I know, the title sounds unspiritual doesn’t it? “Don’t expect God to do what you won’t do.” Aren’t we supposed to wait on God expectantly? (Psalm 25:5)

As a leader and as a parent I am reminded that not everything is accomplished by prayer. I know, sounds unspiritual again, but I can pray until I am red in the face that my lawn gets mowed but until I get out of the house and behind a lawn mower, it’s not going to get done. I can pray that my budget at work comes together but until I pull out my computer and do a little planning it just won’t come together.

How about situation where we really need God to show up? Our marriages, our soul care, our parenting? I wonder how many times I have continued to beg God for something when the reality was that it was going to take a little work on my part. Sure, I have experienced some water to wine, blind to seeing miracles in my life but most of the time the miracles in my life have been “time delayed” because I

In light of Wednesday’s post on “Get Sick” I would like to follow up today with another unconventional idea…”Throw a Brick!”

As I started to look a little closer at how riots start and how they evolve I was taken back by the remarkable social similarities between riots and revivals. Let’s take a look at how riots begin.

One person Has a Threshold of Zero
They require nobody else to encourage them to start throwing bricks. Spurred on by a social injustice or other issue they abandon their fear of consequences and become the catalyst for change.

Another Person Has a Threshold of One
They need someone else to get things kicked off. They need the person with the threshold of zero and are happy to join in if, and only if, someone else

Someone once said, “You can’t buy experience.” However, you can listen to it for a few minutes! Occasionally the world of children's ministry, or any ministry for that matter, can get a little fuzzy, some would say blurry. My hope in this post is to offer a set of "experience glasses" that will bring a little clarity in an otherwise blurry world of ministry.

Download The Full 45 Minute
Bonus Audio Here

I’m sure we all could have been spared some ministry pain if we had listened to the voice of experience. This bonus audio was recorded live at Orange Conference 2014 and hopefully the content will save you some time, some tears and maybe a few trials as I share the five things I wish someone told me about Kidmin (or any min for that matter) before I got started.

Number 1

I wish someone would have told me that vision, mission and values were not optional but essential.

What Can We Do?

Make sure we have

In order to reignite our passion I think we must first figure out why the flame went out in the first place. Take a  look at the following four passion killers below and what each of us can do to reignite the fire!

Passion Killer Number 1: Familiarity

There is a difference between familiarity and contentment. As the quote says, “Familiarity breeds contempt” but contentment requires focus and purpose. If you know why you exist and what you were designed for then even the most mundane tasks will be a passionate endeavor for you.

Reignite! If familiarity is getting the best of you then rethink your purpose. A renewed passion could be just within your reach.

Passion Killer Number 2: Wrong Company

If you are the perfect picture of health and found yourself in a room sitting next to
someone who has a cold it is more likely that you will catch the cold than they are to
catch health. I hope that makes sense. That’s just simply the way things flow. Bad
company corrupts

Several years ago the rock group Van Halen had an interesting line item or stipulation in their contract. As a result of that one particular item, infamously known as article 126, it labeled the band as demanding, arrogant and difficult to work with.

The line in the contract involved M & M’s. The language stipulated that there was to be a bowl of M & M’s backstage with all of the brown ones removed. Your mind may have jumped as quickly as mine to “You have got to be kidding me!” David Lee Roth, lead singer of Van Halen, said it took “nine eighteen-wheeler trucks” (1) to carry all their gear from venue to venue. As you can expect, the band could not check everything as it was being set up so they decided to check one thing, the M & M bowl.

According to Roth article 148 of the contract said, “There will be fifteen amperage voltage sockets at twenty-foot spaces, evenly, providing nineteen amperes." (2) Then in article 126 right there in the middle of the contract with all of the technical speak it read, "There will be no brown M & M's in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation." (3)

So, why no brown M & M’s? Answer, For