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.
75 Crucial Interview Questions for Your Next Ministry Position
Going on a job interview especially for a new church can be scary. Your leaders may or may not know you’re talking to someone else. Your team probably doesn’t know. There is a lot of secrecy. On top of that, you’re considering moving your family to a new church community in a different part of the country.
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.
4 Follow-Up Ideas for VBS Success
One of the biggest questions I hear for VBS is “How do you get the kids to come back?” I had this same question myself. Actually, the first person to ask me was my pastor.
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?
3 Tips for Creating Your VBS Budget
I often see questions from people asking their VBS budget. How many kids? How big is your church? How much do you spend? Those are all great questions because your budget will depend on those three things, the size of your church, the size of your event, and how important it is to the church’s outreach strategy.
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…
How to Deploy Planning Center Check-ins in Your Kidmin
I don’t work for Planning Center nor is this a sponsored post. However, I am a huge fan of the product and have implemented the program at three different churches. You may have someone at your church that knows how to use all of its modules, but many times check-ins falls on the kids pastor.
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.
Beyond Bible Bucks: How to Have a Kidmin Store
Reading your Bible, praying, inviting a friend, memorizing the Bible verse. These are all things we ask our kids to do in kidmin, but few will naturally do it without an some kind of incentive. There are a lot of ways to motivate kids to engage in these activities, and one of the more effective ways to do it is with a store.
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.
Crafting the "Perfect Easter": Planning for Guests and Their Return
Easter is just a few months away and that means that you’re thinking about and preparing for the Super Bowl of Christendom. This is a season where we ministers pray, plan, and prepare for the largest attended Sunday, and hopefully the biggest harvest. But what should you do on Easter Sunday? Should you do an Egg Hunt? Family pictures? A kids musical? An adult musical? Communion? Baptism? Big giveaways? Small giveaways?
The options are endless, and the short answer is yes… and no.
5 Fun and Easy Kidmin Games You Can Play Over and Over
One of the best things about children’s ministry is we get to play games. They don’t have to be elaborate or gross like the Youth Group. Kidmin games are just fun and easy and hopefully have a point that works with the lesson. And having fun is a key ingredient to a successful children’s ministry.
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