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Among My Sprays:
The Lord is the conductor of your days and you can entrust the seeds you've sown into the His capable and all knowing hands.
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Building Relationships through Missional Hospitality
Our homes, our kitchens, our comfy couches, or even our loud, messy toy rooms can play one of the most important roles in the making of disciples.
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Book Review | Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles that Can Radically Change Your Family
Be encouraged in your parenting journey. Jesus has purchased and given us everything we need to do what He’s called us to, if we’ll only surrender ourselves as tools for the work He longs to do.
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Creating a Ministry Culture of Trust
When it comes down to the core of what makes a team “click” and what makes an organization healthy, trust between the members of the team is critically important.
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Book Review: Power of Proximity
How well do you know the people you serve? How well do you understand their problems? In ministry, do you see neighborhoods or neighbors?
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Starting Spiritual Conversations with Your Kids
As parents who love Jesus, our greatest goal should be to disciple our children to love and obey God, and one of the best ways to do that is through our daily conversations.
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How to Create a Culture of Team Community
As a leader your calling is first to your team, to lay down your life for them, care for them, and serve them.
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Creating a Team Culture of Commitment by Serving Your People
Children’s ministry is, oddly enough, about much more than children’s ministry. It’s also about serving the people on your team.
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Creating a Culture of Commitment Through Communication
When good communication is not in place, your people will feel left out, marginalized, and, worst of all, that you don’t trust them. Here are three ways to practice excellent communication within your ministry organization.
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Creating a Team Culture of Commitment Through Vision Casting
When you explain the “why” behind your ministry, people who identify with your vision will “get” it and be passionate about it. They’ll want to join your cause because they care about it.
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What Will Make People Love Working With Your Ministry?
What if your team found children's ministry an experience that builds them up, strengthens them spiritually, and leaves them wanting to continue working with the team?
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What if You Looked at What You Really Can Do?
There's a real release when we come to terms with each and every one of our limits and give them to a limitless God.
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Memorizing Scripture with Your Children in 2019
Children are like sponges, and there is no better way to take advantage of that during the young years of their brain development than by filling their minds and hearts with eternal, life-giving Truth.
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How to Teach Kids About the Trinity
The Trinity is one of the most difficult truths about God to try to grasp, but it can also become the perfect opportunity to introduce children to just how incomprehensibly amazing God is.
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7 Gifts That Mean More
Below are our children's gift picks for the season! What are some gift ideas you’ve used in the past to encourage children in their walk with God? Leave a message in the comment section below to let us know! 1.…
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Welcome and Wash
Both welcoming and washing require emptying yourself to serve others, which might sound like more than you can handle this Advent season. But no one who opens the door to Jesus and shares a meal with Him goes away hungry.
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Teaching Kids to Pray God's Word
Use Scripture to teach kids to pray and strengthen your own relationship with God through prayer.
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Family on Mission | Book Review
Juggling family life and ministry life separately can lead to burnout and failure to thrive. Here's how one family learned to integrate these arenas into one mission.
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The Urgency of Our Calling
As parents, we are raising the next generation. This will require intentionality and planning. We need to have a vision for where we are going.
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When Ministry is Big and God is Small
I can distinctly remember the moment when I realized that something was off. I was working full time in ministry, studying Scripture regularly for writing a children’s discipleship curriculum, lived in a strong community that was passionate about seeking Jesus,…
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4 Truths We Can Teach Our Children Through Hospitality
Hospitality is not about impressing others or making ourselves feel good. It's an avenue God has given us to fulfill the two greatest commandments Jesus gave: love God and love others.
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Listen and Love
You can discover a lot about a person when you listen to their words. You learn what they believe, about their passion, about their pain.
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Bible Storytelling: Eye to Eye, Mind to Mind, Heart to Heart
God's Word is living and active. It is a seed that produces life. There are no easy answers for the problems and questions of broken people, but there is a Good Teacher who knows all the answers and who gave us His Story to share.
