It’s Thanksgiving season in the United States. Most of us will be celebrating with family and friends by having a feast. I’m not sure what your plans are for this week; but, I wanted to invite you to share you’re thoughts:

What are you thankful for this season?

As for me, I’m thankful for being allowed the opportunity to serve you through our free community. It is a huge blessing to know so many of you… and I’m excited about the potential of meeting each and everyone who has joined us here.

To everyone in our community, “thank you,” for all you do. What you are doing makes a huge difference in the lives of children and families. Your service is so very important to the kingdom… I’m honored you would choose CMConnect as a place to share “what’s goin on in your Children’s Ministry.”

If I can do anything to serve you in anyway please let me know.

God bless and Happy Thanksgiving, friends… from my family to yours!

Michael Chanley

International Network of Children’s Ministry (INCM)

Executive Director

CMConnect.org

Founder

Come join us at the Orlando CPC 2012.

• hundreds of breakouts
• 6 general sessions
• powerful worship
• networking
• food (6 meals are included in the registration)

SPECIAL OFFER

In partnership with the International Network of Children’s Ministry (INCM), CMConnect is offering a friends and family discount. Register today to save $75 off the current registration price. (Valid for new registrations only. If you’ve already registered, no worries, you received a great deal, too!)

NEW FOR CPC 2012

Enhanced networking time is being offered through two networking lunches. You will have the opportunity to share lunch with a breakout presenter, a resource provider or with other participants who share your ministry focus and interest. We will start each day with an extended worship time as well.

A CONFERENCE for the CMConnect COMMUNITY

CPC has proven to be a life-changing experience for many children’s ministry leaders. This year, we have a new Executive Director, a new vision, a renewed calling, and a refined focus… you will not want to miss it!

Michael Chanley, founder of CMConnect and Executive Director of INCM, wants you to know we are looking forward to serving you together this year. There are many new and exciting things we plan to roll out for CMConnect and INCM at CPC. We hope you will join us so we may serve you and your ministry. Register today and save $75!

CHAT Today at 2:00 PM EST Topic: Christmast Prep for your kidmin

If you can’t make it to chat…

check out the hundreds of discussions in our community about Christmas (click here or on the image below)!

The stuff-mart is already playing music and has had decorations out for weeks. If you don’t already have a plan for Christmas… check it off of your list today! We are going to have a Christmas themed chat and want you to join us.

If you didn’t already know, we have set Tuedsays (2:00 PM EST) as our communities regularly scheduled chat hour. We invite you to join us (TODAY) as we discuss plans for the Christmas season… and as we announce who will get prizes from INCM’s huge giveaway.

A couple of weeks ago we sent out a message about the $10,000 worth of prizes being given away to people registered for CPC.

Today, during our chat hour, the first group of drawings will be announced!

CPC changes things up! (from Michael Chanley)

One of the most frequent questions people have asked me is “What are you all doing differently at CPC this year?” Well, let me tell you, we are changing things up quite a bit. Here are a few of the things I am most excited about:

• We’ve got some incredible worship sessions planned. Our friends from Go Fish and Denver and the Mile High Band are planning something special just for opening night. You won’t want to miss it! It will be HUGE!
• We’ve added a new feature to the conference this year which will give our attendees more time to connect with one another, our breakout presenters, and resource providers. It’s a simple concept called Network Lunches. We are going to help facilitate more connections with more people. It’s a new feature to CPC and we really think it is going to make a huge difference in your ability to connect to one another there!
• Our speaker line up is, arguably, the best it has ever been. You can check out INCM.org for all of the details… be sure you look at the 100+ breakout options too!
• One of the biggest change at this year’s CPC is our increased focus during the main sessions. Each session will be organized around one of our five initiatives. These five initiatives all represent bright spots in churches that really get Children’s Ministry. We believe this added focus will serve you and your ministry team in a powerful way!

