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…

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?

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.

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 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?

This weekend my senior pastor talked about three reasons why people should take God’s challenge in Malachi 3 and give to the church.  One of the three reasons was “financial accountability.”  In my ministry context, every dollar in the budget goes through a robust, detailed budgeting process.  When ministry dollars are spent, each purchase is scrutinized to make sure it was worth the investment and placed in the right budget.  At the end of the year our church invites an outside auditor to look over our records and publish a public report.  Financial accountability is part of our church’s stewardship of the gifts and offerings people give. 

As children’s and family ministry leaders, we are often called upon to steward church funds.  This is why I love to find ways to save money, free tools, or discounts – it helps me fulfill my Biblical role to be a shrewd manager of resources and provide financial accountability to the church and those who give.   Qpon Monkey is one of those tools.

Qpon Monkey is a new service that launched today.  Qpon Monkey provides fantastic savings for all your ministry needs.  The savings are mostly from special web deals, but printable coupons are coming soon.  Brought to you by the CMBuzz this money-saving, budget-stretching tool also supplies honest, straight forward reviews of products from local ministry practitioners.

At launch, Qpon Monkey already has deals ranging from music to video tools, so drop by the website today!

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.

This past week I got an e-mail from ‘Dynamic Church Trends’ talking about gift-giving and the Law of Diminishing Returns:

“You see it every Christmas. The kids tear into a stack of gifts that usually represents a great deal of sacrifice on someone’s part. They may (or may not) display excitement for a brief moment, toss the gift aside and grab for the next one. Then comes the dreaded moment: ‘Is that all?’

The Law of Diminishing Returns states that there is a point of forward movement that begins to deliver a decline in the desired outcome. Your desired outcome for enduring the Christmas craze is seeing your children’s excitement, joy and gratitude. It’s easy to believe that fulfilling as many wishes as possible will deliver those outcomes, but all too often, it doesn’t. Where is the point of diminishing return?”

While the diagram on the left is true for gift-giving…could it also be true for our ministries as well?  Could it be that a few highly effective ministries create excitement, while a too many creates apathy?  Is their a point at which our desire to provide engaging ministries actually moves families past appreciation to entitlement?

What are your thoughts?

KB