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Posted: 30 June 2004 at 7:29am | IP Logged

My my crazy thing this year for the kids is to help them raise money for their Royal Ranger & Missionette program for next year.  I got one of those five gallon plastic water bottles.  I have passed out flyers and made announcements that if they can fill the bottle up half way with change I will shave off my beard & moustache.  If they can fill it up 3/4 of the way they can cut off my pony tail.  And if they fill it up I will let THEM shave me bald on our opening night.  They have 10 weeks to do this before we have our opening night.  I am hoping to raise enough money to pay for registration and uniforms for those in the community that can't afford it.  I have heard word that the senior Pastor is determined to make sure that bottle is full.

Scott

Posted: 30 June 2004 at 4:51pm | IP Logged

I at least had some help for this one...

Our church was raising money to send pairs of chickens to some of our churches in Sierra Leone.  So, I came up with the brainy idea that the (all girl!) high school small group I was leading would sell eggs to members of the congregation.  For $2, we  would crack the eggs on our heads.  For $5, THEY could crack the eggs on our heads.

Somehow I managed to be away on the actual Sunday of the event (counselling at church camp!  I promise!)...  However, by the end of my first Sunday back, I was covered in raw egg.  (And I'll let you figure out what raw egg does in the hot sun! )

Posted: 22 July 2004 at 3:46pm | IP Logged

I just had one of those moments last week at VBS.  We used Saddlebacks' "What's Bugging You" for our VBS theme.  We had a points contest between the guys and the girls.  I had the boys and our youth pastor had the girls.  We totalled points for each day - bible, friends, memory verses etc.  At the end of the day, points were revealed and the "loosing" Pastor got a "bug".  On Friday, the last thing we did was to eat the amount of bugs that we accumalated.  I had to eat 1 (go boys!) and our YP had to eat 3 for going with the girs.

We bought crickets and put 3 crickets each in an ice cube tray and poured white chocalte in them.  The way we made them, you could see the bugs in the bottom of the "ice cube"

Kids and parents are still talking about us eating bugs and 4th-6th grade boys now think that we are "cool" to listen to us.

The coolest thing is that while they were trying to get points so that we would eat bugs, we had 145 kids memorize on average 3-4 verses, bring their bibles, bring friends and were excited about coming to church in 108 degree weather.

Pastor James, Phoneix, AZ

Posted: 22 July 2004 at 3:49pm | IP Logged

I almost forgot....the end result was that 30 kids accecpted Christ as their Savior last week.....Yeah God!!!!!!!

Pastor James,  Phoenix, AZ

Posted: 28 September 2004 at 1:55pm | IP Logged

For years the church ran an Awana program that only included the basics--Game Time. Council Time, and Handbook Time. When I came here, I decided we needed excitement for the kids and make Awana the fun time for kids (my philosophy: gotta get 'em in first in order to reach 'em).

That meant Theme Nights in Awana. So far, I am the only adult who has wholeheartedly supported Theme Nights: I wore pajamas to church, had a clown nose all night, had kids dye and fix my hair, sang "Que Sera Sera" all night, etc.

For Wet n' Wild night though, I was able to persuade my adult and youth volunteers to be targets for water balloons. But I was still the main target, it seemed.  One really good shot at my profile even knocked my eyeglasses off.

Posted: 29 September 2004 at 10:01am | IP Logged

Slime time - we had a special incentive Sunday - the child who brought the msot friends got to go up in a large elecrtical truck and slime me. Oh nice!

another shot:

Even teeth got slimed!

Being a children's pastor is the greatest job ever!

Posted: 20 January 2005 at 8:02pm | IP Logged

You all ain't got nothing on me. It has been several years since I did this and the kids (and adults) are still talking about it even today!!

I get real disgusting when it comes to meal times at our annual summer camp. I have been know to do some pretty gross things with my food (and other's). As we were eating spaghetti, green beans, salad, breadsticks and cherry surprise one night, many children were watching my antics and were getting really keyed up. One girl decided she was going to try and gross me out. So...she took a small bite of each of the items on her plate and began to salivate a mixed buffet of food inside her mouth. As she processed all the food items into a liquid consistency she opened her mouth to show me before swallowing. She then asked me to "top that." I asked her to do it once more and show it to me. When she did it the second time and opened her mouth to show me the mushed up food, I took a spoon over to her and scooped up the mixture in her mouth and then ate it myself.

