Time.  It is one of the most powerful four-letter words in the world, and one of the most scarce in the volunteer’s world.  I have learned one of the best ways to find more time is to take some of the time you do have and plan ahead.

Wait!  Don’t leave.  I know what you’re thinking.  “I would love to plan ahead, but who has time?”

We don’t.  At least, most of us don’t.  There is all ready more to do than you can possibly get done in your day.  Your to-do list is so long it could be bound into a paperback book.  And now I’m telling you that you need to take a couple of hours out of that all ready jammed schedule?

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I’m a bi-vocational pastor.  I do receive a little compensation for my work done at the church, but I still need to work full time outside the church to make it work.  As any of you who are bivo or volunteer know, that means you can shave 40 hours per week right off of the top of what I am able to get done for the church.  Plus, when I do get home from work, the last thing I want to do is work.  I want to be with my family, be entertained, or maybe even hang out with friends.

For probably six months early on in my ministry, there was a lot of stuff that needed done and it was not getting done.  It was becoming a major problem.  I would constantly say, “There isn’t enough time.”

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A couple of weeks ago, we started a new series here on Kidmin1124 called The Non-Neogtiables. In this series, we will look at certain activities and undertakings that can not be sacrificed in our attempt to “find” more hours in the day.  During any given day, our time is consumed with so many things including ministry, family, work, chores, relationships, and more.  None of these things are bad, but they all take time.  When we are prioritizing all the things that must get done each day, these items must be placed at (or near) the top of the list.  Bold them.  Highlight them.  Write them in red ink.  Whatever it takes, you have to make sure that these items get done, or the remainder of your list will be rendered completely meaningless.

The first Non-Negotiable we’re going to discuss is prayer.  Every day should be bathed in prayer.  Frankly, every day should start with prayer, end with prayer, and be punctuated by times of prayer as often as possible.  Before we jump write in to talking about prayer though, I feel like I should be a little bit transparent with those of you reading this.  I chose prayer as the first non-negotiable, not because I feel like I have mastered it, but because I realize how far short I fall in this area.  All too often, I find myself praying something to the effect of: (more…)

One of the problems that we often face as volunteers in children’s ministry is maintaining focus in our “day jobs.”  When you are passionate about something, it is hard not to focus on it and hard not to get sidetracked about it.  Think back to the first time you really fell in love.  How much time did you spend thinking about your new love?  How much of your day was consumed dreaming about what the future might hold?  If you are parent, do you remember the first days back to work after your child was born?  How often did you stare at their picture wishing you were home?  How much of your time was spent contemplating/worrying about their future?  How many times did you call home just to see how they were doing?  This tendency towards distraction is consistent in anything that we are passionate about.

When I am not very intentional about it, it is very easy for me to let my passion for children’s ministry distract me when I should be focusing on my day job.  Since I spend a chunk of my day working with computers, it would be quite easy to allow my mind to wander, to dream about children’s ministry, to think about the lesson for the coming weekend and more.  On a more concrete level, things like e-mail, conferences, online research and more can easily interfere with your “day job.”  Instead, I much be very intentional about focusing on what I should be doing at that particular moment.

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As volunteers and/or bi-vocational children’s ministers who are passionate about reaching kids for God, there is one constant battle that we all face.  It is something that we all battle with every day.  That thing is TIME.  More specifically, it finding time to accomplish all of the things we have to accomplish and those things we want to accomplish.  Although Kidmin1124 is only 10 days old, this issue has already been prevalent in the articles featured here.  I think that is because it is a universal problem.  God only gives us a certain number of hours in each week, and between our commitment to our ministries and our other responsibilities outside the church, there never seems to be enough time.  This issue is certainly not unique to volunteers and bi-vocational ministers, but it is certainly prevalent and perhaps compounded by other fulltime jobs and responsibilities.

So, what are we to do about it?  Well, today marks the beginning of a new series here on Kidmin1124, our first series, which I have titled “The Non-Negotiables.”  This is not a series general about time management.  I am sure we will see plenty of that here on this site in the days and weeks to come, but that is not the purpose of this series.  If you’re looking for good resources on time management (especially from a children’s ministry perspective, I suggest you check out Brother Jim Wideman’s book Beat the Clock.  It is chocked full of great advice and ideas from a trusted leader in the field of children’s ministry.  A review and give away of the book will be coming up soon here on Kidmin1124 as soon as I can find the time to write it (and, yes I appreciate the irony of that comment).

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Making family time a priority is so important when you have a full time job and serve in children’s ministry. You have to be very intentional about making that time. I heard someone say once that they actually schedule family time on their calendar throughout the week and work everything else around that. You have to figure out what works best for you.

For me this means: (more…)

Yes, it is VBS week for me and to top it off, I’m leading and preaching in “big church” the Sunday following VBS. This will be a stress filled week as I must work my FT job, run VBS, and prepare a message for Sunday. As I begin the week, I realize that I am not alone. While we often experience the time crunch on a weekly and daily basis, this is a week when several are sacrificing their time to serve to reach children who you may only see this one week and these volunteers will get a taste of what we experience on a regular basis.

This is the time to connect with your volunteers. They are experiencing the struggle of serving in ministry while working a job, some may have used company vacation time to serve. Either way, this is a time to encourage your volunteers in their service. This is not a time to say, “now you know what I experience all the time“.

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As volunteers and bi-vocational children’s ministers, one of the things we all struggle with is finding enough time to get everything done.   I know that one place I used to waste a lot of my time was commuting back and forth to work.  Then I decided that that didn’t have to be wasted time.  There are plenty of ways you can redeem your drive time and get things accomplished all at the same time.  Before we get to that though, here are some things I have seen people doing while driving which I would not suggest you try:

• Texting
• Checking E-mail
• Putting on makeup
• Doing your hair
• Reading a book
• Eating cereal
• Watching TV

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Just like Troy in “High School Musical” I sometimes am challenged to keep my head in the game. I have trouble concentrating at work when I have so much going on in Summit Kidz. I had to learn to be intentional in managing my time at work.

Here are several practical things that I have found helpful:

1. I keep a notebook on my desk. When I think of something that I need to do, I jot it down to work on it later. This also doubles as my “dream pad” where I will note different ideas I might come up with through the day to expand on later.

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I frequently have people encourage me to connect with other children/youth pastors in the area. I am generally enthusiastic to meet others with a similar passion as me to reach children for Christ and hope to build relationships with them to network and work together for our common goals. So I contact them and try to get together and if they serve in full-time ministry (i.e. ministry is their “FT paying job”) then generally their response is, “Great! Let’s do lunch”. I then have to remind them that I can’t “do lunch” because of my job and they are often reluctant to meet evenings or weekends because that is their “family time” or time away from “the office”. Occasionally I am able to meet someone for lunch if I work my schedule properly, but it is not an easy thing for me to arrange.

So how do we network with others in kidmin when our schedules are so full? That is where this web site and others like it are such a great asset. There is nothing like meeting someone face to face and sharing what’s going on in your ministries, but when those opportunities are limited, then the internet, e-mail, instant messaging, etc. fill that much needed void. I have networked with several others via forums, e-mail, etc. which helps strengthen each of us personally and in our ministries.

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