionate to our needs. Our God, in his love and grace, made a way for us to all be raised to new life in Him…. and eternal life in Heaven!

Spiritual and Physical Life

Kingdom Kidz Ministry — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 18:56:59 +0000

For me, there is a great parallell between my spiritual life and living a healthy lifestyle. More often than not, I fail to do the right thing. When it comes to any type of structured discipleship I have good intentions of spending time each day with the Lord and being more disciplined in my study of the Bible… but then I get busy and distracted and make excuses and find myself saying quick hasty prayers on the go. I tend to be the same way about taking care of myself physically. I start out well, with a firm resolve to eat healthy and work out regularly. I am good for a little while and then life gets busy, and I start to cheat and that cheating turns into flat out laziness. I did not write this because I have found the answer to this dilemna… but I am grateful that we have a God who gives us 2nd, 3rd, 4th, ..21. 22, 23…. 150… 376 chances. He never stops pursuing us with his love and grace. Today is a new day and a new opportunity to live a full life, physically, mentally and spiritually.

Godliness or God-busyness?

Kingdom Kidz Ministry — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 03:47:12 +0000

On Thursdays I lead a Bible Study with a wonderful group of women. We have recently started a study on the book of Ephesians and this past week we looked at Eph. 2:19-22. In this passage, Paul is explaining how through Christ Jewish and Gentile believers were reconciled to each other and being built up together as a Royal Priesthood. He further explained that Christ is the chief cornerstone.. the foundation stone…. the stone that all other stones in the building are set in relationship to. In preparing for the study, I was thinking about Christ as the cornerstone or foundation. How often do we forget that in our daily lives… that everything we do, personally and collectively is built on the foundation of our relationship wtih Christ.

I started reading a book this year entitled The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges. He makes this challeging accusation in the first chapter about the difference between Godliness- and being busy in Christian service.

“So often we try to develop Christian character and conduct without taking the time to develop God-centered devotion. We try to please God without taking the time to walk with HIm and develop a relationship with Him. This is impossible to do.”… “It is sad that many Christians do not have this aura of godliness about them. They may be very talented and personable, or very busy in the Lord’s work or even apparently successful in some avenues of Christian service, and still not be godly. Why? Because they are not devoted to God. They may be devoted to a vision, or a ministry, or to their own reputation as a Christian, but not to God.”

Our faith is based on Christ… not on doing good works or on looking the part of a believer, but on the relationship we have with Christ. We have the amazing privilege of having the creator of the universe interested in a relationship with each of us. Let’s enjoy it.

Jury Duty

Kingdom Kidz Ministry — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 01:04:55 +0000

I have spent the past week swimming in the pool (figuratively not literally) with 100′s of other perspective jurors. Despite the usual complaints of inconvenience, etc… this has afforded me the rare opportunity of TIME. Time to think…. time to read… time to sit and be still.

I was uncomfortable with this the first day because my mind would not slow down. It didn’t help that I brought my lap top and spent most of the morning checking e-mails, creating “To Do” lists and contacting as many people as I could about items of importance from that “To Do” list in case I was on jury duty for more than one day.

Days 2, 3, 4 & 5.. and more to come…I left my laptop at home (primarily because my shoulder was killing me from lugging it around the first day) and that really made me slow down and gave me the opportunity to think.

So, why am I sharing this? Well, the majority of the day, I spent thinking and dreaming and asking myself challenging questions about the current state and future of our Children’s Ministry at FBR. I re-discovered a gem of a book entitled “Making your Children’s Ministry the Best Hour of Every Kids Week.” by Sue Miller. Many of you who serve in ministry have heard of this book and it may be sitting on your shelf right now with all of the other books you hope to get to one day.

One of the questions to consider in the book, is one that I have asked myself countless times in ministry and an answer that we can all take courage in.

“Do you ever stand still instead of stepping out in faith, because you don’t feel qualified for the calling God is giving you? Are you afraid you aren’t smart enough, gifted enough, or strong enough for the assignment? Do you ever shrink back because you don’t have a plan or the right equipment to move forward, yet you can’t shake the fact that God is calling you to move forward anyway? God knows all about days like that-times when fear’s grip seems to wring out any possible contentment. He offers this promise: with faith in him, all things are possible (Matt. 19:26) He is smart enough, strong enough, and definitely has a plan. ” Pg. 24

May taking the time to slow down give all of us the opportunity to dream Big dreams for our ministry to kids and be reminded that God has a plan for us and He did not make a mistake when He called us. We just have to keep trusting him and being faithful to Him. He does the rest.

Winter Camp

Kingdom Kidz Ministry — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 00:18:41 +0000

A few weeks ago we went to winter camp at Thousand Pines Christian Camp. An overnight snowstorm dumped 2 feet on us. This was my car Saturday morning. The Southern California kids I took with me had a fun time exploring snow first hand.