Children are hard-wired for imitation and learn most about life in their early years — for better or worse — by reflecting their (gulp!) daddy.

In the shadow of our own church steeples are families aching to go to church. There are husbands and wives who have never sat together as a couple in a single service. There are children with special needs who want to come to church, maybe your church. Creating a plan and developing a ministry to meet the needs of people with special needs can be such a blessing to you and your church.

Cookies and Kool-Aid. Crafts and games. These are four of the biggest components of Vacation Bible School and perhaps are the things we remember about VBS when we participated as children. The methods may have changed, but at its core, VBS still represents a powerful and effective outreach tool for the local church.

As followers of Christ, we are to be salt and light in the world around us as we live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Yet being salt and light in a rapidly changing culture can be challenging. Many of the hot-button issues present in our contemporary culture where spiritual darkness abounds can often make it seem that we have an “us against them” mentality as we live out our faith. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Evoking a sense of nostalgia is an integral part of Disney’s filmmaking strategy. We see it in recent films like the Star Wars franchise, Beauty and the Beast and Mary Poppins Returns. This brilliant strategy involves crafting movies that both mirror the storylines of the originals and stand on their own for a newer generation.

Nostalgia is defined as “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.” It has the unique ability to carry a person to the past like nothing else. In essence, nostalgia brings what is familiar to the forefront of a person’s heart.

People love to talk about what they’re passionate about. Personally, I could tell you about the great book I just read, how my alma mater is doing in sports or the two concerts I recently bought tickets for. What is one thing that I am passionate about that I don’t talk about as often? Jesus.