So many churches say, “Children’s ministry is one of our top priorities.” They say the words…but they are just words.  When you look at the fact that most people accept Christ before the age of 12 you can easily connect the dots on what should be a priority for a church.  Unfortunately, so many churches are saying the words without having any action to minister to children.   I just got off the phone with a children’s pastor in another state and he is having a hard time trying to convince his senior pastor that children’s ministry is more than child care.  This church has spent countless thousands on new furniture for the foyer, repainting & updating all the offices, new lighting for the restrooms but when this children’s pastor asks for money to repaint and theme a room for his kids…the answer that comes back is, “No, it’s just child care for the 11 a.m. service.”  My heart breaks, not only for that particular church but for many others around the country, where the sentiment is the same.  That’s why I’m so thankful for what we have here at NewSpring Church in Wichita, Kansas.  Kids are important to us…and we back those words with our actions.  Having hundreds of volunteers who serve with a passion to reach kids is just a start.  We also have beautiful, engaging areas for all ages.  One thing that can’t be overlooked is our senior staff who believes in kids’ ministry.  So the next time you are dropping off your precious cargo in one of our kids’ environments, why don’t you say a word of thanks to the volunteers who are there to greet your child and make KidzWorld a place where kids can learn about God’s love for them.

Saturdays have been getting pretty crazy around NewSpring.  The Saturday service is growing. Just last night we had over a 1000 people at Saturday XL and we had the highest total in KidzWorld except for Easter Saturday last year!  And I can testify that those kids had a great time.  (Side note:  If you don’t have a ministry why not give Saturday KidzWorld a try. You might just find out you love it.) 

As the kids were checking out, one mom stopped me and asked if she could talk to me.  That usually means there is a problem.  But she had good news.   She told me that every morning at the breakfast table her four-year-old asks, “Do we get to go to church today?”  Of course mom has to answer “no” every day. Then finally Saturday morning arrives and as the child eats his breakfast cereal he asks again, “Do we get to go to church today?”  And mom gets to respond, “YES!”  Her son shouts, “Yahoo!”  The mother told me how much her child loves to come and learn about Jesus.  In fact she said that they stopped going to church for awhile because her child didn’t want to go.  Now he can’t wait to come to KidzWorld and that takes the stress off bringing her family to church.  To all those of you who make our environments joyful, relevant and irresistible…thank you!

Saturday night we had a great time with the kids in Route 252 learning about our new virtue: Fairness.  We are going to have a blast all month long.  What was a blessing to me as I talked to some parents and they told me about their kids bringing kids to church.  One mom told me that her daughter got a phone call from a friend asking if she could come with them to church.  She had been listening to the daughter all week long talk about how much fun it was at NewSpring so she decided to ask if she could go!  How cool is that?  What we do at NewSpring is set environments for all ages so they can engage and learn how God loves them.  To all you kids and parents who are bringing kids from your schools & neighborhoods, keep it up.  You are making a big difference in the lives of others.   There were several families tonight that loaded up their minivans and brought many kids with them.  In fact some brought two cars to get all the the kids in.  I shared that with our executive pastor tonight and he commented that it is like having a bus ministry without the buses. Keep it up!

During the month of January we have been learning about resourcefulness in Route 252. We gave the kids an opportunity to be resourceful and make a special project using items from a list we provided. WOW! We have some very resourceful and creative kids. Below are the winners and some of the projects they came up with. Everyone who participated did a great job. Thanks for sharing your projects with us.

1st-Nick Silas, 2nd-Ezri Berggren, 3rd-Madysen Huffman

1st-Brittany Woodbury, 2nd-Madelyn Catlin, 3rd-Hannah & Hayden Stinson

1st-Scott McCune, 2nd-Allyssa Meyer, 3rd-Caleb Gerdes

This Child gets what NewSpring is all about!

Today I am sitting at my desk wondering and thinking about all the things that need to be done by this weekend for KidzWorld.  I told myself, “wow, this is a lot of work …is it worth it?”  The easy way to do children’s ministry is make it just “child care” and don’t worry about whole lot else.  As long as the kids aren’t killing one another and they go home with the right parents…mission accomplished!  But I believe children’s ministry ought to be the best & finest program in the church.  If we reach kids, we start reaching parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles and other children & families.  So here at NewSpring we have some passionate volunteers who help us.  It is such a blessing  to see the hundreds of volunteers come and minister to kids each weekend.  By the way, if you don’t have a ministry yet at NewSpring why not pray about helping in KidzWorld?  Here at NewSpring we have a policy called Worship One/Serve One.  We want everyone to worship in a service every weekend and serve in another of our four services every weekend.  The only way we can continue to have more people come in our doors is by having more people get on board and help.

