Dr. Lee of Church Cohort Life shared that unless the church chooses to change people will pull back and potentially walk away from God.

Methods need to shift in order to keep people engaged.  If we won’t, people won’t experience the presence of God, healing and hope because they’ve unplugged from the godly influence.

Similar to Dr. Lee’s challenge, Rick Dubose of North Texas shared, “unless we choose to change the structure to meet the changing families, our church won’t continue to be effective.”   For example, a family of two function fine in a one room apartment; but a family of six would truly feel the pressure and crunch of that environment.

How adaptable has your ministry been to the changes of your community?  Are you willing to change the structure or format of your ministry offerings to remain effective?

Today’s kids prefer to process images before text.  As leaders and storytellers present the truth of God’s Word, it is vital to incorporate visual elements into the teaching and today’s nonlinear presentation tools resources are the right tools for the job.  Why use a nonlinear tool?

• Visuals can be accessed in any order
• Increased interactivity
• Unique point of view – presenter can pan and zoom on the visuals
• Greater flexibility with multimedia and social media

1) Prezi – The mother of all nonlinear presentation tools.  Create your presentation on a large canvas, zoom in and out on the canvas, jump around from text to image to video.  Other similar tools without the panache include Pachyderm, Dizzy.js, and Speakflow.

2) PowerPoint – If Prezi is the mother of nonlinear presentation tools, PowerPoint is the father.  While not created inately for nonlinear work, with plugins like ActivePrez by GMARK, PowerPoint can add a toolbar at the top of any presentation to allow the presenter to jump back and forth through the visuals seamlessly.  A similar plug is pptPlex.

3) ProPresenter - Awesome and powerful software for Mac or PC.  I’ve used ProPresenter in multiple ministry environments and it is my favorite tool for presenting.  A fully featured impressive product.

4) Projeqt – So many cool features in this web tool: pull live tweets, blog feeds, insert audio notes or interactive maps, and view streaming video (to name just a few).  Projeqt is a crazy cool tool that you have to check out.

Have you used any of these tools or other nonlinear presentation software?  Let us know in the comments!

Hard working moms and dads all over the world are preparing for summer.  Where will the kids go?  What experiences will be planned for them?  How will they grow as a response to the summer activities?  Many families plan a wide variety of experiences for their family over the summer.  Parents want opportunities to serve, feel the emotion of compassion, and experience spiritual revelation and depth through camps and VBS.  It’s important to have family bonding times as well.  Contrary to what the kids want, it’s also important for parents that kids retain what was learned over the previous school year and take on new academic knowledge.    And to think, there are only eight to ten weeks for such experiences.  Although it is not the church’s responsibility to provide ALL the needs for families, summer is a wonderful time to switch gears and purpose as a ministry.

It’s important as you consider the plethora of ideas for summer outreach you provide what naturally suits your congregation.  Take a look at what other churches are doing and attempt to complement one another instead of competing.  Families tend to go to all types of church organized events over the summer to meet their needs.  Don’t take offense; be grateful!  Be prepared to find your niche and meet the needs of families in your community considering God has placed you in this community body just as He pleased. You have a role to fulfill.

In order to get your ideas rollin’ we’ve listed several ideas you can use to reach your community this summer.
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It’s May…and for me that means volunteer recruitment season is in full swing.  Having had the lead on multiple ministry positions in the church there is no doubt in my mind that those that recruit volunteers for our weekly children’s and family ministries have the one of the most relationally intense jobs in church ministry.  Even those in a small congregation can find themselves supporting dozens of people as they serve Christ through ministry to children.

The danger with such a relationally intense ministry is that, if we are not very mindful, we can find ourselves empty, tired, and discouraged.  We give and give and give until there is nothing left to give.

So… “Who’s Supporting You?”

http://www.creationswap.com/media/968

If someone or multiple someones haven’t already come to mind your already in trouble.  We can’t do what we do with out having intentional relationship in our lives where we are being supported, encouraged, and mentored.

Below are three key relationships I have found essential to remaining effective as a ministry leader who supports a relationally intense volunteer ministry.

Attend church regularly.  I don’t know how many children’s ministry leaders I have met that can’t recall the last time they attended “big” church.  If that’s you, this has to change.  And right now, as you plan and recruit for the fall, is a great time to make sure that happens.  It is absolutely essential that you spend regular time with your faith community worshipping, learning from God’s Word, and participating in communion together.  If you believe it is essential for others, it has be essential for you as well.

