Childrens Ministry Online

The power of Kidmin community

Posted on 17. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.

I was really bummed that I missed out on CPC this year. I had the opportunity to watch a video of a session where Michael Chanley interviewed Matt McKee, Sam Luce and Jonathan Cliff about the “networking group” Gina McClain and I share with those guys. I say “networking group” lightly because now it’s more like a strong group of friends that give and receive so much life from each other far beyond conversations about ministry. I think that “our story” was a glimpse of what great networking and community can look like in the world of kidmin.

However, right now I’m experiencing kidmin community right now in an entirely different level and I’m really excited about it. Last week I wrote this post and tweeted several times about starting an official Kidmin Biggest Loser group. Well, today was the first official “weigh in” and there are 16 kidmin folks from all over the country participating. Here’s what I love about this group.

• One person is a kidmin volunteer at my church (she saw all my tweets and wanted to join)
• One person attended one of my breakouts at Kidmin Conference in Chicago and started following my blog
• One person did Infuse with me for two years
• Two people I met through my Illuminate events
• Several people I’ve known for years through twitter and blogs
• A handful of people I’d never met or connected with until this competition
• Almost half of the participants, I’ve not yet met in person

Already I’m seeing great encouragement happening among a group of people who share a common passion, yet why we banded together has little to do with our primary passion. I think that over the next 13 weeks, some great relationships are going to develop and grow.

So, should I ask the question? What does networking in Kidmin look like in your life and ministry. Have you connected with others who know you, speak into your life and encourage you as a person as well as your ministry? If your answer is no… then what are you waiting for?

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Starting a Local Kidmin Network: Social Networking

Posted on 02. Nov, 2011 by Kenny.

Probably the easiest way to keep everyone connected in your new local Kidmin Network is to create a Facebook group. I’d recommend it as the first step, before you even hold your first network meeting. We’ve had many people want to be involved, but they’ve not been able to come to any of the lunch meetings, either because their schedule didn’t allow it or they have another job that prevents them from coming to a meeting. Having the presence on Facebook allows there to be a certain sense of community that exists at all times.

When I’m recruiting to the kidmin network, I often send them a link to the facebook group in my initial email so that they can get signed up right away. Communicating through Facebook tends to be more casual and easy, especially for a grout that doesn’t quite know each other very well yet. The benefits of using a facebook is that you can upload photos, use built in documents (maybe for everyone to list email, phone numbers & staff positions) and conversation threads to discuss/comment on ideas or needs.

I’ve seen a few cool uses of our Austin Facebook group over the last year. On some occasions, a member will post pictures of their facility just after we had a lunch meeting at his or her location so that everyone who didn’t make it can see the facility as well. Just this week, another member posted some videos his team made for large group teaching time for everyone to see. One member was doing a vision night for his volunteers and used the group to recruit help for childcare so that all of his people could attend his event. Last Easter we got behind the eight ball and needed palm fronds and put out the request on the group… we had more than we needed by the next day. We also set up all the network lunches as facebook events within the group. This way we get an idea of who is coming and who isn’t since everyone can RSVP. This works really well.

Just know that people are busy and activity on the group is often sluggish and limited. Austin’s group has more than 50 people on it and weeks will go by without any activity. Conversations within this forum have to be intentional and it takes commitment from several people to make connecting through the group a priority. There are limitations with just about any tool, but Facebook is probably as good as anything out there for connecting.

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Starting a Local Kidmin Network: Meeting Structure

Posted on 01. Nov, 2011 by Kenny.

I’ll tell you what we’ve done and I’ll tell you what I’m looking forward to doing in the future (meaning I haven’t done it yet).

Honestly, I’ve tried to keep the meetings pretty flexible and light, hopefully making it rewarding for everyone involved. For the past nine months we’ve followed a pretty simple schedule. Each month the meeting would be held at a different church. We try to mix it up so that every month, the lunch is on a different side of town. We usually have the room set up with 4-6 round tables. We’ve had a lot of success making table assignments, meaning we had a table for elementary staff, a table for preschool staff, a table for admin/operations staff and a table for pastors/directors. This is great because it would allow for my staff to meet people who do the same stuff as them at other churches. If found that some of my staff really don’t network very naturally, so helping them to find other people they should network with has been very helpful. I know that my staff has enjoyed this opportunity.

Usually the host church will welcome everyone and pray for the food. The host church provides the food and everyone attending simply brings $5 per person to help cover the cost. After everyone has had plenty of time to eat and catch up at their tables, the host will talk for a few minutes about his/her church and the unique nature of their ministry. We usually keep this pretty short and from time to time we’ll lob a couple of discussion questions around the tables for groups to discuss. Again, it’s pretty simple. We wanted to make sure to keep it this way so that people could really come to connect and network and not spend excessive time listening to someone talk.