Our goal in each of these changes is to better serve you. Our ministry exists to serve God and to serve those called to serve His children. We look forward to serving you at our conferences and here in this community! I hope you will join us at CPC and experience all the changes God has been blessing us with… He is so good!

Michael Chanley

Executive Director of INCM

Founder of CMConnect

Here is some of our leading content from the past week:

In each place, we were blessed with an opportunity to serve people called to the local children’s ministry. At each stop, I was amazed to hear what God is doing. We’ll be sharing details about INCM’s new vision for our global ministry in much more detail at this year’s CPC and at our newly designed website (check out http://INCM.org later this week). In the meantime, let me share with you a few facts about what God is doing around the world:

• In New York City I served at a local Christian Education gathering in the Bronx. It was a huge blessing to serve alongside of all of the kidmin leaders gathered there!
• Despite being being a nation of 85% Christians, the church in the Philippines is (in some areas) falling under severe persecution. We were warned to not travel to certain provinces there. However, there are missionaries who are still going into these troubled areas. When I was in the airport leaving Manila, I happened to meet a missionary couple that is doing work in one of those troubled areas. Please pray for them as they are in danger for sharing the gospel.
• Many of the kidmin people I meet at the Global Children’s Forum in Manila were from less-than developed countries. The challenges facing their churches and the families they serve are severe. It was incredibly encouraging to hear what God is doing through the international community via different sports ministries and camps.
• A handful of those attending the forum were from countries where the church is, for lack of a better phrase, underground. Those attending from these areas shared excitement about what God is doing despite the persecution. Please continue in prayer for them.
• In Dubai I was blessed with a day off to see some sites. I posted them via instagram, twitter, facebook, and CMConnect. I was impressed to hear the church in the Middle East is growing! I have to be careful about sharing specific details… Just know, God is doing a good work there and they very much need your prayers!

I’m on my way now to Seattle to connect with some kidmin leaders there. Tomorrow, I’ll be in Denver at our offices in Castle Rock, CO.

Your prayers are very appreciated… Especially cause my preteen daughter is traveling with me.

The first one is in New York City where I’ll be keynoting the “Daring To Scale Conference” in the Bronx. I’m looking forward to meeting some new kidmin friends and serving in America’s most iconic city. I’ve never been to NYC and have always wanted to go. If you are in the area, please give me a shout out or come by the conference.

From New York, I head to Manila via Tokyo for the Global Children’s Forum (GCF). This is another conference I’ve never been to. I’m excited to connect again with my friends at Logosdor. Simon and his team are doing an incredible work for the Lord! My prayer in attending this conference is to make some connections which will lead to some additional service opportunities for our ministry overseas.

Finally, I fly into Guanxhou, China on my way to Dubai in U.A.E. There, I will be serving alongside of INCM’s Eric Hamp. He has set up a training event there for the growing Christian community in the Middle East. My prayer is we will be able to create an ongoing presence there which will help to build up the church in that region.

I’m usually not nervous when I travel. However, this time I am a little bit… my heart is heavy about all of the potential of this trip. Please join me in prayer that I will be able to serve and serve well. My hope is to be able to make some real purposeful and intentional connections for creating training events for people in Children’s Ministry.

By now, you’ve probably heard us talking about some of the exciting changes taking place at INCM. Some of these changes will directly affect the programming at CPC. All of these changes stem from your continued feedback. We are listening and are honored to be able to serve you as we hear your heart about Children’s Ministry, God’s calling, and opportunities to impact this generation.

To help serve you, we have created five initiatives for those called
to Children’s Ministry. This year, the main stage at CPC will be
focused around these initiatives. Each general session will build
into one of these key areas of ministry. Our five initiatives are
meant to identify bright spots in the church worth replicating. They
are a starting point for beginning to set an international standard
for Children’s Ministry. Obviously, we can’t fix everything that is
broken in kidmin… we can work together to focus on key issues that
will make a lasting impact.
With all of this in mind, we are asking you, and other called to
serve in Children’s Ministry, to personally commit to these five
initiatives:
1. Impart God’s truth to this generation
2. Provide a safe and relevant environment
3. Communicate with families
4. Network with a community of leaders
5. Pray for the international children’s ministry community.

