The Magic of the Happy Meal! 

Ask any kid what their favorite restaurant is and there is a good chance the answer is going to be McDonald’s. If you ask the reason, are they going to comment on the nutritional content of the food? The flavor of the fries? The value of the meals? Of course not! In fact, most of those reasons are why parents don’t like McDonald’s. Kids love the Happy Meal^TM! McDonald’s ingeniously invented the concept of the “meal with a toy” and along with it, trademarked the best meal name – the Happy Meal^TM. Every other fast-food establishment quickly copied the concept but had to come up with similar but less effective names for their kids’ meals. It was genius because few things make kids as happy as a small toy or treat. Getting kids to eat can be a chore but toss in a toy and the challenge isn’t so hard. You might even get them to eat some sliced apples along with it.

In ministry, we have a lot of BIG goals! We want to Make Disciples! Share the Gospel! Teach Doctrine! Explain Theology! Fulfill the Great Commission! All of these Mandates are Good and of God! But if we don’t first capture the hearts and minds of our listeners, we’ll never get them to focus and learn. Learning comes through relationship and requires 2 things: a desire to learn and trust in the one sharing the information. The teacher is as important as the information the teacher is communicating.

So how do we get kids to WANT the information, and want it FROM US? We have a two-fold challenge. 

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