Lead Well

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...

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash A little talked about, but vital document in your ministry is a policy and procedure manual. The manual answers a lot of questions for volunteers and clearly defines your thinking on multiple situations. While your church may have its own policy manual that addresses your ministry specifically, many times these are incomplete when it comes to NextGen. In my experience, they’ll address room ratios and background checks, but not other problems such as fire drills, dress codes, meeting attendance and more. This is why I suggest every NextGen ministry have its own policy and procedure manual. It needs to agree with the main church manual, but it can be more specifically tailored to your ministry. However, just having the manual and sticking it in a drawer is not enough. You need to keep it top of mind for yourself and your volunteers. My first volunteer training and orientation for new volunteers uses the manual as a guide. This gets everyone...

Photo by Adam Winger on Unsplash One of the biggest questions I see in the Kidmin world is what curriculum do we use? Which one is better? 252Kids ? High Voltage ? Bible Engagement ? Open Church ? Write your own? The curriculum options out there are endless, and you can spend a lot of time, energy, and money trying to find the right one for your ministry. I’ve tested a lot of curriculums over the years and even tried to write my own. It’s a daunting task. I searched for over a year once, and all I really wanted was someone to tell me which one to do. Fortunately, no one did, and I’m not going to tell you which one either. However, I will give you four questions to help narrow it down and pick a curriculum that works best for your church and ministry.

Eight years ago my lead pastor said something I will never forget. He had just cast the vision to go multisite and had received approval from the board. I was ecstatic for the upcoming challenges and the “prestige” of becoming a children’s pastor of multiple campuses. As we were walking to the children’s area, I started to share with him my plans for the ministry when he abruptly stopped me. He said, “David, I’m not planning on you being the children’s pastor of both campuses. You have to grow in leadership before I can trust you to do that. You will probably just be here at this campus.” I’ll be honest. That knocked me down a couple of pegs. I was devastated to say the least, but the dream was born. It was big. It was scary. It was roaring at me like a 500-pound lion. I didn’t know what to do or where to go, but I knew I had my marching orders. What is your 500-pound dream? What is the one thing you know God has called you to do? Does it scare you? If so, good. Is it risky?...

Last week I attended the Orange Conference .  It was a great week of equipping and refocus for me and my wife Liz.  In our last break-out session the leader, Joy Bowen , made us promise not to "puke vision" when we come back home. I though that was funny and a good reminder to leaders.  How many times do we go away to a conference, meeting, or trip to just come back and tell our team all the things we are going to do.  Sadly in our excitement we don't allow for essential buy-in or to even think through our ideas.  We end up scaring our team as well as hurting our integrity, because we end up doing only half (if we're lucky) of what we said we were going to do. So as I check myself, I beg you don't puke vision.  Take the time to think through your ideas, make a plan, organize resources, build buy-in, then roll out the ideas when the time is right.  Maxwell says that the right idea at the wrong time is still the wrong idea.  Let's commit today t...

I didn't really like the prompt for today, but since this is a 30 day writing challenge I figured I should write something, so here goes. Do you ever get the feeling that there should be something more?  something greater?  A higher calling?  Or, on a similar note, that people are involved in something and because of your circumstances you are left behind?  Sometimes I find myself with these feelings.  Yesterday I posted about opportunities covered by the mundane.  It is so easy to be caught up in the quagmire of everyday life that we forget to look around us.  Forget about the people who care for us.  The mission, job, project, task that God has given us.  Our culture screams if you want it bad enough you can have it.  While I agree with this to an extent, we can forget what is right in front of us.  As the wise old Yoda told us about young Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars reference) "He was too focused on the future, not on the ...