If you would like to join us in this new movement you can go to JoinINCM.org
and fill out the commitment form there. Membership is free and allows
you to become an official member of INCM. We will send you a
membership card and begin to serve you as we develop each of our
initiatives.

We are stronger when we stand together. Our prayer is you will join
us in helping to raise the standard for Children’s Ministry in your
community.

We are just getting started with this new program… there is a lot
more coming down the line and we can’t wait to share it with you at
CPC 2012! We look forward to seeing you this year in San Diego and
Orlando!

• Marriage is a litmus test for spirituality in our church.
• How is the spirit of God showing up in how we treat our spouses?
• If you have marriage problems, draw a circle around yourself and fix everything inside of the circle.

John listed four things he regularly teaches on as related to Marriage:

1. He draws on Matthew 7 where it says to take the log out of your own eye and says, “Do work on yourselves first.”
2. Couples must commit to the marriage. Matthew 9 reference to what God has joined together… he says, “Close all the doors and resolve to work it out.”
3. Spiritual lives have a vibrance… be devoted to Christ in your marriage.
4. Be known by others… get embedded in community so others can help you when things go awry.

More about John McGee from D6 Conference: Over the last 9 years, John has directed the Marriage Ministry at Watermark Community Church in Dallas, TX.  There, he and his team have built a comprehensive marriage ministry for those preparing, starting, or struggling in their marriages.  He is also passionate about helping other churches build their own marriage ministries.  John married his high school sweetheart Pam, and they have 2 sons and 2 daughters. He holds a ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary.

How can I be at D6 tweeting and sharing in the experience here when it “undermines” our conferences in January and February? For that matter, how can I encourage people to attend Group’s Kidmin Conference, the Kidshaper Conferences, the Orange Conference… or any other conference, when I run a competing conferencing organization?

It’s an issue that comes up in conversation again and again. It’s one of those issues few people are really comfortable discussing. It’s definitely the elephant in the room.

So, let’s talk about the elephant…

One, I work for an organization called the International Network of Children’s Ministry (INCM). We are not a publishing company. We are a non-profit organization which exists to serve | serve | serve. Our purpose is to SERVE God and SERVE those who SERVE His children. Our vision is bigger than CPC. Yes, we have to promote our conferences and (with all bias) believe it is the best conference on the planet for people called to serve in Children’s Ministry. If we didn’t think so, we wouldn’t do it.

However, our vision is bigger than a conference. There is an international movement of people called to serve in Children’s Ministry… an International Network of Children’s Ministry. What our friends at Randall House Publishing (hosts of D6), Group Publishing (hosts of Kidmin Conference), Kidshaper International (hosts of conferences bearing their name), and ReThink (hosts of Orange) all have in common is they are a part of this network. They are a part of the community our ministry exists to serve.

So, we are serving them in any way we can. In return… we ask nothing.

Wait wait wait… how can that be?

Galatians 5: 13b-14 “… but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

The model of the world would be that we attack one another, become territorial, and view one another with contempt as competition. Yes, on some level there is a competition for conference dollars budgeted to a limited number of churches. I’ll acknowledge that… however, it does not imply we must grow our vision at cost to one another.

When Orange wins… we win.

When D6 wins… we win.

When Kidmin Conference wins… we win.

When Kidshaper wins… we win.

We win… because we exist to serve the church. We exist to serve those called to serve in Children’s Ministry. We really believe, it’s not about growing “our thing” it’s about growing “His Kingdom.”

Hopefully this “clears the air” a little and helps explain how I’m able to serve at D6 and also ask you to attend Orange with me. It’s also why I can say you should go to Kidmin Conference and also invite you to CPC.

When we work together, Christ wins.

When we focus on Christ winning it changes everything… especially how we think of one another.