Great webinar scheduled for October 6 at 3:00PM.  It’s only a 1/2 hour long, so make some time to squeeze it in!

Here’s the scoop:

Discover relevant, timely, and practical ideas to get your parents involved in your ministry.

Attend this free webinar to learn:
• What kids really desire
• The Biblical key to getting parents involved
• What God wants
• How to raise the bar
• Practical steps

Check out the details and register here!

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This week (April 11-15th) is the time to pull out all those great volunteer recognition ideas and honor those who help pull your Children’s Ministry together.  What?  You’re a little short on ideas?  Well, you’ve come to right place!  Here are some great ideas to show our Volunteer Team that you care:

• Personalized Magnets: You can get magnets the size of business cards with one sticky side for about $10/25. Create a fun message with some graphics in the size of a business card (2″ X 3.5″) and adhere it to the magnet. The volunteer gets a refrigerator magnet that reminds them how much they are appreciated.   (You might even be able to get them right now at Vistaprint.com). Submitted 24 Feb 2011 by Abby R
• Appreciation Stations: For National Volunteer Recognition Week, we had “Appreciation Stations”.  At each station the volunteers could pick a treat, tea, and a seed packet. All of the gifts had volunteer sayings on them.
  Submitted on 5 February 2009 by Samantha DeRooy
• Memory Keepsake CD: Various volunteer groups celebrate the accomplishments of a volunteer or leader by using a service called LifeOnRecord Events.  The way it works is that a toll-free number is given out to fellow volunteers, and other people the volunteer has touched.  People call in with stories of their favorite moments of time spent with the volunteer, favorite memories, or well-wishes.  All the recordings are compiled onto a keepsake CD.  There is special pricing for volunteer organizations.  Submitted on 15 March 2008 by Alaa El Ghatit
• Picture Keepsake CD: Along those same lines, you can make a video at Animoto.com with pictures from your ministry.  You can post to your website, embed on Youtube or download for $3.00-$6.00.  You could also play it during church announcements to make a public recognition of your volunteers.  Check out one of the videos we’ve done on Growing Kids Ministry.
• Dollar Store: Go to the dollar store and find cute cheap things that I can write nice sayings with for my student staff.  For example, I buy Pop Rocks candy and attach a note telling them “you rock for…” Submitted on 1 April 2005 by Rachelle
• National Volunteer Week Packet: A great National Volunteer Week packet is located on the University of Nebraska – 4-H website. It has a lots of general recognition ideas! Submitted by Tina Veal, Extension Assistant, Youth Development, McLean County 4-H, Illinois
• Host a Volunteer Appreciation Lunch: Now that the weather is getting warmer, this would be fun as a backyard BBQ where volunteers brings pot luck items for lunch and the site is decorated with low-cost items from the Dollar Store. Welcome the volunteers to invite their family and friends. Take a minute to thank each volunteer.
• Coffee: (Fuel for life!) Give your volunteers coffee (bag of beans in a coffee mug) or coupons to local coffee shops.  If you’ve got more eco-friendly group, consider Nalgene or Camelbak water bottles.
• Hang it High: Put up a large thank-you banner with all of the volunteers’ names (make your you get them all!)

Make a Plan:

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Here’s some great Volunteer articles I’ve stumbled across over the last month.  Pass them onto your Team!

8 Discipline Tools You Already Have

3 Things Every Children’s Ministry Needs to Do Well

Got a Great Ministry Story?  Submit it here and win some Chick-Fil-A!

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Flickr by kevin yezbick

I’m excited that our volunteer team has recently begun monthly meetings to talk about the ministry, share stories, pray for one another and keep up to date on the happenings of the church. I would love to do a book discussion for our team, as a way to expand the conversation and to sneak in some training in an engaging way. I have to admit, I’m all over the map with which book to choose.

Originally, I thought about Formational Children’s Ministry by Ivy Beckworth. Though it’s a great book, inspirational, and profound – it seemed a little much for our first book discussion. I’m presently considering Creating Magic or Simple Church, which now that I think about, seem to be a bit contradictory. I’ve also kicked around a few leadership books, or something unconventional like Don Miller’s books. I want it to be a fairly easy read, but something that is going to be useful and applicable.

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Flickr by admitchell08

I’ve often struggled with my position at church.  As one of the first paid positions to emerge, I’ve had trouble justifying both to others and myself why I should be paid for things other people do voluntarily.  As such, I often overcompensate – going above and beyond my assigned hours each week (sometimes way above).  I used to do all the teaching, all the song leading, all the scheduling, and more.  I was feeling burnt out and my volunteers were checking out.  They weren’t really doing anything significant, so why should they be engaged?  However, whenever I would ask a volunteer to do something, I would feel pangs of guilt and shame.  Shouldn’t I, the paid worker, be getting all this done?

