Thanks for making this a great year for KidMinspiration!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.
As 2013 approaches, I am overwhelmed with how much God has blessed me in 2012. I have grown so much personally, spiritually and professionally this year, much more than I could have ever imagined a year ago. Maybe you can say the same for yourself.
Looking Back
Growth and challenge are two words that I would use to describe 2012. The thing is that those two words, growth and challenge can have positive and negative connotations. Positive because God doesn’t want us to stay in a comfortable place, thus resulting in complacency. Negative because with growth and challenge often come pain, headache, hardship and deep introspection.
This blog is a result of growth and challenge. In my very first blog post, I shared my ambivalence about blogging. Yet here I stand seven months later! God is so good! I’ve always known that I’m up for a good challenge but this experience has really stretched me!
Here were our two most popular posts in 2012:
S-T-R-E-T-C-H Your Ministry Dollars (Most Popular)
Book Review and Free Book Giveaway: “The One Year Be-Tween You and God” (Most Viewed)
Looking Forward
With that said, I am looking forward to improving and expanding this platform that God has given me. In 2013, you will see a KidMinspiration logo, more guest posts, more product reviews, and downloadable resources that you can use in your church (leaders and volunteers) and at home (parents). Spread the word…some great things are coming!
I hope you’ll join me on this journey! I am so thankful for everyone who subscribes, reads, comments, “retweets” and “shares”. Thank you for becoming a part of my extended family! I am looking forward to connecting with you even more. See you in 2013!
Blessings to you all,
Kathie
“Let every heart prepare Him room…”
Today concludes our Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room series, posts dedicated to Christmas reflections. Each Monday in December, through Christmas, we’ve looked at different ways that you can make room for Jesus this Christmas. You can find past posts here, here and here.
“In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! the Lord is with you.'”
“Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. you will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?'”
“The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.'”
“‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May it be to me as you have said.'” Then the angel left her.
(Luke 1:26-38)
“In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. [This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.] And everyone went to his own town to register.”
“So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
(Luke 2:1-7)
Jesus, Simply Jesus
Merry Christmas!
Today’s guest post is written by Steven Knight. Steven has been serving in children’s ministry for almost 10 years. He loves working with kids & families, both evangelizing and discipling them. He is currently serving as a children’s ministry leader in Chicago while studying at Moody Bible Institute. He is blessed to have a wonderful wife, Katie. Steven blogs regularly at Kidmintools.com, which is a website dedicated to providing Family and Children’s Ministry resources and articles. You can also follow him on Twitter at @StevenKnight09.
Hey everyone! Since the holidays are such a busy time, we all get behind in something. For this Christmas season, I wanted to provide you with three last-minute Christmas lesson ideas to help you, if you are in need of a quick children’s ministry lesson!
Candy Cane Time: For this lesson, you will need to write on small pieces of paper and tape them to the candy canes. On the pieces of paper, write things that you believe are important to children (family, friends, Xbox, toys, dolls, etc.) Hide the candy canes around the room and have the children search for them. After the game is over, have several of the children say which candy canes are most important to them. Using the candy canes as an illustration, link the things written on the paper to a story about what is most important in your life, which is God. You can share how important these things are during the holiday season, but God is way more important than all of them. You can then share the story of the birth of Jesus Christ in Luke 2.
The Ultimate Present:This lesson is based around an object lesson using a Christmas present. You can talk about how excited
you are to give away a gift today. Pretend to give your present to one of your volunteers, but don’t let go of the present when you start to hand it to them. Act surprised and then ask them to pay you $50 for the gift first. After the volunteer has acted surprised at this outrageous demand, give the gift to him for free. Explain to the kids that every present has a cost, but there is no cost to someone when they receive a free gift, because it has been paid for by someone else. Use this analogy to then explain the free gift of salvation, and the purpose for Jesus’ birth.
Nativity Narrative: For this lesson idea, simply read the story of Jesus’ birth in Luke 2. While many children have heard about the story of Jesus’ birth, some children might not have ever heard the Scripture account of His birth, and definitely not an exciting narrative! To make this lesson have more of an impact, simply add emphasis to the story where appropriate. For example, “I cannot even pretend to imagine what it must have been like for the shepherds, who were out in their fields with their sheep at night, when suddenly an angel appeared with the heavenly host, all praising God while His glory shone around them!” If you need extra tips on how to make this re-telling of the Nativity story more impactful, you can check out this recent article on Reteaching a Story.
Have any other last-minute Christmas lesson ideas? Feel free to share them below!