Purposeful Parenting

Going for Broke

We all want was is best for our kids but what does purposeful parenting look like in practice?

Follow the creator of Anton’s Antics’ as he negotiates the challenges of being a parent.

“The blog's slogan started off as a joke between my wife and I, as it can be tough making ends meet and parenting is not easy. I want to hear Jesus say ‘well done, good and faithful servant’ with what He has entrusted to me. We have to go for broke don’t we?

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3 Recent Threats To Kids' Freedom Parents Can’t Ignore

Details: Created: Monday, 10 December 2018 12:14

When the temperature plummets or suddenly spikes, it’s the small talk of the day, right?

‘What is this, winter in the middle of summer?’

‘I know it’s crazy!’

But when the temperature just rises a little, over time…well that’s manageable and no fodder for small talk. You’d be a right bore to make small talk with the mums at the school drop off about how evenly the temperature is rising! What our bodies do is adjust to the rise in temperature and accept the new conditions.

What’s this all got to do with raising kids to be godly or being purposeful in our ministry to kids?

Our western, democratic societies are gradually raising the heat against Christianity and it’s easy for us to comfortably adapt, lower our expectations and relinquish our space to others who speak louder.

We are not seeing outrageous, sudden spikes in persecution against Christ in our societies, but we are seeing a slower, gradual shrinking of the breathing space of Christ and his church in those societies.

I’ve got three examples in the past week that have had media coverage in Australia and which directly affect our kids.

Principals wanting to remove Religion from high schools
Primary School Principals removing the Scripture ‘default’ and instead requiring parents to choose between Scripture, Ethics or nothing upon enrolment
Government seeking to pass legislation that will prevent Christian schools from discriminating over who they employ = Christian schools won’t be able to reject gay teachers.

Anton's Christmas Sticker Stories Set Standard for Your Ministry

Details: Created: Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:35

visitor overview Most kids sit in church on Christmas day next to their parents, itching to get back to their presents. But what if your church could give them a mini-story with stickers and activities that would teach them about the significance of Christmas and keep them occupied during the service?

What if you work at a school and you want a fun packed activity that will explore the Christmas message with zero preparation for you to do?

Or maybe you’re a mum or dad, just looking for a new way to ‘do the Christmas story’ at home?

Whether its your church, school or home, Anton's Sticker Stories raises the bar on the ministry to your kids this Christmas

But time is getting short, you really must order Anton’s Amazing Christmas Sticker Stories NOW!

What makes Anton's Sticker Stories so good?

Anton’s Antics sets the standard for superior kid’s resources.

First, there's the beautiful stickers – kids love them!
Second, there's the incredible quality of the illustrations
Third, there's the way each story is packed with a variety of activities on each page and…
Drum roll…there's the fresh way each sticker story teaches the Christmas story, while remaining Bible focused.

Four different story lines, two age versions

Plus, there’s four different story lines to choose from and two different age groups, before school (3-5-year old’s) and school age (6-12-year old’s) sticker stories.

Don't miss out, make Christmas super easy and set the standard high!

How long before your kids lose interest in the Bible?

Details: Created: Tuesday, 27 November 2018 10:43

bored-gonzalo-arnaiz-129020-unsplashblog Ask yourself:

If I gave my kids (or the kids I teach) a short passage of Scripture, would they have the skills to interpret the passage?

Or would they cherry pick the bits that make sense or they like most?

Cherry picker, right?!

Kids love reading the Bible, but their early enthusiasm will soon be lost if they can’t see the Bible’s relevance for their lives. Unless they can learn how to link ideas in a passage together and break out beyond the straight narratives they’ve become familiar with, they’ll grow bored and miss God’s purpose for them.

But we're not giving up right?

Kids can kick goals for Jesus!

Kids can make a difference in the world, in their families, in their schools if they believe God’s word is relevant to their daily walk.

So, how do we make sure they ‘grow into God’s word’? Not grow out of it!

Why your kid needs to interpret the Bible, verse by verse, for themselves.

Initially stories and lessons from the Scriptures will be fine but as they grow toward their teens, they’ll need more ‘meat on the bone’. Actually, they’ll need to know how to find the bones of Scripture, link them together and what they mean for our daily lives.

Unless they learn to read and interpret the Bible for themselves it will soon become a fog of disconnected, random ideas that don’t clearly seem relevant to their daily lives.

Then, it’s another young life, ineffective and unproductive in the Lord.

Or worse, a ‘I don’t want to go to church anymore’, teenager.

The old parable stands true for personal Bible reading:

Give a person a fish and they’ll be fed for a day. Show a person how to fish and they can feed themselves for life.

