Lead Well

Photo by Dominic Hanson on Unsplash At my first church, I felt like I was alone. My senior pastor was sick, and the church was struggling. I had been in ministry for about a year and half and at first, I thought I was doing ok. But then when problems came, and I expressed them to my fellow staff members, it fell on deaf ears. I had a few friends in kidmin, but they lived in other states. Also, Facebook was in its infancy so finding others like me was difficult. Then at a sectional meeting with other church leaders in my area, I met a guy who told me about his kids’ pastor and how he had a podcast. Intrigued, I downloaded a few episodes and instantly felt at home. You know that feeling when you meet someone, and they just get it?  Since we were in the same town, I looked him up, and we went to lunch. It was the first of many connections and set me on a journey of seeking outside sources to make my ministry better. The thing is you were never meant to do ministry alone. We need o

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

It’s VBS season and for many churches, the event is seen as an outreach. We want to get as many kids as possible through the door, show them the way to Jesus, and then hopefully get them to come back on Sunday. But when you put on outreach events, it’s important to realize that not everyone is seeking Jesus, not everyone is new, and not everyone is a prospect for coming to your church. This isn’t a reason not to do the event, but we need to be aware. Just as Jesus told in his parable of the Sower and the Seed, not every seed falls on fertile ground. There are three groups of people who attend your VBS (or any other outreach event for that matter) and each one has different needs, but only one will help you grow your church. In this post we'll look at each of these groups and which one needs the most focus. 1. Your Church People When you first announce your VBS or other event, the first group of people to hear about it will be the people who already attend your church. We p

One thing about VBS is that it takes a lot of supplies. Crafts, games, decorations, Bible stories and so much more all need stuff.  It’s a lot to handle and can be one of the biggest line items in your budget. To keep my costs down, I’ve used this one fundraiser for years with great success. Full-disclosure, I got the idea from Group VBS way back in 2008, and I’ve been iterating on the idea ever since. Here’s the idea: Create a Donation Wall. Groundbreaking, isn’t it?  I thought so.  But after using it year after year I found some great benefits. 1. Church members who can’t serve will give. I noticed quickly that many people in my church are unable to serve at VBS for various reasons but are happy to give. Every year, I’d have a few people who never served, but would pick up several donation cards (more on this later) every week and bring me the donations we needed. Many never came on a single night, but they played as big a role as anyone else. 2. You can use the supplie

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash VBS is one of the most complex ministry outreaches in children’s ministries. It takes 3-6 months to put on a one-week event for tons of kids and a major part of the kidmin annual rhythm. One of the more complex yet essential parts of VBS is the schedule. It answers the question, “How are you going to get multiple groups of kids to multiple rooms throughout your campus all at the same time, not lose anyone, make time for bathroom breaks, and still get all the content covered?” While most curriculums have their own suggested schedule based on their proprietary structure, I’ve found most of them follow the same model. I’ve used the same basic schedule template for the last 20 years and today, I’m sharing it with you. Click here to download your VBS Schedule templates. Whatever you use for your schedule there are 5 essential questions you need to ask when creating it. 1. Is this a Day or Night VBS? The first question you have to answer is what tim

Photo by BBC Creative on Unsplash It’s coming to the end of the school year, and you’re probably thinking about promoting your kids to the next grade. But when is the best time? It’s a common question I’ve seen for years in Facebook groups. Someone looking for a change asks when everyone promotes their kids to the next grade and then a slew of comments ensues advocating for the beginning or the end of the summer. In my highly unscientific perusing of these comments, I’d say the answer is about 50/50. I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to do this and in my own ministry, I’ve experimented with both and see the pros and cons of each. Here’s what I’ve learned. Promote at the beginning of the summer. If you promote at the beginning of the summer, then your oldest kids, let’s say fifth graders, are mostly happy. A lot of them are already out the door ready to move to youth. They don’t want to be with the little ones anymore. Moving kids up at this time works well because you can do

My first VBS was a fiasco. I don’t use that word lightly. It was.  We had 8 weeks to pull off the biggest event of the year for 100 kids and 30 volunteers. To make it even more complicated this was the first VBS the church hosted in years, I started the position in mid-May with the VBS to be held the last week of July, and I got married the week following. It was one of the hardest few months of my ministry career and by the grace of God we pulled it off. Kids accepted Jesus, learned about the Bible, and the church was encouraged. I learned so much that first year and have built upon that experience ever since. One of my biggest mistakes was trying to do it all. I’m a high-capacity person and sometimes (frequently in my younger days) over-confident. VBS has a way of humbling you. I learned quickly I need to give responsibilities away. Many of the curriculums I’ve used over the years give you an idea of how many volunteers you need and where they should serve. However, if you’r

Photo by airfocus on Unsplash If you’re like me when you’re planning your first kid services, you’re probably following the model that you’ve seen before. Whether you learned it from a mentor, internship, or just watching another kid’s service, you’ve decided this is the order for the service. The game goes here. The worship goes here. The Bible story or sermon goes here. And that’s the way it’s supposed to go, because that’s the way it’s supposed to be done. I’m going to introduce a thought that might blow your mind. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can change things up. Drop things. Add things. Get creative and experimental. Test things to see if they work, evaluate, and try again. When I started at church number 1, I had a template for services where I just filled in the blanks. It made planning easier, and I could work in the ministry without having to work on the ministry. Being bi-vocational, I needed something that was plug and play and this worked. Click here if you&#

Being in ministry usually means you’re going to have to fundraise for something. After all, a church is technically a non-profit and generosity is a core tenet of our faith. Over the years, I’ve heard countless ideas for fundraisers for various reasons, but there’s one I’ve done year after year with great success. It’s called Silly String Sunday. Silly String Sunday is where leaders challenge kids to buy as many cans of silly string as possible at $5 per can. Then on the day, they get to spray those leaders with the silly string all for missions. It’s a mess and a ton of fun. Here’s how to do it. 1. Set your goal A lot of fundraisers need to hit a certain dollar amount in order to be successful, and I believe those have their place.  However for Silly String Sunday, I didn’t really care how much I raise. My goal was to see every kid buy at least one can. Just by making a small investment pushes past the awkwardness of never giving before and helps kids realize the joy of givi