5 Steps to a Better Worship Set
I’m not a worship leader, but somehow, I’ve led worship in front of kids and now youth for over 14 years. I can carry a tune, but my rhythm needs help. I can move fairly well, but dancing was never my forte.
When leading in kidmin most of that doesn’t matter, because they’re learning too. Don’t get me wrong, the musical part of your service needs to be done with excellence, but sometimes passion and energy outweighs talent.
4 Questions to Find Your Perfect Curriculum
One of the biggest questions I see in the Kidmin world is what curriculum do we use? Which one is better? 252Kids? High Voltage? Bible Engagement? Open Church? Write your own?
The curriculum options out there are endless, and you can spend a lot of time, energy, and money trying to find the right one for your ministry.
Why You Should have a Baptism Class
Baptism in water is an essential part of a Christian’s faith, and one of my favorite things to do. Working in Kidmin though, there are a lot of questions about kids being baptized.
Planning Your Worship Set
Working in Kidmin, I’ve had the unique opportunity to plan not just what we’re teaching, but what we’re singing as well. I’m a church kid, so I’ve heard a lot of church music and my children’s ministry was pretty progressive, so we were singing worship choruses long before other churches were.
4 Pools to Recruit Volunteers
Recently, I found myself with only one volunteer on a particular Wednesday night with less than two days to find new volunteers. Closing the ministry for the night was not an option, but it was looking like it may happen. It’s not a fun place to be. As I thought about who I can recruit, I found that there are four pools of people I can ask to serve.
A Social Media Strategy for Kidmin
I’ve been posting and leading the social media for the churches I’ve worked for almost as long as I’ve been a kid’s pastor. For the past 13 years, I’ve moved with the changes to Facebook and Instagram. Established Twitter accounts and even explored Snap Chat and Marco Polo.
Creating daily or even weekly content for all of these platforms can be exhausting and many of these platforms change everything seemingly on a whim. It can be tough to keep up.
A Discipline Plan That Works
When I first became a children’s pastor on my first Sunday, I sat and observed how the volunteers were managing their service. These were college students with little to no training, just a heart for kids and doing the best they could.
Their stories and games were good. Their energy was excellent during worship, but they had one glaring problem.
Discipline.
The 3 Groups Every Next Gen Leader Leads
Recently, I was having a conversation with a new pastor and he was excitedly talking about all things he was planning to do with his kids. I asked him how he was planning to let parents know, and he said he was trusting the kids.
Rookie mistake.
3 Things that are Working Since COVID
When the pandemic started, like many of you, I panicked. I had 3 days to figure out how to take my children’s ministry completely online with no equipment, no training, and very little help.
That first service was a train wreck that started 10 minutes late with low quality and a replica of what we’d been doing in person for years.
4 Things I learned from Relaunching Children's Ministry
Churches all over are trying to figure out how to reopen and relaunch their services and specifically their children’s ministry. I’m no different. I’m eternally grateful to the leaders I’ve talked to over the last few months who have successfully (whatever that means these days) opened their children’s ministries.
5 Things I learned from doing VBS Online and In-Person
I haven’t written in a while. This pandemic has done a number on me. My family and I have been healthy, but if you’re in ministry, you know the crunch we’ve been in for the last few months. Every new month feels like the next level of Jumanji. (What happened to the murder hornets?!)
A big part of most kidmin’s summer is VBS. I’ve led 12 of these as a kid’s pastor and been a part of one for as long as I can remember. However, it goes without saying, this year is different.
Building Your Ministry for When You're Gone (Workshop Notes)
One thing I was taught early in my ministry career is that you are always replaceable. You are not going to be where you are forever. Most likely there was someone before and there will be someone after you. You are just the steward of the ministry and it is up to you as to what condition it’s going to be in when you leave.
How to have a Parent Information Meeting
For a few years now, I’ve been holding a parent information meeting at the beginning of the year.
I originally started the meeting to help boost camp attendance. The cost of camp is sometimes prohibitive, and by the time I was getting the information out to parents to sign up, they had already made their summer plans.
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.
Starting Well
A few months ago, I wrote a post about leaving well. The inevitable happens when you leave something. You start something new.
But leaving something and starting something are two different things. They both have their hurts and their joys, but you have to approach them differently. Now that I’ve been in the new ministry for almost a year, I can look back at that first month or two and realize what helped and what didn’t.
Leaving Well
About a year ago, I made a huge change in my career and left my church of 7 years in Montgomery, Alabama and moved to Sarasota, Florida for a new church and new children's ministry. Next week, I will post about how I tried to start there well, but today I want to talk about how to leave well.
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.
What I Learned from my First Mega Sports Camp
I have led vacation Bible school (VBS) almost every year of my ministry and had participated in VBS for as long as I can remember. When I first heard about MEGA Sports Camp (MSC), I was resistant, because I was very happy with the curriculum I was using. I had systems and procedures in place to put on a large VBS without having to reinvent the wheel every year.
3 Elements of a Successful Children's Ministry
There are a lot things to do in kids ministry. Sunday morning programing, Wednesday night, VBS, Egg Hunts, fall outreaches, small groups and so much more. It's easy to get overwhelmed with what you need to do next and what needs to be the top priority.
These three things are not an exhaustive list, but if you can do these 3 things repeatedly over time, you will have a successful ministry regardless of what programs your running.
5 Things I learned from a Parent Survey
A few months ago, I was challenged by the folks at Orange to do a parent survey to find out how the children's ministry is connecting and partnering with parents. Through their product Weekly, they made it super simple by giving all the necessary templates to create my survey in Survey Monkey and launch it out to my parents.
You've moved beyond the basics. Now, it's time to build a truly thriving and impactful Kidmin!
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