Archive for 'Philosophy'
The dropout myth?
Posted on 04. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.
There’s a very interesting article worth reading over at childrensministry.com about the infamous “dropout” rate that is causing many churches to question the effectiveness of their ministries and causing many churches to swing to a family model. I’ve actually sited the significant dropout statistics as a reason for our church to move to a more family centered model.
I’m very glad that this article was written as it draws attention to the issue. However, I have to say that I’m not in agreement with several parts of the article, but some excellent points are made.
First of all, I’ve not heard of this 9 out of 10 dropout. For the last 3-5 years, I’ve been more familiar with the studies conducted by Lifeway, the Assemblies of God (I think) and the research the Barna group has done and none of those posted a dropout rate as high as 90%. So, I guess the 90% dropout myth is a myth I wasn’t aware of… which surprised me if it is so pervasive. The article does though make it very clear though that the 90% dropout rate is not correct.
However, the 70% dropout rate from LifeWay was sited and due to some factors of the LifeWay site, the dropout rate probably is closer to 50-70%. Obviously, a 50-70% dropout rate is better than 90%, but 50-70% is still a failure in my book. So, if debunking the 90% myth was the primary objective of this article, then I’d say this article was successful on that account. However, I think it points to the problem that still remains, kids are still dropping out.
One thing I really appreciate about this article though:
“The bigger lie is that the effectiveness of your ministry depends on how many people you attract and retain.”
I agree wholeheartedly. We as ministers are often too shortsighted. We see growth from last year to this year and pat ourselves on the back… but if we’re not looking farther into the future, who cares if we’re running more kids this year than last. I think we should be asking ourselves the questions, “Is what I’m doing now going to make it more likely that these kids will still be following Jesus when they’re 20?” Some how we have to tap into that kind of thinking.
Lastly, the article seemed to explain that many churches have moved toward a family model because of a belief in the 90% dropout statistic. Just because the 90% dropout rate isn’t true doesn’t mean that a family model doesn’t help with the statistically truer 50-70% dropout rate. Barna’s book “Revolutionary Parenting ” states a strong case for a family model, one that equips parents. Most of the kids who continued to follow Jesus into their 20′s did so because mom and dad drove the spiritual development, which is a big part of the family model.
So, good article, even if there were some points to disagree with.
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I am already thinking about promotion Sunday
Posted on 15. Nov, 2010 by Kenny.
A few days I got an email from a friend in TN asking me some questions about how and when we promote. I’m really glad he asked because it reminded me of some questions I wanted to revisit and some frustrations I’ve run into for the past two years. He wanted to know what other churches do, so I figured I’d ask all of you. First, let me explain what we do here at Gateway, why we do it this way and what I’ve been frustrated about.
For the past two summers, we promoted in August, the week kids start their new classes in school. Actually, I’ve promoted the week school started every year I’ve been in ministry except for one I think. I’ve always preferred promoting at the end of the summer for several reasons:
- It gives those Kindergarteners promoting into 1st grade an extra 2-3 months to mature and get ready for the older environment.
- It allows our 5th graders one more summer to participate in Kids Camp as Middle School Camp might be too much for them and if they haven’t promoted yet, there won’t be any confusion on what camp to attend (If I’m being perfectly honest, it’s probably my desire to hang on to the 5th graders just a little bit longer).
- Promotion Sunday is always a highly attended Sunday as families are all back in town, so it’s easy to communicate their promotion since most everyone is there. At the end of the school year, attendance is down and it’s harder to create the same buzz.
Those are my reason for doing it when I do. However I have one reason against and it really frustrates me like crazy!
When a kid finishes the 4th grade, the last day of school in his eyes, he considers himself a 5th grader. I remember being this way as well when I was a kid. So in their minds, they’ve already promoted, but at church they’re being held back. It’s confusing as we have to put up signs telling parents that they’re still in the same grade groups and classes as last year and not to promote because if they do, then once we do a system wide promotion, all the kids will bump up to grades they aren’t supposed to be in.
Bottom line, we’re fighting everyone and in reality, it seems to create more confusion. Personally, I feel that if you have to put up a sign explaining something that isn’t exactly natural, maybe you’re going about it the wrong way.
So, what do you do and why? What are your thoughts about my situation? I’d appreciate your feedback greatly!
