Archive for the ‘Conferences’ Category

Another success in Mattoon

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Tanner in front of the beautiful Mattoon church

We had another wonderful time at the most recent Kidology to Go in Mattoon, Illinois. Our host church was First United Methodist of Mattoon. This church has quite a history in the area and the building is over 100 years old. The church building is made of stone and looks amazing! Blake was excited to see the old building that looks like a castle because of its unique architecture.

Youth and Children’s Ministry Director Brad Waggoner was a gracious host and several members of his team were on hand to take part in the day’s training. Two other churches sent volunteers as well and we had a good atmosphere in the place. My wife taught her seminar on Engaging a generation in worship for the first time and it went quite well. We also split groups for the first time and offered an elective, so Patsy and I both taught workshops at the same time.

We stayed at one of the volunteers homes where we plugged in Howard our RV and had a couple of fantastic meals and the boys played board games and the Knex and played on their swing set. We thank all those who helped make this Kidology to Go a big success!

Eager learners gathered 30 minutes before start time!

Mattoon, Illinois Kidology to Go

Sunday, August 7th, 2011

Reminder – Kidology to Go scheduled for September 10th in Mattoon, Illinois is just around the calendar corner!! Be sure to reserve your spot today!

Brad Waggoner

We are excited to announce another Kidology to go has been booked for September 10, 2011 in Mattoon, Illinois. Children’s Pastor Brad Waggoner and the Mattoon United Methodist Church will be our hosts for this event.

Mattoon is in central Illinois, near Decatur. Churches near Champaign, Springfield, Peoria, Bloomington and Terre Haute, Indiana take special note of this date and begin making plans to attend this extremely affordable yet quality training event. Be sure to invite your entire volunteer staff! You can register for this Kidology to Go on Kidology.org or by going to this link.

Mattoon First United Methodist Church

If have any questions you can email Marty Martin at marty.martin@kidology.org or Pastor Brad Waggoner at Brad Waggoner at ypbrad@gmail.com and we will get right back to you!

CPC San Diego Recap

Sunday, March 20th, 2011

We had a great time bringing our RV to the annual Kidology get together at the Children’s Pastors Conference in San Diego this past week. What a blast it was to park it right by the bridge going from the Town and Country Resort to where all the local restaurants were located, watching tons of CPC attendees and vendors pass by and wave.

Kidology crew at the RV

Of course several people stopped by to say hi, meet us and take a tour of our RV. CM Connect founder Michael Chanley even took the opportunity to hold our snake Sunset! Of course Sunset, our 4 foot albino ball python, was both a hit and a terror, depending on who you ask. Still I am sure he appreciated the chance to stretch and making it on Michael’s Facebook page!

We met several new friends and made some great contacts for possible future Kidology to Go dates. We also really enjoyed hanging out with a few of the other Kidology employees like Karl Bastian, Daniel Stec, Todd McKeever and Barney Kinard. Later I was able to help “work the booth” for Kidology in the vendor area and take a tour and see some of the other booths and meet up with some old friends like Dave Jamerson of Awana, Matt Guevara (who was once a kid in a Sunday School class I taught back in college), David Laflin and Byron Ragins from Cook Publishing.

Enjoying "real fellowship" at lunch during CPC

The last night of the conference they invited us all to an advanced screening of an amazing movie called Courageous which is due out this fall in theaters. Courageous is made by the same company  (really a church!) that produced Fireproof, and is even better than Fireproof was.

I couldn’t help but leave the auditorium that night with tears in my eyes.

CM Connect founder Michael Chanley with "Sunset"

CM Connect founder Michael Chanley with "Sunset"

All in all it was a very good conference and very encouraging to be around so many great Kidmins!

Kevin Shutterbug talks about CPC and Joshua trees

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

The Martin family recently visited Joshua Tree National Park near Palm Springs, California where Kevin Shutterbug spoke with Patsy about their visit to this park and the upcoming Children’s Pastor conference in San Diego where the Kidology to Go RV will be making a special guest appearance!!

Special thanks to One Way Street for letting The Martin family adopt Kevin during their travels!

Great times at Wichita Kidology to Go

Sunday, November 21st, 2010

Yesterday we held our second Kidology to Go in the great city of Wichita, Kansas and Asbury Methodist Church. Children’s Pastor Jerred Haydock was our host and several other churches from the area sent their staff and volunteers to be part of this fun and encouraging day. We always end each session with a time of questions, answers and idea swapping. It never fails that I get some great ideas through this idea swap meet. Yesterday as we were sharing methods of classroom and behavior management, one of the ladies in the group had a great concept she shared with us. She said she often says “I challenge you to …..” when dealing with a behavior issue at her church. What a great concept!

The whole day was so fun. We loved getting to meet new friends who shared their appreciation for coming and sharing some insights God has shown us over the years of working with kids. Jerred is a great children’s pastor who organized this event with great detail. It is obvious he cares about the kids and families in his church as he takes time on a busy Sunday morning to interact with kids, calling them by name and stopping to address needs that arise. He was also a great host for us and worked hard to make sure we were taken care of, which was very appreciated.

We look forward to working with more churches in the new year, and we are actively looking for host churches in New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California in the first three months of 2011. Give me (Marty) a call at 847-707-7552 to set up a date!