We’re in the middle of the AI revolution. Some say it’s bigger than the printing press.  It seems just about everyone is scrambling to figure out how to use it.  I am a relatively late adopter.  I’ve never used ChatGPT, mainly because I’m being obstinate.  But when I got an invite to the early version of Gemini, I decided to jump in.

t was Saturday night around 8pm.  We’d just finished dinner and were watching TV.  Suddenly, I felt a rumbly in the tumbly and got to see dinner all over again. 

I didn’t know if I had a bug, it was a fluke, or I was just stressed out.  It didn’t really matter in the moment because one thing was for sure: I couldn’t do kids church the next morning. 

So, you just got back from the big conference and you’re brimming with ideas and excitement.  You can’t wait to get home and inform your team about all the changes you’re going to make. 

First of all, I love your excitement.  Second, chill. 

One of your most valuable resources in your ministry is your volunteers.  Especially in kidmin.  You can’t be in two places at once, so you need other people to get the job done.  And once you find those people you want to keep them in place. 

I have a kidmin secret and it’s bigger than I hate crafts (link).  I hate productions.  Rather, I hate leading them. Even with this deficiency and being very vocal about it with my leaders and parents, I still got asked (more like told) to do it. 

An essential part of kidmin is connecting with kids.  I’ve written a lot about connecting with parents and even more about volunteers but never connecting with kids.  I guess it’s because it’s intuitive for me and for many of the leaders I interact with regularly.  But now that I work with mainly adults, I see that not every adult connects as easily as I do. 

So, here are 4 things I do to connect with kids every time I’m with them.