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What I’m Working On This Month

Kathie Phillips

Here’s What’s Happening In October!

After a very busy September (Promotion Sunday, Volunteer Kick-Off Party, and our 1st Preschool Family Experience for the new year), October looks to be a much more laid back month. However, there are some things that I’m looking forward to!

CURRICULUM

Each month, I edit our curriculum to fit our needs. During this process, we inventory our supplies and order any needed supplies. Thankfully, this month we had most of the supplies we needed! I did order these for our preschoolers, who are learning that God can help them be brave. Each preschooler will get to wear one home on the last Sunday of the month. I’m also excited that our preschoolers will hear one of my favorite Bible stories.

EVENTS

This month, we are celebrating one of our milestone events, 2nd Grade Bible Presentations. Each 2nd grader will receive a Bible (we present these) along with a handwritten note from one of our pastors. A few years ago, we moved this celebration to each of our worship services, which has allowed the entire congregation to celebrate with these precious kids and their families.

We are also preparing for another milestone celebration, our 3-week Communion Class. I will share more about that next month.

OUTREACH

One other thing I’m excited about is that our children (ages 2 – 5th grade) will get to be part of our all-church outreach focus – our annual clothing drive. Kids will be encouraged to be neighborhood heroes (which fits perfectly into our preschool superhero theme for October) by donating and collecting clothes for the giveaway. Our elementary children will help sort donations as part of their missions-emphasis Sunday next week. We love having our entire church be part of a missions project!

FREELANCE PROJECTS

In addition to my ministry work, I am working on a few freelance projects – writing preschool lessons for a curriculum company and writing devotions for a Children’s Ministry publication. I can’t wait to share more about these projects soon!

My second round of my online class through Institute for Discipleship begins next week. I will be teaching class #2 in their kidmin cohort, which will cover teaching theology to kids. It was a great class this past spring, and I’m hopeful for another positive experience.

That’s what’s happening in my neck of the woods. What are you up to this month? Let me know by leaving me a comment below!

Stay connected by being part of our Facebook Community! You can follow me here.

NIV Adventure Bible – Polar Exploration Edition {Review and Giveaway}

Kathie Phillips

For as long as I can remember, I have loved the Adventure Bible. Both of my children, who are grown now, had their own copy growing up. I also selected this Bible (the NIV) to give to second graders at our church for our 2nd Grade Bible Presentation Sunday each fall.

Imagine my surprise when I was asked to review the new Adventure Bible – Polar Exploration Edition. Honestly, my first thought was, “Do we need a penguin-themed Bible?” To me, it’s the same as Chick fil A changing their lemonade recipe – it’s unthinkable!

But, as a loyal supporter of the original, I was curious to take a peek at this new edition.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

With over 9 million copies sold, the Adventure Bible brand is beloved by Christian schools, churches, and families alike. Now, the #1 Bible for kids, including all of the trusted essentials loved by parents, is available in an exciting polar exploration theme!

Ready for a frosty Adventure? Embark on a fun, exciting trek through God’s Word with the NIV Adventure Bible, now in an all-new polar exploration theme! While on this arctic adventure, readers meet all types of people, see all sorts of places, and learn all kinds of facts about the Bible. And most importantly you’ll grow closer in your relationship with God.

Features of the NIV Adventure Bible, Polar Exploration Edition include:

  • The same trusted Adventure Bible content in a frosty new theme
  • Full-color images of polar animals, arctic outposts, and icy landscapes throughout make learning about the Bible even more engaging
  • Life in Bible Times—Articles and illustrations describe what life was like in ancient days
  • Words to Treasure—Highlights great verses to memorize
  • Did You Know?—Interesting facts help you understand God’s Word and the life of faith
  • People in Bible Times—Articles offer close-up looks at amazing people of the Bible
  • Live It!—Hands-on activities help you apply biblical truths to your life
  • Twenty polar-themed pages focus on topics such as how to know you are a Christian, famous people of the Bible, highlights of the life of Jesus, and how to pray.
  • Book introductions feature arctic art and important information about each book of the Bible
  • Dictionary/concordance for looking up tricky words
  • Color map section to help locate places in the Bible
  • Complete text of the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible
  • Thrilling new glacial cover on metallic paper

MY THOUGHTS

Upon the first glance, the Bible looked cool – literally! The icy blue hues made it seem cold to the touch. The inside of the Bible looks pretty typical of the classic Adventure Bible – the font, font size, layout, informative text boxes, and deeper insight pages.

