So I’m a slow reader.  Mostly because I have a hard time blocking the noise that is a family with 3 little girls.   Anyhow, I’m reading a book called “Think Orange” by Reggie Joiner.   It presents kind of a whole new way of thinking about the church.  I’ve got to go now (re: the 3 little girls).  In the very near future, I’ll post more about the Orange concept.Read More →

Don’t take my translation as totally the greatest,  but it’s a start.feel free to suggest other possible re-phrases. 1. Come, thou Fount of every blessing,tune my heart to sing thy grace;streams of mercy, never ceasing,call for songs of loudest praise.Teach me some melodious sonnet,sung by flaming tongues above.Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,mount of thy redeeming love. Translation: Come, you Source of every Blessing,(Bring into Harmony) my heart to sing your grace;Your streams of mercy never stop,make me want to praise you without holding back.Teach me a new beautiful song,sung (or given) to me through the Holy Spirit given from Heaven.Praise you for JesusRead More →

I might step on toes with this, but I was worshiping in my church on Sunday and was wondering what kids think when a hymn comes along and the words include fetter and thee, thou and thine.   So I think I am going to try to translate a hymn… see where things lead.   The song was “Come Thou Fount”.   BTW – initially I had “Come Now Fount”  so that shows my point exactly…. I can’t even remember the title because… to me…  it I can’t understand the lyrics/title, I’m not going to remember it. So as Brad Stein says,  “Put yer helmet on!”Read More →

As we were moving last week, I found a CD from our past (The Bradford Archive).   I picked up Young Warriors “It’s Our Turn Now” years ago and loved the “Throw Up Song”.  So I decided to spin the 1st two songs in children’s church last week.  It was like the song was new all over again.  Our group of 13 kids were dancing and grooving to these songs long ago lost at our house.   You should check this CD out….. it’s a lot of fun.Read More →

Long time no post. Well this post is to share with you a very funny dude.   His name is Tim Hawkins.  He has many funny (wierd-Al) like songs.  Here’s a youtube clip of a kids rock commercial:Read More →

I found this podcast/blog this morning.  http://www.mic.mypodcast.com/  which is a number of podcasts about various issues relating to autism. most interesting to me was the podcast called:Autism on the Homefront: Parenting Autistics The casters mention research pointing to research that is uncovering that autism has genetic links.  So things like Chelation Therapy (which is to try to remove heavy metals from the body) probably aren’t going to be to affective if autism spectrum disorders aren’t caused by environmental issues.Read More →

Here’s an interesting story of a 13 year old autistic boy who was banned (even to the point of a restraining order) from church. That led me to another find Autism and Faith: A Journey into Community which I would love to get a look at. Looking at my church, I wonder what would happen if a boy like Adam Race and his parents showed up to worship. I would hope that the reaction wouldn’t be the same. But does my (or your) church have a plan for providing for the needs of a boy like Adam? Would it be inclusive or would you provideRead More →

I have tons more inbound blogging than outbound. I have like 100 feeds I check for updates everyday, but I post (or even comment) maybe once a month. hey we’re half way through 200-8… time to start new… (8= new beginnings right?) I will try to blog at least once a week and see where things go.Read More →

Cultivating a Cutting-Edge Children’s Church From: childrensministry, 1 day ago | View | Upload your own Pre-conference workshop by Dick Gruber and Jason Rhode entitled, Cultivating a Cutting-Edge Children’s Church offered live at the 2008 National Children’s Ministries Leadership Conference. For more details regarding this workshop and for links to additional resource materials and the slides referenced during the sessions, visit www.cmuo.com/workshops/kidschurch SlideShare LinkRead More →