So I seem to have joined the "Children's Pastor's Conference of the Week Club" without realizing it. Last week I was in Greenville, SC to speak at a denominational conference. The week before I was in Toledo speaking at a regional conference put on by Westgate Chapel, the church that my Great Grandpa Vischer and great great great aunt helped start 101 years ago. (It was originally called the "Toledo Gospel Chapel," a name suggested by my great great great aunt.) That was pretty cool – my Great Aunt Betty still attends the church, and my dad and stepmom drove down from southeastern Michigan to hear me speak.
I really like talking to children's ministry workers – we're definitely on the same team trying to accomplish the same things, just in slightly different ways. Children's ministry workers are my "peeps."
Next week I'm speaking at the Willow Creek children's ministry conference again – talking about the media and kids this time, rather than telling my story (which they've all heard by now, I think). It should be fun, though – it's a new talk I put together recently and "tried out" in Toledo two weeks ago. I figure if it plays in Toledo, it ought to play just about anywhere, right? If you're coming to the Willow conference, I'm the opening keynote so don't show up late! (And Buck Denver is going to make a surprise appearance. But don't tell anyone, 'cuz it's a surprise!)
On the JellyTelly front, we're having some very encouraging partner meetings. God is moving, and some pieces are starting to fall in place. For those of you watching JellyTelly religiously and noticing that you're seeing some of the same clips come up again (and again), our apologies. Until we get some partnerships in place, we don't have much money to spend on additional programming. And by "not much," I mean "none." So be patient, hang on, don't wander off quite yet. As I mentioned, I believe God is moving and we should have some interesting developments before too long to talk about.
If you're wondering what's up with Big Idea and the veggies, we're still waiting for final news. Apparently a sale of the parent company (Entertainment Rights) is in the works and should be finalized with a month. ER's bank agreed to give them a little more money to continue operating while they try to wrap up the sale. (To whom? We don't know.) The shareholders were notified that they weren't likely to get anything out of the sale, so the stock price has crashed to about 0.15 pence per share, a decline of about 99% in the last two years. Ouch. Within a month or so Bob and Larry should have a new owner, and, once again, we'll see how that affects the assets formerly known as Big Idea Productions.
In the meantime, the current moves, and we bob along thankfully. No pun intended. (You can "Larry" along if you want to.)
Jelly on…
I don’t really understand why you can’t produce more segments like Agnes & Winnie, when all you have to do is write it and shoot it, then plug the footage into the already created Shake Tree. Just make those segments to tie people over so they don’t start wondering off to watch Strong Bad check his email. You don’t have to be big and fancy and original
uuugh, oh my gosh! no, no there’s no forgiveness for that last comment, i’m sorry. =P
Hey, an we send in donations to JellyTelly? Not just money, but like, productions, and shows, and videos, and blah,blah,blah, things we’ve made that would go on JellyTelly.
And you don’t pay us a cent!
I do recommend a PayPal account be created for JellyTelly so all the money we donate through PayPal will go to Jellytelly.
cbn.comI wonder if you could get any of the old Super Book episodes. I used to watch them on METV in the 80s.
Since your “Fall of Big Idea” is now a great book, will your media and kids talk be turned into a book?
And We need a Jelly Telly for grown ups dont we.
how about, Giant Squid Telly?
😉
Jonathan
hey, I have a toddler. They LOVE watching the same things over and over and over and over and over. And over again. No problems here!
Hey, I was at the conference in Greenville. What you had to say was really for us for sure! (We are the missionary family… my daughter is the clown who had you sign our book. 😀 ) I devoured your book on the airplane back to Ecuador and it really prompted me to do some waiting on God instead of just jumping into my own plans. Thanks for being used by God.
I’ll be seeing you at the Conspire Conference next week.
I’ll be the guy in the crowd.
–A
Protect your voice, stay strong, pray and keep up posted. 😉
Hey Phil! Just so you know, we live about 35 minutes from Greenville. So if you’re down this way again, let us know. We’d love to come meet you for dinner.
By the way, the kiddos are loving Jelly Telly.
Lance says “hello” and also that next time he’s speaking in Chicago he’ll be sure to not call you. : )
Looking forward to July!
How about Me, Myself, and Buck?
Hey since Last Chance Detectives didn’t show this weekend, will we have it next weekend?
Any changes of finding some new blood that wants to promote their videos or music or anything? I liked the obscure pieces that were on JT, so I’d love to see more things like that, especially if it’s helping everyone involved.
I meant “chances”, not “changes”. 🙂
HOW COOL…just heard you on the news on AFR. It was a nice segment…just long enough to explain your heart about “connecting the dots” between Sundays.
Hi. I am fifteen and my brothers are 13 and 18 so no one in my family is in the target age group for Jellytelly. I am the only person in my family who has watched JellyTelly. I love VeggieTales, but I am sorry to say that while JellyTelly is a good show for younger kids, I really cant say I like it that much. The parts with Buck Denver and Michael are pretty funny and I like the Bently Brothers’ songs but the rest really isn’t that interesting to me. It seems to me that it is aimed at a younger audiance than VeggieTales. Is it? I don’t mean to insult anyone.
Whaddaya mean no one in your family is the target age for JellyTelly? Have you seen Quacky? That story was wicked! In a good way of course. It’s like modern day Christian Dr. Seuss (whose wife happens to be pro-choice despite her husband’s publishing of Horton Hears A Who).
What about Alfred Wilburwale? That was one of the things that caught my eye in the JellyTelly preview in November, or October. Can’t remember.
Sunday School lady (I know her real name) and Dr. Schniff is really educational.
Okay, that’s my two cents.
Although there are repeats, we all enjoy watching them again and again. It gives us a chance to learn all the word to the Bentley Brother songs. I particularly like Buck’s Mailbag. That Buck Denver cracks me up! We are excited to be a daily part of JT and can’t wait to see what happens next.
I saw you speak at Willow Creek and I have to say it was captivating the way you made statistics come alive with stories. It was compelling and thoughful and a total gift. I pick up your book, which I probably would have never come in contact otherwise and haven’t put it down. Made me do a lot of thinking. In fact, I am still thinking.
Hey guyz
I’ve been reading through the site and to tell the truth, i’ve never heard of jelly telly before. I live all the way down in Melbourne, Australia and almost religously follow veggie tales. In the Australian Uniting curch circle veggie tales is very popular, and we use it a lot. Recently I read the book Me, Myself & Bob and decided to do my english project on the book, and i think the book had something about Jelly telly in it. So i got on the internet and started searching Phil Vischer and found out about Jelly Telly. I would love to say I’m all grown up and wouldn’t watch kids shows, but who can resist? Even Sesame street has a great lure to it, problem is i can’t watch Jelly telly, I don’t think we have it in Australia. Are there series on DVD or something that I could get? It’s a struggle to keep up with all the new stuff when your living in a country on its own continent, we only have New Zealand really and it can get a bit lonely. =)
Cheers
Anna
Hi Phil!
Two things. First, thanks again for coming to “Toledo Gospel Chapel”! We received lots of comments like – “Awesome Conference”, “Phil’s talk really impacted me” and so on. It was also nice to meet your parents!
Second, I’m trying to find animators and film makers who would like to showcase their stuff on my site and get paid doing it. I finally have the thing up and running. But, haven’t a clue as to how to get the word out. Anything body you could put me in contact with would be great.
Thanks again!
Pastor Pat
Why didn’t you mention your conference appearance at Glad Tidings Church in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. You were so amazing to listen to. Thank you.