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?
4 Steps to Rediscover Hope and Rebuild Faith After Ministry
Last year, I lost my ministry job. I was at a church hoping to become the next senior pastor, and I didn’t get enough votes. The following day, I resigned. The subsequent 6 months have been some of the hardest months of my life. But now looking back I see it was also a gift. Let me show you what I mean.
5 Keys to Teens Serving Successfully in Your Kidmin
One thing that is an absolute certainty in kidmin is a general lack of volunteers. No matter how big your church is, there is always a shortage. However, there is a treasure trove of possible volunteers that we may overlook. Teenagers.
What I Read in 2023
I’ve been a reader for as long as I can remember. I read John Maxwell’s book 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership for the first time when I was 16. It’s become a habit to read multiple pages a day, which turns into multiple books a year.
How to Set Ministry Goals that Lead to Growth
At the end of the year, one of my favorite things to do is to look back at the year that was and the year to come. What were my wins and losses? What worked? What didn’t? What curveballs did I knocked out of the park and what ones slipped by? It usually takes a few hours for me to go through it all, but my overall effectiveness as a leader and minister has increased every year since I started this practice over 10 years ago.
How to Turn Service Fails to Success
The big weekend is finally here. You’ve been working for months getting all the people, supplies, and logistics together. You’ve invited tons of people, prayed for God’s favor, crossed that t and dotted that i. You’re ready for the big day. Or you think you are. Sometime during the event something goes wrong. Something always does.
Stretch and Release: Finding a Sustainable Pace in Ministry
It feels like the end of things, but at the same time, it can be one of the busiest seasons of the year. I’ve seen it multiple times in Facebook Groups. Hard-working dedicated kids’ pastors are ready to tap out. They have so much work to do and are exhausted. Their only solution for relief is to quit.
How to Motivate Kids to Invite Their Friends
So many times, at Christmas and Easter, my church pushes for the congregation to invite their friends to church. Being in NextGen ministries, I wanted to participate and challenge my students to do the same. However, I knew that giving them a stack of invite cards is not going to be enough.
5 Must Have Security Policies For Kidmin
One of the three questions parents ask about your children’s ministry is “is it safe?” Now, more than ever before, parents want to know that their precious little ones will be safe in your care. Even more important, your environment needs to be one of the safest places in your church.
The 3 Lowest Attended Sundays (and What To Do About Them)
This post is coming out Thanksgiving weekend, and for most churches that means we’re heading into one of the lowest attended Sundays in the year. These days can be frustrating and disappointing. You put as much time and effort into making the day great and then it feels like no one but your most faithful show up. Even then, some of them didn’t come either.
6 Essential Steps for Onboarding Volunteers
There is one group of people that churches cannot survive without. They are faithful, dedicated to the vision, and serve others. I’m talking, of course, about volunteers. If you have a great volunteer culture, life can be so much easier.
3 Wednesday Night Ideas for Christmas
The Wednesday Night services in December are odd. Everyone is busy, overall attendance is low, and you have pressure to celebrate the season. No matter where you serve in your church, with a little creativity and planning, you can make these nights fun, meaningful and outward focused.
4 Principles to Get Guests to Come Back
You’ve had the big outreach event and now you have a huge stack of cards with contact information and you’re not sure what to do with it. Should you email them? Send a postcard? Call? Which way will be most effective? What’s going to give you the best return on your investment?
3 Questions to Guide Your Discipline Conversations
I’ve written about my discipline plan before. And today I want to go further and talk about what happens when the consequences go into effect. As pastors, it’s our job to help them through it, to love and care for them as much as the kid who never causes problems.
4 Simple Ways to Improve Kids Check-in
When guests first come to your church, they are going to make the decision of whether or not they’re going to come back in the first 15 minutes of being on your campus. Since those first few minutes are so crucial, you need to be more intentional with those first few minutes than any other.
7 Ways to Communicate Your Church Event to Your Congregation and Community (Part 2)
You’ve got big news. You’ve been working on this project for weeks and its finally time to make your big debut. You have all the supplies and resources. You’ve prayed and felt that God is with you. Now it’s time to announce to the church and your community what you’re doing and how they can get involved. But how do you do that?
7 Ways to Communicate Your Church Event to Your Congregation and Community (Part 1)
One of the most valuable tools in a minister’s toolbox is their communication skills. We’re in the people business and how we communicate with people is vital to us completing the Great Commission. But how do you do that exactly? How do you make sure that your message is getting out there? How do you make sure that you’re not just spitting into the wind?
3 Steps to Move First-Time Guests to Regular Attenders
If you’re in a church that wants to grow, then a frequent conversation around this office is how many guests came to your service or event. If you think about it, everyone who attends your church now was a first-time guest at some point.
But what is the process to get them there?
3 Ways Your Calendar Can Help You Reach Your Next Level in Ministry
There are a lot of tools we can use in ministry. There’s our church management system, our curriculum, our events. Each one helps us serve our communities and reach more for Christ every year. However, I think there is one tool that is invaluable for your ministry. One tool that if used correctly can extend your reach and find that elusive work-life balance we’re all looking for.
What is that tool?
How to Motivate Kids in NextGen Without Leaving Anyone Behind
These two stories and several more helped me develop my philosophy on motivating kids in ministry. The way I see it, there are three ways to encourage them to bring their friends, offering, Bibles, memorize scripture, or whatever.
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