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How I’m dealing with Halloween
Posted on 26. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
So, three years ago I wrote a post about Halloween titled, “Halloween = Satan?”
I had almost forgotten that I wrote it. Since Halloween is coming in a few days, I figured I’d address it.
Like I said before, I didn’t celebrate Halloween as kid. We always went to the church to hide. It was a fun family night of games, bon fires and candy. If we did stay home that year, we turned the lights out and locked the doors. We were not going to celebrate this evil holiday. I’m not saying that this behavior was wrong or that I have any regrets, but my wife and I have decided to make different decisions about this holiday.
Three years ago we decided that Halloween is a huge night for our culture. If Jesus were here today, he wouldn’t be at the church hiding or he wouldn’t have his door locked and lights out. He’d be at the party or trick or treating with the neighbors. So, we decided that we’re not going to hide, but we’d meet our culture where they’re at.
So, three years have passed now and I’ve got something to say. We got complacent and missed the point. The last three years we’ve attended Halloween parties where Titus got to dress up and do a little trick or treating. It was so much fun and it created some great memories. However, the three parties we attended these last three years were parties with church friends. We didn’t meet our culture like we decided three years ago, we just did what the culture did. Oops!
I feel that what we’ve done the last three years is just the polar opposite. We isolated ourselves with our church friends just like we did 30 years ago at the church, but now we’re just celebrating the holiday like everyone else does. This is just my opinion and personal conviction (so don’t at all feel judged or anything), but if this holiday based on a premise of evil, even though it isn’t really that on the surface today, then why is it okay for us to just celebrate it.
This year, Sara, Titus and I are on mission and doing what he thought about three years ago. We have a small group and we’re going to set up in the driveway where we meet. We’re going to provide free hot chocolate, games for kids and lots of candy. We’re just going to use it as an opportunity to meet our neighbors. If it’s the one night that our neighbors come knocking at our door, then why not take advantage of the opportunity and keep them in the driveway a little longer while they sip hot chocolate and their kids play carnival type games? Sara and I are really excited about this as it’s a way our whole family and be a little more on mission on this holiday.
BTW, here is a great article on the origin’s of Halloween.
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Our new organizational strategy
Posted on 21. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
So, I’ve written about the problems I’ve experienced with departmental organization, the need for a different approach, as well as theories I’ve come across and thought about. Now it’s time to share with you what we’re going to do.
Probably our biggest source of inspiration was the counsel we got from ministry friends who used to be on staff at Bent Tree Fellowship in Dallas. They organized a ministry under three “departments,” for lack of a better word: Programs, Community and Operations. Under a director in each area, they had a full time assistant (actually, I think in one area they had two part time assistants for preference reasons). The Program director oversaw all things curriculum, production, music and video. The Community director oversaw all things small groups which was the bulk of the volunteer force. The Operations director oversaw all things admin, resources and organization. Time and time again they’d tell us, “trust us, it just works!”
We only had one problem. We’re multi-site. Bent Tree wasn’t and moving this model to a multi-site environment called for adjustments. We tried our very best to not let personalities on our team dictate how his looked but tried to see this through the eyes of how will this work for us in 6 months as well as 6 years. Is it scalable? What if we have 10 campuses?
So, we essentially created three new positions that are non-campus specific roles of Program, Community and Operations. They sit on what I’m calling the leadership team. In addition to these three roles, I have my two Children’s Pastors. The five of them work with me to lead our Children’s Ministry. Obviously the Children’s Pastors own the ministry on their campuses, but the three new positions support their campuses. The Program Director and his/her team of volunteers selects and develops the music, curriculum, look and feel of the services from Elementary down to Early Childhood. The Community Director champions volunteers for our ministry. This person develops our volunteer processes recruiting, leading, and caring for volunteers. This person doesn’t lead all volunteers, but sets the standards for this on all campuses. This person will also develop a team of volunteers who process new volunteers as well as following up with volunteers leaving our ministry. The Operations Director helps support the campus teams by developing teams to help with data entry, curriculum and supply distribution, resource management and facility prep and upkeep. As we continue to add more campuses, I would probably need to create a new position of Central Children’s Pastor who will represent all the Children’s Pastors on the Leadership Team as it wouldn’t be efficient to have all of them on this team.
