Latitude in conjunction with ReadWriteWeb has released research on what children want from their technology. It's a fascinating look at the future from a child's perspective.

My recent project for the Cory Center was What Matters Now in Children's Ministry. While the team that developed this resource are still in conversation about how to further the use of the content and expand it, I've been wondering about a new project: what's next in children's ministry? My first port of call is the New Media Consortium's "Horizon Report."

Several years ago I stood in front of a group of children's ministry volunteers and leaders at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin. For the very first time, I shared my thoughts on how digital kids learned and the challenges ahead for the field of children's and family ministry. One of the big questions from that presentation that has stayed with me over the past six years has been: What if children's ministry became more like a video game than a book? Read more...

Recently our children's ministry team sat down to discuss scope and sequence. Our team creates the majority of the curriculum resources used during weekend services at our three campuses (both written and video), so this discussion was vital to the next stages of our curriculum process. We spent a block of time getting a picture of where kids are today and where kids will be in middle school. This is an important task in the our field! We need to know exactly where kids are and where they will end up. Henry Jenkins, Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT, and a host of colleagues wrote a paper dealing with the subject of 21st Century Skills (which I came across in preparation for our team's scope and sequence meeting). The article discusses several critical skills children should develop. Filed under: Digital Learning, Curriculum | Comments (17)

I'm about to share one of the best kept secrets in children's ministry.

This past weekend, I used the program "Comic Life" to create five different scenarios on obedience as small group discussion starters after talking through the Parable of the Two Sons in Matthew 21:28-31. Did it work?

Is there a reason why the Cory Center has a technology blog for a children's and family ministry website? Find out.

I think the field of children's and family ministry is an incredible place to work and devote my time and energy. But there is one critical area where the field needs to step up: theology.

Can you share the story God is telling and the role you are to play in only 50 words? Try it.

Dean Butterfield reviews KidzMatter's resource, Who's Your Idol - a four week curriculum loaded with videos and images to teach kids about placing God first in their lives.

Children's Ministry can often center around teaching children about the characters of the Bible. But what happens when the plot of these stories become dull and repetitive? How can we break ourselves and our teaching out of familiarity?