Welcome once again to our series of things volunteers think but don’t necessarily want to tell their children’s pastor or children’s ministry director. For a complete listing of posts in this series, see the listing at the bottom of this article. Last time we started to look at issues related to shepherding and growing volunteers – in other words Volunteer Development. Today we continue in this, our largest category, with:
Welcome once again to our series of things volunteers think but don’t necessarily want to tell their children’s pastor or children’s ministry director. For a complete listing of posts in this series, see the listing of the bottom of this article. Today, we look at our final entry in the category of service:
Six months is a long time to let a series sit, but that is exactly what I’ve done. You might recall that last year I started a series for children’s pastors called Things Your Volunteers Want To Tell You. The series has been dormant for a while, but since I have 21 things left to share, I think it’s time to fire it back up again! If you are volunteer, I hope that you will read through this series as well. As a volunteer myself, I have tried to capture the heart of the volunteer in this series, but we need to remember that the onus falls on us too. If you aren’t willing to have these conversations with your children’s pastor or children’s ministry director, you should at least find ways the accomplish the goal. Previously, we had made our way through the first category of things under the title of Passion and started our second category: Service. Here is what we’ve covered so far: PASSION
One of my favorite verses in Scripture (I have many) is Proverbs 4:23. I’ll quote it first out of the NIV because that is how I learned it originally:
Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.
[Proverbs 4:23 NIV-1984]
I also like the ESV translation which reads:
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
[Proverbs 4:23 ESV]
Above everything, we must guard our hearts – we must protect our heart with vigilance. I think this is particularly true of volunteers in children’s ministry. Let me explain.
There is nothing easy about volunteering in children’s ministry. As volunteers, we give of our time on a weekly basis to sit in a room full of kids, trying our hardest to impart some spiritual truth to them all the time battling the influences around them in the world they live in the other 167 hours a week. I don’t say any of this to whine or complain. I also think children’s ministry is a joy and we are blessed that God allows us to serve in this capacity. But, it is hard and over the long haul, it does take a toll. I have seen enough people follow the patter of passion…excitement…contentment…burnout to know that guarding our hearts is important to our long term survival, and ultimately fruitfulness, in ministry.
So, as volunteers, how do we guard our hearts. Here are some practical ideas.
I am excited today to let you, our readers, know about some very exciting changes at Kidmin1124. Beginning immediately, Matt Norman will be taking over as chief editor here on Kidmin1124. Matt will introduce himself more fully in a coming post and share his ideas and vision for Kidmin1124 moving forward. If we’re lucky, he may even include a more recent picture of himself in that post.
Today marks both a very exciting and very sad day for me in the history of Kidmin1124. I am excited to hand the reigns of Kidmin1124 off to Matt, and I trust that God will lead him and this ministry in the right direction. For me personally, that is very exciting. Without going into all of the details, I believe this transition is a “God thing,” and I am excited to see what that means for the future of Kidmin1124.
Every year, my friend Tony Kummer from Ministry-to-Children.com runs a blog madness competition for children’s ministry bloggers that coincides with March Madness. You can find the competition HERE! We are honored that Kidmin1124 was seeded so highly in this competition.
Each of the last two years, I have campaigned shamelessly and relentlessly for my blog(s). In the end, it’s a lot a fun as I know many of the bloggers in the competition personally, and we have a good time competing on a friendly level. Each year, my shameless self-promotion has landed my blogs in the sweet sixteen. This year, I have neither the time nor the inclination to promote my personal blogs. If you want to vote for them, that would be great, but I do not plan to promote them this year like in previous years:
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!
