If you work in Children’s Ministry, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about the deals from Only144.com These are the guys who offer amazing deals on collections of children’s ministry resources that are available for only 144 hours each time.
Well, the newest 144 hours sale starts this Friday, January 13th at 12:00 P.M. and lasts for, you guessed it, 144 hours!
In May of 2010, a valuable new resource was made available to the children’s ministry community called, “What Matters Now in Children’s Ministry?” Designed to spark conversations and get people thinking, the free book did just that. The original team has gotten back together and recently released the second installment in the series entitled:
It’s been almost two months since the last time I posted an article in our series on what your volunteers want you to know but might not be telling you. Last time, we finished up in the category of “Passion.” So far we’ve covered,
PASSION
Today, we begin a whole new category of things your volunteers want you to know but might not be willing to tell you. Today, we start talking about SERVICE.
Your volunteers sincerely desire to help you help God’s kids. In order to do that though, they need some things from you, and many volunteers may be unwilling to come right out and ask for these things. This week, will want to look at:
It is imperative that you find a way to trust the people you have working for you. Your volunteers are there to help you out. If you don’t trust them, you’ll never be willing to turn parts of your ministry over to them. And, if you can’t turn parts of your ministry over to other people, it will never grow beyond what you are capable of accomplishing all by yourself. In other words, if you can’t trust you volunteers, you are dooming your ministry to be a one-man show.
It has become a bit of a tradition here on Kidmin1124 that we create pages for you to track all the latest tweets from major children’s ministry conferences. We missed D6 a couple of weeks ago, but we’re please to announce that we have created pages for two conferences both going on right now (or starting soon). Make sure to check out the pages for:
and
Our own Wendy Douglas is at the Kidmin Conference and Barbara Graves is attending the Catalyst Conference. If you’re at either, make sure to look them up – you won’t regret it!
In case you misplace this post, you can always click on the links at the top of Kidmin1124. Happy tweet watching!
A while back, Matt Guevara, Amy Dolan and Henry Zonio formulated an idea. It was an idea that had leaders in the field of children’s ministry come together and share the one word which they felt mattered the most in children’s ministry. These one words, coupled with a brief explanation of each, became the free e-book What Matters Now in Children’s Ministry.
It is a book which served as a spark to ignite many a conversation. I covered the book extensively on Dad in the Middle offering my thoughts on many of the authors’ submissions.
Cue the power ballad. All together now:
We’re #16!
We’re #16!
Seriously though, at Kidmin1124.com, we are excited to have claimed the #16 spot in Tony Kummer’s annual list of the top 100 children’s ministry blogs. Last year, just a few months after our launch, we were excited to come in 44th, and it is exciting to move up this year. It is exciting to move, not because it feeds some need to be recognized, but because it is a reflection that people are actually finding the blog useful.
I’m a little biased, but I think one of the things that really sets Kidmin1124 apart is our writers. I have never known a more talented group of individuals who are so willing to give of themselves to help others. Of course, I shouldn’t be surprised because our writing team consists of volunteers and bi-vocational children’s ministers to begin with. They make a habit of giving of themselves until it hurts (and then giving some more).
We need your help. Those of you who read Kidmin1124 on a regular basis may have noticed over the last couple of months that our posts have been fewer and far between. Our team of writers has dwindled as people have gotten busy and taken on other tasks. We are currently looking for people who work in children’s ministry who have something to share about their experience and wisdom with the readers of Kidmin1124. In short,
What is the most important thing when it comes to retaining a volunteer? That is a question I have been asked a number of times and ones that I have discussed with innumerable people. I believe that, in the end, the single greatest thing you can do to retain volunteers comes down to relationship. Breaking that down a little bit further, I believe there are three components to relationship which are critical:
It’s been a few weeks since I did an installment in the series of things your volunteers want you to know. We have been dealing with issues of Passion. So far in the series, we have covered:
Today we will look at our fifth and final point in the category of passion:
Your Volunteers Need the Opportunity for Advancement
Along with autonomy, your volunteers want a chance for advancement. You should constantly be evaluating your volunteers’ strengths and weaknesses with an eye towards finding ways to give them more responsibility and more authority.
Do you have a Sunday School teacher who has been in your ministry faithfully for 10 years? Find out if she would like to plan the teaching time for next Summer’s VBS. Ask him if he’d like to be a coach for other Sunday School teachers. Do you have a small group leader who just has an amazing way with kids? Ask him if he would be willing to put on a training seminar for your other volunteers. Do you have a volunteer who seems to take care of the “little things” before you even think about them? Ask her to serve an administrative role in your ministry.
In everyone’s life, they have a handful of life changing experiences. If you volunteer in children’s ministry, I can almost guarantee that that will be one of them. Here’s a short list of ways that volunteering in children’s ministry has changed my life and might change yours (some lighthearted and others not so much):
