I am fascinated with the teaching and learning process.  As children’s and family ministry leaders, part of our work is educational so being attenuated to issues related to learning theory is critical.  In Approaches to Training and Development, Dugan Laird posits that the vast majority of knowledge (75%) is learned through seeing.  God created our eyes to help us learn.

So often in children’s ministry we overemphasize learning through hearing, even though hearing accounts for only 13% of retained knowledge.  Learning to represent ideas and concepts visually is a worthwhile skill to acquire for anyone involved in the teaching and learning process.

I know what you’re thinking:

“Wait, I don’t draw!”  “Even my stick figures are unrecognizable!”

Have no fear, technology is here to help.  Here are 5 resources that can help you begin the process of learning how to represent ideas and concepts visually.

Draw Something – This app is being played by over 20 million people all over the world.  It’s turn-by-turn Pictionary for your iPad.

Vizthink.com – Free articles, media, podcasts, and presentations cover topics like Idea Mapping, Drawing Ideas, and Visual Note-Taking.  There is a fantastic library of articles covering the basics, including how to conquer the fear of drawing.

Paper – My favorite app for the creative process.  Simple tools make it easy to pick up a “pen” and brainstorm.  Available in the iTunes store.

Napkin Academy – Dan Roam, author of The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, is on a mission to help people learn to use simple pictures.  With Napkin Academy, you can begin with a variety of free lessons that help you go from “I can’t draw” to “I can draw any idea.”

How to Draw Faces – This is one of my go-to resources by author and artist Austin Kleon.  It’s a simple video of how to draw faces with a square, two dots, 2/3 of a triangle and three lines.  Watch and learn.

Since I first started in ministry Monday’s have always been my Buffer Day.  A buffer day is a day (or even just a few hours) set aside each week to accomplish all those weekly tasks, that if gone unchecked, rob you of your productivity.  You know the stuff I’m talking about…e-mails, calendar planning, cleaning your work space, catching up on phone calls…all those little tasks that sit in the back of your mind and steal mental energy if not completed.  The beauty of a buffer day is that it sets you up to be highly efficient the rest of the week.  It’s a beautiful thing.

One item that I have recently added to my list of buffer-day-tasks is what I call “six-months-out”.  

In ministry it is really easy to get consumed by the day-to-day, week-to-week grind.  And, if we are not careful, we can become so wrapped up in doing that we forget to dream.

Six-Months-Out is all about dreaming.  Whether it is 15 min or 2 hours every Monday I spend some time dreaming about where I want my ministry to be in six months, what steps it is going to take to get there, and who I need to bring along to make it happen.  This simple exercise forces me to start my week off dreaming, reminds me of ministry vision, and pushes me to rethink ministry structures and methods.

What strategies do you use to push yourself to dream of something more for your ministry?

Recently I attended an inspirational talk on how my life can make a bigger difference than I realize.  The speaker’s words did make me shake my head and refocus my efforts.  But upon more research about the Butterfly Effect (originating with Lorenz in 1961), the approach to the words changed but the message didn’t.

The idea is that one act can make a difference for a child or a family.  Sometimes we don’t realize the importance of our simple words or gifts of ministry.  As ministers, we carry the potential of life change through our obedience.

According to the research done by Lorenz, though one minor change completely altered the outcome of the weather forecast, it was not completely proven what made the difference; but a difference was made.  We may make minor changes in the life of a child, but because we don’t know exactly which thing we do will bring about the change needed, each move becomes important.   In comparison, our ministry efforts will change the “forecast for a child’s life” who will then change the course of their life so their children and grandchildren will reap those benefits.

Hebrews 6:10 says that God is not unjust to forget your work of love.  Galatians 6:9 states, “You will reap if you do not faint.”

Check out this inspirational clip at  The Butterfly Effect

Restore the joy of your ministry.  Restore the truth that God has chosen and appointed you that you should bear much fruit (John 15:16).

Read the full article on the  “Butterfly Effect” at Boston.com

This week I have the privilege of attending reGroup. reGroup isn’t a conference…in fact, I’m not sure what it is – but I do know it will be beneficial.

Last year I attended KidMin, a children’s ministry conference put on by Group publishing. Since it’s in my area I also signed up to help…thus finding out about reGroup. reGroup is a group of people that attended the conference who are getting together to talk about the next one and see what we can do to make it better.

While our focus this week will be on making the Kidmin conference beneficial, there are several things that you can do to make any conference beneficial.

Take Notes

While there is a good chance you will never look at your conference book again after you return, if you have written stuff down you will at least have the chance to recall something should you flip through the book again.

