Jeffrey Reed is the new Director of Kids Ministry at LifeWay. He officially joined us on April 1, 2013.

Although Jeffrey has served as a student pastor, worship pastor, executive pastor, and senior pastor; he says his role in children’s ministry has had the deepest impact on his faith and life. As a speaker and influencer at camps and conferences, Jeffrey has helped churches across the country develop strategies for vibrant and sustaining children’s ministry and leadership.

Jeffrey and his wife, Katherine, live outside of Nashville with their four children, Ella, Maddox, Owen, and Addison.

Jeffrey brings with him a wealth of knowledge and innovative ideas. We are so happy he is with us and wanted you to get an opportunity to welcome him, too!

Jana Magruder is our new Director of Kid’s Ministry Publishing at LifeWay. She officially joined us on March 1, 2013. We are so happy that she is with us and wanted you to get an opportunity to welcome her, too.

Jana brings a wealth of passion, education, and experience to ministry with kids, their leaders, and parents, including curriculum writing, development, and publishing.

Jana “grew up in ministry” and accepted Christ at Vacation Bible School, which holds a special place in her heart.  She says, “As a minister’s daughter, my family was always at the church, and I had numerous opportunities to participate and serve in a variety of ministries throughout my childhood, youth, and college years.  It was as though I was an apprentice being trained under my parents—my ultimate discipleship leaders.  Their leadership has given me a passion for parent discipleship in children’s ministry.”

She graduated from Baylor with a B.S. and did graduate work in curriculum and instruction at The University of Texas, Tyler.

Jana’s experience includes growing up in ministry at Green Acres Baptist in Tyler, Texas; serving in a variety of roles at Green Acres Camp ministry; working summer missions in Central America—including Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala—where she led backyard Bible clubs, teen Bible studies, and adult workshops; serving as director of Faith Lutheran Day Camp in Austin, Texas; teaching fourth grade for five years; working four years as the education program developer at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum; writing independent curriculum for six years; and recently serving as the director of children’s ministry at Austin Stone Community Church, West Campus, in Austin, Texas.

During these years, Jana has written award-winning curriculum for kids, developed educational content and programming for museum exhibits, led VBS for more than 300 children, recruited and trained volunteers, written resources for kids and their parents, been named as 2001 Teacher of the Year at Dessau Elementary, and appeared on HGTV’s ”Buying and Selling” with the Property Brothers.

Most importantly, Jana and her husband Michael have three children of their own—Morgan Grace (age 10), Jason (age 7), and Nicholas (age 5), which keeps her busy carpooling, frequenting the soccer field, and organizing play dates. In her own words, Jana says of all this: “It has been God’s timeline to lead me into using the gifts He has blessed me with for His kingdom. His fingerprint marks are all over my career, ultimately pointing the way to full-time children’s ministry.”

On January 31—February 2, 2013, LifeWay Christian Resources held two annual events in Nashville to preview its new 2013 VBS materials. This year’s curriculum is named Colossal Coaster World, and participants were encouraged to dress for an exciting day at a favorite theme park.

Each day, conferees were asked to vote for their favorite costume, and after each event, a winner was named. During the preview of the children’s musical on Thursday night, Karen Gilmore, a member of the Delta Dawns, was named as winner of the first event. (Karen is the one with the beautiful blue hair.)

Photo by Kent Harville

The Delta Dawns are from Monument Baptist Church in Deer Park, Texas (near Houston). In the front seats are Dawn Soileau (left) and Jackie Frasure (right). In the two rear seats are Karen Gilmore (left) and Gaylynn Lassetter (right).

During the preview of the children’s musical on Friday night, Lisa Moore was named as winner of the second event. Lisa attends Lawrence Drive Baptist Church in Macon, Georgia.

Each winner will receive a special invitation to attend the Think Tank in 2014 to help select the theme for VBS 2015.

Congratulations to both of these winners, and thank you to all the participants who helped make these events a success.

Each year, January 16 is recognized by the President of the United States because it is the anniversary of the passage, in 1786, of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. Here is the statute.

Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor, whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporary rewards, which proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which in common with his fellow-citizens he has a natural right; that it tends only to corrupt the principles of that religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion, and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them:

Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

And though we well know that this assembly elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding assemblies, constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act to be irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present, or to narrow its operation, such act shall be an infringement of natural right.

Source: W.W. Hening, ed., Statutes at Large of Virginia, vol. 12 (1823): 84-86.

Well, did you have to break out the old dictionary, like I did, in order to understand this?

Though hard to understand, we need to know about these statutes, lest the rights mentioned therein be taken from us.

I thank God for the wisdom of our forefathers to settle the matter of religious freedom when our nation was born. What steps can we take, as Christians, to ensure that these rights continue to be protected?

Well, Christmas and New Year’s Day have come and gone, and now it’s time to get back to work. Yeah or yuck? (You decide.)

Last Monday, January 7, was my first day back from all the celebrating. I had really enjoyed some good times with my family and friends, and, to tell the truth, I wasn’t looking forward to the 30-minute drive into work (on a good day) in gridlock traffic and then replaying it in the afternoon. But over the holidays, I tried to look at work from a whole new perspective.

Be glad you are healthy enough to work and have a job. I enjoy working at LifeWay Christian Resources, and I like being part of the VBS team. It is truly satisfying (and humbling) to know that the materials I work on have an impact on thousands of children each year. When I was employed with LifeWay (formerly the Baptist Sunday School Board), I felt called to my work here. And I still feel strongly that this is where God wants me to be.

Your job does not define you. Although LifeWay Christian Resources is an ideal place to work and being a part of the VBS editorial team is fun and exciting, it is my relationship with God outside these walls that defines me. God gave me certain talents and expects me to use them. I truly feel that God led me here for a purpose, and I want to strive to do my best at what I do for Him every day.

There are exciting days ahead. With the birth of The Gospel Project and other new ventures and the revamping of longtime-favorite curriculum pieces, 2013 is bound to be a pretty exciting year. With all that is going on around us in our world, we need God more than ever, and He needs us to help carry out His work.

Colossal Coaster World VBS will offer churches a fun way to present the gospel to children in their local communities. And it’s EVERY CHRISTIAN’S JOB to make sure this happens each summer. It would be nice if we would adopt the “No child left behind” school policy in our churches as well. When children attend your church for VBS, strive to get (and keep) them in Sunday School and church. Don’t let them be overlooked or forgotten.

So when you’re sitting in traffic, like me, wondering how you’re going to do everything that is expected of you, remember that we’re all in this together. So gather up your best talents and intentions and commit to making 2013 your best year ever! Be sure to let us know how you plan to do that.

Well, it’s that time of year again —the time to celebrate the coming of Fall. So why not have the best of both worlds and enjoy both trunk and treat?

Several years ago, our church started a Trunk or Treat celebration to get the kids off the streets on October 31 and into the church parking lot where we could provide for them a fun, safe environment to gather their treats. This also gave us a wonderful opportunity to invite them back to our church for services and, perhaps, talk with their parents about spiritual things.

Our first one was such a success that we have made it a yearly event. And through the years, it has grown a little each year.

This year, we will not only offer treats to kids and friendship to both kids and their parents, but we also are providing a bouncy house for the kids and grilled hot dogs and drinks for all who attend.

Trunk or Treat is always a fun time at our church. If your church is not already enjoying this event, you might want to consider it. After all, our children are our future, and we need to give them as much love and protection as we can.