JamieDoyle(dot)com

In past posts, I have mentioned a guy named, Carl Lindelien (Pastor Carl or “Cowboy” Carl to some). He has been a mentor of mine for many years. He is in the hospital – currently in the ICU and He needs your prayers.

Here is a link to his Caring Bridge Site if you want to know His latest condition.

Here’s a brief bio of Who Carl is and his accomplishments: He started in children’s ministry back when few churches even considered a children’s pastor as a viable ministry. He was my children’s pastor when I was a kid and took me under his wing.

He went on to produce children’s ministry music and write children’s church curriculum.

Would you please keep him in your prayers?

My nugget for the night – Ministry should be an adventure… and it will be if you don’t know what you’re doing. 90% of everything I have ever done in Children’s Ministry are things I have never done before and it has been a blast. You would agree with me in the statement that not everything that you get to do is fun, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Every pastor I have ever worked for has presented me with unique opportunities and challenges (perhaps in later posts I will share with you some of the humorous stories). Every parent, good or bad, has helped me learn what it means to communicate to real adults. Each time I have stood before a group of kids to teach, stretches me to be better at what I do.

What’s over the next hill, around the next corner, on the other side of the field, beyond the forest, in that classroom, in the doorway to the pastor’s office, on the other end of the phone, laying in the hospital bed?

As I said in my last post, I would give some details about my latest project. For the past few years I have been speaking at conferences and seminars, making my resources available. I have been looking for an effective and low maintenance means by which I could make my resources available online. I really didn’t have the time or the money for a storefront and packing and shipping these items out.

But I have found the answer: Down loadable books! I am starting to make my books down loadable at my own online bookstore. What does this mean? It means that you can start to have access to the resources I have written and published over the years, instantly as downloads – you can use a credit or debit card and because I don’t have to publish the books, the are offered at a cheaper price!

Currently I have uploaded my book “Teaching Kids To Give Vol. 1” as the first item for just $8.00 (ususally $10 at conferences).

More will follow… My other “Teaching Kids To Give”, The “Incredible Object Lessons” books, the “Adding Flash To Your Lessons” books, the “Puppet” book and my 13 week Curriculum complete with PowerPoint and take-home bulletins!

Yep, this is a shameless plug for my resources – but I really do hope to get some resources in your hands, and that you will find it a blessing.

Hit this link to my online bookstore. I will let you know when more items become available.

Hey friends – yep, I’m still around. You may even see me on Kidology once in a while, adding my comments to the posts in the network forums. If you haven’t joined yet – please do! Wow… Feruary of 2007 is the last time I posted anything to this blog. So, at least I’m not a year behind. But, man, a lot has happened in the last 10 months. As of Apil of 2007, I am no longer at my church – I am a Children’s Pastor in transition! If you would like to dialogue with me personally about that, I am open to it. Just e-mail me at Jamie@JamieDoyle.com

This has, of course, in no way caused me to lose my passion for reaching children and training leaders. So, I have begun a new project in the midst of this transitional time – But, I will blog about that in the next post. Hope to hear from some of you!

Recently we have been activating a new philosophy in ministry and it’s working… at least for us. We started looking through the eyes of the average churchgoer to see what they see when they look at our ministries – how do they view it and why? We saw that we looked desperate: Our recruitment method was to start calling people on the phone and saying “Hey, If you could help us out – that would be really great… any chance?” we would get reluctant “yeses” but only because they felt sorry for us. I decided to take it up a notch. Our current team began to draft job descriptions of the positions that we needed to fill. We put together sharp sign-up materials with – get this – requirements to be met. We started giving the perception that this ministry is valuable and you should be a part of it.

I thought about investors. If some guy showed up and handed me a sheet of paper and said, “Hey, I’m trying to get people to invest with my firm – here’s a little photo-copy of our information… what do ya say? Can you help me out here?” You or I would laugh out loud and tell the guy to get lost! But if some guy showed up with a portfolio of information that was top notch and said “I would love it if you would look through this packet – you’ll see that we are the top firm in this area. Check the list of requirements and see if you qualify…” the first thing we would do is open it up… find the list of requirements and see if we qualify.

What are you doing to add value to your ministry?

I have just finished reading a great book by children’s entertainer and author, Samuel Patrick Smith or Sammy Smith, as he has become known. Here is the title and the description form his website: