When it comes to volunteers in children’s ministry, there is one issue that I hear about more than any other – that is the issue of how to recruit volunteers.  It seems to be a constant problem in the kidmin world, and very few people seem to enjoy it.  I can count on one hand (maybe two) people who I would call experts in that field.  That is one of the reasons I was excited to see Andy Johnson post a complete FREE volunteer recruiting package several days back on his website.

I have never met Andy Johnson, but I am a fan of what he does.  What he does is run a great blog known as Free CM Stuff for which he scours the internet for the best FREE resources for those of us who work in children’s ministry.  I have followed Andy’s blog for quite a while, and he has pointed me towards a multitude of wonderful resources.

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Casting vision; this is something that we in church leadership sometimes leave to the Senior Pastor. “I’ll just let him cast the vision and I will follow it.” Or we may tell ourselves, “He’s the pastor, casting vision is part of what God called him to do.” While there is some truth in this, it does not let us off the hook. Ephesians 4:11 says,“It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be lead pastors who will cast vision for the church and some to be children’s pastors who will plan children’s activities and, using flanelgraph, tell the stories of the bible, and some to be youth pastors who will play paint ball and loud music and occasionally give a bible lesson.” This, of course, is not what Ephesians 4:11 says. Paul did not single out lead pastors. He was talking to all of those called to be pastors. Now if you do not carry the title of “children’s pastor” don’t tune out; this article is still for you.

Casting vision; what does that mean? Is it really the job of the lead pastor? Well, I do fully believe that it is the job of the lead pastor to cast the overall vision of the church, and that the leaders of the ministries within the church need to focus hard on following that vision. However, I also believe that we need to have a vision for the individual ministries within the church. Whether you are a children’s pastor or leading the children’s ministry in another capacity, then you have some responsibility for casting vision.

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Well, we’ve been up and running here at Kidmin 1124 for almost two months now.  We have been astonished and humbled by the response thus far.  We really do appreciate all of your kind words and the fact that you come back day after day to read the site.  It occurred to me today though, that I have never done a post to explain where the name for this site came from in the first place.  There’s a brief explanation over on the About page, but I thought it warranted a post as well.

The Kidmin part it is easy.  All of us who contribute to Kidmin1124 are passionate about reaching kids for Christ.  We all either volunteer, or serve bi-vocationally, in children’s ministry.  If you asked any of us, we would tell you that children’s ministry is a vital part of our lives and our spiritual journeys.  So, why kidmin rather than children’s ministry – because it’s shorter and easier to remember.

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Although I adore volunteering in Children’s Ministry, I spend a good portion of my time working in the “real world”.  It constantly amazes me how God challenges me in ways I could never imagine in an effort to help me grow as a both a Christian and a leader.

For example, I have never really been motivated to be a supervisor in my day job.  Now, though, I honestly believe that God is working in my life to develop the skills and personality within me with that may ultimately lead to being a supervisor.  Unlike when my daughters were younger, I am now at a point in my life where I think I can handle the responsibility.  And, I know that, should it pan out, it will be because of HIM that I know I can do it – because I know that I won’t be going at it alone!  There are SO many terrible supervisors out there in the work force – ones that don’t respect their employees and don’t treat them as they should be treated.  Many of us have worked, or are working, for such people.  I feel like God is calling me to be different kind of supervisor!

I thought it might be interesting to share something about the group of people I work with and examine how God is working through those people to help lead me into a leadership position.  Hopefully, you will find something in this effort that you can relate to your own life and experiences.  I think it will be fun to provide ”chapters” periodically – kind of like writing a book (which happens to be one of my goals in this life, as a matter of fact!).  To provide an overview of the personalities in our office, I thought I would assign “character” names (to protect the innocent) and describe each “character’s” personality traits. In order to better understand my story, you should know that I work in an office full of women – only women.

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The end of June marked the end of my first year as leader of a bi-weekly team at Kids’ Zone, my church’s Sunday morning children’s program. It was my first experience in leading volunteers, and I had my doubts about my ability to handle this new challenge. After the first few weeks, I realized a few things. The first was that I was not the only one with doubts – my team also felt unsure about their abilities. The second was that their doubts were partly my fault. In my excitement over my new “job,” my efforts to “prove” myself, and my unfamiliarity with the people on my team, I’d started out by doing it all pretty much on my own. I ran games, led worship, taught the lesson, set up and cleaned up by myself. I’d done nothing to build up my team’s confidence or abilities, but let them believe that I was the only one who could minister to the kids. Big mistake.