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Loving Our Children Effectively | Learning Love Languages
Does your child know that you love them? How do they know? Learning your child's love language can be an effective tool for showing your love for them and teaching them to love others too.
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5 Ways to Make Family Discipleship Hands-On
How do you know the truth is sticking with your kids? Here are five ways you can make a greater impact in family discipleship to effectively impart truth that stays with your kids long after they have grown and left home.
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Douglas Bond Interview: What Makes Heroic Life Discipleship Unique?
Douglas Bond, author of more than twenty-five books, is Director for the Oxford Creative Writing Master Class, conference speaker, and leader of Church history tours in Europe. Read his interview with Michael Morgan, director of Heroic Life Discipleship.
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The Full Picture: How to Talk to Kids About Hell
Talking to our children about hell is not an easy thing. But the reality is that if we give our children an accurate portrayal of the gospel, it must include the eternity of pain we are spared from when we believe in the gift of salvation that Jesus purchased for us.
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The Forgotten Ones
What happens when an inner-city mission reaches out to hurting kids in some of the hardest places? Here’s what one children’s ministry leader has to share about lessons learned when working with unchurched, forgotten children.
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Connect with God Before Discipling Others
What you believe, what you prioritize, and how you live out your worship will all rub off on those you disciple.
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Interview: Good News in a Public School
Are you looking for ways to bring kid's ministry to your community? Hear how a family team has made an impact in their public elementary school through a Good News Club for the past ten years.
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A Servant Heart: Cultivating a Lifestyle of Service in Your Family
It is essential that as we teach our children the importance of service, it is done by prayerfully and intentionally pointing them back to the ultimate Servant, Jesus Christ.
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When the Going Gets Tough
God's goal for your ministry is much deeper and more long-lasting and God-glorifying than your get-fruit-quick plan.
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The Ordinary Everyday Impact
Your ability to reach another human heart is not dependent on where you are placed or what your surroundings might be. Your ability to share extraordinary gospel truths depends only upon your willingness to let the work of Christ be channeled through you.
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How Early Do You Start Family Devotions?
Four steps for beginning and maintaining effective family devotions with even your youngest kids.
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Interview: Great Commission in a Small Town
Read about the impact a small team of believers is making in rural America.
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Interview: Musings of an Effective Ministry Leader
Provide discipleship that clearly communicates the depths of the gospel and results in real-life change.
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The Case for Messy Devotions
Your goal is not to fix your family (as if they were a broken machine); they are a garden that needs to be routinely tended.
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What Elisabeth Elliot Taught Me
This is what suffering and setbacks can produce in life and ministry.
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5 Watertight Prayers
The child of God can claim all the resources of Heaven in his warfare against sin and in his effort to save sinners and build up the kingdom of God.
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The Enemy Hates it When We Pray
Prayer accomplishes what the enemy wants to destroy. It draws us closer to God, prevents sin, and enables success in ministry.
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Live Like a Soldier | Part 2
Jesus calls us to follow Him as soldiers without reserve. Those who are dead to themselves are the only living preachers.
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Live Like a Soldier | Part 1
Once a soldier has received his orders and got his message, let him remember that the King’s business requires haste. Learn to strike while the iron is hot.
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The Power of Serving with Joy
Your joy can convict unbelievers and be a powerful means of winning them to Jesus.
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3 Ways Parents Can Partner with Children's Ministry
Young people have the potential to change the world when they’re equipped to love God, love others, and make disciples. That potential increases when the local church and families partner together to love, serve, and bear fruit for Christ.
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Letter to the Parent of a Strong-Willed Child
The world can look at challenging characteristics in our children as a flaw and say, “If only my child weren’t like this, it would make my job easy.” Those same challenging characteristics are a powerful tool in the right hands.
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Secrets of a Soul-Winner
You must be one with Jesus, and be “bound up in the bundle of life” with Him if you would bring others into that life.
