Archive for 'Training'
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. The conference has impacted me and influenced me tremendously and I want the same for my staff and volunteers, but I can’t always bring all of them due to money issues, but something like the Orange Tour is a complete no brainer. I’m taking 24 and by the time I pay hotel, food and registration, it cost me less than sending 2 to Atlanta for Orange. To help out, I’m even having the volunteers car pool and cover their travel expenses.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the Orange Conference, but there is something really special about the Orange Tour. Because the entire thing is hosted directly by Reggie and Sue, it feels far more pure and concentrated. You’ll leve the Tour with a strong grasp of what the Orange strategy is all about… maybe even better than the conference. I’d encourage everyone to attend a tour stop… even if that means catching a flight into one of their locations. I’ll be blogging about my tour experience next week (since I don’t blog a lot over the weekend), so stay tuned!
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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). Ha!
However, all along it’s been my intention to provide great resources for kidmin leaders and volunteers, regardless of location. Every general session and breakout has been recorded for that very purpose. So, on March 1st, Illuminate Online will officially go “Online!” The site is still being put together and resources organized, but I think it’s going to be a really cool resource for those in kidmin. For more information, head on over and check it out here.
Stay tuned for more info soon!
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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
- There are a lot of details that still need to come together for our Austin event
- The website went down for 10 days last week, so pray that we wont’ have any more issues around registration
- I have a baby due on the 27th of November. I’m grateful for her to come at any time, but if she can wait until after Nov. 12th, that would be fantastic!
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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. Actually, many good internships turn into jobs, so it’s important that you pick great places to intern.
Evan isn’t going to be your normal intern though. I first met Evan when he was a 6th grader essentially “interning” under Ryan Frank, which he’s continued to do all these years since. Evan is coming to Gateway with a load of experience already, he’s just looking for a different experience, which he will get. Actually, I’m hoping that Evan will help us develop a more structured internship that we can begin to offer in the coming years.
So, those of you know know Evan (if you read K magazine, he writes the last page of every issue), give me some suggestions on good “intern” tasks. You know, things like organize the crayons in the preschool rooms or inventory the goldfish supply. I’m totally open to your suggestions. What’s the worst internship taks you’ve ever had to do?
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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. You can also visit their site here.
What is different about this conference is the highly-relational element. All the speakers and workshop presenters are there to hang out and talk with attendees throughout the entier conference. If you think of a question the day following a workshop you sat in, no worries, just ask the speaker when you see him/her the next day. Kidmin is also making great strides to help attendees connect with each other. The best part about a conference is the relationships you go home with… and Kidmin is helping to empower that.
Wow, I’m just getting super excited. I hope that you’ll join me in Chicago this October for an amazing experience!
If you’re planning to attend, be sure to register TODAY. Today is the final day of the Early Bird pricing. Save yourself a little money and register right now.
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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. Cathy Harwick, one of the Children’s Pastors here at Gateway is a stickler for safety and I know she trains and communicates our policies thoroughly to our volunteers. Near the end of the day, on of the teaching pastors came up to me to tell me about an experience he had that morning. He teaches fromt he stage 1-2 times a month, so everyone who attends our church knows who he is. He came to tell me than when going to pick up his son in one of our elementary environments, he had lost his parent pick-up tag. He didn’t realize that he’d lost the tag until he got to the door. The volunteer at the door kindly asked him to go to the check-in area where a staff member/ministry leader could confirm his ID and issue him a new pick-up tag. As he told me this, he had a smile on his face. It wasn’t a major inconvenience, but many people in his situation could have gotten frustrated. He was grateful because this volunteer illustrated the level of safety and security we value. I’ll probably share this story at a future training meeting when I’m going over that value (safety and security). It would have been so easy for that volunteer to say, “I know who you are and I know who your son is, no worries, you’re fine.” I’m proud of what Cathy’s done with her team and I’m proud of that volunteer. I have confidence that they get it.
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#Orange10 Day 1: Catching volunteers up to Speed
Posted on 29. Apr, 2010 by Kenny.
Over the years, I think I’ve attended more Darren Kizer breakouts than any other. He’s a great presenter and shares some great stuff!
Daren began is talk communicating about a crisis his church recently went through, when a former volunteer was arrested for molesting a child. What helped his church make it through and probably saved Daren’s job was the good documentation that was kept. All this tied into his talk as an introduction, as we recruit and train volunteers, it’s so essential to follow our processes, take our time and do things the right way. Don’t take shortcuts and document thoroughly.
