Childrens Ministry Online

I love it when a plan comes together

Posted on 06. Apr, 2011 by Kenny.

So, in case you missed it, this weekend the March Madness for Kidmin bloggers came to a close. The winner, Jared Massey of Small Town Kidmin. In case you missed all of this, let me explain what happened.

Over at ministry-to-children.com, Tony launched the 2nd annual March Madness bracket competition. Last year I worked my tail off for 3rd place. I know that the other four in the final round also worked their tails off to get to the final four let alone compete to win the championship. It was fun and certainly created exposure to a lot of kidmin blogs that may have gone unnoticed by some. However, it was all about influence. Obviously each blogger would encourage people who followed them to vote, but bloggers were using the influence they had to gain votes as well. Family, friends, volunteers… and every person they know on facebook. Again, the competition boils down to influence.

However, this year a few of us had an idea. What if we did something a little unconventional. Last year a lot of us worked our tails off to work against each other. What if a bunch of us got together and worked our tails off to work toward a common goal? Influence is great… but using that influence toward a common goal instead of against one another is even better. So that’s what we set out to do. I contacted Jared Massey and told him that 4-5 bloggers were going to leverage our influence to make sure he won the competition. Over the weeks, that influence grew and in the end, Jared won it all.

Here’s what I found interesting. I was nervous at the beginning that people would get mad at me… like I was trying to “fix” or mess up this competition. That wasn’t my intent at all. I vocalized my concerns to several people. However, as I sent out emails and contacted people about what we were trying to do, I was overwhelmed by the number of people who LOVED the idea and were blown away by the gesture. I honestly felt like it was a good thing that we were trying to do.

So, what was the point? I think it was to show that when a group of people put their minds to something, they can do anything. I think that far too often, people in kidmin are so focused on their own stuff and have little time to collaborate or work outside the box in front of them. However, when they press “pause” and come out to play, great things can happen for kidmin. Look what happened with Jared. He probably wasn’t going to make it out of the first round, but because a bunch of people united together, he won the whole shebang. I think this sets a great precedence. Kidmin, let’s do something great… together!

Tony, a special thanks to you for hosting another March Madness. I really didn’t mean to mess up your contest, but it provided the greatest platform for this little experiment. I don’t plan on pulling this stunt again next year… but that’s still a year away. I guess the contest wouldn’t be much fun if a handful of people were picking the winner every year. Ha!

Thanks to everyone who played. In the end, there were many winners. I feel like the world of kidmin grew as a result, people have been exposed to new ideas and new resources. Oh, and if you haven’t read all the comments, Jared wasn’t the only one who won the iPad. I like this ending much better!

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Bringing big city quality to the small church

Posted on 24. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.

Yesterday I became acquainted with Jared Massey. He did something he totally didn’t have to and it blessed me so much. He simply wrote to tell me how much he’s been encouraged and equipped by this little blog. The part that warms my heart the most is that he told me that I’m (indirectly) impacting the kids at his church in Warsaw, IL. I’ve never been there, but I’m grateful that the time I’ve put into this site is making a difference.

But this isn’t about me. Jared told me about his situation. He’s at a small church in a rural area and he’s got a vision that gets me excited. He’s challenged by a very limited budget, sparse resources and not much opportunity to network with other children’s pastors. However, his vision is to “bring big city quality to the small church.” Isn’t that cool.

I’ve had so many conversations with Sam Luce (well, we spent just about every waking hour together last week) about equipping the church. Between our blogs, we have a lot of influence. However, when you add up all the churches here and there, we’ve not even touched the surface of the church in America. When the average church is less than 100 people, who’s looking out for the kids and who’s equipping them. I’m not sure how big Jared’s church is, but he’s taking initiative by getting out there and seeking resources to make the children’s ministry experience at his church the best possible. I’m so excited about that! It’s what I did when I was at my tiny little church in Jenks, OK and it’s what I wish every children’s pastor did.

I’m not done with Jared yet though. Not only is he a bi-vocational children’s pastor, but he’s a new blogger. Now that’s what I really love. Too many people never start blogging becasue they feel like they don’t have anything to say or since they’re in a small church, they feel that they don’t have an audience. I think that children’s pastors at small churches should blog to share their experiences as they have the potential to share and encourage others in their situation even better than I do. I read Jared’s first post, and it’s awesome. I told him that he give the blog posts of the mega churches a run for their money. He’s just gotten started, but check it out, it will challenge you right where you are.

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