Lead Well

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash In a previous post , I said there are three groups every NextGen pastor leads. However, there is a fourth group you lead and interact with every day.  That’s the other people on the church staff. No matter where you serve, you are not a ministry unto yourself. Yes, you have your own worship, lessons, tech, volunteers, and everything else. Pastors in NextGen must do everything the adults do most of the time as a one-person team with volunteers to help. It’s daunting. However, with all these responsibilities it’s easy to start creating your own ministry silo. You have your own volunteers that are loyal to you, you have your own vision that may or may not be aligned with the church’s vision, you don’t work with other ministries and may even view them as an enemy for stealing resources and people. Doing any one of these are recipes for disaster. Maybe not today, but definitely in the long run. Rob Ketterling once said that a team can only move at...

Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash While at church number 2, we became a multisite church. As we were preparing for the launch, I started to think about kids check-in and the best way we can do it at two locations at the same time. Our current check-in system was part of a local network church management system (ChMS) and if you don’t know what that means, basically we could only use the system if you were on the church’s internet. So, I was left with three options. Come up an analog way to do check-in Set up a separate server with our check-in system at the other location Find another system. The analog system could have worked, but then the kids’ leaders would have to report back to me weekly attendance data, and then someone would have to hand key that info into our digital system. In addition, we wanted to have as close to the same experience at both locations, and the analog way would not have achieved this goal.  Not ideal; but workable. The separate server wasn’t real...

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash One of the hardest parts of serving in Children’s ministry is never getting to go to service. Some pastors require their kids’ leaders to attend the adult service, but those are rare. Other kidmin pastors have figured out how to attend somewhat regularly, but it's not the same as before they became a leader. Part of the problem comes from the complexity of kidmin. It’s more than just one service. For comparison, the adult service may have at least 2 paid staff members or more working that one 75 minute service providing worship, announcements, a message, guest relations, lights, sound and more. A children’s ministry service has all of those things as well, usually with one paid staff, sometimes all volunteers.  Granted it’s on smaller scale, but it still takes a lot of people, planning, and resources. In addition, the kids’ pastor frequently has more to worry about than just one room. It is not unusual for them to manage elementary, pres...

Photo by jules a. on Unsplash I worked at Sam’s Club for a year and half while I was at my first church. Now when I go into any Sam’s and I need help, I can start dropping some jargon like it’s "in steel," or "it’s in that mixed pallet," or "it’s on the end cap or pod." Usually when I use their insider language, their eyes light up, and they're far more motivated to help me because we have something in common. No matter what job you do there are certain phrases and words that are specific to your culture. Most of these words and phrases develop naturally over time as a result of events, ministries, or your denomination. For example, I’m in the Assemblies of God. Here are just a few of the acronyms that any minister in the AG (see what I did there) will know. BGMC STL LFTL ACMR GC JBQ AGWM If you’re not in the AG, I’m sure you can come up with your own list of acronyms that mean something to you, but outsiders will have a no clue. But that’s just...