David Reneau 8/22/25 David Reneau 8/22/25

4 Steps to Develop a Ministry Leader

I came to this one harsh truth early in my ministry. I can’t do everything. Sure, many of us kids pastors think we can. Sometimes It feels like the job requires it. But you can’t change diapers in nursery, give out snack in preschool, and lead worship in elementary on the same day. Most likely all those groups are in different rooms. At some churches, different buildings!

Since you can’t be in two or three places at once, you need to develop leaders.

David Reneau 8/1/25 David Reneau 8/1/25

Developing a Ministry Lead Team

One simple truth about leading in church is that you’re not going to be there forever. It may be hard to think about the day you will leave, but it is a simple reality. You will leave. Either you feel the Lord calling you somewhere else, you will retire, or you will die. There will come a time when you’re no longer the leader of your ministry.

The best thing you can do for your church and your current leaders is to prepare them for this eventuality. But how do you do that?

David Reneau 5/9/25 David Reneau 5/9/25

7 Steps to Resource Your VBS Volunteers for Success Part 1

One of the biggest indicators of a successful VBS is the strength of your volunteer team. You can’t do this big event on your own. I’ve led many VBSs with hundreds of kids in attendance, and it’s my team that made it all happen.

David Reneau 8/30/24 David Reneau 8/30/24

Avoiding Failure on Your Next Ministry Idea

I had a great idea. A God idea. What if we got the whole church together on Saturdays for an hour of prayer? It would be easy to continue the practices started with 21 Days of Prayer. We could cover our services in prayer. Lives would change. More people will believe in Jesus! But...

David Reneau 8/9/24 David Reneau 8/9/24

3 Essential Elements of a Volunteer Training Meeting

A new school year is starting, and this is a great time to hold a volunteer training meeting. The training sounds like a great idea, but what are you supposed to talk about? What can you talk about? What’s the most important thing?

David Reneau 1/12/24 David Reneau 1/12/24

5 Keys to Teens Serving Successfully in Your Kidmin

One thing that is an absolute certainty in kidmin is a general lack of volunteers. No matter how big your church is, there is always a shortage. However, there is a treasure trove of possible volunteers that we may overlook. Teenagers.

David Reneau 11/17/23 David Reneau 11/17/23

6 Essential Steps for Onboarding Volunteers

There is one group of people that churches cannot survive without. They are faithful, dedicated to the vision, and serve others. I’m talking, of course, about volunteers. If you have a great volunteer culture, life can be so much easier.

David Reneau 7/14/23 David Reneau 7/14/23

5 Steps to Attending Service in Kidmin

One of the hardest parts of serving in Children’s ministry is never getting to go to service. Some pastors require their kids’ leaders to attend the adult service, but those are rare. Other kidmin pastors have figured out how to attend somewhat regularly, but it's not the same as before they became a leader.

Part of the problem comes from the complexity of kidmin. It’s more than just one service.

David Reneau 2/24/23 David Reneau 2/24/23

5 Must Haves for a NextGen Policy Manual

A little talked about, but vital document in your ministry is a policy and procedure manual. The manual answers a lot of questions for volunteers and clearly defines your thinking on multiple situations.

While your church may have its own policy manual that addresses your ministry specifically, many times these are incomplete when it comes to NextGen. In my experience, they’ll address room ratios and background checks, but not other problems such as fire drills, dress codes, meeting attendance and more.

This is why I suggest every NextGen ministry have its own policy and procedure manual.

David Reneau 9/30/22 David Reneau 9/30/22

How to Have a Kids Lead Team

Maybe you’ve seen this. You have a fifth or sixth grader completely checked out. They may have been engaged a few years before, but it’s getting close to their time to move on, and they have senioritis all of sudden.

You thought it was only for 12th graders, but now you see it in 12-year-olds.

But what do you do?

David Reneau 2/10/20 David Reneau 2/10/20

3 Principles of a Great Volunteer Meeting

You can’t be in ministry for long without having to host a volunteer meeting. A lot of time these meetings can drag on without any clear focus and not get anything done. When you first start in ministry, people show up because they want to hear what you have to say, but if you’re meeting is boring you may have a hard time getting them to come back.

David Reneau 3/27/19 David Reneau 3/27/19

Small Group Leader Training (Video)

Since starting my new position, I've had to build a team of dedicated volunteers to accomplish our mission or developing an authentic faith in Jesus Christ in kids that will last a lifetime. Most of the team I'm building right now are Small Group Leaders.