Notice These Posts Have Been Reordered

Please note the posts in this blog have been reordered to a top-down order and grouped all within one month for your convenience. The posts give a better read when the #1 etc. sequence is followed.

These posts are only suggestions you may use at your own discretion.

The guarantee you'll want to hold tight to is quoted here from Psalm 126:6

He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

My own mission is in the "Grandfather's Psalm" 71:18:
 
Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.

Step 1 - The Guidebook

Getting/Keeping Church Kids

I don’t intend to talk down to anyone but the solution is really quite simple and even less costly. It involves understanding what the word “all” means. Now wait, I’m serious… Let me give you a couple sentences the word is used in. Open your Bible and look how the word “all” is used.  Now if you don’t believe the Bible is inspired, and God didn’t mean what He preserved in 2^nd Timothy 3:16, then our discussion is done and Satan has won a fantastic victory over the church. It says ALL SCRIPTURE. That means from Gen to Rev. That’s where we can get our direction, our rules, our building blocks that God will build on.

Let’s use the word in another sentence. Find our word “ALL” in the very next verse. The verse tells us “throughly furnished unto ALL good work”.  Now that ALL would also include singing, digging a well, or computing; for our church, for work, family, and for God-honoring entertainment.

The published manual for my favorite database program has 1293 pages and still has a cd for stuff left out, in the back of the book. There is also a page that gives a website to get the latest updates and errors found in the book.

I look in the back of my KJV and I don’t have any CD or any error correction website… I don’t need it. See, ya have to understand that the same One that put the rainbow in the sky, named all the stars, and keeps count of the hairs on your head, also gave us computers. Don’t take my word for it. John will tell ya.(1:3) His best job is the one He’s placed between our ears.

So let’s do this line upon line  all  decently and in order… Is 28:10 and 1Cor 14:40.

Step 2 - It's In The Timing

Getting/Keeping Church Kids 

Get a watch or wall clock with a sweep second hand. Keep your eyes on that second hand for 3 whole minutes. Now close your eyes and try to visualize what it would look like if the clock stopped even though it was working fine. Then visualize that second hand going backwards.

It did one day long ago. The Bible says so. Do you believe God has the power to stop time and even back it up? The Bible says He backed up time in answer to the prayer of just one man. Don’t take my word for it, check what happened in 2 Kings 20. (I heard somewhere that ten degrees is forty minutes.)

Now Satan will whisper questions in your ear about what happened to the world when it ‘went backwards’ and all sorts of other questions too big for us. You know, it falls in with other questions like ‘Did Adam have a belly button?’, ‘Did trees have some annual growth rings on the first day they were created?’, ‘Could God have created fossils at the same time He created land?’, and ‘Which came first, the chicken or the egg?’. The answer is “Yes. God has more than enough power to do anything He wants, when He wants.” The ten degrees incident and many others chronicled in scripture all give testimony to His power.

Here’s the test question: Do I (that’s me) believe God is still all powerful? Or are things out of control? (or better) Are they out of HIS control? Has the church gone down the drain with no hope of restoration? Careful how you answer. There are forty years worth of sandy graves in a land flowing with milk and honey that contain doubters.

God is anxious for you to take some of His powerful promises to church with you. You may need to apply some of that faith cream to your backbone before it’s all done.

Josh and Caleb saw enemy giants in the new land – but they also saw giant fruits just ready for pickin’.,, and they did!

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Step 3 - Warning !!

Getting/Keeping Church Kids

God has favorites and so does Satan.

Before we move into detailed strategy, I hasten to add a couple warnings.

1. God has some favorites and you must tread lovingly or else dire consequences could come your way. The Bible makes it very clear that Jesus has a very special place in His heart for children. We must guard our words and actions toward them, honoring God and His love and power in their hearing. I can think of a verse that indicates that children have a guardian angel continually standing before God’s throne. We must also guard ourselves and how our testimony is seen by them.

2. Satan has favorites too. His favorite methods to disarm and discourage God’s people were used against Nehemiah and the Jerusalem wall builders (Neh 4-6). They included: Mockery, conspiracy, extortion, compromise, slander, and treachery. Guess what. He’s better at his favorite dirty tricks than he was in Nehemiah’s day.

Whether it’s using a telescope, microscope, stethoscope, or following God’s marching orders, the process is simple… keep your focus on the goal and trust God’s power that created the heavens and every heartbeat.

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Let’s recap where we’ve come so far…

Step 1 tells us God has provided the ultimate how-to manual bursting with lighthouse principles we can use to guide and protect our youth (and their parents also).

Step 2 reminds us of God’s power to make time and a way for you to speak to young fearful hearts of His matchless love to be shared. He hears little prayers and will change the nature of things if He wants to.