In addition, the simple act of writing it down will help you remember it later. You may not recall it exactly – but you will know where to get that information since you wrote it down.

Meet people

I’m a huge introvert…like 9.9 out of 10 – but it’s vital that I get outside my shell when I am at a conference with others who do what I do.

There’s a bond that forms from going through similar trials and there’s opportunity to learn from those who are going through or went through similar trials…but you need to talk to people.

It’s sad to see people at a conference come, sit, and leave. I wonder how they get anything useful at all. While I don’t typically get a direct benefit from fellowship at the conference, I gain an ally that I can call upon later and a sister or brother than I can help out as well.

Rest

If you’re like most pastors I know, your chances at getting away are limited. It may seem like poor stewardship to not attend every session and workshop – but it’s even worse to return to a pile of work feeling burned out.

Spend some time at the pool or hot tub, walk around the town, window-shop…or simply take some naps. If you really want to know what happened, I bet someone else attended the session and either tweeted or blogged about it.

Of course, I’m not advocating blowing the whole thing off – just have priorities.

If you follow these simple ideas at your next conference, you’ll leave feeling fresh, empowered, and ready to take on the enemy once again.

What tips do you have for attending conferences?

The purpose of this series is to equip leaders in children’s and family ministry with tools and resources from the digital world.  We’ve covered theological topics, leadership issues, volunteers, worship and music, research, budget, and social media.  Today I want to introduce you to a concept that completely changed my work style and effectiveness.  Whether you are a Sunday School Director or Children’s Pastor, you are a busy person, so busy that often people tell you, “I didn’t want to call you because I know you’re so busy.” Am I right?

The problem with being busy is that you reach a certain threshold where no matter what you are working on in the present; your mind fixates on the things you’re not working on.  We tend to think about what needs to be done instead of focusing on what we are doing.  This is a critical issue for children’s ministry leaders because in the moments when we are strolling the halls of our ministry environment, instead of looking like we have all the time in the world to stop and talk to parents and kids, we look like we’re trying to solve a complex algorithm.

Are you too busy?  Determine how much time you can spend with people without thinking about supply shopping, set-up, or curriculum and let your heart decide.

Almost five years ago I read a book called Getting Things Done by David Allen.  Getting Things Done (or GTD for short) is a system of organizing your work.  In GTD, I learned to give all of my work a place.  It was a pivotal moment for me as a leader and pastor.  I recommend the book and invite you to look across the interwebs at the myriad tools available to help you keep track of what needs to be done: Remember the Milk, Omnifocus, Nozbe, Wunderlist, Action Method, Outlook, Google Tasks, Things.

Easter has come and gone…and, chances are, so have a number of guests.

The question you should have on your mind is, how am I following up with these guests? It’s not simply about numbers, but about caring for people.

Chances are guests to your church will not be the one to start the conversation, even if they are looking for a church home. They expect you to care about them.

Do you take names and addresses of new folks when you check someone in? Do you have a communication card? If so, most people expect that you will follow up – it shows that you care about them.

Technology can hurt and hinder in our follow up. We want to make sure that we’re genuine – form letters, mass emails, and blanket Facebook welcomes are cold – they tell people that they’re simply a number to you.

Many church management systems (we use CCB) have customizable ways to assign follow-ups, ensure people are connected with, and let you record responses. These types of systems can make managing big holidays a lot easier if you know how to use them.

If nothing else, why not grab a pack of friendly looking cards and jot out a few notes to the children that visited this weekend. You may not be able to write one for everyone, but that’s no excuse to not write any.

As we journey toward Easter Sunday I thought I would share with you the ‘Seven Symbols of the Passion’ that we have prepared for our Good Friday family experience.  Each family will be given a black coin bag that contains the items pictured to the right.  Families will pull out each symbol and pass it around as we retell the passion narrative from The Message Bible.

As you read through these scriptures I pray that you remember deeply the passion of our savior as he gave up his life so that we might gain life.

KB

Coin
The Betrayal.

 Then Jesus went with them to a garden called Gethsemane and told his disciples, “Stay here while I go over there and pray.” Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he plunged into an agonizing sorrow. Then he said, “This sorrow is crushing my life out. Stay here and keep vigil with me.”

Going a little ahead, he fell on his face, praying, “My Father, if there is any way, get me out of this. But please, not what I want. You, what do you want?”

(more…)

This past week I had a sudden opportunity to take a few days away with some friends. I almost didn’t go.

