Greetings Friends and Students!

Christmas is a busy time with church programs and family gatherings. Remember this year to take some time to relax with your loved ones. The elves here at our workshop have been busy this Christmas season creating more helps for you in your ministry to children. You will find at cmuo.com/resources a series of lessons we’ve prepared for use in children’s church. Check out our podcast at childrensministrytalk.com and have a great holiday. I found a fabulous item at onewaystreet.com called the Bible Story Bag. They have about a dozen to choose from including the Christmas Story and the Wordless Bag. I have used these both and always get good response form children and adult workers.

January is just around the bend. I hope that some of you will find me at CPC in Nashville. I’ll be the tall guy wearing red Chuck Taylors. (Those are shoes). I am also participating in the Assemblies of God Potomac and Penn-Del Districts children’s ministries retreats as well as the North American Children’s Ministries Conference. I look forward to meeting you in my travels.

God bless and quit putting off that continuing education. The cost has never been cheaper nor the information delivered more practical than what we offer at CMUO.com. Take a look and sign up for classes this new year.

Now to close in the words of Tiny Tim, “God bless us, everyone.”

His servant, your servant,

God has blessed each child with unique talents and abilities! In this FREE workshop, CMUO instructor Verda Rubottom shares suggestions for helping children discover and develop their talents and abilities for God. This workshop is one of the many excellent sessions included in the CMUO elective course, CMU211 – Kids in Ministry.

Additional FREE children’s ministry training workshops are available at http://www.cmuo.com/workshops.

Have a question about CMUO? Contact CMUO Learner support at: http://www.cmuo.com/support

We hope to see you “in class” soon!

- Children’s Ministries University Online

CMUOnet, the children’s ministries social learning network sponsored by Children’s Ministries University Online, has just received a major upgrade and is packed now with even more features!  It’s now easier than ever for users to connect with one other, post to personal of group blogs, share bookmarks, find groups of interest, or even start their own group to begin connecting with other children’s ministry leaders.

CMUOnet is powered by the Elgg social networking platform and was recently featured as one of the latest Elgg-powered education social networks.  CMUOnet is the social learning platform for Children’s Ministries University Online and allows children’s ministry leaders to create communities of learning and meet both socially and academically and network with one another.

Best of all…CMUOnet is free!  Want to give it a try?  Visit cmuonet.org and sign-up for your free account today.  Within minutes you can begin networking with children’s ministry leaders from around the globe.

Join Dick Gruber and Jason Rhode for this first-of-its-kind 3 hour interactive online workshop where you’ll discover the practical steps to Cultivating a Cutting-Edge Children’s Church.

In conjunction with the National Children’s Ministries Leadership Conference, this pre-conference workshop offered face-to-face at the conference will be webcast live online on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 from 9:00am-12:00pm (CDT) and then repeated later that day from 1:00pm-4:00pm. View the FREE session online and interact with the presenters and other participants live online during the session!

Two identical sessions will be offered:

• Session 1: Tuesday, April 1, 2008, 9:00am-12:00pm (CDT)
• Session 2: Tuesday, April 1, 2008, 1:00pm-4:00pm (CDT)

Both sessions will be webcast live online using Ustream. To participate in the chat room to ask questions and post comments during the workshop, you need to login to Ustream. If you do not have a Ustream account yet, click here to register for free. Then, 10-15 mins before the session begins, click here to login to participate live online!

For those unable to participate live, the sessions will be recorded and archives made available afterwards at www.cmuo.com/workshops/kidschurch. Links to additional resource materials and the slides referenced during the sessions will also be posted there.

As a loyal subscriber to the CMUO e-News list, I wanted you to be among the first to learn of the reproducible children’s ministry art that I’ve created, compiled, and am making available as a FREE download! That’s right…this resource that includes years worth of my cartoon-style drawings is available for FREE!

Dick Gruber’s Evangel Art: Reproducible Art for Children’s Ministries is offered for FREE and includes:

• over 40 evangel pages
• 385 picture words
• 124 scripture pictures

All artwork is provided in .jpg format and can be easily incorporated into any word processing, desktop publishing, or presentation software. To request a free download of Evangel Art, simply complete the download request form at www.cmuo.com/resources/evangelart. You will then receive an email with more details for downloading your free copy.

2008 promises to be one of the most exciting years yet for CMUO as we will be releasing the final remaining courses for the 1 year certificate program as well as several additional elective courses. Stay tuned to the CMUO e-News list for more details!

We’re also looking forward to our first-of-its kind Live Interational Training Experience that we are calling CMUO LITE. You can either join us on the campus of Valley Forge Christian College or online for this unique conference event to be held October 9-11, 2008. We’ve got a fabulous lineup of general session speakers scheduled, including David Boyd, Dale VonSeggen, and Jim Wideman and you’ll also be able to choose from over 30 other breakout sessions. For complete details, visit www.cmuolite.com. To take advantage of the early-bird registration discount, make sure to register before May 1st.

We look forward to hearing from you and to seeing you online or in-person in 2008!