As I write this I’m flying at 30,000 ft. headed back to the snowy NorthWest after a great holiday on the west coast of Mexico.  My family and I were incredibly blessed to get to spend two weeks at my Father’s timeshare.  It was an incredible opportunity to unwind from the day-to-day grind of ministry work.  As we head back, while not excited to battle the heavy snow, I am reenergized with a new since of urgency for the ministry and calling that God placed on my life.

Holiday is important because it provides and opportunity for us to disconnect and reenergize.  Whether we want to believe it or not none of us are the energizer bunny…we can’t just keep going and going. Holiday needs to be a scheduled part of our ministry rhythm if we are to stay effective.

Mark 6:31-32 says, “Because so many people were coming and going that they didn’t even have a chance to eat, [Jesus] said to them, ‘Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest’” (NIV).  Jesus stops them.  He says, “rest”.  The work of ministry is exhilarating, especially when we are watching God perform miracles right before our eyes.  But Jesus knows that even when things are going well, we need rest…because He created us that way.

So let’s get real honest. How many of us in ministry actually Sabbath. You know, completely disconnect for 24 hours once a week. Think about your past 3 months of ministry…be honest.

Here is what I have learned from my time in ministry.  When I schedule intentional times to holiday in both my schedule and my budget I am more present and effective as a Pastor.  Ministry is all about relationships. So for me, so that I can have the energy to be fully present with others I have to make sure that holiday is a priority in my life.

I would love to tell you that I am awesome at this.  The truth is I am not.  But I’m getting better.

What’s your story?

KB

We all know that Valentines is a time to share love and kindness with others.  This year we thought we’d give you a quick Valentine sermon/lesson to help you plan your lessons for elementary kids.  Utilize it however you wish!

One of the problems that I faced as a dad I also see from time to time in the classroom – young children who are angry and have problems expressing their anger. My younger son went through what we thought was a “phase” of hitting – we tried many different ways to stop the behavior but what we needed to do was find out the cause of the behavior and address that. Of course, his reasons were mixed but they generally fell into the category of frustration or perceived violations.

Scream and Shout by Mindaugas Danys

The biggest thing that I learned is that when anger rears its head I need to find out what caused it…and typically that won’t happen until the anger has dissipated. In the classroom this can be difficult so the debrief my have to be done by a helper – just don’t wait to long or the child may forget. Knowing the cause of the anger can help you avoid the classroom disruptions in the future so a debrief is key.

Over the next few weeks I want to cover some thoughts on what causes anger and ways you can minimize it for your classroom. One of the biggest issues has to do with scheduling. Children are routine oriented – some of them extremely so. This orientation helps them process the world and their place in it so when there is a disruption in that schedule they can become confused and try to right the perceived wrong by becoming angry. Generally, these conflicts have to do with unmet expectations.

Unmet expectations: If a child believes that there will be a time to play and it doesn’t occur or if they think there will be a snack and it doesn’t happen anger over these unmet expectations can occur. Children are routine oriented; keep your classroom routine oriented. Follow a schedule and if you’re going to change something, let the children know in advance – minimize schedule surprises.

As adults, we like (or think we like variety) and project that onto children…but think about Blue’s Clues or any other popular children’s shows: they are all the same. Have variety within the spaces, but keep the spaces the same every week.

For instance, our children’s church almost always follows this schedule: play, clean-up, worship through song, large group teaching, small groups, play until pickup. If there’s a change for the day we try to announce it ahead of time. We can play different things, sing different songs, and teach different stories but the order is the same. We also give our children some additional anchors: In play time we have four stations: at least two (usually 3) are the same as they were the week before. In song time, our first song is almost always the same. In our teaching time there’s a place where we ask a question that they can talk about together and then we chat as a group followed by prayer. Even within your variety you can have order.

How do you provide stability in your enviornments?

This post could save you hours every month.

