Mike Johnson

Sometimes Our Work Looks Like Play - Paper Airplanes

 

Can you really complain about a job where you get to make paper airplanes? I can't! Here we're testing an activity for an upcoming Elevate Family series. The point? We need to hang around friends who will help us make wise decisions and keep our lives soaring for God. 

We get to make paper airplanes and teach families about God, all at the same time! How great is that?! Guess who's plane went the farthest? All those years sitting in the back pews making paper airplanes out of church bulletins finally paid off!

Apologetics for Kids a la "Schoolhouse Rock"

Here's a video on apologetics for kids in a "Schoolhouse Rock" format. It's a good discussion starter for older kids on the validity that Jesus truly was God's Son.

 

 

Three Words That Make Me Cringe

They're... just... kids.

To hear these words sends a streak down my spine. It's normally used as an excuse for poor performance or low quality in ministry. When people are too tired, too overwhelmed, or... dare I say... too lazy to do something great for the next generation, they say, "They're just kids, they won't know the difference." Where did this idea come from anyway? If you want to make any major change in the world, you have to start with the children. They are the adults of the future. They are the difference makers, the risk takers, the dreamers who have yet to be. Why in the world would we sell short our children, the group of people most open to hearing ideas of change? In churches all over the country kids are relegated to the "basement" of ministry. This un-supported, under-funded, just-keep-them-quiet mentality could very well be the ruin of the church as we know it. If the children of the church grow up and believe that it is irrelevant, boring, and lacking in quality, then the first chance they get, they are out of here. If that happens, the church will die.

I know we cannot all do the same level of work, but we can all have the same spirit behind the work. Let us all embrace the next generation and give our best to them with the resources God has given us.

Check out this video from C3 Kids 2009 that touches on this idea:

 

 

Elevate Family Overview

Elevate Family Is Here!

After months of work, I'm excited to announce the arrival of Elevate Family. As a parent I know how hard it can be to do any kind of regular, formal spiritual teaching with your kids, but I also know how important it is to teach them about God on a daily basis. From this problem was born a passion to find a simple way to help parents lead their kids closer to God. Our answer is Elevate Family.

We designed Elevate Family to create teachable moments that will allow parents to bring biblical and applicable teaching about God into the intimate setting of their home. Elevate Family is designed to give you confidence in sharing the principles of God’s Word with your children in a clear, concise way. Each week the Elevate Family series will provide a Bible story on DVD, application activities for your whole family to participate in, conversation starters to help create teachable moments, and personal Bible study cards for your child. These elements will help your children understand the Bible in a new way and allow the teaching of the Bible to become a centerpiece of your home.

 

Don’t let teachable moments slip through your fingers. Make God and His ways part of your everyday conversation. When you do, you will see in your children what only God can provide…supernatural results!

 

Check out Elevate Family for yourself at creativepastors.com or your campus Source store!

Volunteering - Do It For (Your) Kids

When a parent volunteers it is a huge benefit for their kids. When kids grow up in a household where mom and dad serve every week they are much more likely to begin serving themselves when they get into 6^th, 7^th, 8^th grade. The reason for this? Because that is what is normal to them, it's all they know. When they leave high school and go off to college, the first thing they are going to do is look for a church where they can be plugged into serving. Their thought will be, “Doesn’t everybody do that? It’s just the way I was brought up, the way I do church.” What greater gift can we give to our kids than that?

Now serving as a family is not a magic bullet, but in all the years I’ve been doing children’s ministry, the majority of families that have orbited their lives around church and served are the strongest families. Divorce and discord is down. Children going south and getting into drugs and alcohol is down. Rebellion against parents is way down.

Parents look at many things for the benefits to their children: sports, ballet, music and assorted other extra-curricular activities. Now, there’s nothing wrong with those things, but only if they’re following in the footsteps of serving in the church. Obviously those other activities can help you become well rounded as a person, but they cannot replace church and service and living an others-oriented life. Our family's priorities should center around service to the church.

We need parents to see that. If I want my child to grow up to be a morally responsible adult, if I want him or her to grow up to be a force for Christ who leads others to Him and is a productive person in society, then I'm going about it the wrong way if I'm not incorporating church and service as a huge part of what I'm doing as a parent.