Lead Well

Events and ministry go hand in hand. It comes from when the church was the center of town. Everyone’s social calendar was filled with church activities because the church was the community. Now things have drastically changed, but we still do events. Now you may be in one of those churches that have fully embraced the Attractional Model and all you have to worry about is the weekend. As my southern friends say, “Bless your heart”. For the rest of us, it’s a juggling act. The pressure of Sunday is always coming, but you also have movie nights, pajama parties, picnics in the park, VBS, kids camp, back to school outreaches, Holy Ghost Weeny Roasts, the list goes on and on. I could talk about why you’re doing all these things and even question if doing all of them is even the right thing to do, but that’s a different post . The question I want to ask today is “Does the event work?” Many churches simply do things out of habit. “This is what we did last year, so we’re go...

You can’t be in ministry for long without having to host a volunteer meeting. A lot of time these meetings can drag on without any clear focus and not get anything done. When you first start in ministry, people show up because they want to hear what you have to say, but if you’re meeting is boring you may have a hard time getting them to come back. After a few years of leading awful meetings and attending a few as well, I developed three elements that almost every successful volunteer meeting needs to have, regardless of the meeting’s content or intent.

When I first started out in ministry, I was naïve to think that everyone would get along. We all love Jesus, and we’re all in this together, we should be one big happy family, right? Unfortunately, church can be like angry Twitter. No matter who you are or where you go there will always be conflict. You’re going to want to do something and someone else is going to have a different opinion. It’s called being human. Your skill as a leader is shown by your ability to work with others and get things done. It’s far too easy to make that other person your enemy but doing so will not help you reach your goals or theirs. Let me tell you a story.

A few months ago, I wrote a post about leaving well . The inevitable happens when you leave something. You start something new. But leaving something and starting something are two different things. They both have their hurts and their joys, but you have to approach them differently. Now that I’ve been in the new ministry for almost a year, I can look back at that first month or two and realize what helped and what didn’t. Here are 5 things you can do to start a new ministry job well. 1. Listen  When you’re first starting out you don’t know what you don’t know. There are new processes, programs, events, people, jargon, and ways of doing things that will be different from where you came from. It’s important that you listen to everyone. Ask questions in a curious and non-confrontational manner. The first week is always tough because of all the on-boarding, but if you come in with a teachable spirit, it will help you go further faster. But this goes beyond...

About a year ago, I made a huge change in my career and left my church of 7 years in Montgomery, Alabama and moved to Sarasota, Florida for a new church and new children's ministry.  Next week, I will post about how I tried to start there well, but today I want to talk about how to leave well. When I first felt the release from my assignment in Montgomery, I wasn’t sure if it was the pizza I had the night before, the frustration I was feeling in my current position, or if it was God nudging me in a new direction. This had happened to me before, so I decided to wait and pray. I didn’t tell anyone, not even my wife for the first several weeks, while I sought the Lord. After a few weeks, I realized that this may be the direction I should go, so I asked my wife to pray as well, and I reached out to a couple of my mentors to help me think and pray. Jim Wideman’s Stay or Go resource was invaluable at the time. His best quote was, “If it’s time for you to leave, it has to be...

Leading my first VBS If you’ve worked in ministry for any length of time, you know that ministry and events go hand in hand. Most people just volunteer for them. Then, you move up the ranks and start planning or leading different elements. Then before you know it, you’re in charge of the whole thing, and you’re not sure where to begin. This was my story. I had led things before and interned with a children’s pastor over the summer. I knew how much work went into putting on a great event, or at least, I thought I did. A year later, I accepted my first job as a children’s pastor. The senior pastor really wanted to bring back VBS and wanted me to be the one to do it. I had 12 weeks. Also, I was getting married in 13 weeks and starting a brand-new college a few weeks after that. It was a little stressful. I can’t say that that VBS was a disaster. I look back on it with fondness and a great learning experience for me. Over a hundred kids came, and many accepted C...

VBS was 5 days away. I’ve been working on it for weeks. There was a booth in the lobby, an announcement in the bulletin, posters in the children’s hall, volunteers recruited, and supplies arriving every day. It was on my own social media channels including the kids Facebook page, but I needed it to be said on the main church social channels. I created the content and sent it over to the social media manager. He said he loved it and would get it cued up for sharing. The he asked, “When is it?” “Monday.” Face palm. To be fair, the guy was new and didn’t have kids. He knew it was coming but hadn’t paid attention as to when. Parents and volunteers are sometimes worse. You can talk about the event or program over and over again. You put up posters, make slides, and make an announcement from the stage, and you get crickets. Or even worse, the week after your event, someone asks you when it is. I hope your story isn’t like this, but mine has been. It’s frustrating ...