After eight years in student ministry and another six as a pastor and evangelist, the Lord gave Kolby King the opportunity to serve as children's minister at a large church in Oklahoma. A couple of years later, in 2003, he and Mary Beth, his wife, began experimenting with "Family Action Packs" and other creative approaches to children's ministry. Within a few weeks they began receiving calls from churches in Texas and as far as North Carolina, interested in using the same materials in their churches. 

"Each time a church would call we would have to re-gather all the curriculums, family action packs and Kid's Church items and email or send them all over again. It was a time consuming process."

So the idea began of creating a website that could host all of this information as well as be a online resource to which other ministers could contribute their ideas and resources as well. Work began on the website in 2006 and launched in 2008. Although our original idea was to provide this resource for free to all who wanted to use it, we quickly discovered that there are a multitude of hosting fees and maintenance expenses. Originally we charged $159 for membership but as the country entered tough economic times and we began to hear stories of struggling churches, we began to reconsider the idea of making everything free again. Then something happened that struck us hard. As we began to track the origins of people visiting the site, we realized that 50% of them were from outside of the U.S. Within two days, people from 18 countries visited our site, the leading three being the U.S., South Korea and to our amazement, the third was a country in which it is illegal to share the Gospel. How could we not open up this site to all who desire to use its resources? The fees and expenses still exist, but all of this is now left in the hands of the One who feeds the birds and clothes with splendor the flowers of the field. 

Once the decision was made, every church who had paid a membership fee was offered the opportunity for a full refund. We now operate by donations only.

Kolby is a ventriloquist, which basically means that he likes to talk to himself, and the author of Ventriloquism Made Easy (Dover Publications, 1997). He began as a pastor in 1992 but God later promoted him to student ministry and he now serves as the children's minister at First Baptist Church in Owasso, Oklahoma, where he ministers to about 200 elementary students each week. He has also served as an evangelist where he and his wife picked up some interesting ministry tools including stunts with a six-foot balloon, balloon sculptures, fire-juggling (which one should never do on a windy day!), and a variety of teaching illusions and illustrations. In his spare time he likes to read, play with his four sons, and eat chocolate chip cookies...lots of chocolate chip cookies.

Read his Blog...

Mary Beth is the backbone of three-thirty ministries, driven by strong convictions about the role that the church should play in the world and in the family. She excels at drama, creative programing, evangelism, and one-on-one discipleship. She also runs the King household, including homeschool and taking care of four children (five, if you count Kolby). 

Read her Blog...

Special thanks to the many ministers who have contributed ideas and suggestions and have helped to edit and think and re-think the best ways to make this resource center as user-friendly as possible. Also, thanks to the ministers who are on hand to assist and help other churches as needed. And great gratitude to those who have served as advisors throughout this adventure: To Ryan and Katie Warren of Fort Worth, Texas; Sarah Underwood of Shawnee, Oklahoma; Ashlee Peterson of Edmond, Oklahoma; and Randy Faram of Edmond, Oklahoma--Thank you for your help, your prayers and your friendship.