Yet most kid’s ministries, most families, just give their kids a fish. We fail to teach them ‘how to catch a fish’ or ‘how to interpret the Bible, verse by verse, for themselves.

Give a child a Bible story and they’ll be fed for a day. Show a child how to interpret a passage of Bible verses and they can feed themselves for life!

I’m here to help guys, so reach out…or better try out my latest work…FREE

From Bored to Brave: Reigniting Spiritual Growth in 9-12 y.o.’s One Verse At A Time

Details: Created: Thursday, 15 November 2018 20:07

Are your older kids bored by the Bible?

Is their faith hitting a plateau or worse, heading for a nose dive?

What about the older kids you lead at kids church or school?

Let’s face it, when they’re younger, kids’ picture Bibles and lessons about key characters are fine. But once they hit about 10 years of age…many kids start disengaging and as parents or leaders we wonder when the Bible might again make an impact on how they live. Or worse, we worry that they’re moving away from the Lord as they hit their teens.

What we need to do is move our kids from just recalling the same old disconnected set of Bible stories and teach them, slowly, how to understand the relationship between verses so that God’s word can impact their daily walk with Him.

My wife and I wanted our kids to continue growing in Christ, loving His word and learning how to interpret it for themselves. But nothing out there existed that did this in a way that was fun and age appropriate...

For the past 10 years I’ve performed live shows teaching the Bible to kids in Australia called Anton’s Antics. Recently, with my own kids I’ve been experimenting with a unique video devotion format that teaches older kids, verse by verse from the Scriptures. That’s right, verse after verse…it’s pretty cool!

Rather than trying to solve big questions, big topics like I had been doing with my shows, I decided to zero in on the 'daily walk' and routine of reading the Scriptures one verse at a time. I began experimenting, doodling on an iPad, explaining small chunks of Scripture together with my crazy friend, Anton. So far, we've covered 12 verses of the letter of James using 5 videos! My kids got heaps out of it, but I'd love to know how your kids respond.

Here’s your chance to put an end to all those times you sighed thinking about trying to read the Bible with your older kids but felt out of your depth.

A fresh take on Christmas without breaking the budget

Details: Created: Wednesday, 07 November 2018 13:08

Want to get kids ‘hands on’ with a fresh take on the Christmas story without breaking the budget?

Anton’s Antics has four different mini-stories with stickers that take a fresh look on the Christmas narratives. Each page is packed with activities like code breakers, join the dots and mazes. There are also 2 versions of each story to cater to different age abilities, school ages (6-12 years old) and before school ages (3-5 years old). Kids absolutely love these and once completed they become a complete story they can keep and re-read at home. Best of all, kids love the stickers because, first, kids love stickers but also because they must put them carefully into the story for it to be complete.

Where do Anton’s Sticker Stories get used?

Often the stories get used in schools and churches, so that’s why we put them into packs of 25.

Schools

School’s ministries in Australia use them for Scripture classes, often as a gift from their teachers.

Sometimes school chaplains will buy them to give to the kids they’ve been ministering to all year.

Churches

Churches use them for Christmas services and holiday lessons when the leadership team might be taking a break. Anton’s Sticker Stories make awesome stand-alone lessons, especially when you’re on a tight crew.

Often at major events churches will buy hundreds and even thousands of the stories to give away to families or kids from the general public. This way the good news can be put into the hands of kids who are at an event and will complete the sticker story at home later.

Parents/Grandparents

If you’re looking for an inexpensive, high quality, Bible focused, fun gift for your kids then Anton’s Sticker Stories are impossible to beat. You can purchase a range of the stories in packs of 6 for under $10.

Make your selection today from Anton’s store.

Sold in packs of 25 for churches and schools and look out for the mixed ‘Devotion packs’ of 6 for families.

Here’s the different titles to look out for and remember to choose correctly from either ‘before school’ or ‘school aged’ packs.

Shepherd and the King – follows the story of King David, the shepherds and the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem

Who’s For You? – follows the edict of Caesar Augustus and Mary and Joseph’s travel out of Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Star Struck (School age out of print) – follows the journey of the wise men to follow the King’s star to Jerusalem and then Bethlehem.

The Visitor – follows the announcement of the long-awaited king by the angel to Joseph

Don’t leave it, make your selection and get your order in today before it’s too late!

Contact me for international shipping as the store only includes shipping in Australia

Ready for Christmas?

Details: Created: Wednesday, 31 October 2018 14:31

Do you want to keep Jesus front and centre this Christmas?

Would you like some cool gift ideas that will deepen your kids love for Jesus?

Are you keen to get your hands on some resources that will save your church a lot of hassle making it easier to reach the lost this Christmas?

