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 ne...

Photo by Bench Accounting on Unsplash The dirty secret of children’s ministry, specifically, and NextGen ministry in general is that very little of your time as a pastor is spent ministering to that age group. In reality, you will spend 1-3 hours a week actually leading them, while the other 40+ hours are spent doing other things. When I first started as a kids pastor, my father-in-law asked almost weekly, “So, what do you do the rest of the week?” Thankfully he’s figured it out, but he’s not alone. A lot of people don’t know what we do week in and week out. It’s easy to scoff at this question and what they don’t understand, but when you think deeply about it, what do you actually do the rest of the week ?  How do you know what you did this week actually helped you move the ball forward? How do you know you did everything you needed to do to be ready for what’s next? No matter where you serve in NextGen ministry, I believe there are four types of work that each minister needs...

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...

Photo by Medienstürmer on Unsplash Starting a new ministry position can be scary. We don’t know what the future holds or what to expect. We’re filled with enthusiasm and passion for the next chapter, but a lot of times we go in blind. I've been there.  It's never fun to be surprised when things happen we don’t expect. Inevitably, we fall into the comparison trap of what we did at the last church. The best way to combat this problem is with questions. It's not unusual to ask a lot of questions during the interview process, but once you accept the position, what then? The transitional time between when you say yes, and your first day is critical to set expectations and understand exactly what you're walking into. By asking more questions, you can make sure you mesh with the culture well and hit the ground running. With this in mind, here are 75 questions to ask after you’ve accepted the job and before you start. If you'd like an editable copy of these questions, do...