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How Does Sanctification Work?
How do you explain the sanctification process? As we follow Jesus, does God do all the work, while we just sit back and watch? Or do we have a part in our own growth process?
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Family and Ministry: Thriving Inside and Outside the Home
How do we obey Jesus by both discipling and caring well for our children and fulfilling the other commandments we see in Scripture to love and serve others in the capacities that we feel called to?
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Fuel for Ministry
When Paul wrote his letter to the Christians in Colosse, he talked about his goals for ministry. But he didn’t stop there. He went on to explain what really fueled his work and enabled him to present believers mature in Christ.
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Don’t Waste the Words of the World: Raising Children of Truth
How do you raise children who can rise above those flood waters, swim against the current, navigate the changing tides, and help save those who are drowning?
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Christ's Resurrection and Our Newness of Life
The fullness of salvation comes to us because He has risen from the dead, and is now making intercession for the transgressors. The stone is rolled away for us as well as for Him.
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What's Your Prayer for Your Family?
Do you dream that the hearts of your children would catch the vision of a life wholly given to Jesus? Do you pray for them to stand strong in the fight of faith and to be used by God to gain spiritual ground in this world for His glory?
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The Key Mindset for Fruitful Ministry
With all the demands on Christians in ministry, it's easy to experience discouragement and burnout. Here's what the Bible says about preventing burnout and experiencing fruitful ministry.
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What's the Foundation for Effective Ministry?
The biblical essentials for a thriving ministry are so simple, yet we often look past these key truths without realizing it.
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What Makes Effective Teams?
Imagine an environment where people are excited about working with your ministry, committed through hard times, engaged in deep and meaningful relationships, and trusting each other and their leaders. That kind of ministry will be exponentially effective, and God will be glorified as we are conformed into His image in these areas. Here's how to cultivate that environment in your ministry.
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The Mission Field at the Changing Table
In the mundane, daily moments, it can be easy to lose sight of the mission field right in your own home.
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The Skill of Stewardship
Those of us who want to live intentional and impactful lives like Jesus must understand that this takes place in the practical everyday stuff of life.
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What if You Looked at What You Really Can Do?
There's a real release when we come to terms with each and every one of our limits and give them to a limitless God.
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Team Unity: Creating a Culture of Trust
When it comes down to the core of what makes a team “click” and what makes an organization healthy, trust between the members of the team is critically important.
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Team Unity: Creating a Culture of Community
As a leader your calling is first to your team, to lay down your life for them, care for them, and serve them.
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The Little Moments: Discipling Your Children in Daily LIfe
As parents, it’s our responsibility to train our children, both in words and in example, what it looks like to live for God in all facets of life.
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Hidden in Their Hearts: The Importance of Memorizing Scripture with Your Children
Young children are like sponges, and there is no better way to take advantage of that than by filling their minds and hearts with eternal, life-giving Truth.
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Resolved: To Make Disciples of Jesus in 2018
Because of so many Millennials leaving Christianity, fewer Americans will grow up in the church or even hear about Jesus as a child. Who will lead them to Jesus? And how?
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Team Unity: Creating a Culture of Commitment by Serving Your People
Children’s ministry is, oddly enough, about much more than children’s ministry. It’s also about serving the people on your team.
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9 Gifts That Mean More
Are you tired of buying kids more stuff for Christmas? Use this season to invest in some meaningful and fun gifts that will help your kids grow in their relationship with Jesus.
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Team Unity: Creating a Culture of Commitment Through Communication
When good communication is not in place, your people will feel left out, marginalized, and, worst of all, that you don’t trust them. Here are three ways to practice excellent communication within your ministry organization.
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Team Unity: Creating a Culture of Commitment Through Vision
When you explain the “why” behind your ministry, people who identify with your vision will “get” it and be passionate about it. They’ll want to join your cause because they care about it.
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Team Unity: What Will Make People Love Working With Your Ministry?