Every Sunday School Director, Children’s Pastor, or Christian Education Director has volunteers.  Ministry requires volunteers.  By virtue of having a volunteer team every leader has to create some system to schedule and manage their volunteers.  For years I created an Excel spreadsheet to tackle volunteer scheduling but I quickly ran into problems:

• If I sent out the schedule before getting input from the team, I ended up having to make adjustments and resending the schedule.
• If I solicited volunteer feedback ahead of time, creating the schedule meant wading through a pile of emails from every volunteer about their availability.

Then I discovered Planning Center.  Planning Center is a web-based volunteer management tool.  You can schedule and organize your teams, layout your services, and store media.  This tool puts the onus of responsibility on your volunteers to proactively put in their unavailable dates into a calendar, so when you make your schedule you automatically know who is out of town.  With Planning Center you can communicate to your entire team and team members are reminded of their serving commitment via email or text.

In my church context, we use Planning Center for multiple teams: Creative Arts, Celebrate Recovery, Administration, Children’s Ministry, and Student Ministry.  It is well-worth the monthly investment because collectively we save hours and hours of time creating volunteer schedules and the service planning tools are priceless.

I’m going to jump on Matt’s bandwagon for a moment and share a tool with you that I have been trying to put to better use.

Many of the parents at my church use Facebook – and, regardless of my personal preference, it’s good to have a presence there as well. But, I don’t have the inclination to spend much time on Facebook and I often forget how useful it can be.

That’s where Hootsuite can help. Hootsuite has several levels of support and function, but the base level is free. The free version can support up to 5 “streams” and if you need more you can move into the free version. If you tweet, your twitter account (no matter how many lists) all count as a single stream. Facebook accounts and Facebook pages/groups are another stream each.

Having one place to go that has everything saves time, makes things searchable…and best of all (for me), I don’t have to try to figure out the whole timeline thing.

But here’s the best part – and why you need this: With Hootsuite, you can schedule messages to your social network. So, on Friday’s when I am polishing the lessons for Sunday and thinking about the coming week, I can schedule messages for my facebook and twitter account and other messages for our children’s ministry facebook page. I use these scheduled messages to give a daily reminder about what we’re doing the coming weekend and how parents can begin the lessons at home. If I need to edit a scheduled message, that’s no problem either.

If you’re looking for a way to be present on facebook or twitter every day and not have to actually be there everyday, take a look at hootsuite.

Volunteer training is part of any Sunday School program, children’s ministry, or mid-week club.  Investing in children requires an investment in the volunteers who will lead them.  That’s where VoiceThread can be a helpful tool.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about winter as a season in ministry. I’ve felt challenged to encourage people that who they are is more valuable than what they do because what they do is directly done through the outcome of who they are.

Just as there are no leaves, no fruit on the branches in the winter, in our lives it is a tough season when it seems there is no evidence of fruit from ministry. As we consider the truth about nature. In the winter trees still grow even when not evident, unseen places.

What does it take to know that you’re okay when in this season? Faith.

What do you do when your ministry seems in a season of winter? Take time to nourish those roots. Roots for a ministry leader could be the relationships with individuals on the team or renew a relationship with God. Spring is coming. The fast pace will kick in again without a doubt! Be ready. Be confident through your quiet times of faith building.

As we charge into the new year, chances are you’ve got our sights set on things that you want to see happen. You have ideas that you want to see realized; you have goals. And, chances are, if you’re in Children’s Ministry there’s someone above you that wants those goals written down.

I’ve always found this idea a bit daunting. I know what the goal is and have an idea of how to make it happen…but I can’t articulate it enough to write it down. After struggling with this for a number of years, I came to the realization that I didn’t really have goals – they were more like notions of what I wanted to see happen. Goals that aren’t clear enough to be written down aren’t goals.

Since that time I’ve use the following pattern for writing out my goals:

Specific – Goals should be as specific as possible. “I want to run” might be a desire, but it’s too vague to be a goal – Do you want to run upstairs, out for a bite, or in order to get some exercise. Be as specific as possible.

Measurable – You’re going to need to know when you reach your goal so you have to aim at something. “I want to run 5 miles” is more of a goal than “I want to run.”

Realistic – It’s got to be something you can do in a reasonable time period. I could say my goal is to run 99 miles in one hour and while that is measurable and specific it is not realistic. My goal is to prepare to run a marathon is a little closer to being a full fledged goal.