Yes?!

Then let me show you four amazing ways that Anton can make your Christmas hassle free and completely brilliant…

I was ready to punch someone by the end of the week

Details: Created: Tuesday, 23 October 2018 19:51

Call me hopeless, but I didn’t cope too well in the past week trying to play 'single dad'.

To make ends meet, my wife took off to a far-flung part of Oz for a week’s work as a locum, leaving dad here, to hold the fort.

Except I wasn’t just holding the fort, I had full time work as well. That means I’m solo dad and full-time worker for the week.

‘Dad where’s my…

Dad I can’t find…

Dad how can I…

Dad can you pick me up…

Dad can Susie come over…

Dad when is mummy coming home…

I miss mummy…’

It’s all dad…the kids have no-where else to go. Even when you’re doing your business…there’s no escape…right mums?

So, after a full and sometimes difficult day at work, I come home sort the clothes, unstack the dishes, make the dinner…and my kids help out, their pretty great really.

But I still feel the exhausted under the weight of holding everything together. They cope better than I do.

At night I barely can be bothered saying good night to the kids. I’m that tired…and we have some elaborate bed time routines, that normally fly smoothly…not this week!

Even though we pray together most nights and I make the effort to read some Bible and pray myself for the first half of the week, by Thursday it’s all coming apart.

I’m toast, I’m roasted…I’m more than done. I'm double baked and charcoal chicken. Every morning I’m waking exhausted. I’ve got less than zero in the tank.

My Biggest Mistake in Children’s Ministry

Details: Created: Tuesday, 16 October 2018 16:35

Bundle-Image-1-600x327 I’d just left four years of theological college behind and landed my first full time job as a children’s pastor. I was thrilled to have landed a job at a church that cared so much about kids and families, they put serious dollars towards a person who could lead their team.

The size of the kid’s ministry on Sunday mornings was a bit daunting. Previously I’d lead small teams and small kids’ ministries of around 30 kids. This position was for over 130 kids! Yet despite my bible college education and years of experience in volunteer Christian ministry, I was about to make the biggest blunder. A blunder that could be averted if the whole church, from parents to pastors, had the right mindset.

I’m not blaming anyone else…it was my fault. I take responsibility.

What was it? How can you avoid it?

What have parents got to do with it?

What’s the biggest mistake churches make?

Details: Created: Monday, 08 October 2018 19:31

If you’ve been in any form of Christian service, whether it be leading a kid’s ministry or an adult bible study, a creche or a whole church, then you’ll probably have, like me, sighed, at one time or another, wishing you had more leaders.

It goes like this:

‘If only I had more helpers…’

‘We could easily take on more kids but without more leaders I don’t think we should advertise the kids club.’

‘We’re stretched so thin, all we do is run the ministry, we don’t have time for the people in the ministry’

Parents don’t switch off, because we’re not off the hook either. If we don’t raise up our kids to follow us in Christian service, prayer, reading God’s word and godliness, then we are failing to have the impact on our kid’s lives that God seeks from us.

‘If only I had some help around the house…I’m overwhelmed’

‘Why are the only ever looking out for themselves when they get their breakfast?’

Big mistake parents make = not raising their kids to be leaders

It is part of our job description to raise up Christian leaders. They may not run churches one day, but they should grow up being teachable and have a self-sacrificing attitude of service to Christ’s church.

It all starts in the family...

11 Mistakes That Ruin Christmas Outreach Events To Kids (Bonus Video)

Details: Created: Tuesday, 18 September 2018 18:00

heather duhFB If you’re reading this, it’s a pretty safe guess that you agree Christmas is a great season to be inviting friends and family to hear about Jesus. While Christmas might still be a way off, most of us involved in churches and schools know that our events need careful planning, well in advance to make the most of the season.

The thing is, even with the best intentions, many Christmas outreach events to kids and families fail to reach their potential due to common mistakes. Ugh.

As both a trained Children’s pastor and itinerant performer, I’ve observed 11 big mistakes that if avoided, will help you to maximise your efforts to reach your community this Christmas:

1.Unclear Purpose

The first mistake is quite foundational. Sometimes we just run events without really knowing why!

Whenever Anton’s Antics performs for a school or church, I always try and ask the person booking, ‘what would it be that makes you go on social media and share with your friends how happy you are with the event?’.

In other words, after all your planning and advertising, all the hard work on the day…what ticks your boxes? What will put a big smile on your face? Once you’ve identified this, you’ll realise what it is that you really want to achieve.

If you can go one step further and quantify some measurable outcomes for your efforts, even better.

Let’s say your agreed purpose is outreach. What are some tangible outcomes?