What if your team found children's ministry an experience that builds them up, strengthens them spiritually, and leaves them wanting to continue working with the team?
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Connect with God Before Discipling Others
To be truly effective disciplers, we must connect with God before teaching others to do the same.
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The Full Picture: How to Talk to Kids About Hell
Talking to our children about hell is not an easy thing. But the reality is that if we give our children an accurate portrayal of the gospel, it must include the eternity of pain we are spared from when we believe in the gift of salvation that Jesus purchased for us.
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The Ordinary Everyday Impact
Your ability to reach another human heart is not dependent on where you are placed or what your surroundings might be. Your ability to share extraordinary gospel truths depends only upon your willingness to let the work of Christ be channeled through you.
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How Early Do You Start Family Devotions?
Read about four steps for how to begin and maintain effective family devotions with little ones.
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You Can’t Give What You Don’t Have: Interview with Children’s Ministry Leader
It’s most important as ministry leaders to really know who God is and what His character is. He is the why of what we do.
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As You Go, Make Disciples: 3 Keys for Real-Life Disciple Making
Are we really making disciples the way Jesus did, or do we just create and follow our own formula for discipleship? Read about three things to consider as you engage in real-life disciple making.
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Summer 2017 Team Updates | Part Two
Last week we posted part one of our team's summer updates. Check out part two below to read about our international adventures and hear what the rest of the team has been up to this summer.
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Summer 2017 Team Updates | Part One
Do you ever wonder what the Heroic Life Team does after the laptops have closed and the curriculum proofs have been shelved? Occasionally we go on unforgettable adventures. Check out part one of our summer updates.
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Why I Don't Do Ministry Without Prayer
Here are four things about prayer to keep in mind as you serve in ministry.
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God's Version of Fatherhood
Absent dads. Abusive fathers. In our culture, there’s a need to clarify what God means when He says He’s a Father. We need to see a picture of fatherhood restored. Why does it matter? Because we believe that the way you view God changes your relationship with Him.
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Family Discipleship: Checklist or Devotion?
What is your vision for your family’s discipleship? How can you keep devotions from becoming just an item on your to-do list?
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How to Explain the Gospel to a 5-Year-Old
Although discipleship and sharing the gospel never happens the same way twice, having a base of truth that you can easily reference in your mind and pull from when you’re sharing can be very helpful.
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3 Ways to Give Kids a Heart for Missions
When Jesus sent out His disciples to carry His message, He reminded us that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So what was His strategy for mobilizing more workers? He told them to pray and ask the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers. Prayer is God’s plan for mobilizing missionaries. If we pray that He will send out more workers, He will.
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5 Ways to Make Family Discipleship Hands-On
How do you know the truth is sticking with your kids? Here are five ways you can make a greater impact in family discipleship to effectively impart truth that stays with your kids long after they have grown and left home.
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The Case for Messy Devotions
Your goal is not to fix your family (as if they were a broken machine); they are a garden that needs to be routinely tended.
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Interview: Are You Equipped for Ministry?
David Brenneman and his wife Tiffany began leading the children’s ministry at their church last year in Stuarts Draft, VA. Their vision is to equip their ministry leaders for effective children’s discipleship that will clearly communicate the depths of the gospel and result in real life change.
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How to Reach an American Orphan
The number of children in foster care is skyrocketing. There are nearly 428,000 children in the United States who are currently in foster care. The reasons many of these kids are in care can vary widely, from their parents not having adequate heating to severe abuse. Recently, more children have been entering the system due to the rise in serious drug use.
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Interview: Musings of an Effective Ministry Leader
David Brenneman and his wife Tiffany began leading the children’s ministry at their church last year in Stuarts Draft, VA. Their vision is to equip their ministry leaders for effective children’s discipleship that will clearly communicate the depths of the gospel and result in real-life change.
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Video: Why We Do Kid's Ministry
Watch this three-minute video clip to hear why kid's discipleship is so crucial today, and learn what you can do to make a difference.
