Resources, Tips and Content for Children's Ministry and Family Life Leaders

Don’t Leave Volunteers Out In The Cold!

December 10, 2013 by

It was a wintery 52º yesterday morning and this sissy-la-la Southern Californian couldn’t handle the heater blowing only cold air inside the offices at work. My mind wouldn’t settle and my fingers wouldn’t function. It didn’t take long for me to pack up my laptop and head over to the nearest Starbucks to get heat to my hands, access to the free wifi, and order up a toffee nut steamer (my favorite hot beverage) to warm up my insides.

While there, I wrote plans for an upcoming volunteer team gathering. It’s the result of two months of getting to know people, understanding the existing jobs and evaluating the weekly experience from a volunteer’s point of view.

While sitting there, it occurred to me that I’m not the only person who doesn’t work well in the cold. It’s a hard place to concentrate; you find yourself working against the elements and you’re just a little bit miserable. So the thought for today is…

Don’t leave your volunteers out in the cold!

Provide a warm atmosphere, give them the tools they need and add something extra that will flavor their experience and warm them from the inside out!

 

The Big Picture

July 5, 2013 by

Children’s Ministry—you think it’s about children, but it’s not!

Most people say, “Yes” to working in children’s ministry because they love children, have children, think working with children will be fun, or believe it may be the least stressful volunteer option that has been placed before them. As the leader, however, you know children are just the beginning. The job is much more.

Children’s Ministry is unlike any other educational ministry in the church in that it requires a large team of volunteers to make it happen. A Pastor can teach a room of a thousand adults standing alone on the front stage. Youth Pastors, Women’s Ministry Leaders and even Worship Pastors can do the same. But the moment you have that second infant handed to you, you’ve reached capacity, safekeeping becomes an issue and you find yourself outnumbered.

Leading Children’s Ministry is more about developing a team of volunteers than interacting with children. You might hold the vision, write the lesson plans, organize the supplies, lead the worship and greet families at the door, but if there aren’t other adults and helpers in the room who know each child by name and are prepared to assist, your desire to run an excellent program is at risk.

In fact, the reality is You serve 4 populations!

[Read more…]

Leadership: Plain and Simple

June 27, 2013 by

Recently I had the privilege of attending the first of two leadership classes at North Coast Church in Carlsbad, California. The class was entitled “Leadership: Plain and Simple” and led by Ned Mervich, the Video Café Pastor from the Vista Campus.

Mervich’s goal was to boil down the vast amount of information available to us on the topic of leadership and present it as something that was simple—deep (meaningful) and fast (easy to grasp). The room was filled with business owners, administrators, parents, teachers, those entering new leadership roles and those in transition.

Mervich presented the chart below and offered the following definition:

Leadership Chart

The Essence of Leadership is—

A person called by God to influence through his head, heart and hands, a group of people who can work together effectively through the use of their skills, gifts, abilities and interests to accomplish God’s purpose for that group.

[Read more…]

The Servant Leader

The Servant LeaderHow do you lead? Are you willing to pattern your leadership after Jesus as an act of service?

Blanchard and Hodges take us inside to the HEART, HEAD, HANDS and HABITS of a servant leader. They challenge motivations, intentions, assumptions, methods, behaviors and commitment. If you seek a closer discipleship relationship with Jesus, as your role model, then start here.

Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges
Thomas Nelson, Inc. 2003

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