My friend Natalie Frisk is back on the podcast and we planned to talk about her new book, A Light to Share, but we ended up talking about so much more. 

Natalie is an author and the Director of Curriculum at Raise Up Faith. She is also one of my favorite kids ministry thought leaders to brainstorm and share ideas with—as you will clearly hear on the podcast today. 

Resourced Mentioned:

Raise Up Faith Curriculum

A Light to Share Book

Raising Disciples Book

Kids Ministry Circle Summer Intensive

My guest today is Ryan Coatney. Ryan wears many hats as pastor, head of a school, and what you may know him for, founder of Cross Formed Kids Curriculum. I’ve talked about Cross Formed Kids many times and it was about time I had Ryan on the podcast. 

I gave Ryan the what feels like impossible task of helping me unpack how to talk about Salvation and present the Gospel story. As you can tell in this episode, I had lots of questions and Ryan so graciously answers them and gives us so many tools to help us better understand how to communicate the Gospel message and what to do afterward. 

Resources Mentioned:

Creating Milestones that Matter Course

Cross Formed Kids Curriculum

Today’s episode is a unique episode well for a unique week. If you are listening to this when it is released, it is the Monday of Holy Week. Approximately 6 days before Easter weekend festivities kick off, of course depending on when those festivities actually begin. 

 Is there a way to make Holy Week less stressful? Is there a way for you to get what you need to get done and actually enjoy Easter weekend with your church family.

I think so. I think it’s possible to calm the chaos.

So hears my pep talk to help you prepare for Holy Week & Easter Weekend. 5 steps you can take to calm the chaos of Easter Week.

I invited Preston Hocker to join me on the podcast today. Preston is a pastor, security advocate, and co-creator of Lead Volunteers latest course, Lead Security. Preston helps us think about security holistically and gives us encouragement and advice on how to cast vision to senior leadership or volunteers to take safety more seriously. 

This conversation is an important one so I hope that you lean in and resist the urge to say, “that would never happen to us” and skip past this episode! 

Resources Mentioned

Lead Security Course

Lead Security Youtube Page

@leadsecurity

One aspect I believe that kids ministry leaders should always be learning and growing in is our ability to teach good theology to kids of all ages. It’s hard and I can attest that I have even grown leaps and bounds in this area and partially because I’ve personally grown in my love and knowledge of God. We can’t teach what we don’t know and believe.  

Over the next couple months, we are sprinkling in episodes that help us grow in knowledge around a specific doctrine or theological conversation and help us grow in practice as we go out and teach our kids and families good theology about a good God. 

To kick this season off, I wanted to invite my new friend Josh Zello on the podcast. I’ve seen Josh launch Jesus Loves Preschoolers, but what I didn’t know is that he has years of experience and education in early childhood. Josh helps us learn new ways to teach our preschool friends the Gospel story in a way that they will understand. 

This is definitely a note-taking episode. I learned SO much and cannot wait for you to hear this episode with Josh. 

Resources Mentioned:

Jesus Loves Preschoolers

@joshuazello

My guest today is Amanda Druffel. Amanda is one of the creators behind Kids Ministry Solutions. Her and her mom create the cutest and most helpful teaching resources for home and church, but she also is on instagram helping us all be more efficient in our work. 

Her helpful tips are suggestions from many years in ministry are helping us all balance home & work life. In our conversation today we talk about balancing it all and how we can work more efficiently to free up our time for our people. 

Resources Mentioned:

1-on-1 Coaching

Kids Ministry Solutions Etsy Shop

@kids_ministry_solutions

Kim Botto is back on the podcast today and we are taking things to the next level. Kim was on the podcast back in 2023 where we talked through building a Special Needs Ministry.

Today, we are talking about her new book, Boundless Hope for Every Child, and what belonging looks like in those unexpected moments on Sunday morning.

Resources Mentioned:

Boundless Hope book

Listen to Episode 38 with Kim Botto

https://kimbotto.com/

Today's episode, I am diving into another one of the 5 Foundations of Kids Ministry: Volunteers!

I am sharing 5 random, yet intentional things you may not be thinking about when it comes to leading a team of volunteers.

It is short and sweet and I think it will be the pep talk we all need in the middle of the Spring semester.

Part of the job of a kids or family ministry leader is to continue to equip and encourage parents to step into their role as disciple-makers. Parents have a million reasons not to participate in home discipleship and we get the incredible opportunity to remind parents there are a million reasons to participate in home discipleship.

My guest today is Vanessa Myers and she is a longtime kids ministry leader and creator of Family Faith Builders. She has created countless resources for family discipleship, kids ministry leaders, and Bible teachers.

We talk about so equipping parents and teachers to teach the Bible. Her latest resource is the perfect gift for the Bible teachers on your team and it is designed to help them get into God’s Word and become better Bible teachers by relying on the Holy Spirit living inside of them and not just a curriculum.  

Resources Mentioned:

Family Faith Builders

Teacher of the Word Resource

It is always bittersweet when the time comes to graduate kids into student ministry, but we know they are ready! In today's episode, I chat with Dan Istvanik all about the big transition from kids to students. Dan is a family pastor, creator of Youth Ministry Hub and on the Next Gen team for the Global Leadership Network. He shares his 30+ years of youth ministry wisdom as we are all gearing up to move kids from one ministry to the next.

Resources Mentioned:

⁠Milestone Masterclass ⁠

Middle Years Life Transitions Article

Youth Ministry Hub