Time Specific – This could probably go in the specific category as well, but I think it needs its own reminder because this is one that can really trip us up. We generally fail this in two ways: to general or too soon. If we leave the date off or put it too far in the future we’re less likely to make an effort to achieve the goal: “I want to run a marathon in under 6 hours 20 years from today” will have no bearing on how I train in the near future. Likewise, “I want to run a marathon in under 6 hours by next Thursday” will also have no net gain since being too soon makes it unrealistic. But, you do need to put a date on your goal so you can’t push it off and so you can measure your accomplishment.

There’s a bit more to setting and keeping goals besides these four points, but this is a good starting place.

Music changed with the Internet.  Napster popularly yet illegally allowed people to share their music collections song by song for free.  Songs went from being sold in stores by the album to being sold online individually.  Whole music libraries went from a media cabinet to your pocket.  But most importantly, because music became cheaper, more accessible, and mobile, it fundamentally changed from a hobby to a way of life.

Children today exist with a curated soundtrack to their lives.  Understanding and influencing that soundtrack is a powerful tool for ministry leaders.  That is why I love Spotify.

Free: With Spotify, you can listen to music for free.  No more buying tracks and typing in the 58 digit alphanumeric codes to redeem an iTunes gift card.   You love free, so does your church administrator.

Selection: Unlike other music tools, you choose the music you want to listen to, create playlists, and have access to the latest music instantly.  Your music collection just went from one thousand to several million.

Relevant: I love checking in with kids to see what they are interested in.  Last week I asked my daughter’s kindergarten class if they had ever played “Scribblenauts” because I had read about the game.  Blank stares told me everything I needed to know.  Now, I can ask kids what they listen to and instead of burning through budget dollars to buy it I can listen to it legally.

Simple: To use Spotify, just visit the website and create an account. Spotify has apps for smartphones and your Mac or PC.  It just works.

Unfortunately because of licensing restrictions, you are not allowed to use your Spotify account to play music publicly (in your church, school, etc.).  However, I get so much value out of using Spotify personally that this is not a make or break feature.

If you use Spotify, please share what you are currently listening to!

For most of us in the States they are called vacations, but I have always liked the term holiday that our Canadian friends use.  Holiday is so much warmer.  Just saying it makes you feel like you are wrapped in warm blanket in front of crackling fire.  But whether you call them vacations or holidays they are an important part of our spiritual growth that is often overlooked or even neglected.

When we look at the example Jesus set for us, and then look at the schedules of most ministry professionals there is often a sharp contrast.  We glorify ‘busy’.  We wear it as a badge of honor.  I’m guilty.  How about you?

Jesus was not afraid to get away and rest.  He understood that if he didn’t take time to recharge and invest in himself he would lose his effectiveness in ministry.  We need to learn from Jesus in this area.

So over the next couple weeks I want to give you three reasons ‘Holiday’ needs to be part of your ministry development plan in 2012.

#1: Holiday is an Eternal Investment

You don’t have to be a Pastor very long to know that ministry takes its toll on your family.  Ministry requires sacrifice—time, energy, and resources.  And our spouse and children often take the brunt of this sacrifice.  But when we choose to take extended periods of time where we disconnect from our ministry work to be fully present with our family we build up an investment that has eternal rewards.

Even though ministry requires sacrifice from the whole family, it is import to show your family that they come first.  When we choose to take a holiday from our ministry—cell phones off, laptop put away, giving our family 110 percent of our time—we shout with our actions, “You mean more to me then what I do.”

Holiday is an eternal investment in your family.  It’s eternal because the only thing that we can bring with us to the other side is our relationships.  All our stuff is going away—but not our relationships.  Those are eternal.  It often baffles me when I see families choosing to buy a new television or some other new appliance that doesn’t help foster relationships when they could be investing that money in a great holiday for their family.  What’s worse is that buying stuff is often glorified while taking a nice holiday is viewed as ostentatious.

So forget all the critiques and invest your holiday where it will get the greatest return on your dollar…in your family.

May you invest well in 2012.

KB