So this weekend I met one of our new staff pastors at the church.  I was introduced very nicely, but at the end it was added, “He’s kind of a different Children’s Pastor.  He doesn’t like puppets!”

I know this post will probably be misinterpreted by many,  but I’m going to answer for the blogging world why I don’t use puppets in our children’s ministry.  Let me preface it by saying that I grew up watching the Gospel Bill Show, and even went to Mexico for 2 weeks as a teenager with the specific responsibility of doing puppet shows.  I know how to work a puppet with best of them, and can easily manipulate the two-sticks as arms manuever on any sized puppet.  My thoughts don’t come from ignorance, but from experience.

I’ve made jokes that I don’t like puppets because I’m uncomfortable sticking my hand up it’s butt, or because I could never trust someone with blue skin; but the reality is that I think puppets are really great.  In fact, when used correctly and professionally they’re a great way to get a child’s attention.  I think of them like real-life living cartoons; and they can no doubt grab the attention of a little one.

However, there is another side of puppet ministry that many seem to ignore.  Most church puppet shows really, really, really stink.  There I said it.  They just stink.  Many think that if you give a few teenagers the puppet chest, and a puppet skit cassette tape that the world will be a better place.  Wake up people.  There is a saying in Kids’ Ministry that if 5th grade boys don’t like it, then nobody will like it.  Do you see many 5th grade boys begging for an appearance of Sid, the Blue faced teenage puppet and his sister Sally the blond pony-tailed know it all puppet?

So what’s replaced the puppets in my areas of ministry responsibility?

Video.  Video is cheaper, easier, and it’s fairly easy to reach excellence in a very short period of time.  With DVD ripping tools, and plethora of video editing tools; I can now quickly make videos segments that are far more effective than puppets (in their stinky state.)  In fact, I’ve found teenagers much more willing to run my light board and cue up video segments, than to operate puppets.  And by doing video, I don’t have to train a dozen people how to learn a skill that they will never use outside of my Children’s Ministry.  I know that hurts doesn’t it?  Puppet ministry isn’t real useful outside of jobs at Chucky Cheese’s or daycare.

However, before you paint me as a puppet-hater you need to know that many of the video’s I make for our kid areas have puppets in them.  Very well done, professional puppets.  Get that?  No teenagers and puppet mouths talking to the ceiling.   No Friday Night puppet skit practice to prepare for.  No combing of yarn hair to make sure the Devil Puppet has straight black hair, and it’s not too fuzzy.  Leave the puppet’s to the professionals.  Use their skills when you need them.

I love puppets. Seriously, I do.

So are you still using puppets with your Elementary-age kids?  Have you moved away from them?  Are you a puppet-lover, and everything you’ve just read made you mad?  Do share!

Things I Learned on Vacation:

• It’s a lot more fulfilling to drive into the Mountain timezone that to drive out of it.
• It’s a wonderful thing to hear your kids say, “That’s beautiful!” from the back of the car.
• My oldest son has a proneness to Altitude sickness.  I have a proneness to other people having altitude sickness making me sick.
• Rain can really spoil your vacation, if you don’t have a place with an indoor pool.
  

  No, I did not wear floaties.

• When you have an indoor pool be prepared to swim for a minimum of 2 hours each time.
• A family of 5 sharing one bathroom is an adventure.
• My kids hate walking around Wal-Mart in Ruidoso as much as they hate walking around Wal-Mart in Lubbock.
• Redbox has changed the way we travel as a family.
• Driving up the mountian to Monjeau Lookout is the coolest thing to do when in Ruidoso.
  

  We're all shivering while a stranger was taking our picture at Monjeau Lookout.

• When visiting Monjeau Lookout in the evening, wear a jacket.  It was freezing cold!
• Visiting Bonita Lake is the stupidest thing to do when in Ruidoso.
  

  Seriously? It's a lake and you can't swim or picnic?

• “You are in Bear Country” signs can really freak out a 7 year old boy.
  

  We never saw any bears, but saw a few dozen deer.

• It’s all right to eat popsicles as an after-breakfast treat.
• I will never actually read the books I take with me on a family vacation.  I’m beginning to think it’s a urban legend that adults get to read books while vacationing…
• My kids like to stare at strange looking people when they get into a swimming pool. (Embarassing…)
• My wife enjoys having in a iPhone on vacation.  (Yet, she still asks me for directions while holding it in her hand.)
• Having wi-fi where your staying is much preferable to not having wi-fi.
• Almost nothing rivals playing in a cold stream.
  

  Ryan would later fall in this very stream, and get a bad case of wet pants!

• Tripadvisor.com is a real lifesaver, and I’ve found most of their online reviews to be spot-on!
• It is ALWAYS better to rent a condo than to stay in a hotel room.  Trust me, I’ve done both.
  • It’s better even if the condo has a few bugs crawling around.
• Those roaches in the condo, will try and sneak home in your bags.  Trust me, I’ve seen it firsthand.

Today I read about President Obama’s challenge to fathers in the New York Times.  He was encouraging us to be better fathers than his father was to him.  I don’t care what you think of his politics, I think we should all applaud the President for taking time to make a very important appeal to the fathers in our country.  I was more specifically moved by the description he had of his own father.

“a myth to me, both more and less than a man.”

