I’m planning to build a light-weight, portable set for our children’s church. Portable and Light-Weight usually don’t go hand-in-hand with the words Sturdy and Long-lasting but that’s what I’m going for.

This is the scale model I created from office supplies to see how everything would look before I started spending money.

It was created to be broken down and packed in a closet each week. Each set of two panels fold back on themselves for transport. Even the steps break down into 7 small boards with no glue or nails.

Instead of building traditional flats I’ll be using hollow core door panels or 2″ Styrofoam depending on which I can get cheaper.

See the photo set of my Children’s Ministry Set Maquette on Flickr.

I had the rare opportunity to go to Spain over Thanksgiving week to minister to Missionary Kids (MK’s). Each year the missionaries from all over Southern Europe get together for a traditional Thanksgiving and combine it with an annual business meeting and retreat. The kids tag along and until this year were usually kept busy with games and activities. This year they wanted something different. Most MK’s don’t get to experience any form of child-centered ministry or anything remotely close to what we’d call Kids Church. So Rev. Tony Gryskiewicz, missionary to the MK’s of Southern Europe, made a call to America to see if he could get a Children’s Pastor to come and minister to these children. Continue reading →

After nearly three years producing podcasts under the name Children’s Ministry Monthly, I’ve decided to rebrand the show. “Help! I’m A Children’s Pastor” seems to encapsulate the direction the show has taken almost since the very beginning. CMMonthly has always been a show for folks who are just getting started in kids ministry… or who have found themselves thrust into the ministry almost by accident. My hope is that the new name will attract even more of the folks this show is targeting.

Dropping the “monthly” from the name also allows me to consider producing more than one show per month. Right now I’m considering doing a bi-weekly half-hour format. We’ll see.

So it’s still me, James Kennison, and the same focus… you don’t even have to change anything in iTunes or your RSS feeds. Just keep enjoying the content and consider contributing questions, tips or other feedback.

Update: If you’d like to see a video on this puppet. Click here!

The script for this Sunday’s puppet lesson called for a second puppet character that resembled the first. Since I created the costume for our regular character from scratch, this wasn’t going to be easy or cheap. I started thinking about craft supplies, foam balls for heads, dowel rods for the body, elastic to create tension for the jaw. I even went as far as to look up simple puppet making online. Then I had this idea… why not make myself out of paper?

The first step was to draw the character out in Photoshop. (You can download the finished image as a PDF if you’d like to use it yourself) Then I printed it out on card stock with a color printer. You could just as easily draw your character directly on the paper though. Then I cut it out and cut a slit at the bottom of the black space. I slid a narrow strip of paper up through the slit and attached it with Super Glue to the top edge of the characters bottom lip. Instantly I was able to manipulate the mouth… but I had to use both hands.

I added some tongue depressors to the back for support with Super Glue. I added a short length of rubber band to the back to pull the mouth back up when I pulled down. Then I wrapped the end of the mouth manipulation strip around a bit of Popsicle stick so I could pull it down with one hand using my thumb. And that was it!

Check out the video of the finished puppet so you can see what I’m talking about here.

I’m very pleased with the result. I’ll defiantly be making more of these… and I’m pretty sure Little Scripture Man will become a regular on Sundays.

What do you think? Will you try your hand at making a paper puppet? Shoot me you thoughts in the comments.