D6 Blog
How Do You Stay in The Game When Life or Ministry is Hard
Ministry is wonderful and can also be hard. Over the past year, I’ve spoken with many children’s ministry leaders who feel isolated and overwhelmed. Recently in a kid’s ministry Facebook group, leaders were sharing that they rarely had the opportunity to participate in small groups or even Sunday worship with adults. They longed for an opportunity to sit with other leaders and share ideas, encouragement, and stories. In one of these groups, I asked, “Anyone want to do a virtual coffee date?”...
Why Your Team Needs to Break Away From the Daily Grind
With so many pressures all weighing in on you at the same time, how could it be even possible to break away? It might seem like taking a few days away from the office would cause everything to crash down, but maybe this time is exactly what you need for your team to...
What I Want My Sons to Know About Their Value and Worth
My friend Samantha Krieger just wrote a post called What I Want My Daughters to Know About Beauty & Worth. I recommend you read her post and subscribe to her blog. She is one of the best writers I know and you don’t want to miss what she has to say, especially for...
Six simple words from a six-year old boy preached a sermon today
Today, as we were listening to the sermon at church, my 6-year-old son heard the speaker say the word “sin.” I whispered in his ear and asked him if he knew what sin was. Now we’ve had many discussions about the basics of the gospel, including sin, but I wanted to...
How to Create a Better Foundation for Lifetime Change
You have set goals, made promises, and worked to change, but unfortunately, you find yourself in the same place day after day. Why do we get stuck in a rut, repeating the same mistakes despite a true desire to be different? What if our thoughts hold the key to create...
How Do You Respond When You Fail or Mess Up?
It was not my finest moment. We were running behind on Tuesday evening. Kristen had one of the four boys and I had the other three. For whatever reason, the boys didn’t understand that we were late and we needed to be in the car 10 minutes ago. Kristen called my...
What Does it Mean to “Welcome” a Child?
What does it mean to “welcome” a child? Then they came to Capernaum. While Jesus was in the house, He asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had been arguing with each other which of them was the greatest. Sitting...
4 Stories of Messy Leadership (And Why You Need It)
There was a time in your life when someone gave you the opportunity to try what you are currently doing. Maybe they saw a glimmer of hope or maybe you just asked to help, but someone opened the door to messy leadership and allowed you the opportunity to fail. In...
How to Fight the Good Fight and Finish Well
In December, I started a series on “non-marriage verses” that have most impacted my life and marriage. In Part one I shared from 1 Timothy 1:15 and about Working on the Biggest Problem in my Marriage: Me. In this non-marriage verse, Paul shared that he is the chief...
Children and Worship
The other day, my son and I were at a community center that had, as part of the building, a small room called the “Children’s Chapel.” Inside the room were a few instruments (mostly drums), a number of boxes that had Bible stories inside of them, and several benches...
Teaching Your Children How to Lose
My daughter wasn’t crying because she lost the spelling bee. She was crying because she got knocked out in the second round. She’s smart. That’s her thing. So missing the word tofu embarrassed her. To make it worse, she knew every word after that. The tears started...
Why WE, the parents, need discipleship at home
The other day I sat down and wrote out a list of all the things that “needed” to be done. The list felt immeasurably long and I quickly felt overwhelmed. I couldn’t even figure out where to start because the needs all felt pressing and demanding of my attention. I...
How to Have a Successful Family Service
Imagine the entire church family coming together to worship God. Both young and old, standing shoulder to shoulder with the same teaching and shared experience. Creating a family service that appeals to all generations is possible. With a little planning and a lot of...