5 Ways I Use AI in Ministry
We’re in the middle of the AI revolution. Some say it’s bigger than the printing press. It seems just about everyone is scrambling to figure out how to use it. I am a relatively late adopter. I’ve never used ChatGPT, mainly because I’m being obstinate. But when I got an invite to the early version of Gemini, I decided to jump in.
5 Ways to Prepare Your Ministry for When You Can’t Be There
t was Saturday night around 8pm. We’d just finished dinner and were watching TV. Suddenly, I felt a rumbly in the tumbly and got to see dinner all over again.
I didn’t know if I had a bug, it was a fluke, or I was just stressed out. It didn’t really matter in the moment because one thing was for sure: I couldn’t do kids church the next morning.
5 Things to Do After a Conference
So, you just got back from the big conference and you’re brimming with ideas and excitement. You can’t wait to get home and inform your team about all the changes you’re going to make.
First of all, I love your excitement. Second, chill.
4 Ways to Thank Your Volunteers This Sunday
One of your most valuable resources in your ministry is your volunteers. Especially in kidmin. You can’t be in two places at once, so you need other people to get the job done. And once you find those people you want to keep them in place.
When you have to do a Christmas Production
I have a kidmin secret and it’s bigger than I hate crafts (link). I hate productions. Rather, I hate leading them. Even with this deficiency and being very vocal about it with my leaders and parents, I still got asked (more like told) to do it.
4 Ways to Connect with Kids in Kidmin
An essential part of kidmin is connecting with kids. I’ve written a lot about connecting with parents and even more about volunteers but never connecting with kids. I guess it’s because it’s intuitive for me and for many of the leaders I interact with regularly. But now that I work with mainly adults, I see that not every adult connects as easily as I do.
So, here are 4 things I do to connect with kids every time I’m with them.
How to Develop your Ministry’s Vision
As the leader of your ministry, people are looking to you to set the direction for your ministry. That direction may have come from your pastor or leadership, but it’s your job to communicate it to your team.
4 Jobs for Your Check-In Volunteer
You’re fifteen minutes into your kidmin service. Your volunteers are all busy taking care of the kids who are here. Just then, a flustered parent shows up with 3 kids in 3 different age groups, and she needs to check them in just so she can get a few minutes of respite and Jesus.
It’s definitely an inconvenience for you, and a disruption to what’s happening in the service. But what to do?
3 Ways to Help Volunteers Serve in Their Purpose
My last post was 6 places you’re losing your volunteers. That’s a lot of places, but there is one key thing you can do to hold onto your volunteers no matter how long they’ve been serving with you. And that is to provide a place for them to live out their purpose.
6 Places You Lose Volunteers (and How to Keep Them)
One of the biggest challenges in every ministry, not just kidmin, is that you always need more volunteers. The maxim "never stop recruiting" exists for a reason. Turnover is constant, which means recruiting never really ends. But simply finding more people doesn't solve the problem on its own. You have to retain the volunteers you already have.
7 Tech Tools Every Ministry Leader Needs (And How to Get Them Cheap)
I've been in ministry for many years, and one thing is certain: technology has changed a lot. I'm not old enough to have used a mimeograph, but I know what one is.
What I've noticed over the length of my ministry is that I keep coming back to the same hardware and software to get the job done.
4 Things Lead Pastors Wish Their Kids Pastors Knew
Now that I've been a lead pastor for a year, I see things differently than I did before. I spent most of my career in the kids' pastor chair, and I thought I understood what it would take to sit in this one. I'd heard other senior leaders talk about the weight of the role, and I thought I got it.
4 Things Kids Pastors Wish Their Lead Pastors Knew
In my last post, I wrote about how different things look from the lead pastor's chair. While much of the work is familiar, there are some important differences that most lead pastors never fully see. That's the genesis of this two-part series.
This week I'm speaking from my own experience as a kids' pastor, along with some honest feedback I gathered from several kidmin Facebook groups. Next week, I'll flip the script and share what lead pastors wish their staff, and specifically their kidmin leaders, understand.
5 Things I Learned My First Year as a Lead Pastor
In about a week from this writing, I'll mark one year as a Lead Pastor. It's been a long road to get here. I spent 15 years as a kids' pastor, then served at two more churches as an executive pastor before God called me to this role.
Now that I'm in the big chair, I can say with confidence that things look different from here. I'm just as busy as I was in kidmin, but the scope, the worries, and the challenges are bigger. From what I've observed in other leaders at this level, I know I'm just getting started. Still, I wanted to share five things this first year has taught me
How to Safely Divide Your Kidmin Preschool Rooms
So, you have a bunch of kids in your kidmin under the age of five. How do you divide them up safely, securely, and happily? By age? Birthday? Ability? The third Sunday in October?
3 Ways to Survive VBS Without Burning Out
Over the last few weeks I've seen a lot of people expressing frustration about VBS. Specifically, they feel like the rest of the staff isn't supporting them, and many are on the verge of burnout.
I get it. I spent many summers working 70-hour weeks back to back just to pull off this one event. As much as I love VBS, it puts a serious strain on your time, resources, and volunteers.
But there are things you can do to keep from hitting the wall before VBS even starts.
3 Difficult Conversations with your Pastor and How to Have them
There will come a time in your ministry career when you have to have a hard conversation with your boss. What I've learned over the years is that the longer you put it off, the more room there is for discontent, bitterness, and church hurt to take root. So bite the bullet and have the conversation.
How to Build a VBS Kids Worship Team
One of my favorite parts of VBS is the music. I may say goodbye to the decorations and theme when the week is over, but the songs stay with me and the ministry for months, sometimes years, afterward.
4 Ways to Partner with Other Churches for VBS
We're not in competition with the churches around us. We're all working toward the same goal: reaching people in our communities for Jesus. Making your VBS stand out can seem antithetical to that ethos.
But I don't see it that way. We want to run excellent events, and excellence is what makes them stand out. That doesn't mean we can't also cheer on what other churches are doing and work alongside them.
Making Your VBS Stand Out
If you live in the South as I do, it’s easy to drive down the road and pass all the churches hosting VBS this summer. It can be overwhelming. And honestly, disheartening when you see so many other churches doing the same theme as you. We never want to be in competition with other churches, but you do want to be different. You want to give a reason for that unchurched family to choose your VBS.
This registration card will help you collect your guests information as well as advertise your next big event.