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.

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When I read Matt’s post Friday about his take on regional conferences, I felt compelled to provide a response. Like Matt, I have never been to the “big” conferences. In fact, I’ve often thought about “defriending” or stop following some “big names” in children’s ministry because it seems that all they do is attend conferences and that’s not an option for me being bi-vocational with only so much “vacation” time with my FT job and my budget. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to go to a “big” conference someday, but I haven’t, so I can’t compare the two.

I want to talk about some excuses not to go to a regional conference. Awana holds an annual conference in the late summer or fall with a general theme for all conferences, but each region plans and organizes their own conference, workshops, format, etc. I have been involved in conferences in three different states, helping plan some of these conferences and leading workshops (breakouts) with as many as 80+ in attendance to as few as 1 or 2 in a breakout. My first “small” conference surprised me with a mere 100 attendees. I thought why even hold a conference for so few? I was wrong, this conference was needed and truly blessed those in attendance. In these smaller breakouts, you can really probe issues the ministry is having and try to enhance their ministry. It also provides the opportunity to establish a local or regional network.

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A couple weekends ago I attended the Chosen conference, in Fort Myers, FL. This was not a huge conference full of presenters that you would know. There were not hundreds of people in attendance.  It was not put on by a big, international children’s ministry organization. On top of that it only cost $12. How good could the conference really be?

Before I go any further let me say that I have not been to any of the big, national conferences. So, I can’t do a comparison, but I can comment on the value of this conference.

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A few years ago, a Children’s Ministry conference came to our home town. We knew it would be a great opportunity for our key staff to learn and to have a team-building day. Over the two-day conference, we would attend different breakout sessions, and then debrief over meals (or ice cream!)

As usual for conferences, we were overwhelmed with a plethora of ideas. We were excited to implement a few ideas immediately. But at the last breakout session I and a co-worker attended, the facilitator said something that rubbed us the wrong way. She said, “You need to manipulate your pastor into thinking your ideas are his ideas, so that you can get what you want.”

Why This Is Wrong?

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Last week I said, “There certainly are a lot of things we need to give our volunteers, but for the next few weeks, I’m going to share my top five essentials for us to give our volunteers.” Then I posted about the #5 essential thing for us to give our volunteers . . . give them resources! Today I want to take a few moments to consider the #4 essential thing for us to give our volunteers, training!

I know, I can practically hear you groaning as you think about volunteer training. I understand it can be very difficult to get volunteers to show up at training opportunities, everyone is certainly busy, but training is essential if we are going to be effective in our ministry.

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Recently, my wife and I went through a rollercoaster of emotions as we dealt with many personal health struggles.  While this situation ended well for both of us, and also ended with news that we are expecting another child this fall, it was a long and personal struggle.  Because of the nature of some of it, we chose not to share it with anyone outside of our immediate families.  This meant that the people in our church, including the volunteers that serve with us, thought everything was fine.

I suspect that similar situations happen every day in churches across this country.  Pastors, for personal reasons, choose not to share every little detail of their life with church members and volunteers. 

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Winter is coming. The temperatures are getting colder. Many children have outgrown their coats and sweaters from last year. What to do with those coats?

Why not have a coat-drive and collect new or gently used coats and sweaters and blankets for children and families who need them? There are many children who do not have a nice coat or a coat that is warm enough for the winter months.

A coat drive is great mission project for young children. They can take  leadership roles to collect the coats and sort them out in the collection boxes. They will feel like they are making a difference in the lives of other children and sharing Jesus’ love.

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Often we talk about how to avoid burnout in ministry.  We address situations that can lead to volunteers working long hours at church, neglecting other responsibilities including their family, jobs, and even their own health.  When we get caught up in the “serve, serve, serve, serve, serve” or “I have to do it all because no one else will” traps, we are on a fast tract to burn out. We talk about balance and how we can avoid being completely burnt out, used up and dead when it comes to our ministry.

But on the other extreme of that pendulum swing, is the person who uses their ministry to hide or escape from the areas of their life that are in crisis.  These can often be  difficult situations at home or at work.  If the situation at our secular job is demanding, we may find it easier to ignore the issues there, and pour ourselves into our ministry tasks.  The same scene can be repeated for issues at home.  If we have a strained relationship with our spouse or teenager, often it is just easier to avoid or ignore those issues and pour our emotions and efforts into ministry.  If in turn, those who benefit from our ministry, whether it be church staff, or parents, feed our need for affirmation by praising the efforts we have put into our ministry, this can easily start a cycle of ignoring those areas of our life which need to be dealt with and corrected.  Instead of facing the issue with the difficult spouse, we ignore it.  Focus on ministry.  And we can easily justify it, because ministry is for eternal benefits.  How can you argue with someone who is bringing the Good News of Jesus to others?  You can’t trump Jesus!!!  But in the long run, we aren’t going to last.

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In our Children’s Ministry, we developed a volunteer role called “Coaches,” and we’ve had the opportunity to share these ideas with other churches. This volunteer structure can be incredibly useful in your ministry, whether you have 30 or 60 or 200 or 800 volunteers. And keep in mind that this type of structure is not just applicable for churches and children’s ministries, but any type of organization that is volunteer-dependent and where leadership development is a goal.

What Volunteer Coaches Do

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EDITOR’S NOTE: We would like to welcome Joey Espinosa to the Kidmin1124 team.  We are certain that you will find his contributions to be useful and illuminating.  Please take a second to welcome Joey by commenting on this article below.

I work in an after school program with two other people (all of us part-time) and a handful of volunteers. As with most ministries, we are highly dependent on our volunteers to have an impact on the children who come and who want to come.  In fact, we currently have a waiting list due to an insufficient amount of leaders.

Recently, in a discussion about volunteers in our program, someone told me that we need to treat all volunteers the same. According to this logic, because all volunteers give something, they are equally valuable, and should be given parallel responsibilities and privileges.

I disagree!

Volunteers do have equal value, but that’s because value is intrinsically from the God who created us and saved us.

But volunteers are also different. They have:

• Different strengths,
• Different levels of responsibility, and
• Different rewards.

Therefore, they should not all be treated the same.

Different Strengths

Volunteers with unique skills, experiences, and passions should contribute in specific ways. The failure to recognize and act on this principle is one of the biggest mistakes a leader can make. It’s one way that I erred for years in ministry. I would see a need and then look for any warm body to fill it.

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