Lead Well

A few years ago, I read Brian Dollar’s book,  I Blew It . In one chapter he talks about investing in the next generation and mentoring kids to serve. I had done this in my previous church, but I wasn’t happy with the curriculum, so I contacted Brian and ordered his curriculum. I went through it and thought about how to work it into my church context and made some adjustments. I started my first class, called K-Team, a few months later with 12 students. Four of them— still to this day, five years later—have major roles in the children’s ministry. They serve as some of our main children’s church worship leaders and presenters. I believe you can do this too. You have kids in your ministry right now who God is calling into full-time ministry. You have other kids who will be lifelong servants. Either way, we want all our kids to have an authentic lifelong faith in Jesus Christ. Mentoring them to serve in ministry is one of the most surefire ways to do that. But how? Here are five...

This summer I decided to make the switch from Group VBS to Orange VBS. I knew this was going to be a big change for everyone. I've done Group for almost 20 years. It's the only VBS I knew and the only one I've led. I even got to be a part of a focus group for Group a few years ago. A few years ago, I transitioned my children's ministry to the Orange curriculum. I loved the strategy, my small group leaders loved the simplicity of following the curriculum, and my kids loved all the fun they were having. When I started at my church almost 6 years ago, they held several VBS programs in the past but they were hit and miss over the past 10 years, so I had a clean slate and did what I knew by bringing Group VBS to them. Group helped us grow from a VBS of 100 kids to over 300. They were great to us. However, I wanted to be more strategic and I loved the fact that the Orange VBS theme lined up with the summer series. So, I casted vision, laid the groundwork, ...