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Douglas Bond Interview with Michael Morgan: What Makes Heroic Life Discipleship Unique?
Douglas Bond, author of more than twenty-five books, is Director for the Oxford Creative Writing Master Class, conference speaker, and leader of Church history tours in Europe. This month Douglas Bond interviewed Michael Morgan, director of Heroic Life Discipleship. You can check out the article at Douglas Bond's blog, or read the interview below.
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Interview: Good News in a Public School
Are you looking for ways to bring kid's ministry to your community? Hear how a family team has made an impact in their public elementary school through a Good News Club for the past ten years.
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How to Raise a Disciple-Maker | Part Two
Last week a mom and missionary to the indigenous people of northern Ontario shared how she and her husband are seeking to inspire, equip, and train their children to overcome for the sake of the gospel. Read part two of her post on teaching children to recognize opportunities for sharing the gospel and encouraging a lifestyle of readiness to serve Jesus.
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How to Raise a Disciple-Maker | Part One
Are you intimidated by the challenge of raising your kids to follow Jesus? Here are three tips from a missionary mom on how to train your children to be world-changers.
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Be Faithful With One | Part Two
Last week Aaron wrote about a missionary family who gave up everything for Jesus and nearly lost their faith when hardship came. Read part two of his post to hear how God redeemed what seemed to be a failed ministry and transformed it into a fruitful mission.
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Be Faithful With One | Part One
Are you discouraged with lack of fruit in your ministry? Do you struggle to see what God is doing through your obedience to Him? Read what one man learned through the story of a missionary family who nearly lost their faith before God brought restoration and hope through the only person who responded to the gospel through their efforts: a child.
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The Power of Prayer in Ministry | Part Two
Last week Megan shared about the power of prayer that will change your ministry, daily life, and walk with Jesus. Read part two to learn how to cultivate regular prayer and experience the fruit of knowing and talking with Jesus daily.
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The Power of Prayer in Ministry | Part One
With all the demands of daily life, work, and ministry, have you ever wondered how to accomplish the seemingly impossible list of to-do’s? Beyond that, do you wonder if the work you’re doing is even making a difference in the long haul? Here’s what one believer has to say about the power of prayer that will change your ministry, daily life, and walk with Jesus.
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Imagine If | Part Two
Last week, New Tribes Mission Mobilizer Josh Beaudin posted on the role of children in God’s plan to make disciples of all nations. Read part two of his article to hear about the impact of prayer in missions today, and learn three ways to engage children in the Great Commission.
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Imagine If | Part One
Have you ever wondered if God has a “weakness”? I know, I know—this may seem like a ridiculous question. But have you ever wondered if there is anything God can not do—limitations? For example, we know that He can’t lie. (Hebrews 6:18) How about “bullet-proof prayers”? Have you ever wondered if there are prayers that God cannot say “No” to? Are there requests that we can bring before Him and be sure He will answer with a “Yes”?
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The Source of Life
We believe children should have strong roots in God’s Word from the ground up. Psalm One tells us what happens to those who delight in God’s Word and meditate on it day and night. The one who refuses evil and is immersed in the Word of God is like a tree planted by streams of water. He will bear fruit. His leaf won’t wither. What he does will prosper.
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The Forgotten Ones | Part Two
Last week Krista shared about the inner-city ministry she works with to reach children in some of the hardest places. In this article, she shares five tips for making an eternal impact on the hearts and lives of hurting kids.
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The Forgotten Ones | Part One
What happens when an inner-city mission reaches out to hurting kids in some of the hardest places? Here’s what one children’s ministry leader has to share about lessons learned when working with unchurched, forgotten children.
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The Power of Story
How did Jesus communicate? Many times with stories. He asked hundreds of questions. He engaged in real conversation. What if Jesus chose to tell stories and ask questions and have conversation simply because He wants to know us, and He wants us to know Him?
