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 Lavi Perchik on Unsplash Maybe this has happened to you. You had a huge event where hundreds of people came. People were saved. Lives were changed. You get ready to make an announcement in the service or post on social what God has done. But you’re stuck. You can tell them what happened, but only verbally. The pictures and video are terrible or non-existent. A picture is worth a thousand words. Getting that magic shot can tell the whole story of what happened at your event. Or better, get more people to join the event next time. I’m not a photographer, but taking pictures is one of those things that I wish I’d learned in ministry school . It’s something that I’ve had to learn the hard way, and I’ve relied heavily on others who are far more skilled. When I first started, the iPhone was just released and the best phone pics I could take were so blurry, they were unusable. Thankfully, mobile phone cameras have come a long way over the last 15 years, but having a great cam

I’ve been posting and leading the social media for the churches I’ve worked for almost as long as I’ve been a kid’s pastor. For the past 13 years, I’ve moved with the changes to Facebook and Instagram. Established Twitter accounts and even explored Snap Chat and Marco Polo. Creating daily or even weekly content for all of these platforms can be exhausting and many of these platforms change everything seemingly on a whim. It can be tough to keep up. In addition, the fallacy of social media is thinking that just posting to one platform one time is enough. It’s not. You have to be consistent and repeat yourself over and over. There is no one silver bullet to church communication. I outline 3 of the methods of communication I use here. Over the last few months, I think I’ve finally settled on a system for consistent content creation for all the platforms I’m on that keep parents connected and informed. I use a seven-day plan that is abstract enough to use on almost any platform bu

This past week, I left work frustrated. I worked really hard on my children's ministry Facebook page throughout the week and all of 8 people saw all of my posts. 8! out of 186! I just wanted to throw in the towel. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has felt like this. You've done everything you can do and it seems like nothing helps.  So here are five ways I've found to beat frustration. Do something else for a little while.  When I got home that night, I was full of the blues, so I volunteered to go grocery shopping with my wife.  Just getting my mind of things released some of the tension. When you feel super frustrated don't keep pushing.  Take some time off and do something else.  The solution might present itself when you come back. Exercise. It's amazing what a little physical activity can do for you.  I run frequently, so the next morning, I put on my running shoes and my headphones and took off.  It was refreshing and energizing. Studie