How to Follow Up with Your Missing People
As a pastor you’re a shepherd. It’s your job to take care of your flock. In my own experience (and even in my writing) I talk about reaching out to new people and caring for them. However, Jesus gave us the example by sharing the parable of the shepherd who leaves the 99 to go after the one.
7 Essential Details for a Seamless Ministry Transition
As you’re leaving, you need to also think about the person that’s coming behind you. Will they be able to pick up where you leave off? Will they have access to the necessary resources, websites, social media profiles and more? Will they know who their volunteers are and where they like to serve?
4 Steps to Overcome Ministry Disasters
On Sunday, disaster struck my church. We had a huge storm blow through, and the power was out for several miles around the church. The power company said the power would be on at 10:45, 15 minutes after our start time. Then it was 11:45. Then 4pm. I got the news as I pulled into the parking lot at 9:30am.
3 Questions to Declutter Your Ministry Closet
There’s one ministry duty that we all have to do that no one really talks about. Everyone at the church knows about it, but no one wants to do anything about it. Then in staff meeting, the leader makes the announcement. It’s time to clean out that closet.
3 Kinds of Kidmin Volunteers (and How to Keep Them)
My Senior Royal Ranger Commander (think Boy Scouts with Jesus) was unhappy. I was at my first church, and I’d recruited a new volunteer for the ministry. He was great for the ministry. But now his son was moving up to the next age group and my volunteer wanted to go with him. The Senior Commander couldn’t understand why this father wanted to leave. Why didn’t he just stay with the age group he was currently serving?
Life Lessons at 40: 16 Nuggets of Truth
Of all the decisions I’ve made, I realized that those 16 statements I shared with my students have shaped my life. Most of them I’ve gleaned from other sources, but I’ve found myself saying them over and over. Whether you’re in ministry or serve God somewhere else, I hope you can use them to find your own success.
5 Discipleship Principles I Learned in the Classroom
I’ve been in-between churches since July. In January, I took an executive pastor role at a small church plant, Christ Chapel East. But that was only part time. Since my degree is in high school education, I decided to put it to use and began to substitute teach. One fateful January morning, I took a math job at a high school I didn’t normally sub. By the end of the day, I had a long-term sub job and by the next week I was responsible for the math education of 150 seniors and sophomores.
5 Steps to Pre-Service Meetings Your Team Will Love
No matter how long a lead team meeting is you need to have an agenda, and pre-service meetings are no different. But what should you talk about in those meetings? How do you make them engaging and enjoyable so that your volunteers are willing to show up 30-45 minutes before the service, just to meet?
Boost Your Team with Pre-Service Meetings
What If I told you there was one thing you could do this Sunday that would improve your volunteer morale, orient everyone towards your vision, and make sure all your volunteers are cared for? Such a thing exists. It’s called a pre-service meeting.
5 Hacks for Streamlining Church Event Childcare
Being in kidmin, it’s natural for people to ask you to also provide childcare for events. It can be frustrating because that’s not what you signed up for. You are the kid’s pastor, spiritual leader, and discipler, not their babysitter. And yet, the requests still come, and the expectations are still made. Children’s ministry is not childcare, it’s discipleship.
The Secret Weapon to Leading Volunteers
Volunteers are just that, volunteers. They can leave whenever they want. So, what is a pastor, leader, coordinator, director, leader supposed to do? There are things that need to be done and you can’t do all of them. It all comes down to one simple idea…
3 Holiday Practices to Keep Jesus First
A few years ago, I hosted the biggest Easter Egg Hunt my church had seen to date. We had hundreds of kids and thousands of eggs. We saw many kids accept Christ and everyone had fun. It was all a big lead up to the next day, Easter. As I drove home thinking about the wins and losses, it hit me like a kid remembering his semester long project is due tomorrow and he’s done nothing. Easter is tomorrow.
4 Questions to Handle Church Complaints
The dirty little secret about ministry and leadership in general is that whatever you choose to do someone is going to hate it. They’re going to think it’s the worst decision ever and by extension you are too. It just comes with the territory.
4 Steps to Scheduling Your Volunteers
When you’re the leader and the pastor, you have a push and pull. You want to make sure all your positions are filled, but you also don’t want to burn out your volunteers. What is the best way? Does everyone serve with the same frequency? What about if you have multiple services? Multiple days? Or just one? And what about fifth Sundays?
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