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Effective Discipleship Tools | Part Two
This is the second of a two-part series introducing the Heroic Life Discipleship Curriculum. Read part one HERE. Last week we talked about the perspectives and mindsets behind the Heroic Life Discipleship curriculum and gave a high-level overview of its content. Today we’ll look in more detail at the specific parts of the curriculum and at hey way they work together to accomplish our goals for an effective discipleship resource.
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Effective Discipleship Tools | Part One
“I just wish there were a curriculum out there that really communicated the power of the gospel to kids.” There are many times I’ve heard statements like this—from mothers, from children’s program leaders, from school teachers; there is a desire for discipleship tools that go deeper than the status quo of entertainment-focused VBS or weekly kids’ programs. If you’re reading this post, chances are you can identify with these thoughts.
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Interview: Great Commission in a Small Town | Part Two
Last Sunday we interviewed a mom from rural Illinois who shared how she is implementing Heroic Life Discipleship through an after-school Bible Club in her small-town community. Our interview is continued below.
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Interview: Great Commission in a Small Town | Part One
Today we’re interviewing a mom from rural Illinois who is implementing the Heroic Life Discipleship curriculum through an after-school Bible Club with a small team of believers.
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The Gospel Framework | Part Three
Was there ever a point in your life when you wondered about the “so what?” of the gospel, wondered what the practical effect of it in your day-to-day life was? Understanding that is so important and something that is often neglected in children’s discipleship. As a follow up to our last two blog posts on a framework for communicating the gospel with children, here is a brief framework for communicating a foundation for how to live it out.
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The Gospel Framework | Part Two
On Sunday we began a three-part series on sharing the gospel with children. Once the problem of sin and the need for a Savior has been established with a child, you can then explain how God has dealt with sin through Jesus’ death and resurrection.
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The Gospel Framework | Part One
How do you explain the gospel in a way children can understand? Although discipleship and sharing the gospel never happen the same way twice, having a base of truth that you can easily reference in your mind and pull from when you’re sharing can be very helpful. In our next few blog posts, we’ll walk through a sample “gospel framework.”
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How to Prepare a Hero
They weren’t ready. In the year 1212, thousands of children from across Europe rallied together to regain the Holy Land. Their journey was called the Children’s Crusade, and it was a disaster. The children were misguided and had no idea what they were up against. Few survived. We wonder, could the same sort of thing be happening today? Are there kids growing up who cannot fight the good fight of faith because they aren’t ready?
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Meet the Team | Part Three
Meet Aubrey De Vries, the Director of Communications for Heroic Life Discipleship. Aubrey grew up in the Midwest and later moved to Colorado to attend Ellerslie Discipleship Training. When she's not writing curriculum, you might find Aubrey reading, tutoring, or…
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Meet the Team | Part Two
Meet Judah Cofer, the Business and Marketing Strategist for Heroic Life Discipleship. Judah is a Pastoring Elder at The Church at Ellerslie, and lives in Windsor, Colorado with his wife and three children. Judah Cofer “No matter what work I’m doing, my heart is to reach out to people, share Jesus, and train them through discipleship to live a heroic life.”
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Meet the Team | Part One
Meet Michael Morgan and Cristina Driscoll, members of the Heroic Life Discipleship team. This week we’re introducing our team through a series of short videos. Come back Wednesday to view Part Two and meet Judah Cofer!
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An Introduction
We believe that it is absolutely essential for children to hear and understand the gospel as they grow up. Why wait for them to grow older before beginning solid discipleship that results in knowing and following Jesus? When we look at Scripture, we don’t see a different version of Christianity for children. However, we do see a simple and clear gospel that a child can understand and live out.
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Equipped for the Journey
Every Christian is called to be a disciple-maker. But what does true discipleship look like? On January 15, we’re launching this blog to explore what it means to make disciples, and to provide practical resources for you to implement in your home, church or mission.