I hope we never say, “Enough!  We have enough kids or enough families or people coming through our doors.”  We should always want to see more people coming to NewSpring to hear the life-changing message of Jesus.  So you pray for us here on staff as some exciting things are on the horizon that will allow more people to come experience Jesus at NewSpring.

Now, here’s the “Looking Forward” part of this blog.  I want to share with you what the kids will be learning in Route 252 for the next few months.  Are you ready?

February–Fairness: Making sure everyone is treated equally. 

March– Hope: Believing that something good can come out of something bad. 

April– Conviction: Standing for what is right even when others don’t.

May– Obedience: Trusting those who lead you by doing what you’re asked to do.

June– Faith: Decidng to trust in what you can’t see becasue of what you can see.

July– Forgiveness: Deciding that someone who has wronged you doesn’t have to pay. (awesome for all to learn)

August– Love: Choosing to give someone your time and attention, no matter what.

Each one of these come with memory verses and Bible stories that the kids will love.  Even if you don’t help with KidzWorld ministry here at NewSpring why not start praying for our ministry and these important truths that the kids will be learning over the next few months.

We are excited to see all the resourcefulness projects that the kids are coming up with for this weekend.  All month long we have been talking about the virtue of resourcefulness.  The bottom line for today was: Do your best and trust God to do His part.  It was the story of King Hezekiah and how he did all he could to protect his city from enemy attack and left the rest up to God.  At the beginning of this month we gave the kids a assignment to make a project using items from a list of materials that we gave them.  You can go to to our website www.funliveshere.com to get a copy of the list.  The kids are supposed to bring their project next weekend and they will be judged  and we will award first, second and third places.  We think this is a great way for parents to spend some time with their children making an awesome project to bring this coming Saturday or Sunday. 

Heads up! Next month we will be talking about the virtue of Fairness.  We have lots of fun things planned for next month.  Make sure your child doesn’t miss a single weekend!

Debbie and I are planning to attend the new worship service at NewSpring.  The ministry here at NewSpring is growing and we have added a fourth service.  If you like to sleep in on Sundays this is the perfect service for you.  You can sleep in…go to brunch …then to church.  Added bonus is you don’t have to worry about finding a seat in the auditorium (yet).  Why don’t you give it a try?  One thing you need to remember: there is no KidzWorld or childcare offered at the 12:30 service.

I don’t know if you have heard but we have something special going on at NewSpring Church on Saturdays. We call it “Saturday Night XL.”  It is the same service as Sunday morning excect a little more.  This week the kids got to have fun with “Hudson” my brother’s Golden Doodle. They live in Vancouver, Canada.  Hudson was the XL portion this past Saturday.  He wasn’t there on Sunday just Saturday night.  Also the kids got a special treat of some freshly baked pizza.  If you haven’t tried Saturday night why not give it a try?

What a great time we had this morning going through all the packages for Operation Christmas Child, loading them up and taking them to the drop off location for shipment to the distribution center in Denver, Colorado.  From there the boxes will be shipped all over the world.  You guys brought 500 boxes filled with toys, clothes and a bunch of other fun stuff for kids.  NewSpring, you did an amazing job and I am totally blown away by how you responded for our first year participating in this ministry.  Over 8 million kids have never received a Christmas gift.  What is especially cool about this ministry is that along with the gift you sent will be some info on how to have a personal relationship with Christ.  What a way to start the holiday season!

Whipped cream and sour Gummy worms…sounds delicious doesn’t it?  Debbie and I are big on review games in KidzWorld.  It is one thing to tell a Bible story but will the kids remember twenty minutes later?  So that is why we play a lot of review games with your kids.  We usually play boys vs girls and it tends to get pretty loud in the 252 Theater.  But once in awhile during the review game we have a challenge.  As you can see by the picture, the kids “kind of” get into it.  This particular game was who could eat the most gummy worms off a plate of whipped cream in a set amount of time.

This month we are learning about Gratitude-Letting others know you see how they’ve helped you.

Last week we talked about the ten lepers who were healed by Jesus but only one return to thank him for being healed.  This week we will be talking about Paul and the list of people he wanted to thank for helping him.  So parents, engage your kids on the way home and quiz them on what they did and learned in KidzWorld.  We want to partner with you to help teach your child what the Bible says.  Hope to see you this weekend.