Participate in a Small Group.  You need a group of people that you can hang out with each week, where you can just be you.  Where you can take off your ministry leader hat and put on your follower of Jesus hat.  Where you can be encouraged through the study of God’s Word and prayer.  Where you can be supported and strengthen.

Find a Mentor.  We all need someone who is a little further down the path then we are to help us get to where they are.  In ministry we do this for people all the time, but if we don’t have anyone “up-line” from us, that can be our anchor and support, we put all those who are depending on us at risk.  And I recommend this relationship be more of a spiritual couch then a business couch.  More then we need someone to help us build the right programs…we need someone who helps us make sure our heart is continually surrendered to Jesus.

What are some other relationships/ways you find support in your ministry?

KB

One thing that I have heard time and again from people in Children’s ministry is their lack of involvement in corporate worship with other adults in the church.

While it is true that our jobs can pull us out of being a part of the main service from time to time, we need to be in their – it IS part of our job. In order to function well within the local body it is vital that you are involved with the adults of that community and that you spend time in worship together. It builds bonds with them and strengthens you walk with God – both a vital to a successful ministry.

It’s also common to hear children’s pastors talk about their concern when a number flashes on the screen – they wonder what is happening, will the parent respond, and any number of things. I’m not sure this is an okay thing.

Yes, we are responsible for all that happens in our ministry. But I have to ask: “Is being distracted in worship your job or is it a lack of faith? ”

You are a temporary steward of the ministry you are in. It belongs to God and what happens in it is up to him. He expects that you will staff the ministry to the best of you ability and with competent people. If you have done that, why are you worried about the number on the screen. Your workers should know where to find you and will come and get you if the need is great – otherwise, focus on worshiping your creator, not the task He has given to you.

Is this an oversimplification? I’d love to see your comments below…

In children’s and family ministry there is an ongoing struggle to adopt digital tools, but perhaps more importantly there is an ever-present debate about replacing paper Bibles with digital Bibles.  Why is that?  Are children’s pastors, Sunday School teachers, and VBS program coordinators fearful of Marshall McLuhan’s portent from the 1960s “The medium is the message”?  Are we apprehensive, wondering if somehow the digital medium will overcome the message of Scripture?

I hope not.  And my hope is based more on my desire to see leaders and teachers use tools that speak the language of the learner more than my love of technology.  Here are 5 ways to use a digital Bible in your ministry setting:

1. Start with Youversion.  Youversion is a web tool and app for almost every platform. Download here.
2. Make notes on the passage you are studying in your ministry environment and share it with parents on your ministry Facebook page.
3. Promote a reading plan for volunteers.  You can sign up for a reading plan and receive daily email reminders and content that you can forward to a volunteer team.
4. Submit your own reading plan.  Studying something specific?  Put together a reading plan and submit it to Youversion so everyone on your team can follow along digitally.
5. Use Live Events to make your small group curriculum available to leaders to use in their groups.

Using Live Events functionality you can get interactive in a small group setting.  With a smartphone or tablet, let kids post their own prayer requests and praise reports and answer questions using live polls.

What are you waiting for?

April edition of ‘this month in #kidmin’ where each month we explore the hot topics swirling around the Children’s and Family Ministry world.

Click Here to download Podcast

Links mentioned on the podcast:

SundaySchool.com

The Eric Trap

Kidmin and Culture

sticks.posterous.com

Free Text Service with Twitter

The Bully Project

Orange

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?

Teaching BGMC (Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge) was my first role as a children’s minister as a teen. I LOVED the research and the idea of prayerfully and financially helping someone teach others about Jesus in another culture. Years later as a children’s pastor we did so many fun things and I learned a few lessons along the way too (like to make sure not to try to do all my ideas alone!) Now, I don’t believe I have all the answers when it comes to missions and kids; but I do have a TON of ideas. Allow me to share my experience and give you some fun ideas you can use to bring missions emphasis to the front of what you do in the class or weave it into your lesson on a monthly basis.

In my zeal I never had enough time to do all I had planned for Mission Sunday once a month. So as kids arrived and were waiting for service or class to start we’d have books on tables from the country in focus. I’d have someone cooking food on one side of the room, another person leading games (the kids would play in the country we were learning about). Then of course there were crafts going on too. Seriously, you could have just one of those components in the mission lesson and it would be fun!

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