Depending on the campus size, we will staff in a similar mannor based on need. On our larger campus, we’re going to have two Serve Leaders. That terminology ties in with a term we’re using at Gateway, but it’s essentially a reflection of “Community” on the campus. One Serve Leader will oversee, care and love all Early Childhood volunteers while the other one does the same for Elementary volunteers. Don’t get confused though, they’re not Elementary or Early Childhood directors or coordinators. Their primary function is to pour into their leaders and volunteers making sure that everyone is prepared, equipped and connected. We want our ministry to be a place where every volunteer feels like they are part of a community where they feel connected and growing and we think we can do that with these Serve Leaders. In addition, we’ll have a Production Leader who essentially carries out the program on Sunday mornings. With multiple large group environments, it’s really necessary to have someone leading all the production volunteers to pull off the show. If we hired another person on a campus, it would probably be a campus specific ops person to support the administrative needs of that specific campus… maybe. We haven’t gotten there yet.
We’re excited about this new layout and it’s something we’re going to have to grow into. We don’t have this many people on our staff. I actually have my Children’s Pastors playing dual roles spending most of their time as Children’s Pastors and some of their time serving as Program and Community Directors. I’m also going to need to hire an Operations Director (probably part time at this time) as well as an elementary Serve Leader (also part time).
We totally expect messiness and frustrations. Although we’re trying to anticipate them, we expect some stuff is going to fall through the cracks until we figure out what works and what doesn’t. I fully expect that six months from now this organization will be modified to tweaked as something just wasn’t working right. However, I’m excited to take the risk as I truly think we’re going to be more efficient and strategic in what we do.
So, say a prayer for us. My plan is to launch staff in their new roles in November. It will probably be a month or two of transitions, but by January I hope that we’ll have gotten a good taste of how things are going.
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Creatively organizing ministry
Posted on 20. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
Lately I’ve been talking about organization in Kidmin and how far too often we just default to the departmental model even though it might not be the most efficient in the long run.
So, I’m going to throw out a little theory here. It’s what helped us get to where we are now… or at least where we are heading. I throw out these ideals today and tomorrow I’ll wrap up this post with what this actually is going to look like for my team.
When I look at Kidmin in my church, I see three main functions.
Program: The look and feel of what happens on Sunday. The implementation of teaching, curriculum and what kids actually experience.
Volunteers: This is the heart and soul of the ministry (it should be). Volunteers need to be recruited, interviewed, placed, trained, and most importantly… loved and cared for. I believe that  a lot of time, energy and resources needs to be thrown at volunteers and when they feel loved and cared for, they’ll be more effective in their roles and they’ll stick around much longer.
Operations: This is everything administrative within the organization. This includes budgets, room requisitions, ordering, inventory, facility needs, resource management, communication, policies and procedures, systems and processes. This is a very important and detailed area.
Okay, so it isn’t always true but this is what I see. This is three different people. This is three different personalities. This is three different leaders. The program leader is a creative that can organize a bunch of artists, communicators and musicians. The volunteer leader is a people person. He or she is highly relational but can also be blunt and direct when needed. They are constantly in the lives of lots of people and lead others to do the same. The operations leader is an administrative guru (nerd). Not only can this person think in the language of  spreadsheets, graphs and policies, but they can lead administrative volunteers as well.
I’m not saying that they don’t exists, but how many creatives do you know that are great at managing budget deadlines. Very few, huh? Same thing with the people persons too, huh?
So, what if you actually didn’t have an elementary or early childhood director? What if instead you had one staff member who was totally dedicated to leading all your volunteers. They lead leaders who lead your volunteers ensuring that everyone was well cared for? What if you had one person who was totally dedicated to curriculum, teaching, music, signs and communication? Wouldn’t that be amazing. Maybe you’re thinking of what it would be like or you to focus on something like that knowing in confidence that another staff member was taking care of all the other details. What if you had a person on your team that made sure you were never late turning in a receipt? What if they made sure you were getting the most out of your budget? It would be awesome, wouldn’t it?
I think what I like about this system the most is the dependence it creates on each member of the team. Too often in a departmental model, the teams can get segmented and distant. Because of this, you can have a great elementary program and an early childhood program that is limping along. With this model that I suggested, it requires each area to run well. If one fails, the others suffer. This provides incredible accountability, but when one area excels, so do the others. I really like that.
So, why not? What would be holding you back? What do you think?
