 From
backyards to banquet halls, Karl has been entertaining and
ministering to children around the world through puppets, magic, balloons, and other creative
means since he was a kid!
Karl brings the Gospel to
children in a unique, creative, and energetic way. In his
training classes, Karl brings the joy of Children's Ministry
to life which results in practical ideas and principles that will recharge your
ministry.
Karl
has been a children's pastor for over fifteen years. He
began his ministry at the historical Moody Church in
downtown Chicago, served in several other churches,
including a church plant, and most recently served at the
Village
Church of Barrington
for eight years. Karl holds a bachelors degree in Bible
Theology from
Moody Bible
Institute,
and a Masters in Children's Ministry from
Trinity
Evangelical Divinity School.
Karl is the founder of
Kidology
Inc., a non-profit organization committed to equipping and encouraging children’s workers through quality training and affordable resources. Kidology Inc.’s ministries include the
Kidology University, the largest Children’s Ministry conference in the Mid-West, the KidologyWeb
(www.kidology.org), the largest interactive children’s ministry site on the internet, and the
Kidology Foundation, which provides grants to struggling children’s ministries and scholarships for students preparing for a career in children’s ministry.
Karl has had numerous articles
published, has written and contributed to several books, and wrote the
Awesome
Adventure children's discipleship series with his wife,
but his greatest joy is still working directly with children.
Together with his wife, Sara, Karl has been leading the Kid's
Church service in their church for over ten years.
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| Karl has been playing
with toys since he discovered that his fingers could pick
things up. In the summer of 2001, he was teaching at
Camp
Timber-lee in Wisconsin and the theme was Bible Beach
Adventures. Each lesson was a story from the Bible that
happened around water. For Moses and the
crossing of the Red Sea, Karl risked ending up with pink storm
troopers by using his Star Wars figures to tell the story
complete with a glass baking dish of red Jell-o. The
kids loved Obi-Wan Kenobi as Moses and Darth Vader as Pharaoh.
Needless to say, it was a hit! But Karl was not to know
just how much of a hit it was until the next summer (2002)
when literally hundreds of kids asked him if he was going to
do another action figure story. Sadly, the answer was
no. The lessons had all been written and packed and it
was too late for that summer. But Karl got to
thinking... and the next thing you know, Toybox Tales was
born! The key was getting it to be more visible.
That first Toybox Tale was on a table in front of over 400
kids. Very hard to see the detail, but the technical genius
of Branden Stuck, Karl's right-hand-tech-man, solved the
mystery. In the Fall of 2002, Toybox Tales premiered on the
big screen -- well, the 'big screen' in Kid's Church anyway!
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