My wise father gave me this advice.  He explained paid staff has the primary job of rallying and organizing the volunteers.  “You are the catalyst, the driving force, and the director”, he said.   Makes sense, but I still have trouble letting go.  It might have to do with my control-freak tendencies.  Or perhaps it’s this weird mix of pride and guilt that keeps me trying prove my worth as a staffer instead of turning to volunteers for help.

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Flickr by wonderwebby

Getting your volunteers invested is the key to bringing out the best in your ministry.  Check out the intro as well as lesson one and two here.  For this post, we’ll be diving into lesson three and four.

3) Help Them See the Pay-off

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Flickr by wonderwebby

It’s 8PM Saturday night and the phone rings.  One of your volunteers has called to ask what lesson is up for Children’s Church tomorrow.  Clearly, they’ve taken a lot of time to prepare.  Or worse, a team members shows up Wednesday night fifteen minutes before your program is starting and asks “I’m not supposed to do anything tonight, right?”   You’ve seen it during the lesson too – a couple of volunteers standing in the corner chatting, serving as more of a distraction than a help.

It’s frustrating.  It’s mind boggling, and yet our volunteers might not really be to blame.  Of course, we want them to live and breathe children’s ministry.  That’s usually what we’re doing, right?  Even being bi-vocational, I find myself thinking and reading about children’s ministry constantly.  Why can’t our volunteers do that?  They need to get invested.  And they need your help to do it.

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Looking for a last minute Fall Fest idea?  Struggling to come up with a Halloween Alternative?  Need a fun night during this fall season?

How about a Pajama and Pumpkin Party?  Kids (and adults) come dressed in their pajamas (super simple), and you have a bunch of pumpkin related activities.  Here’s some ideas:

1. Pumpkin Pie eating/tasting contest (what’s not to love?)
2. Pumpkin/Autumn Coloring Page
3. Hand out pumpkin tracts along with the candy bag
4. Pass the Pumpkin Game – played like hot potato, or check out this variation for preschoolers
5. Have lots of Pumpkin Themed books for parents to read to their kids.  Bonus?  Have orange bean bags for them to sit on!  My top picks? (The Pumpkin Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs; Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin and Pumpkin town! or, Nothing is better and worse than pumpkins)
6. Pumpkin Vine Mayhem – String several pieces of green yarn through a room, over furniture, under chairs, under a book, etc.  Kids start at one end of the room and follow their vine (don’t let go!) until they reach the end (best for a room with two doors).  Need to make it tougher?  Blind folds!
7. Pumpkin Patch – Lay several pumpkins in a square area.  Player has to maneuver through blindfolded, following the directions of their partner, without hitting any pumpkins!  (Played like Minefield)
8. Bobbing for pumpkins?  Use those little gourd pumpkins and get the camera ready!
9. Guess the….  Pre-measure the height, weight, circumference of a few pumpkins and have kids try to guess the measurements.
10. Hide the pumpkin – The class/group stays in a room while one child hides a pumpkin gourd (we play something like this in our gym and the kids are CRAZY about it!)  in another room (or in the gym).  Release the kids!  First one to find the pumpkin gets to hide it.
11. Make a Pumpkin Seed Mosiac
12. Pin the nose on the Jack-o-Lantern or Pin the Stem on the Pumpkin
13. Pumpkin Golf

As for the main event?  A pumpkin decorating contest!  Families work together to create a work of art.  You can have artsy supplies on hand or maybe some carving tools (supervise closely!), then have a panel of judges announce the winners.  Check out some of these great pictures for inspiration!

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God was the feature story in USA Today, but not in the way you might think.  Based on the work of Froese and Bader and their book, America’s Four Gods, USA Today described the four ways Americans perceive God. The research comes from 1,648 U.S. adults in 2008 and 1,721 in 2006 – 90% percent of whom say they believe in some type of God.

The Four Views

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Becoming Orange is a tall order.  Reading through Reggie’s  book inspires so many great ideas, many of which you want to implement immediately! Just like Barbara talked about in “The Despair of Too Many Ideas”, it’s hard to know what to do with all this Orange thinking.

After I read Think Orange, scribbling furiously in the margins, I also picked up Collaborate and devoured it.  I had so many ideas floating through my head, I made a giant poster, divided it into months and starting filling in all the great family ministry ideas.  By the time I was done, I had four potential events in every month – clearly a recipe for disaster.   And this was all just in the Children’s Ministry department.  I had not even stopped to think what the other directors might have planned for the music department, outreach, or youth group.

Just as Reggie explained in chapter six of Think Orange,

“…one of the problems in church is over-programming.  We are competing not only with each other but with the family unit itself” (124).

He continues,

“Nothing can cause havoc like… independent leaders pointing people in different directions.  Frequent communication between all those in charge is essential to avoid potential collisions” (112).

So what has been our brilliant yellow initiative?  Staff meetings.  I know, it doesn’t sound like much of a revolutionary move, but it has made a big difference in my ministry.  How?

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