I love thinking of new ideas. As a children's pastor and now developing "The Puppet Guy", I am having a lot of fun trying to think of new ideas and new ways of reaching children and families through magic and puppetry. I am also looking to not only go into churches, but libraries as well with these creative methods. Through the years, I have had many great ideas, but I have also had some total bombs. Let me share!
One of my greatest ideas I ever had, and I'm not saying it in a prideful way is developing Kids in Missions. This was a program God placed on my heart in 1995 after gong to Mexico with our Youth Group in 1994. I was looking to develop this program for preteen aged kids and teach them about missions by "doing missions." My idea was to teach them a class all on missions topics, then teach them how to minister by way of puppetry and drama. The only problem was I could not find a curriculum to teach these kids. It was then I decided to use my college textbook "Introduction to Global Missions" as a guide. In the fall of 1995 I sent letters out to many of our preteen aged kids expecting maybe 7 or so to sign up. On our first day of classes which was January 14, 1996, as I walked down the hallway to open up the classroom to begin the class, I had 18 kids ready to start learning about missions. The original name was Kids Mission Bridge which I had to change 2 years later. All I can say is this idea I had and started developing exploded. For 17 years I had hundreds of kids take this class, they all attended outreaches with me and various local churches in NY and NJ. While I acted as the emcee leading the outreach by doing my ventriloquism and gospel illusions, the kids would perform various dramas and do puppet songs. We did 4 summer missions trips. 2 to Friend, Nebraska one to Toccoa, Georgia and also to the country of Belize. I was also able to sell my curriculum on my website and share about it at conventions. It was a great idea that God put on my heart and I give him the glory for it. Truthfully, I miss doing it with the kids. We have more memories I believe as we traveled in the church shuttle!
Now for a bad idea. This one I thought would work. My heart was to turn Smithtown, NY upside down with the gospel. I just returned from a Children's Pastors Conference and attended a workshop called K.I.D.S. an acronym for Kids in Denver Saturday. The couple who taught the workshop shared with the class how they had thousands of kids come to their church on a Saturday morning and they would do an entire program for the kids that included puppets, gospel illusions, crafts, games and snacks. I was hooked. I came back from that conference determined to make this idea work. I immediately signed the entire Fellowship Center out for 4 dates (September & November 1995, January & March 1996). I called it "Super Saturday." Other pastors and leaders were upset I had that area signed up but I was convinced this idea would work. There were some challenges! I didn't have my workers on board with me and secondly it seemed as though the kids & parents were also not on board. I was still convinced this idea would explode to the point that we would need to rent out the Smithtown Movie Theater on Main Street. The first event went well but I honestly did not need the entire Fellowship Center, I was convinced this idea would work so I started giving out door prize tickets for the second event we did that November. Again, it did go well but my biggest problem was I had no help. November was a challenging month because of Thanksgiving. A lot of my workers bailed out on me and I ended up being a one man show. I even had one worker say to me "Is this really worth the effort, Pastor Dave? Families are busy in Saturdays!" That was my wake up call and I decided to shelve my "Super Saturday" idea and put it to rest.
Fast forward to 2019, I am having a lot of fun trying to think of new, creative ideas in my new "Puppet Guy" ventures. I will admit I do get ideas at the craziest times and places...driving in my car, at the gym, waking up at 3 a.m. and even at Chick Fil-A. My rule of thumb has always been there are no dumb ideas. You need to try it out and "test drive" it to see if it works. I am looking forward in seeing what God has in store for me as I "test drive" these new ideas!
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