Darren shared some great resources, one was a tool called the VSI which was tool that indicates people’s satisfaction about where they are in an organization. According to this VSI, there are four factors that relate to retention. When an employee or volunteer scores high in these four factors, it relates to them being satisfied and happy in their role.
- Organizational Support – Do they have the tools that they need to be successful? Are they fully resourced? Are they frustrated due to a lack of training or resources? Equip, equip, equip!
- Group Integration – Do they feel like they’re a part of a team? Are there others that they can connect with while doing their role? People need community!
- Participatory Efficacy – If people don’t see success or hear stories of success, they’ll wonder why they’re dong what they’re doing. They need to know that they’re making a difference and that their efforts are valuable to the organization and to others.
- Empowerment – Do they have a say in the game? Can they make decisions or take action? Do they feel as if their hands are tied? This is one of the quickest ways to kill a high-impact leader/volunteer.
In addition to this VSI, Darren shared a great book called 12: The Elements of Great Managing. It too asks great questions that you should ask yourself as one of your volunteers to gauge the environment you’re creating as a manager/leader of volunteers.
- Do I know what’s expected of me?
- Do I have materials to do my work right?
- Do I have the opportunity to do what I do best?
- Does someone care about me as a person?
- Do my opinions count?
- In the last 6 months, has someone checked on my progress?
One of the key take-aways for me was this: What I did to recruit a volunteers is different from what I had to do to keep a volunteer. A person usually volunteers because they want to do something good. They stay becasue they they are getting stuff out of their volunteering.
Some resources that Darren shared are as follows:
Better Safe than Sued
Moodle – a free site for setting up training volunteers
Ubvee
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Everyone does better with a coach
Posted on 29. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.
This is a simple truth I’ve learned over the past year. Everyone does do better with a coach. I’ve learned this through personal experience. I’ve just entered my second year of Infuse with Jim Wideman and he’s helping me be a better version of myself. There’s little debate over what Jim’s accomplished over the 30 years of ministry to kids. His track record is nothing short of amazing. However, I’ve picked up very few tips and tricks from him that I can apply in Children’s Ministry (although he’s been a great source of wisdom there). What I’ve picked up from Jim this last year is how to be a better leader, how to better redeem the time I have each day, and I can better serve my church. I’ve grown in many ways and it’s becasue I’ve had a coach speaking into my life week after week through Infuse.
If you want to go to the next level in personal leadership, take a good look at having Jim coach you through Infuse. It’s probably best way you can spend any “personal development” funds this year. Click here to read more about what Infuse is all about.
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Plans for Orange Week
Posted on 14. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
So yesterday I announced that next week would be Orange week here at Children’s Ministry Online. My reasoning? Well, I just officially registered for Orange 2010 and next week I’ll be hitting the Orange Tour in Dallas. Why not?
Well, my intention to personally blog “orange” next week has picked up some momentum. A friend over at ReThink liked the idea and asked me to give some resources and stuff away. Woo hoo! Free stuff always makes people happy. Then my friend Dan Scott over at Ada Bible asked if he could participate (like he really had to ask). Then I started thinking, this thing could be bigger than my personal thoughts about Orange.
So, I’m extending the invitation. I’ve invited several other bloggers I know to participate as well. Hopefully the end result is a lot of perspectives and ideas about using the Orange strategy. We all benefit. If you’re interested in participating, shoot me an email (or just comment on this post) and I’ll get you some details (such as Orange topics each day).
So, just so you know, Orange week will launch on Sunday, so be sure to log in or check your feed reader that day. We’ll be giving something away everyday, so you won’t want to miss it. The best thing of all, it’s going to be a great collaborative effort by several people who’ve seen this strategy change lives. If you’re new to Orange or are not sure what it’s all about, you’re about to get a pretty big dose.
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I’m registered for Orange 2010
Posted on 13. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
Yesterday I registered for the Orange Conference 2010! Due to a lot of reasons, I’m only taking a small group to this year’s conference, probably just my Children’s Pastors. Looks like I’m going to reprise my role in the lounge for bloggers, so I’m really excited about that. This will be by third year at Orange and I’m expecting great things. Just curious, who else is coming to Orange this year? Hoping to meet many more new ministry friends.
Mmmmm, thinking about the second annual Orange Tweetup… but this calls for something creative (gears actively turning). I’ll get back to you on this.
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