Archive for 'Administration'
A little calendar planning love for you my friends!
Posted on 26. May, 2011 by Kenny.
A couple of weeks ago I got the distinct pleasure of leading some breakouts at the Orange Conference. It was a ton of fun and I know that it was helpful to many. One of the breakouts I led was “How To: Plan a Ministry Calendar.” It was a 45 minute session on ministry planning goodness.
I’m not really going to share everything here (since I know that you can purchase the audio of the breakout from Orange), but I will share a few parts. Here is a short section about tips and tricks to planning you ministry calendar:
Let me share with you a few tips to keep in mind while you’re in the calendaring process.
Print out your calendar
Sure, you can do the whole thing in Google Calendar, iCal or Outlook… but you’re likely going to miss stuff.
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Children’s ministry job security
Posted on 10. May, 2010 by Kenny.
I’ve been overwhelmed by churches who are looking for Children’s Pastors. I think one of the best ways to secure a new ministry position is done through networking. Somebody knows somebody who’s looking to move and that person knows a church that’s looking for a new pastor. It’s great because it’s not a random resume or unknown church, but there are are people who can vouch for the church or the candidate. In the last 6 weeks I’ve had no less than 6-7 emails, phone calls or personal contacts from churches asking me if I know anyone who’s looking. If I have a name or a resume of someone on hand, I’ll pass it along. But here’s the truth I’ve come to learn over the years.… Read the rest
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More resources please
Posted on 26. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
In case you didn’t know, this website has a section dedicated to resources. Last year I launched it by gathering people’s check-in registration cards. I got close to a dozen and it seems a lot of people found it helpful. I know one children’s pastor (one who’s not fond of puppets) who found it so helpful he redesigned his card based on some of the ideas he saw. One of the reasons I launched the page was becasue I was in the process of coming up with a new design for Gateway. I took inspiration from several of the examples sent in.
Just because there are several up there now doesn’t mean there isn’t room for more. If you’ve got a unique or interesting registration card, send me a copy (kenny@childrensministryonline.com) and I’ll place it on the resource page.… Read the rest
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Calendar Planning: Promotion deadlines
Posted on 22. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
A few weeks ago I wrote about the calendar planning retreat I took the kids staff on. We took about 12-14 hours to map out all of 2010. We wrapped up that retreat with a pretty clear idea of what the following year would look like (there were a few unknowns, but those would be determined within a few weeks). There’s nothing like having your year all planned out. Next year we plan to do this retreat in August or September so we have a bit more of a head start.
However, I’ve noticed a flaw in the fully planned out ministry calendar. It’s happened to me and I’ve talked to dozens of others in the ministry who’ve been plagued by this problem.… Read the rest
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Calendar planning
Posted on 23. Nov, 2009 by Kenny.
I did something I’ve never done before a few weeks ago. On of our Early Childhood leaders has a beautiful lake house on Lake Travis and offered to share it with my team, so I took my Kids Quest team away overnight to plan out 2010. It was fantastic!
In the past I’ve always done most of the calendar planing on my own. I usually did this on my own because I was either the only one on staff, it was easier that way or because I was a control freak. I must say it was quite fun to do this as a team. Not only did we need to just get dates on the calendar, but we had to develop some strategy around some new initiatives that were calendar driven.… Read the rest
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Great Fellowship One missing in action report
Posted on 06. Nov, 2009 by Kenny.
Last week I mentioned that we’ve taken a pretty big attendance hit in October. Our plan was to call regular kids who’ve been missing. In Fellowship One, report M1035E is pretty dang amazing.
M1035E allows you to select a date range to determine a desired attendance pattern. For my case, I wanted to isolate all the kids who have attended 3 or more times only during September and August. The great thing about this report is that you can select multiple activities. In my case, our services are set on 4 different activities, so this report was accurate even if the kids attended different services.
Then M1035E allows you to select the number of days from the end of the original range (in my case it was since September 27th) that the child hasn’t attended at all.… Read the rest
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The problem with Sunday small groups
Posted on 20. May, 2009 by Kenny.
I’m not being a Negative Nelly. I’m sharing the difficulties that come with these models. Yesterday I shared the difficulty with the Sunday School model. It has big enough difficulties that I’d prefer not to be at a church with Sunday School. However, the small group difficulties I’ve faced can be overcome with a little creativity.
I’ve had great success with small groups on Sunday nights or Wednesday nights. They were discipleship/growth focused. The kids were pretty consistent and all my groups had 8-12 kids. However, once I decided to launch small groups during Sunday services at Gateway, I knew I would have a problem. Kid’s attendance on Sunday is not consistent. I would be creating a small group model around irregular attendance.… Read the rest
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Emergency policies and procedures: I need your help
Posted on 14. May, 2009 by Kenny.
Hey, I need some help.
I’m in the final stages of totally re-writing our policy and procedures manual for the Children’s Ministry here at Gateway. Something new we’re adding are emergency procedures. We’ve got fire and tornado taken care of. However, I need to write our procedures for these emergencies:
- Child abduction: Someone succeeds in taking a child who isn’t theirs.
- Intruder: Someone enters our property or facility with the intent to do harm. What are your lock-down and response procedures?
- Lost Child: We’ve probably all experienced this (usually it’s when a child gets checked into the wrong room or one parent picks their child up without telling the other). However, what procedures do you follow when a child is potentially missing?
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North Point Visit – Summary
Posted on 26. Apr, 2009 by Kenny.
Here’s a quick video summary of the before and after from my visit to North Point. I have a lot to share, but that probably won’t post until after Orange.
Enjoy.
Childrens Ministry Online: North Point Tour from Kenny Conley on Vimeo.
I didn’t do any video inside the church as it didn’t seem appropriate. I’ll tell you later about what they gave me to satisfy my needs to photograph everything I saw.… Read the rest
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Attendance milestone
Posted on 08. Apr, 2009 by Kenny.
I’m not even going to get into a numbers debate with anyone. I like the way Craig Jutila approached the topic. Who cares how many kids you have in your ministry, the important question to ask is, “Do you have more kids in your ministry this year compared to last year?”
Do you have attendance goals for you ministry? You should! It should be our goal to increase our influence and setting attendance goals is one way to motivate us toward expanding our reach. We have a pretty bold goal for this year and so far we’re on track to reaching it.
When I came on staff at Gateway 11 months ago, the average children’s attendance was between 550 and 600 kids.… Read the rest
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