So, I decided to change how we did things. We met together for lunch after church one Sunday and talked about a plan for the next series. We talked about what everyone enjoyed doing, hated doing, could do and couldn’t do. We brainstormed our activities, stories and games and divided up the responsibilities. What a difference this made! Over the rest of the year, I watched everyone become more confident in their role and abilities. Ministry to the kids began to flourish.

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Originally loaded to Flickr by _setev.

I shared these thoughts on my personal blog. With your indulgence, I would like to share them with you here as well.

A few years ago I traveled to Lima, Peru on a mission trip. I met a wonderful Christian lady there who was ministering to the children in her neighborhood. She would pay their bus fare so they could attend church when she could. Other times she would teach them in her tiny home on a dirt hillside. That is where I met her, with her house full of kids and tracing color sheets with a pencil and carbon tracing paper one at a time. Her only other equipment was her Bible.

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I desire to be a life-long learner as well as a teacher. I hunger for information constantly and it is an appetite rarely satiated. There is more to it that just obtaining the information for me. I have to not only absorb it and use it to grow, but I also need to be passing knowledge on to others who will benefit from it.  I believe this to be an important aspect to serving and leading in children’s ministry.

Here are just a few things I do to expand my thinking: (more…)

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1. This passage goes on to tell us that there is a time to be born and a time to die, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to keep and a time to throw away. Christians often quote this passage when making a transition in our personal lives, yet when we think of the season for a program within the church ending we are rarely so casual. There is a season for everything and even as summer must turn into fall so must the programs within the church pass to make way for the next season. With the end of one season comes some happiness and some sorrow. Such is also the case with the passing of a program within the church. Now, I am not trying to say that we should approach the passing of a program as casually as spring turning into summer. What I am saying is that we should accept this inevitability even as we accept that the next season is going to come, with or without our approval. No matter how passionate we may be about summer, winter is going to come and, likewise, no matter how passionate we may be about a program, event or ministry their season is going to end.

That brings up the question, “how do I know when the season for a ministry is ending and how do I end it well?” This is a big question, and it’s one I’m certain most people in ministry have considered. In this article I will do my best to address the first part of this question, in subsequent articles I will give some ideas of how to save a dying program and finally how to end it when the time comes. One thing I will not do is tell you that there is an easy way to know when the season is ending, or that there is an easy way to end it. What I will do is give you some signs that it might be ending. I refer only to programs in this article, but the concepts here will apply to any program, event, ministry, or other activity within your church.

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Preteens or “tweens” are at the in-between developmental stage where they are in the process of sorting out all the information and values they are exposed to. They are reaching out, questioning, and testing. Children at this age are in a time of transition while facing more “adult” issues at an earlier age and beginning to make decisions that will have long-lasting implications. They are constantly evaluating whether or not they are fitting in and receiving approval. They aren’t little anymore, yet they aren’t teenagers either.

In children’s ministry reaching tweens means having a curriculum that reaches out differently than the one used for elementary aged kids. One option is to adapt the curriculum you are using for the younger children for older tweens.  Another option is to tweak the curriculum you are using for the older students to make it mow suitable for these in between years. There are also curriculum out there written specifically for preteens like Grapple, and The Lads Band now have a curriculum as well.

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I like reading. I really do, and part of that love of reading has transferred into a love for blogs – particularly for those related to children’s ministries.  For well over a year now, I have been compiling a monthly listing of blog articles for Dad in the Middle known as The Children’s Ministry Blog Patrol.  In that recurring post, I pull from the hundreds of blogs I follow to compile and categorize a list of the month’s best children’s ministry related posts.  One section of the The Children’s Ministry Blog Patrol each month is dedicated to articles for and about volunteers.  Even then, there are not generally that many posts in that area.  That is one of the reasons we decided to start Kidmin1124 in the first place.  I don’t intend to start a Volunteer Blog Patrol here on Kidmin1124, but there are occasionally articles related to volunteers that I thought would be useful to the readers of this blog.  Here are some great posts related to Volunteers and Volunteering which have been posted this summer (including May).

Posts from around the blogosphere

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