Step 3 contains serious warnings about consistent respect for little ones and the ever present weapons of satan and his followers.

grampscurtis@gmail.com

godscomputermanual.com

Step 4 - Appetites

Getting/Keeping Church Kids  

“You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” Hawg wash! It’s really simple. Just put salt in his oats! “It’s harder than eating peas with a knife.” That’s not hard either. Just squash them slightly and eat them like mashed potatoes.

We need to do a bit of market research of those we want to reach. Don’t easily swallow the “’can’t be done!” of others.  

Now I know everyone reading these words will find exception to the characterizations that follow. But for the purpose of this discussion, we’ll go with what’s below…

What Turns On The Following Groups?:

 Youth – computers

            Girls – communication, often about fashion or fraternization.

            Boys – competition and risk-taking, either in sports, or simulated combat

Parents – computing at work, and raising a family in safety

Pastors – healthy physical and spiritual church growth

Retired – to not be forgotten with all their unused hugs and nagging glut of spare time

Teachers – see that technology is only a tool in the hands of creative inquiring youth

An Appetizer Of Things To Follow:

I stood in front of a class of children with a junk computer keyboard minus a few keycaps. “How many of you like computers?” The room went spastic with enthusiastic affirmatives and hand waving. I held my keyboard high and asked, “Isn’t she a beauty?” A few ‘no’ responses otherwise silence.

My explanation followed with lots of eye contact. “Do you know that God thinks this keyboard is beautiful? Yes He does. Let me show you why.” I asked two students to come forward and hold each end of the keyboard. “Now we’re going to have a little contest. One of my two helpers is going to pick a key and the other helper will try to name something about Jesus Christ that starts with that letter. And then the other helper will do the same. We’ll see how far we can go. Understand?”

I didn’t foresee the problem we soon found ourselves in. All the other FIRST GRADE STUDENTS were jumping in their seats, waving their hands, wanting to take a crack at a few letters.

Shortly, I told the class that any time we use some object to help tell others about our wonderful God, it’s beautiful. The frosting on the cake was when three of the students wanted to know where they could get an old keyboard and play the same game with their friends.

(note: cut the cord off and clean the keyboard before handling.)

There are at least six lessons you can teach preteens with that junk keyboard.

The point is, we need to be really in tune with what our ‘audience’ wants, not just assume they should like what we like.

 Psalms 71:18

Step 5 - Turbo Teaching

Getting/Keeping Church Kids

As we exchange lessons and lingo with others it’s important to get a good baseline of the goal. Turbo Teaching goes far beyond the teacher – student transfer. No matter if it’s two research scientists or youngin’s in a sand pile; the real requirement is the same: a teacher teaches a teacher.

Let’s try that again…

A Teacher chooses tools and techniques best fit for the student to understand and probably act on. This is the popular understanding of teaching, but is not Turbo Teaching.

 Turbo Teaching begins with the mindset that the ‘learner’ is actually a teacher in training. There are good examples in scripture for this approach. My favorite is 2^nd Timothy 2:2.

And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

The apostle Paul directs a young minister, Timothy, in the science of teaching. Look at the verse again… Can you see the 5 different types of people mentioned? The final goal stated is, “who shall be able to teach others also.”

What we pass on to others must be heart-felt so that our light (God’s goodness) won’t fade. We must teach the lesson AND teach the tools so they’ll teach and reach where we cannot.

Psalms 71:18

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Step 6 - Just Junk

Getting/Keeping Church Kids - Just Junk

I’ve found beginning with computer junk is an easy start. In your neighborhood or church youth group announce you’re going to literally tear up a few computers, and that you’ll supply the screwdrivers and pizza or burgers. All you need are a couple helpers for an hour – nothing complicated – no strings attached.

As the parts are being removed and put in respective piles call attention to the difference in the parts. There’s no need to use technical terms or brain surgery comments, Maybe display an assortment of the different kinds of wires and cables it takes to operate a computer system.
 

The lesson to be repeated clearly is the DIVERSITY of wiring (as just one of many examples) yet they all act as a team. Each is designed with specific tasks in mind. Is one wire more important than the other? No. Not any more than the players on a football team or in the school marching band.
 

Carry the diversity lesson over to God’s people. We are all different for reasons God knows best. We are given a good diversity amid teamwork in 1st Corinthians 12:11-25 and other references.

Note:
1. When delving inside a computer make certain it is not and cannot be plugged in.
2. Use caution with metal parts that probably have sharp edges.
3. Store the parts for important uses later.
4. It’s wise to wash hands often and refrain from immediate thumb-sucking.

Psalms 71:18

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