Robin Turner

Children's Spiritual Formation Enthusiast | Wheaton/Ambridge/Dallas | DMin- Portland Seminary

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

@racheljwelcher Saint George, the Dragon, and the Princess Una.

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

Children’s ministries of the world, rejoice!

[mel @mangopants]

@timecaptales Pepperidge Farm is about to complete a factory that will allow them to make 1,500 goldfish a second. That's 90,000 a minute!

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

Kids don’t want to be distracted, they want to participate. Stickers are a great idea!

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

@NeuSummits I don’t think people realize how overtly this was taught. The guys and girls were separated one day for chapel, and the girls were told to stop volunteering to pray in class and at extracurricular activities so the boys could learn to step up.

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

The best kid learning grows out of their curiosity, and we can create spaces and communities that foster the kinds of questions that lead to biblical literacy.

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

@robinbarfield78 @rkeeley How fun! Would have loved to be a fly on the wall!

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

@MelodyFoster05 @RebeccMcLaugh One way our church has handled this is to have a youth dinner before a guest speaker event. It makes space for their fellowship and friendship while also normalizing that they get to attend adult functions/spaces.

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

I hear (and experienced!) people essentially saying they don’t have the bandwidth to commit to teaching a children’s lesson… and I’m saying that it doesn’t take tons of time and the time I did spend had a great ROI before I ever got to class both in formation and fun.

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

I got to teach the elementary lesson for the first time as a volunteer today (resigned from the director position in May), and it was both so fun and very formational. People don’t talk enough about how prepping a Bible lesson is a spiritual discipline in itself.

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

And I know that after a decade of practice it’s easier for me to prep than most… but it really just involved reading the text a few times over the last week and thinking/praying about what to emphasize in it and how to engage the kids with it.

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

@tracesoffaith And its companions, Simply in Season and World Cookbook!

Granola, Swedish pancakes, Pakistani Kima… and the encouragement that on occasion, ice cream can be considered dinner.

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

@MarkDBjelland @EmilyMcgowin Came here to recommend this! But also it’s loooooong.

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

@LauraRbnsn Presumably, but my 3yo is pretty convinced the shepherd takes the sheep swimming in those early verses, so perhaps we should be more imaginative about the sheep’s feasting capability? And perhaps my 3yo should apply to be a consultant for The Chosen.

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

My 2yo protesting naptime by yelling “This battle belongs to the Lord!”, and all I can think is “I couldn’t have said it better. May he give you sleep and me patience.”

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

@geoffholsclaw For further reading, @MimiLarson16 has done excellent research on play in/as worship as part of a grant from @cicw.

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

*Some of that growth was returning post-Covid, and we had a 3-year baby boom, but lots of families with older kids still began attending since 2021.

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

One of the best parts about my last church position was there was no pressure to do stuff just to keep up with other churches. If something didn’t align with our values/goals, we didn’t do it.

[Lindsey Goetz @lins_goetz]

How much of what we call "church" is just well-intentioned spiritual busywork that make us feel spiritually productive until it burns us out?

[Robin Turner @_robinmturner]

Least amount of staff/volunteer burnout I’ve ever experienced. And I think our children’s numbers tripled* in 3 years?! So clearly we weren’t decimating the ministry, more like pruning it.