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.
How to Have an Easter Egg Hunt Part 2
Easter Egg Hunts. Love them or hate them, it’s one of the most popular kidmin events leading into the Easter season. I know it’s only February, but if you want to have a successful outreach event, you need to start planning now.
This is the second part of my two part series on How to have an Easter Egg Hunt.
How to Have an Easter Egg Hunt Part 1
Easter Egg Hunts. Love them or hate them, it’s one of the most popular Kidmin events leading into the Easter season. I know it’s only February, but if you want to have a successful outreach event, you need to start planning now.
In this series of posts, I’m going to share my system with you. If you leave me a comment with your email, I’ll share my to do list that will walk you through every step.
A Ministry Fundraiser that Works
Being in ministry usually means you’re going to have to fundraise for something. After all, a church is technically a non-profit and generosity is a core tenet of our faith.
Over the years, I’ve heard countless ideas for fundraisers for various reasons, but there’s one I’ve done year after year with great success.
3 Midweek Service Alternatives
I was stuck. We were finally coming back from COVID and starting Wednesday night services back up. We decided to rebrand the night for adults and focus on groups instead of the traditional Wednesday night service.
This was great for adults, but what about kids? Will I have the same kids every week? How long will the groups meet? What should I do on First Wednesday, when I’ll have more kids?
5 Steps to a Successful Parent Meeting
It was the summer of 2014, and I’m trying to get as many kids as possible to go to camp. I advertised, secured scholarships, made phone calls and much more, but I’d hit a ceiling. Many kids couldn’t go because their parents had already scheduled something that week or they had already committed to attending one of other paid events throughout the summer and couldn’t afford it.
Sound familiar?
3 Questions Every Guest Asks
It’s been said that a new guest makes their decision to return to your church in the first 15 minutes of their visit. That’s a small window, especially when you consider most of that 15 minutes happens before service begins.
3 Questions to Ask Before Picking a VBS
It's January and that means it's time to start working on VBS. I know it’s 6-7 months out, but there are a few high-level decisions you need to make now to set you up for success in the coming months.
One of the first questions that is asked is, "What VBS curriculum should my church use?
The truth is there are a lot of great curriculums out there, and while I have my preferences, I won’t advocate for any of them in this post.
What I Read in 2022
Every year I set a goal to read a certain number of books. I’ve gone all the way to 36 but have settled between 20 to 24. This year, instead of focusing on quantity, I focused on subjects that interested me and read a few pages every day. Somehow, I still got 20 books in.
For this post, I broke the books into categories.
5 Christmas Movie Recommendations for your KidMin Service
Come Christmas time a question I see asked over and over is, “What is a good Christmas movie to show at my church?”
Whether it’s for simple service for the Sunday after Christmas, a part of your midweek service, or a family movie night outreach, trying to find the right movie for your audience can be tough.
1 Simple Trick to Maximize Next Year’s Calendar
Over the last several weeks, I’ve posted about planning for next year. You can read about calendar planning here and budget planning here.
If you’ve been doing this for a while, you may realize that just putting dates on a calendar doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.
5 Budget Categories Every NextGen Leader Needs in Their Ministry
Budgets, love them or hate them, you need to have one to effectively manage the resources God has given you and your ministry.
Whatever your church’s requirements, your budget and your yearly calendar are inextricably linked. So, before you start putting numbers down into a spreadsheet make sure your yearly calendar is done first.
Video Game Buying Guide 2022
Since this is coming out on Black Friday, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about one of my passions.
Video Games.
I’ve been playing since I was a little kid and still play regularly. Also working in NextGen, I’ve seen a lot of kids exposed to games and media way before they’re ready because of their parents' ignorance.
It doesn’t have to be this way though.
4 Simple Ways to Appreciate your Volunteers
One of the best ways to retain your volunteers for years to come is to show them appreciation. So many jobs they do go unnoticed. What’s more, if you work in NextGen, your volunteers may never hear from those they serve that they’re doing a good job.
6 Steps to a Great Family Service
Family services. Love them or hate them, they have their place. I'm an advocate for family services because I believe children’s ministry needs to be more than a ministry held in another room never to be seen or heard from. These services can be a great tool for emphasizing ministry to the next generation, highlight the great things that are happening, and give your volunteers a much needed week off.
6 Steps to Make Next Year’s Ministry Calendar
It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
No, I’m not talking about Christmas or Thanksgiving (I’m a no Christmas until after Thanksgiving person).
I’m talking about planning for the next year.
9 Survey Questions for the Best Event Feedback
Feedback is so important. I can’t tell you how many times I thought something was going to work and it bombed and other times something trivial became a huge success.
Through the years, I’ve found collecting feedback increases my odds of creating success. There are a lot of tools out there to facilitate the collection of feedback, but the one I use for most events is surveys.
4 Ways to NOT Do Registration at Your Fall Festival (and one good one)
It’s Fall, and that means it’s time for your fall festival, trunk or treat, Holy Ghost Weeny Roast or whatever you call the event you do this time of year.
This is a unique event because a lot of people who may not come to your church may come to your campus for the very first time.
Unlike events like VBS or Egg Hunt, fall festivals offer a specific registration challenge.
How to Create A Volunteer Job Description
Let’s imagine that through very little work of your own you had 30 new volunteers show up in your ministry on the same day. Do you know where you’d put them? Do you know what job you’d give them to do? How would you onboard them to make sure they understand the mission and vision of your ministry?
Asking these kinds of questions helps you see the holes in your ministry. And what you need to work on to get to that next level.
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?
Get resources to lead well in your ministry.
If you want to know what’s working in your ministry or not, then you need to get your parents’ opinion. This kit gives you all the tools you need to find it.