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- Advice & Ideas for Pastors, Staff and Leaders
- Building a Better Church Website
- Christian Education ~ Ideas and Advice
- Green Jesus
- How to Be a Successful Teacher
- Ideas for Changing the Church
- Neil on the Loose
- Neil's "Brain" Articles
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- Tech Tips for Church Staff (and you)
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List of 25 Last Posts
- Ten Characteristics of a Healthy Youth Ministry
- Tashlikh -A New Year’s Ritual
- Rethinking Youth Ministry
- O that crazy perfect Teen Brain
- What the Pastor Shouldn’t Say
- Installing a “Fav” icon in your church website
- Problems with Pastoral Prayers
- How to open many websites with one click
- The Rising Cost of Driving to Church
- Memories, the Science of Commitment, and Rebalancing Teaching vs Worship
- The Problem with Teenage Sunday School Class
- The Christian Athiest (and online church)
- Performing Church Cleanup
- “Priming” -the science behind Sunday School
- Good Stories Really Do Get Inside Your Head
- Scanning the Congregation for Malware & Trojans
- More Ways to Cut the Church’s Utility Budget
- The Positive Effect of Even “Some” Attendance
- *Sigh* Quality Control (lacking) in the Church
- #4 – Great Teachers Lead Great Reading Sessions
- #3 – The Classroom Culture of Great Teachers
- #2 – Great Teachers Set High Expectations
- #1 – How to Get 6+ More Hours of Sunday School
- Wind vs Solar, and other energy saving strategies
- How to Add “Live Chat” to your Church Website
Category Archives: Christian Education ~ Ideas and Advice
Ten Characteristics of a Healthy Youth Ministry
This link takes you to one of the best written pieces about youth ministry I’ve read in a long time: http://kendadean.com/636/what-are-the-top-10-characteristics-of-a-healthy-youth-ministry/ “Top 10 Characteristics of a Healthy Youth Ministry” I don’t know anything about Kenda Dean, other than she does youth … Continue reading
Tashlikh -A New Year’s Ritual
In my church, we are distributing stones on New Year’s Day worship and encouraging members to “throw stones” in the tradition of Tashlikh for the New Year. This could also be a good youth or children’s activity. Here are my … Continue reading
Rethinking Youth Ministry
I ran across the ‘Rethinking Youth Ministry’ blog recently and it’s full of interesting thoughts. www.rethinkingyouthministry.com In addition to some good thoughts, research and ideas, my biggest take-away from their site was that there are many veteran youth workers and … Continue reading
Memories, the Science of Commitment, and Rebalancing Teaching vs Worship
This post is one in a collection of continuing posts about Brain Research, Memory Formation, and what teachers and pastors need to know about both. ———– The latest brain and memory research continues to underscore the importance of Sunday School … Continue reading
The Problem with Teenage Sunday School Class
Not for the faint of heart… I’m going to take a HUGE SWIPE at traditional Youth Sunday School here. (a traditional program into which I have put decades of work) And some of you aren’t going to like it. Some … Continue reading
“Priming” -the science behind Sunday School
This post is going to get around to the reasons WHY Sunday School and youth groups really are IMPORTANT. But instead of “just another exhortation,” I’m going to briefly describe the SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH that supports this conclusion! Malcolm Gladwell’s latest bestselling book “BLINK” … Continue reading
Good Stories Really Do Get Inside Your Head
This past year, Princeton neuro-scientist Lauren Silbert put herself in an fMRI and recorded her neural patterns while she recounted a VIVID STORY from her personal experience. Then she put volunteers in the fMRI, played back the story over headphones, … Continue reading
The Positive Effect of Even “Some” Attendance
Even some attendance by children & teens can be the difference between being churched and unchurched as an adult. This was the intriguing conclusion from Barna Research’s 2009 poll of church/unchurched Americans. “… the study shows that most American adults recall … Continue reading
Myth-busting in the Church
Hopefully you’ve seen the TV show? Mythbusters tests (and usually explodes) long-held myths and urban legends. I wonder what the test results would be when they took on our “friendly, relevant, uplifting, and compelling” church services? Or what the test result … Continue reading
Teaching with Software in the Rotation Model
[Note: Many of you reading this blog already know about my work with software and the Rotation Model for Sunday School, but I've discovered that some do not! Therefore, this brief introduction....] I originally started experimenting with software in my … Continue reading
Confessions of (an Old) Youth Minister
This article posted at http://sundayresources.net/neil/2010/02/18/confessions-of-a-youth-minister/ I’ve been leading youth groups in one way or another for over 30 years. Started when I was 17 helping out with the Jr. High group in my church. For many years, I thought I … Continue reading
It’s Not Hype …the Brain Research behind multimedia
The Brain Research Behind the Importance of Teaching with Interactive Multimedia an article by Neil MacQueen originally posted at www.sundaysoftware.com with implications for teachers and preachers This article summarized the book “Brain Rules” by Dr. John Medina, a developmental molecular … Continue reading