Many churches offer “come & go events” in spring. Lots of them! Easter breakfast. Mother’s Day teas and Father’s Day donut gatherings after services. Graduation and Confirmation receptions. Sunday school staff meet & greets.
Honoring members in this way is a good idea. But how could you step the value up from merely good to great, [...]
By Jane Fryar
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Posted in Encouragement, Encouraging Volunteers, Graduation, Lent/Preparing for Easter, Ministry, Visitors
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Tagged assimilation, Encouragement, Father's Day gift, Graduation, Mother's Day, Sunday School, Volunteers|
February 24, 2010 – 1:19 pm
Christians from many different traditions use the weeks and days leading up to Easter as a time to prepare our hearts to celebrate Easter with joy. As we journey through Lent, I like to spend quiet time reflecting.
This year, I find my thoughts focused on what I do and do not have. Most people at [...]
By Anne Conway
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Posted in Christian Worker, Easter, Lent/Preparing for Easter, Men's Ministry, Pastor, Women's Ministry
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Tagged Christian, Easter, Easter preparation, Lent, men's ministry, Pastoral Ministry, Women's Ministry|
February 11, 2010 – 10:58 am
C. S. Lewis may have been the first to tell about the little boy who was asked what God is like. The boy responds in words like these: “God’s the sort of fellow who goes around looking for someone who’s having fun—and tries to stop ’em.”
This picture of God, mistaken though it is, nonetheless captures [...]
By Jane Fryar
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Posted in Devotions, Easter, Free Resources, Lent/Preparing for Easter, Ministry, Sermon Ideas
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Tagged Care and Comfort, devotion, Easter, Encouragement, Fat Tuesday, Lent, Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Sermon Ideas|
February 9, 2010 – 9:26 am
We love because he first loved us.
Short. To the point. Powerful in its simplicity. First John 4:19 is all that and more. I call attention to this verse as I work with my kindergarten students and as I talk with my own children each year whenever we focus on Valentine’s Day.
Looking around at the flowers, [...]
February 3, 2010 – 11:31 am
It’s a truism in marketing. Customers must see an ad 5–7 times before it has any potential for changing their behavior. That’s why Nike puts its “swoosh” everywhere, positioning it prominently in televised sports and other athletic venues.
It’s also why more and more churches have begun to look for ways to “theme” major celebrations—like the [...]
By Jane Fryar
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Posted in Devotions, Easter, Free Resources, Lent/Preparing for Easter, Ministry, Pastor, Sermon Ideas
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Tagged children's Easter ideas, Easter, Easter preparation, Lent, Lent theme, Lenten theme, Pastor, sermon helps, Sermon Ideas|
Jellybeans have been a part of my Easter celebration for as long as I can remember. As a mother and a kindergarten teacher, I have used the Jellybean Prayer to help my own children and my students prepare to celebrate Easter in a meaningful way. Each color jellybean in the prayer relates to a specific [...]
February 26, 2009 – 12:04 pm
I wrote this devotion a few years ago, after I heard the story of Gajowniczek and Kolbe’s ordeal in Auschwitz and the incredible sacrifice Father Kolbe made for a fellow prisoner he likely didn’t even know!
It seemed to me at the time the story fit perfectly with some of the products CTA sells for Lent, particularly [...]
February 24, 2009 – 7:04 am
With the observance of Ash Wednesday tomorrow, Lent begins. From my perspective in the early childhood classroom, it’s a great time to teach children how much Jesus loved us. Even the very young child can grasp something of the great sacrifice Jesus made for us in dying on the cross.
My students always treat the stories [...]
February 11, 2009 – 11:22 am
Telling the Easter story to kids? Want a tool that will help them remember and repeat it? Want most of all to make it real for them?
Of course, only the Holy Spirit can spark faith and make it grow in human hearts, but we pray that CTA’s My Easter Story Bag will be one new tool that [...]
January 12, 2009 – 11:39 am
Included in our package of items included in the Life. Death. Victory. product line, we offer copy for your bulletin.
Note: You’re welcome to adapt the following announcement to your needs:
Life. Death. Victory.
These three words tell a story, a story of hope and peace. It’s your story, the story of the life God gave you when [...]