There are penguin touches throughout the Bible, from the penguin paw prints at the top of each page to pictures of penguins inside the text boxes.

All in all, if your child loves the Arctic and arctic animals, they will love this Bible. Otherwise, I think the classic Adventure Bible will do.

ENTER TO WIN

Christmas is right around the corner, and this would be a great gift for your child, grandchild, or a child in your ministry! The good news is…I’m giving away a copy and you can have it before Christmas!

Enter to win a copy of the new NIV Adventure Bible – Polar Exploration Edition by emailing me at kidminspiration@gmail.com.  All entries should be received by 11:59 pm on Friday, November 30.

The winner of this giveaway will be contacted via email and announced on our Facebook page on Saturday, December 1.

“Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255:  “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”):  Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway.  Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation.  I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller /FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days on the same blog, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again.  Winner is subject to eligibility verification.

Hillsong Kids DVD – Can You Believe It!? {Review and Giveaway}

Kathie Phillips

Hillsong Kids "Can You Believe It" Review and Giveaway

If you’re like me, finding great music for your kidmin can sometimes be a challenge, depending on what you’re looking for.  For our elementary areas in particular, I usually stick with upbeat music that sounds up to date with voices that aren’t too childish (if children are singing the tracks).  Last year, I purchased a Spotify premium subscription (to eliminate ads that might be inappropriate) and created playlists for Sunday mornings and special events.  (In my opinion, this is a well-spent expense.)

Before we moved over to Spotify, I used some Hillsong Kids CDs for our kids’ worship (thankfully, they are on Spotify, so we’re able to enjoy our favorites).  The music was exactly what I was looking for – upbeat, relevant and fresh.  Recently, I was provided a chance to review their newest release and I couldn’t wait to take a listen.

A LITTLE BACKGROUND ON HILLSONG KIDS

Hillsong believes that teaching children to love God and others takes place in both the home and in the church. For this reason they seek to partner with parents (the greatest teachers of all!) and with church pastors and leaders, equipping them with great resources. Through fun experiences, meaningful music and ministry that encourages kids to participate, Hillsong Kids presents Jesus Christ and His Church in a relevant way, creating moments which children will never forget.

Their new kids’ worship DVD DOES NOT disappoint!!

PRODUCT OVERVIEW

“Can You Believe It!? – Songs of Truth” is both a question and a challenge… a statement of gratitude to a loving God and an invitation to explore the very foundations of faith. Classic songs like “My Best Friend”, “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” and “What A Beautiful Name” join brand new declarations of faith such as “As The World Shakes” & “Heaven Is Our Home”. We pray that this collection of fun and vibrant songs, help children around the world to declare biblical truths about God’s love and grace for them.

Check out this promo video!

WHAT I LOVED

The DVD featured upbeat songs and catchy beats, colorful and eye-catching graphics that will capture the attention of your elementary-age kiddos.  I think preteens will especially love it because it’s not baby-ish at all!  Some of the tracks are songs sung in ‘big church’ and played on Christian radio, so many of your kids might recognize them (even though they have slightly different arrangements).  The DVD features a good balance of praise and worship songs, allowing you the flexibility to offer both songs kids can move to as well as songs that can quiet them and focus them.

The DVD also includes music videos for the songs.  I’m not sure how I would use these in my context but I’m sure there are ways that you could incorporate them.  What I loved about the videos was that there was a lot of diversity represented – so glad to see that!

WHAT I FELT WAS MISSING

As great as the DVD is, it’s missing hand motions, so if you’re kids like doing hand motions during worship, you’ll need to add your own.  Also, navigating the DVD main menu was a little tricky at first but I eventually got the hang of it.  In addition, if you use the music videos, there are no lyrics that go along with that.

Overall, “Can You Believe It!?” is a perfect complement for Sunday mornings or midweek programming.  You will not be disappointed with this well-done, high quality product!

You can purchase the DVD here, BUT…

I am giving away a free copy!!

Enter to win a copy of the new Hillsong Kids DVD, “Can You Believe It!?” by emailing me at kidminspiration@gmail.com.  All entries should be received by 11:59 pm on this Thursday, November 22.  You’ll definitely want this in your music arsenal!

