Winning the Annual Review
It’s the end of the year and your pastor may be setting up an annual review. The annual review can be scary. Recently, I saw a Facebook post where a person asked if it’s natural to feel like you’re going to get fired.
My response?
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.
4 Steps to Mastering Your Ministry To-Do List
One thing about ministry is that you’re busy. Depending on how small your church is you can find yourself doing a lot of things that don’t fit within your “job.” Even if you work at a large church you can look up at the end of the week and wonder where the time went.
How to Get the Most Out of Your Conference
One of the best things you can do for your ministry and leadership growth is go to a conference. Whether it’s a small regional conference like the Orange Tour or a large national conference like Kidzmatter, you can find something that will make your ministry better.
But how do you get the most of your experience?
Avoiding Failure on Your Next Ministry Idea
I had a great idea. A God idea. What if we got the whole church together on Saturdays for an hour of prayer? It would be easy to continue the practices started with 21 Days of Prayer. We could cover our services in prayer. Lives would change. More people will believe in Jesus! But...
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 Essential Elements of a Volunteer Training Meeting
A new school year is starting, and this is a great time to hold a volunteer training meeting. The training sounds like a great idea, but what are you supposed to talk about? What can you talk about? What’s the most important thing?
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.
4 Early Signs Your Church Might Be Missing Young Families
None of the indicators I’ll talk about today are a sure sign you’re in decline. Rather, they are a warning flag that maybe you’re not reaching the lost and unchurched. There are still things you can do to get your church back on track. I won’t talk about those strategies today, but rather focus on warning signs and how to find them.
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?
Leader Fails: 4 Steps to Navigate the Chaos
The kidmin world was rocked last week with the news from Orange. Another leader has failed, and we’re left wondering what happened and what will happen. I usually don’t say anything when this kind of news breaks, but if you’ve followed any of my content you know I’ve been a fan of Orange for years and have recommended their content over and over. I feel I need to share my thoughts.
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.
3 Personality Tests for Ministry Leaders
I love these tests so much because they help me better understand myself and those around me. It’s natural to think that everyone is just like you with the same thoughts, motives, talents, and passions. However, we soon learn, many times painfully, that this is not the case. As a leader in ministry, it’s imperative that you know your people.
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…
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.
5 Tips to Include Kids with Special Needs in Your Kidmin
A growing epidemic throughout our society are children with special needs. The latest statics show the number of kids with Autism or other disability are staggering. According to Maternal and Child Health Bureau's National Survey of Children's Health, 19% of children in the United States had special health care needs in 2019–2020.
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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