This reminded me of a special prayer request I had from a child this week.  I’ve been leading a 4th grade Sunday Morning small group, while trying desperately to recruit some new ones, and in my group I pass out prayer cards.  I tell the kids that if they’d like me to pray for them about something, then to fill out the little card and give it to me before they leave.  About 1/2 of the kids do it and most of those cards are for sick dogs and cats (which I do pray for!)  One particular prayer this week, was on a card without a name and it simply read:

“Please pray that my Dad will call me this week.”

As we celebrate our fathers, and as we let our families celebrate us as their fathers; take the time to find a kid that is waiting for their Dad to call.  Remind them that there is a Father that loves them more than any earthly father could.  Or you could take the time to tell them you’re proud of them.  Not sure what to tell them you’re proud of?  Just tell them you’re proud of them.  Makes no difference if you have the details.  Just make the choice to make a big difference in their life.

Happy Father’s Day!

If you’re just now finding this post, please don’t think I’m being negative.  We have recently added Elevate Jr. to our Early Childhood way of teaching, and I’ve detailed earlier how we are using it, as well as what I love about the changes.  Today I would like to simply address what we have found lacking with Elevate Jr.

I believe that there is no such thing as a perfect curriculum.  Just as there is no perfect person, church, or children’s pastor.  I do not expect these things to be changed, but I am simply trying to share the things that have been limiting about our Elevate Jr. transition.

• The take home portions are very, very, very weak.  We spent a great amount of time looking into First Look, by the Rethink Group; and when you compare Elevate Jr. with First Look only taking into account the take home ingredients it isn’t even close.  Overall, this is the biggest weakness with Elevate Jr..
  • There needs to be more ORANGE elements with the curriculum to provoke spiritual conversations at home.  I would love to see take-home DVD’s, refrigerator magnets outlining the 8 week series (this is a First Look thing), take-home songs, and a more beefed up family devotional.
  • I also wish Elevate Jr. had a more assessable website for families to interact with the current series from home.
• The music portions are weak.  The songs are very professionally arranged, and the audio is fine; I just think there are plenty of current songs that kids hear on radio stations and with their parents that would be a better fit.
  • On that note, I would love to send families home with music from the series so they could play it in the car and around the house.  I think music is quite possibly the best take home product for kids to continue spiritual conversations at home.
• Maybe this is the case with future series on Elevate Jr., but I wish the activity portions were more age specific.  We are using Elevate Jr. with our 3 year old children through Kindergarten, and it would be nice if there were a few 3 year specific activities.  I know that Elevate does this with the Elementary versions, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

This has been the most uncomfortable post I’ve done in months.  I really hate to point out the negative things, but felt that it was important to state what wasn’t working.  Overall, we are all very happy with the change and I’m looking forward to what this change mean for our church and families.  I’ve already had testimonials from parents about the excitement their kids are showing about attending church, and from parents that are impressed that their little ones can retell the lesson so well.

If you haven’t already please take the time to look over my previous posts about Elevate, and if you are using Elevate or Elevate Jr. please joing the conversation.  We need your voice!

I’ve introduced the change we’ve made to Elevate Jr. earlier this week, and yesterday I talked about how we are using Elevate Jr.

Today let’s tackle What I like about Elevate Jr.:

• It’s consistent.  It has long been a challenge to maintain a consistent level of teaching across all classrooms.  I needed something that would guarantee me that children were all going home with a biblical truth that was consistently taught to each child in each classroom.  I cannot overstate this enough, seriously.
• It has forced our classrooms into a schedule.  I’ll be the first to admit that it has been a major weakness of our Early Childhood departments that we have not had a consistent schedule.  Some teachers were spending 45 minutes on crafts, while others were skipping it all together.  Elevate Jr. has been awesome at making it easy to walk down the 3 year old hallway, and realistically know what should be happening in each classroom.  It is going to hold our teachers much more accountable to doing what needs to be done and not getting bogged down in one area or another.
• No More Snack Time!  There just isn’t time for it anymore, because Elevate Jr. has made our classrooms more deliberate about every minute of the classroom experience.  Elevate Jr. has allowed us to abandon the expensive, lunch-ruining snack tradition that exists in so many different Early Childhood areas.  This change alone has scared away a few leaders.  I’ve learned that snack time was being used as a crutch for poor planning…and that is an entire separate conversation.
• The video portions are very well done.  I cannot state this more clearly to my Children’s Pastor friends: NOT all video materials are created equal.  Elevate Jr. is very well done.  The colors are vivid and sharp, the set designs are wonderfully created, the actors are lively and captivating to the kids, and the DVD itself is super easy to use.
• It’s not a video-only curriculum.  While the video elements are key to teaching the lesson each week, it is not the sole presentation of the biblical elements.  My group leaders still have to prepare, lead, and become engaging storytellers.  This is a fact that I’ve had to demonstrate this to my existing leaders, so that they will not be misguided in their belief that we are asking our televisions to teach our kids on Sunday Mornings.
• It gives leaders the opportunity to put more time into building relationships with the kids.  Elevate Jr. is great at taking the main teaching burden off my teachers (although it is still there in a smaller form), and instead puts the emphasis on what happens during classroom activity, main point activity and other elements that include teacher-child interaction.

If you use Elevate Jr., what am I missing?  Anything that you love about it that I forgot?