You can also enter to win by tweeting about the giveaway:

Enter to win Hillsong Kids’ new music DVD, “Can You Believe It!?”

Click To Tweet

The winner of this giveaway will be contacted via email and announced on our Facebook page on Friday, November 23.

“Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255:  “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”):  Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway.  Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation.  I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller /FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days on the same blog, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again.  Winner is subject to eligibility verification.

Let’s Catch Up!

Kathie Phillips

Hey friends! It’s been a long, long time since I’ve posted here. So much has happened over the past few months and I have not shared in this space as much as I would’ve liked. I’ve missed you!

I wanted to bring you up to speed on what’s going on in my world and share about some new things I’m working on.

Ministry/Staff Changes

My church has done some staff restructuring over the past few months, affecting many departments, including Children’s Ministry. Because of these significant changes, I have restructured and streamlined Children’s Ministry as a whole.  This has meant realigning ministry areas, rewriting job descriptions, making our curriculum more cohesive, and raising up new team leaders.  In some areas, it has meant adopting new ways of doing ministry.  This has been a ton of work and continues to be, but my goal is sustainable, healthy ministry practices.  I’ll keep you posted.

New Ministry Programming

Typically, during times of transition, new programs aren’t added.  However, in the midst of restructuring our Children’s Ministry and working toward more sustainable, healthy practices, I have tuned in to some felt needs that we, as a ministry, needed to focus on.  Here are a few things we heard and how we are working on them.

Preschool parents are looking to connect with other preschool families.  Our church is blessed with an awesome weekday preschool and many of our families are connected through that.  However, there was a lack of connection for other preschool families.  One solution for this is to offer four (4) Preschool Family Experiences this ministry year.  The goal for these events is simply to provide an on-ramp for families to have faith conversations as well as connect with other preschool families. Our preschool curriculum is ah-mazing and provides these experiences to us with our curriculum subscription.  All I had to do was invite a group of gifted ladies to hear my vision about what I desired. They then took the material, ran with it and knocked it out of the park.  We hosted our first Preschool FX last month and welcomed 41 families (60+ preschoolers) – it was phenomenal.  I can’t wait for our next one, which will take place in January.

Elementary parents want resources to have faith conversations with their kids. A good number of our parents did not grow up in Christian homes and many are new believers themselves and don’t know how to have faith conversations with their children.  So, we plan to resource parents by offering START HERE, a resource provided by Orange.  We will customize the content to fit into a 30-minute parent meeting (on a Sunday morning, between services), to put materials in their hands and answer questions.  I am excited to teach this class next Sunday!

Outside Projects

Over the past few months, I’ve also had the privilege of doing some freelance writing for various groups as well as teach a workshop based on my book at KidMin Mega Con in Nashville last week. (If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you’ve seen the pics!)  I also recorded a podcast with Stuff You Can Use: A Children’s Ministry Community.

So, lots has been keeping me busy, but most of it is fun busy!  On that note, that’s a great intro for me to share two new projects I have been working on.

The Expert Interviews: All About Family Ministry

Earlier this year, a new ministry friend (Keith Ferrin), invited me to be part of a family ministry resource project that he was working on.  Well, I’m thrilled to announce The Expert Interviews: All About Family Ministry, a collaborative project with 20 leading voices in family ministry.  I am honored to have shared ways for new family ministry leaders to lay a solid foundation.  This newly-released book can be found here.

Get Certified in Children’s Ministry! 

The other project that I’m excited to share with you is that I – I can’t believe it! – will be an online instructor for beadisciple.com. The Children’s Ministry certification track has been redeveloped and relaunched and I look forward to participating as an online instructor!  This is one of those ‘never in a million years would I ever do THAT’ opportunities – it certainly wasn’t on my radar of bucket list items – but God had other plans.  This rookie instructor will be developing my course content from scratch.  Wow.  I’ll be teaching a six-week class next spring on teaching theology topics to children in age-appropriate, engaging ways.  Registration opens next week.  Come learn with me! You can find out more here.

Well folks, that’s a peek into what I’ve been up to lately!  I’ll keep you posted along the way.  In the meantime, drop me a line in the comments, on social media or via email and let me know what you’re up to – I’d love to connect with you!

Blessings!

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