Still looking back in this series and in my children’s ministry, there is one more thing I wish I had known at 50:

That networking will make you smarter than you are.

I had just turned 50 when I came on staff at Momentum Church.  A children’s pastor with  30 years experience, yet I was at a complete loss as to where to begin.  All my previous experience had been in very traditional church settings.  Momentum was a portable church, setting up and tearing down every Sunday to have a worship service.  That meant putting everything you used to teach, all tech, all props, all everything, in a box and loading it in a trailer, set it up at the theater, have service, then put it all back in boxes and back on the trailer; all before the first movies began at noon!

How do you do games?  What back drops work best?  What materials all will hold up to the constant loading and unloading?  How do you have a clean, safe nursery on the floor of a theater?  The questions came faster than I could write them down.  It seemed that every turn, every department, every inch of the ministry was unlike anything I had ever done before.  I was clueless.

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As the years went by in ministry, I learned a lot.  But still, after 11 years in kidmin, there was still so much I didn’t know.  Looking back now, here’s what I wish I knew at 30:

You can say no.

It’s ok, even though what you have been asked to do will make an eternal difference somewhere to someone, if you are all ready booked, if all your hours are all ready taken, then it’s ok to say no.

You are not called to do everything.  You are called to do the thing that God has given you a deep passion and burden to do.  So often in my 30s, I would find myself completely overwhelmed by tasks and projects that had been added to my plate.  Not forcibly, but by my own agreement.  These were all things that were great projects.  They were often noble tasks.  They almost always resulted in someone feeling God’s love.  But they were not what I was called to do.  And it was too much.  But because it was a good thing, I would say yes.

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As a volunteer at 20, there was lots of stuff I didn’t know about kidmin.  And now, I realize that there is even more that I don’t know, but there are a few things that I have learned.  If there was one bit of knowledge that I have now that I wish I had known then, it would be this:

What you’re doing is going to make a life time of difference in some of these kid’s lives.

At 20, I knew that ministry was important.  I knew that kids were capable of learning a lot.  I knew that the time we had with them at church needed to be meaningful and well planned.  But I don’t believe I could grasp the significance that children’s ministry would hold in some of these kid’s lives.  I didn’t realize that these services, Sunday School classes and mid-week sessions would be depositing seeds of faith into children that would grow and grow, and years later, these kids would verbally recall to me some of the events of our times together.  Not only do they remember, they see the value in it now, too.

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Thanksgiving is just a month away and, as usual for this time of year, our thoughts tend to turn to the things we are thankful for. For the next few weeks, I’m going to look at the things I’m thankful for . . . and share these with you!

First of all, I’m most thankful for Grace! God’s grace is the most amazing gift we could ever be blessed with . . . it is so utterly undeserved and so lavishly given . . . which makes it truly amazing! When I think of God’s there is nothing else for me to feel than complete thankfulness. So . . . how do I show this thankfulness because thankfulness which isn’t shown or expressed is not thankfulness at all. Consider the following  . . .

• I show my thankfulness for God’s grace by loving others . . . I John 4 – “⁷My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God’s children, and we know him. ⁸God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him. ⁹God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life. ¹⁰Real love isn’t our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. ¹¹Dear friends, since God loved us this much, we must love each other.” (CEV) 
• I show my thankfulness for God’s grace by sharing the news of God’s grace . . . I John 4 - “¹³God has given us his Spirit. That is how we know that we are one with him, just as he is one with us. ¹⁴God sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. We saw his Son and are now telling others about him. ¹⁵God stays one with everyone who openly says that Jesus is the Son of God. That’s how we stay one with God ¹⁶and are sure that God loves us.” (CEV)
• I show my thankfulness for God’s grace by extending God’s grace to others by forgiving them . . . I John 4 - “God is love. If we keep on loving others, we will stay one in our hearts with God, and he will stay one with us. ¹⁷If we truly love others and live as Christ did in this world, we won’t be worried about the day of judgment. ¹⁸A real love for others will chase those worries away. ¹⁹We love because God loved us first. ²⁰But if we say we love God and don’t love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don’t love the people we can see? ²¹The commandment that God has given us is: “Love God and love each other!” (CEV) and Ephesians 4 “³²Instead, be kind and merciful, and forgive others, just as God forgave you because of Christ.” (CEV)

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A friend posted this on their Facebook the other day . . .