Sometimes the very thought of taking time away from your ministry can seem less than relaxing. While things can go wrong while you are gone, I think most of us feel more stress about returning to the workload that piled up while we were gone. Sometimes it seems like a vacation is counter-productive.

Here’s some tips on how to make your time away go a little smoother:

Disconnect

It’s easy to feel the pressure to look at your e-mail…but that likely means you will respond. Or maybe it’s just that quick phone call that needs to be made.

Instead, give yourself a gift. Set up a point person to take care of emergencies, set an auto-responder on your e-mail and voice mail on your phone. Then, when you walk out the door, trust the person you empowered and trust God. It’s His ministry and He can handle a few days without you – after all, he was able to create the universe before you came along.

Draw the line

I understand emergencies will come up – that’s what your point person is for. Before you go, outline how you can be reached, what would warrant a call and how you will respond. Then give that out only to your point person. Everyone else should go through them.

For example, our Senior Pastor has one elder and one staff person that has permission to call him for emergencies. He also makes it clear that when we call, we won’t talk to him. We’re to leave a message and he’ll call back. This lets him make the call on what constitutes a real emergency.

Plan your return

You’ve already cleared your calendar for vacation, clear one more day as well. Nothing ruins a good vacation like the feeling of being buried. Chances are you have yard or house work at home that piled up and causing stress – the same is true at work. If you can afford an extra day for the household chores (like returning on a Friday and having Saturday off) do that.

For the office, use your return day to do just that: return e-mails and phone calls. No in-person meetings, no new projects, no prep for Sunday. Work your way completely through your backlog making notes about what needs to take priority. Once you’ve done that, get your office back in order – put away books that you took with you and clear your desk of any mail. Start clean and clear.

Your mind works best if it gets refreshed from time to time…you need a vacation – don’t spoil it with a stressful return.

I will never forget an online exchange I had years ago with a prominent figure in church leadership.  He argued that seminary was a complete was of time because its role was to “help people answer questions no one is asking.”  According to that leader, a seminary education was irrelevant to “real” church leadership.  Without a doubt, one of the greatest gifts I received from my time in Bethel Seminary’s Children’s and Family Ministry Program was the gift of understanding my own leadership and the passion to pursue leadership topics that were previously untouched.

This passion brought about the resources behind What Matters Now in Children’s Ministry and the newly released Kindle ebook Nexus: Central Themes in Children’s Ministry.  The focus of all of these projects was to answer big questions because that very act of collectively and collaboratively identifying and pursuing the primary issues in our ministry work is what leaders do.

Nexus answers the question: What is at the core of children’s ministry?

Why do children’s pastors, Sunday School teachers, Christian Education directors engage in children’s ministry?  When you take all of the programming, special events, recruiting efforts, and shopping for supplies – what is the foundation of ministering to children?

David Csinos, Greg Carlson, Nancy Davies, Amy Dolan, Larry Fowler, Ryan Frank, Matt Guevara, Stacy Igarashi, Ed Jenkins, Melissa MacDonald, Matt McKee, Dustin Nickerson, and Nicki Straza contributed to the book and their answers and passion for ministry are inspiring.

Nexus is available for free this week on Amazon.  Stop by the Amazon store and pick up a copy of the Kindle ebook!

I love getting advice. It’s why I follow #kidmin on twitter, read blogs and post here. The more I know, the better I feel I can do my job…but there’s a downside.

In the highly harmonized world we live in, it helps when things are the same. We all know that the electronics section at Walmart is near the back and often in the center and that the Garden center tends to be on the right side of the building…doesn’t matter if you are in Boston or LA – it’s the same.

But there are times when that doesn’t help – for you and me, who deal with individuals (children and volunteers) we can’t expect everything to be the same from place to place…in fact, I think that would be awful. For example, chances are you’ve heard kidmin advice to get rid of flannel graph. You know what, I have some teachers doing amazing things with flannel – and it’s here as long as they are.

It’s imperative that we get to know the individuals we work with and minister to (so I think you should play together!). It’s also imperative that we know the area we minister in. As we listen to advice, we must know if it can help us.

Our church just spent a little over $200 to collect a Ministry Area Profile. It’s a fast, easy way to know the community around you. I already knew that my area was predominately white and that there are a lot of families. Know I know that the area is 81% white with a growing asian population…and that the families I live near are mostly married couple with children.

While I’ll still work with anyone that God sends, it’s helpful to know that compared to the rest of the US, I have less single Moms and more single Dads. Little things like that should affect how I hear the advice I listen to. So when someone talks about how effective a MOPS group could be, I’ll know I won’t have the same effectiveness…but I might if I start something similar for dads.

What do you know about your community?