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The new face of American Evangelicalism
Posted on 20. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
I recently came across this video clip from ABC News that aired last Spring. Sorry if you’ve already seen it. What do you think?
So much of what is said here rails against the how I was raised within the church. The world needs the Gospel. Period. Almost as if this statement gave us license to overlook the loving and caring of the world around us. Interesting.
I’m not going to lie. The words these people say sound more like the words I’d imagine Jesus would say if he was sitting on that stage. What they’re talking about is a living and active Gospel that is shared as it is lived out. What do you think?
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Inefficiency in kidmin organization
Posted on 19. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
Yesterday I wrote about Org Charts and ministry, specifically how most children’s ministries use a standard departmental model by default. I’m convinced that although departmental models might be natural they tend to not be very efficient.
Here’s what I found. This summer I read the book Lead the Way God Made You. It really spoke to my pain. You can read my review of the book right here. Essentially the book talks about your leadership gifting and strengths and how to make sure you’re developing your weaknesses and really leading out of your strengths. The big wake-up call for me and my team after reading this book is how most of us weren’t leading through our natural strengths often enough. We were spending significant time in areas that aren’t our strengths because we were just busy with all the details of ministry. What I started to realize is that because the departmental model is so natural, we tend to place people over the departments based on their affinity and gifts for that age group. Even though your Early Childhood director may be really great with the little ones, the most important part of their job should be leading those who serve in that area and are good with little kids, not actually teaching little kids. The same is true for Elementary. I don’t want to minimize the idea that you want people who are really good with that age level so they can lead by example and maybe even carry that ministry as a team is built up. However, your organization is going to get stuck if it is too reliant on one or two gifted people.
My other beef with the departmental model that has become very clear to me. Duplication of tasks. Currently I have an Elementary Director and and Early Childhood Director that essentially do the same thing, but in two different areas. They both love and lead volunteers. They both manage schedules. They both oversee production elements of their areas. They both assimilate volunteers into their teams. They both manage the resources, equipment and facilities f their areas. So, I’m just seeing way too much duplication, which to me seems incredibly inefficient. The bigger problem is when I have an Elementary Director who has administrative gifting and an Early Childhood Director who is very much a people person (I’m just making this up as an example… not stating truths about my staff), then both areas aren’t necessarily going to be loved, run or cared for the same. One might have really great programing and resources, but the volunteers feel a little disconnected where another area might have great volunteer connections, but lacking on the programing and resources. Are you catching my drift? Have you ever experienced this?
I see some really big churches with huge ministry staffs where there is an elementary department with program directors, volunteer directors, and pastors just for that area. Perhaps that is a departmental model that works, but what about the other 99.9945% of us that don’t have those kinds of resources? What is the model that works for the staff of 1-3? Well, that part of the discussion will have to wait until tomorrow! Stay tuned, this is exciting stuff!
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Ministry and Org Charts
Posted on 18. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
This week I plan to write a little about how Kidmin is organized. Ultimately, I’ll speak from my own personal experience as well as my thoughts and opinions. However, during this week, I would love to see and hear how you organize your ministry. I’ve found that sometimes looking at another ministry’s organizational chart gives me ideas for they way I see my team.
I think I’ll start by describing the standard organization which I call the departmental organization. It seems to be the default organization for most Children’s Ministries and if you have more than 1-2 staff on your team, you are probably organized this way. What am I talking about? Let me explain.
If there are two to three people on a Kidmin staff, usually one of them is the Pastor/Director and the other one is Early Childhood Director. If there are three, usually it consists of the Pastor/Director, the Early Childhood Director and then an Elementary Director. Why is this structure so common? Here’s what I think.
Most churches start off with a Children’s Pastor/Director who has to oversee the whole ministry. When the church is small, this is pretty manageable. However, once the ministry gets big enough to hire another person (full or part time), nine times out of ten the next hire is an Early Childhood Director. I think this is the case because running an Early Childhood department can be pretty taxing and very detail heavy. So, if I’m a Children’s Pastor, I’m looking for someone to partner with me and take the weight of that ministry so I can focus on just elementary and the ministry as a whole. Occasionally I see a church hire an Elementary Director first, but that may be because the Children’s Pastor/Director has strengths/passion for Early Childhood. Once the ministry gets even bigger, the next hire is usually the Elementary Director. Once a church has gotten there, you have a pretty standard departmental model made up of Elementary and Early Childhood where the Children’s Pastor/Director can oversee it all and circulate among the ministry areas.