It got me to thinking. Trust is an essential part of children’s ministry . . .

• parents need to be able to trust us
• children need to be able to trust us
• our volunteers need to be able to trust us
• we need to be able to trust our volunteers

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

1. Your Volunteers Are Passionate About What They Do!
2. Your Volunteers Want You To Use Their Passion!
3. Share Your Vision With Your Volunteers
4. Give Your Volunteers Autonomy
5. Volunteers Need The Opportunity for Advancement

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:

TRUST IN YOUR VOLUNTEERS!!!

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.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: At Kidmin1124, we would like to welcome Lynda Freeman to our community of writers.  Please visit our Author Page to learn more about Lynda.

As you begin your new school year of ministry this fall, pause for a moment and consider your volunteers.  Here are some ideas.

1. First of all, take a moment to thank God for sending the workers! I love the way the NCV translates Matthew 9:38:

“Pray to the Lord, who owns the harvest, that he will send more workers to gather his harvest.”

The harvest is God’s and if we ask, He will send us the workers we need to gather His harvest! Be sure to take time to thank Him for doing so!

2. Take time to thank your volunteers, too. Tell them “thank you”! Walk right up to your volunteers this Sunday and tell them thank you for giving of their time and themselves to the children and to the Lord! Send them a note – hand written – at least once a quarter and take advantage of resources such as DaySpring’s free e-cards – http://ecards.dayspring.com/ecards/ – send these to your computer savvy volunteers to brighten their day, too!

3. Make a point of sharing with others how thankful you are for your volunteers!

4  Show them you are thankful for them, too! Pay attention! Notice! Is a volunteer ill, or do they have a child who is home sick with the flu or some other illness? Take them a pot of homemade chicken noodle soup . . . or find someone in your church who makes the most amazing homemade chicken noodle soup and ask them if they would be willing to make some for a volunteer in need! Spread the fun around and find ways for others in your church to have the opportunity to show their appreciation to your volunteers, too!

5. Most importantly of all, pray for your volunteers! Make it a regular part of what you do every day. Pray for them. Pray for them. Pray for them! Make this your prayer for your volunteers as you being your Fall ministry to children –

⁵ Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from Him. ⁶ He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken. ⁷ My salvation and glory depend on God; my strong rock, my refuge, is in God. ⁸ Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge.  Selah ¹¹ God has spoken once; I have heard this twice: strength belongs to God, ¹² and faithful love belongs to You, LORD. For You repay each according to his works. [Psalm 62:6-8,11,12, HCSB]

Here is a Prayer for your volunteers –

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In part one of this series, we looked at how to identify a dying program, and in part two we examined how to breathe life into a dying program if it still had some life left in it. Now we are going to look at how to kill a program once its season has ended.

First, let’s remember what Ecclesiastes 3:1 says; (more…)

Ok, I wrote the first two parts of this 3 part series a year ago. I promised that this would be a three part series, but life got really busy and I never wrote the final piece to this series.  Since so much time has passed, I thought I would do a bit of review before diving into the third and final installment.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us that there is a season for everything. This is true of our programs as well. We have to take care that our programs and events don’t turn into “sacred cows” that go on even after they have stopped being effective.  In part one of this series, we looked at how to identify when a program, ministry, or event was coming to the end of its season. We looked at four P’s: (more…)

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:

1. Your Volunteers Are Passionate About What They Do!
2. Your Volunteers Want You To Use Their Passion!
3. Share Your Vision With Your Volunteers
4. Give Your Volunteers Autonomy

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.

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