A few weeks ago I posted about how to set goals. You can read about it here. Here's a visual guide about New Years Resolutions that's along the same lines. I just had to share it. Enjoy!
Easter is the Super Bowl of Christendom. More people come to church on Easter than any other Sunday of the year. I know last year’s Easter was different than any in recent memory, but now with churches opening up again, and others, like mine in Florida have been open for a while, we’re looking to see the people to come back maybe for the first time in over a year. Looking at 2019’s stats, my ministry doubled in size for that one Sunday. But with all these new people how do we get them to come back? How do we connect them to our church? COVID accelerated a lot of things and one thing I believe it really sped up was the need for community. People are longing for human connection more than a fancy service, great music, or a remarkable guest experience. Don’t get me wrong, we still need those things, but we have to connect them to a community. It’s the people that will get them to come back. I am a children’s pastor, so this follow up plan will have elements specific to that ministry...
Maybe you’ve seen this. You have a fifth or sixth grader completely checked out. They may have been engaged a few years before, but it’s getting close to their time to move on, and they have senioritis all of sudden. You thought it was only for 12th graders, but now you see it in 12-year-olds. But what do you do? Do you encourage them to engage? Talk to their parents? Let them move on to youth? In my first ministry, this problem was rampant. I was the fourth kids pastor for those sixth graders, and they were over it. They didn’t care and a few of them did whatever the wanted causing major distractions. Putting a discipline plan in place helped a little, but it didn’t solve the problem. That’s when I decided to begin a kids leadership team. We still had Sunday School, so for the ones who came, I’d teach a little about the Bible, and then train them how to run sound, lead worship, and do puppets. They helped me make videos to remind kids of the rules and to go to the bathroom...
When I first became a children’s pastor on my first Sunday, I sat and observed how the volunteers were managing their service. These were college students with little to no training, just a heart for kids and doing the best they could. Their stories and games were good. Their energy was excellent during worship, but they had one glaring problem. Discipline. The kids did whatever they wanted; whenever they wanted. I asked the leaders what their discipline plan was, and it was a convoluted three strikes and you’re out system, but the only consequence for any infraction was less candy. Essentially, a kid could misbehave all service and instead of getting three pieces of candy, they’d only get one. It didn’t take much for some of the kids to figure it out and exploit it. Rules and consequences were the first thing I changed when I took over, and the leaders were thankful. I was a certified teacher and spent many, many hours studying classroom management. I knew their system was neve...
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