It was truly a high moment for me. I gained the crown that night as the grossest ever. I've been Children's Pastor for nine years and that story has passed through the ranks for many great years. As I think about it now I think, "how could I have ever done that?" I'm a big kid at heart and I love kids so much. They bring out the BEST in me!!!!

Top that folks!!

Posted: 21 January 2005 at 9:40am | IP Logged

kidologist - would I do it AGAIN!??? The atmosphere would have to be there but I can definitely say that there's always potential!! Just a couple of years ago at the same camp the kids (who were not there to witness that event, but had only heard about it through camp stories) asked me to try and top that stunt. The best I could do at the moment was to find the sweaty bald head of our Camp "Doc" and transfer my plate of spaghetti to the top of his head and "mouth it off" without utensils. Verdict from the kids...pretty gross, but it didn't top it!

What a blessing that year was. Out of 90 campers there were 36 decisions for Christ, 19 being for salvation. When we returned 15 were baptized at our Camp Service. Did that happen because of the spaghetti stories? For sure, NOT...but it does help when children can see you as a friend first and someone that desires to have fun with them!!

Posted: 21 January 2005 at 11:09am | IP Logged

I've been a Sunday (Above), A Taco (Hot sauce burns the skin!), 10 Doz eggs over the head.  Hair every color, I dressed as a clown for a week - went to Mc D's with my kids and a kid that wasn't mine gave me a dollar! - Did a clown time with illusions at a school too! 

Posted: 25 January 2005 at 10:59am | IP Logged

I too have done numerous things in the quest to motivate and relate to kids. The scary part is that I would do most of them even if I wasn't a kid's pastor.  Probably the same reason that I buy toys and blame it on research for children's ministry. ha ha

Anyways, I once ate an apple that had been roasting on a dashboard for a week at summer camp. It raised $50 for missions in about 30 seconds. I've never seen kids give up money so fast. It tasted like sour apple pie. I've been whipped cream pied so many times i can't count.

My grossest was at summer camp one year. We had a race between four counselors. I had to eat a jar of baby food, a tin of sardines, a jar of pickled pig's feet and a dog biscuit. I don't think i have ever tasted anything as as the pig's feet and the dog biscuit was stuck in my teeth for two days no matter how much brushing.

I LOVE CHILDREN'S MINISTRY!!!!!

Posted: 22 February 2005 at 12:06am | IP Logged

O.k. Guys and Gals,

Have you ever encountered a parent who feels this kind of thing is teaching "disrespect"? That we are allowing the children to be disrespectful to us?

If so,  how did you respond?

Posted: 18 March 2005 at 12:23pm | IP Logged

How do people deal with bad reactions to your child-friendly behavior?

Posted: 23 March 2005 at 2:51pm | IP Logged

I love kids so much! I love their honestly and open hearts and minds! I'm a big kid fan and cherish any time I get to be with them in Sunday School, Preteen Club, and camp.

The down side with my job is that I don't get to really interact with the kids that much. I'm more the administrator, which to be honest I'm not the biggest fan of. I love the volunteers and I love to see them with the kids, but I yearn to interact with the kids as well.

Posted: 09 May 2005 at 5:15pm | IP Logged

We had a bad candy club in my old church.  I would search the city high and low for the worst candy in the world (literally candy from all over the world).  This stuff was disgusting.  There was something called salted plums and when I read the sodium content, I nearly passed out. There was something like 9000 mg of sodium.  Then, there were the seaweed wrapped sesame candies that tasted like rotten fish.  (Ooh, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little!)  We did this for two years, but the kids loved it.  We would all taste the candy together and then rank it 1 to 10.  It was very cool.  One time we even spent 45 minutes (of a 3 hour program) to find out just how long it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Roll Pop.  Ahhh, good times!

Evan Abla

Posted: 19 May 2005 at 6:21pm | IP Logged

I mentioned being doused with ketchup. Karl saw the pic in my office and said I should post it, so here it is.

Posted: 19 June 2006 at 9:14am | IP Logged

I got slimed - that wasn't so bad. It was my relationship to my senior pastor that was put in jeopardy...

We told the kids that for every $100 they brought in for our mission project (Buying water purifcation machines for another country) I, their loving CP, would get a bucket of sludge (mostly oatmeal and food coloring) dumped over my head. It was VBS, and by Thursday night we had about $850. Without consulting him first, I told the kids that if we raised $1000, our senior pastor would get slimed to. The look on his face when I said this was worth it. In the end, I had 10 buckets of "sludge" dumped over my head and our SP got about about 25-30 gallons of leftover sludge dumped on his head. He's a really good sport.