I don’t think that the departmental model is bad. I’ve operated using this model at 3 different churches for nearly a decade. However, I’m no longer convinced that it’s terribly efficient. I think there might be better ways to organize your ministry that might get you more bang for your buck. Tomorrow I’ll write about the inefficiencies that I saw in my departmental model and why they have led me to reorganize the Kids Ministry here at Gateway.
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Freakonomics: Incentives (part 2)
Posted on 13. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
So, yesterday I wrote about my Freakonomics movie experience and how it reminded me why I don’t like incentive based programs. Kids get left out because the same incentive doesn’t work for all kids. I was having lunch with my boss on Monday and he asked me a question about what I got out of it and it caused me to think about a different side of incentives. His questions caused me to think about incentives in my life. I recognized that even I don’t respond to the same incentives in every area of my life.
For instance, last year I lost over 30 pounds in 3 months. I’ve been a lazy bum and have gained some of it back, but it’s time for me to pick up the running and healthy eating routine again and I just haven’t been motivated. What I’ve learned is that in order for me to lose weight, there have to be three things present. Accountability, competition and some kind of prize. Without those things, I’m just not as motivated. It felt really great to fit in some clothes I wanted to wear, but that great feeling isn’t enough incentive for me. When it comes to doing a great job in ministry, I don’t need the same kind of incentives. I don’t really enve need someone telling me I’ve done a great job. I’ve got an internal drive that pushes me forward because I just care about it. Funny how that is, isn’t it.
I’ll be even more vulnerable right now. One of my biggest struggles in the last few years is sitting down to read my Bible every day. The desire is there but when left to my own, there’s a good chance that it’s not going to happen. Now I have lots of accountability in my life and as a group we’ve tried all kinds of things from calling each other, sending emails and texts to encourage each other to take the time. It works some of the time, but not perfectly.
Initially, my mind things, “well, I just haven’t found that incentive that will help me read my Bible every day.” On the other side of things though, it feels less than right to be seeking incentives for myself to maintain spiritual disciplines. Shouldn’t time with Jesus be enough? I get to be with him forever in Heaven and he saved me from death, isn’t that enough? An outsider would probably say, “obviously not since you’re still not reading your Bible ever day.” Maybe that’s just my brokeness and my need for God to change my heart. I’m conflicted on this. Any thoughts?
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Freakonomics: Incentives (part 1)
Posted on 12. Oct, 2010 by Kenny.
Last week I went to see the new documentary based on the book Freakonomics. This book is on my 2010 reading list, so I was excited to go and see it. I’ve only heard good reviews about the book. I really enjoyed the film and I’m sure it was not as great as the book. I may not get to reading it in 2010, but I still plan to read it at some point, especially around segments I saw in the film that I want to know more about.
So, I did go into this film with my “learning cap” on and there were a handful of great thoughts I walked away with.
The concept behind the book (and film) is motivation and incentives. Why people do things. One segment of the movie that spoke to me the most was an experiment they did in a public school to try to improve grades. In this High School, they gave $50 to every kid who had passing grades and entered them in a drawing for $500. It created quite a buzz. However, when the experiment was over, the kids who were consistently failing didn’t make any significant improvements. However, the kids who were on the fence tended to do well with the incentive. What they learned was that the same incentive doesn’t work with all people. They learned a lot, but didn’t really consider their incentive program as a successful venture.
As I thought about this for ministry, it confirmed some thoughts and feelings I have about incentives. I’m not going to lie, we all use a variety of incentives. From treats to games to music and decor, we’re using incentives and that in itself isn’t necessarily wrong. However, when we use one main incentive intended to apply to all kids, we’re making a mistake. All kids don’t respond to the same incentives.
This is why I’ve never been a fan of merit based programs (there are many mid-week church programs to choose from). These programs are HIGHLY incentive based where you get badges, pins, ribbons as well as Bible cash. The problem is that there is ALWAYS a segment of kids who aren’t motivated by these incentives and they often feel out of place in a program that is almost entirely based on incentives. So, what do you do for those kids? How do you motivate or include them?
So, just something to put in your back pocket. Incentives aren’t necessarily wrong. Everyone is motivated by them, it’s just that everyone doesn’t respond to the same one and we can necessarily mass produce motivation.
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