Archive for 'Training'
Digital signatures for volunteer documents
Posted on 27. Mar, 2012 by Kenny.
I have questions that have both a technological and legal aspects. More and more our ministries are moving toward a digital medium. One of the biggest holdups for many volunteer processes is “paperwork.” It’s frustrating as we have conversations with people, meet them in person and then say, oh, fill out these pages and then we’ll get the ball rolling. Some of us have taken additional steps in putting all of these forms online, but it still usually requires someone to download the form, print and sign it. Once this is finished, those volunteers either mail it in, hand deliver it or scan/fax/email back to us. For living in the 21st century, this seems like a bunch of steps from digital to analog and back to digital again. I’m wondering though if we can keep the process purely digital. Here are my thoughts followed by questions.
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Orange Tour Online
Posted on 05. Mar, 2012 by Kenny.
So back in January, I took 20+ staff and volunteers to the Orange Tour in Dallas. What can I say, I’m a huge believer in the regional conference! This Orange Tour was easily the best one yet… but all of them have been so incredibly good.
Tomorrow (Tuesday, March 6th you and your team can experience the Orange Tour right from the convenience of your computer. Orange will be streaming the conference from 1:00 PM until 3:45 PM (I’m assuming that this is Easter Time). It’s a free web event, you just have to register here.… Read the rest
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My Holy Hangover
Posted on 23. Feb, 2012 by Kenny.
Just so you know, I felt like a dork typing in that title. Whatever. So it’s Thursday and it’s been forever since I’ve blogged. I’ve had a lot of distractions, namely the Nashville Illuminate Conference. Let me just say, I love my Nashville peeps. The event was hands down amazing! The best yet. Everyone from my incredible hosts at Long Hollow to all the people who attended were so wonderful. Although Illuminate was created to be a blessing to those who serve in kidmin, I’m pretty sure that I left the event that day more blessed than anyone else.
Now that my 2011-2012 events are wrapped up, I’m working on launching Illuminate Online and working out dates for 2012-2013. Exciting stuff for sure and I’m already dreaming up huge things for next year!… Read the rest
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Never get too comfortable
Posted on 08. Feb, 2012 by Kenny.
Last week I came across this article I found in someone’s facebook feed. America’s largest church is facing a 10+ million dollar lawsuit because of something that happened (or didn’t happen) in their children’s ministry. Who knows what is going to happen, but this whole thing probably could have been prevented. The article states:
The lawsuit accuses the church of negligence in its investigation, in reporting the alleged incident to police and in lacking surveillance that could have saved Guzman from being wrongfully accused of a crime. The church also is accused of failing to adequately train security and failing to take corrective action after similar previous events, the lawsuit states.
If this article doesn’t scare the poop out of you, then there is a good chance you’ve gotten too comfortable with your policies and procedures around the prevention and reporting of inappropriate actions toward children within your ministry. … Read the rest
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Dallas Orange Tour!
Posted on 18. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.
I’m pumped! Tomorrow I leave for Dallas for the Dallas Orange Tour. This year I’m taking about 24 volunteers and staff. This year I’m actually bringing more student ministry volunteers than those in kidmin. For the last 6 months I’ve been far more involved in student ministry than I have in the past and I wanted to make a big investment in these leaders… plus I want them to start thinking Orange. These student ministry leaders were so excited to be invited, which is why I have about 18 going.
I can’t over-communicate how important these kinds of events are for ministry teams. I’ve been to the Orange Conference for the past 4 years and I’ll probably continue to attend for some time.… Read the rest
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A wireless conference
Posted on 11. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.
Yesterday I made an announcement via the KidzMatter weekly email blast. As many of you may know, the Illuminate Conference is making final preparations for the last stop in the 2011-2012 conference year. On February 18th, we’re going to have our largest Illuminate Conference in Nashville, TN. If you’re in the area and want more information, be sure to check out that event here.
However, I know that most who read this blog are not able to make it to Nashville due to the distance. Austin and Birmingham wasn’t really close enough either. Illuminate’s DNA is to offer high quality events that are both local and affordable. Unfortunately, we can’t be local for everyone… yet (give me a little time people).… Read the rest
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Illuminate Updates
Posted on 01. Nov, 2011 by Kenny.
It’s been a few months since I’ve posted anything about Illuminate, so I thought I’d catch everyone up. It’s truly been a wild and exciting ride this year.
The Austin event is just 11 days away. I’m expecting about 500 kidmin folks to converge on the Gateway Church campus on November 12th and it’s going to be amazing. I’ve got a stellar line-up of speakers. Check it out:
- Jim Wideman
- Sam Luce
- Michael Chanley
- Gina McClain
- Dan Scott
- Amy Fenton Lee
- Jonathan Cliff
- Matt McKee
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Evan Doyle is working for me this summer!
Posted on 01. Jun, 2011 by Kenny.
You’re jealous, aren’t you? I can’t describe how pumped I am that Evan is going to spend the summer with me and my team here at Gateway. Hopefully Evan doesn’t have a “typical internship” like the cartoon above describes… ha! Just before Christmas, he contacted me asking about doing a summer internship with me. Over spring break he came for a visit just to see everything for himself and I’m pretty sure that sealed the deal… both for him and for us. It’s going to be a great summer.
I’m a big believer in internships. The knowledge and experiences you get from the hands on work during an internship are priceless. I truly believe that the experience you get during internships during college significantly determine your first job out of college.… Read the rest
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Kidmin Conference in October: Register Today!
Posted on 31. May, 2011 by Kenny.
You’ve probably heard the buzz about a new Children’s Ministry Conference coming this fall. It’s the Kidmin Conference hosted by Group Publishing. Last summer, I got the honor of hanging out with group for a few days with a bunch of other stellar kidmin leaders to brainstorm what a totally different conference for Chidlren’s Ministry could look like… and Kidmin looks to be exactly that. I’ve also been given the honor of leading a workshop as well as a half-track (essentially a two-part workshop where we really get into the nitty-gritty depth of stuff). So, I’m excited to be a part of the experience. For more info about what Kidmin is going to be like, check out the video at the bottom of this post.… Read the rest
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When your volunteers truly get it
Posted on 17. Jan, 2011 by Kenny.
Working with volunteers can be a very frustrating experience as well as a very rewarding experience it. The frustrating parts are when there just aren’t enough, when they don’t pull through like you hoped that they would or when they just don’t care as much as you do. On the other side, it’s rewarding when they do care as much (or more) than you do and when you have a literally army of people doing great work because of a common vision. What is really rewarding is when put to the test, they do what they’ve been trained to do even when it would be easier not to or even easier to create an exemption to the rule.
Yesterday was one of those moments.… Read the rest
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