We’ll usually wrap up the meeting with the opportunity to take a facility tour after lunch. Everyone loves seeing how others are using their ministry space, so this is a big hit.

We’ve found that on months with a lot of busy stuff going on, we simply organize a lunch at a local restaurant that is central to everyone. This way we still get the opportunity to network, but no church has to bear the weight of organizing an event during an exceptionally busy ministry season.

What we haven’t tried yet are ministry conversations. I would like to organize think tanks or opportunities to explore an issue, opportunity or resource in more detail. For instance, I’d love to have a meeting where we explore check-in software and check-in best practices. Some will come to learn about certain software as they’re looking at making a switch. I’d love the opportunity to promote F1 Ha! For those who aren’t looking to make a switch, it still gives us the opportunity to look into adjusting best practices. Everyone has something to learn or improve. I’m pretty sure I could get 4-8 pastors/directors to one of those conversations, but the true test would be to see if I could get the same number of early childhood staff members or admin/operations staff to a similar event.

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Starting a Local Kidmin Network: Recruiting

Posted on 31. Oct, 2011 by Kenny.

Once you have two or three other people who are on board with your newly formed network, now it’s time to start connecting with others. This part really is easier than you would think. I’ve found that kidmin folks generally do want to get together, too many just never really initiate. So now you just got to make the connections. Here is where I start.

Work connections – I try to find out who my pastor is already connected to locally. My pastor is pretty tight in a network of about 10 other churches in Austin. Once I found out what those churches were, I messaged the Children’s Pastors of those churches to get the ball rolling. It’s a lot easier making that first connection when you use the line “Our pastors network on a regular basis, so I thought it would be great if we connected.” In addition to your pastor, maybe there are others from your staff that do some networking locally. Piggyback off of those relationships.

Work digital networks – Jump on sites like kidology or CM Connect and do searches based on region. Sometimes you’ll find others near you and it’s often a lot easier to connect through that medium than a random cold call out of left field. Search facebook and make sure there’s not already a kidmin group in your area or something. Connecting with folks on these social networks might be a bit easier because the people using these are probably more prone toward connecting.

Connect with the obvious – Make a list of churches that you know of in your city. Think of churches that are active and influential. The advantage of this is that active and influential churches could help use their connections to bring more people to the group. Have those who you are networked with already come up with a list of as many churches that you already know of. Work from that list initially.

Use church finders – There are a lot of other churches out there that I may not really know about, and that’s where a church-finder may come in handy. Perhaps your denomination or association has an electronic tool where you can search for churches by zipcode. Use that to find churches you don’t know about. I often like to use the church finder associated with Orange on the Orange Parents part of their website. I like using that because I feel that the churches that come up on that list are going to be like-minded churches where we have something in common.

That should be enough to get things started. Taking this strategy and tools and diving up your efforts with those you’re already connected with and you shouldn’t have any problem getting a nice crowd of at least 20 or so to your first gathering. Later I’ll talk a little about that first meeting.

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Starting a local Kidmin network: Foundation

Posted on 26. Oct, 2011 by Kenny.

Every great thing has small beginnings it’s no different with your Kidmin network. You have to build a great foundation for the network before it becomes that HUGE resource you’re envisioning. Honestly it begins with just one or two relationships.

The first year I lived in Austin I only knew one other children’s pastor. We connected every couple of months and shared ideas and just kept up with how each other was doing. The way we met was purely accidental. In my second year of living in Austin I ended up meeting and getting to know two other Children’s pastors. After having a somewhat frequent relationship with three or four other children’s pastors I decided to get things started. I sent out an email just asking if they would be interested in helping me start a larger network. It was a no brainier for all of them.

We met for lunch one day and discussed what we wanted the network to look like. We planned the meetings and scheduled when they would happen. We planed lunch meetings for five months and then started inviting other churches to be a part. Everyone participated in trying to reach out to one or two other churches. Most churches responded with great enthusiasm.

To be honest, starting this thing was easier than you would think. We’ve had meetings with as few as five or six people (that was because of bad planning) and as large as 35 to 40. At this point though we have about 55 people on our list, representing about 12-15 churches. We’ve really just begun… So many churches we haven’t yet connected with.

So if there’s not a network where you live, be that catalyst that gets one started. Reach out to one or two others and build a relationship there first. Then, join together and add more to your group. Invite additional staff as well. This is too good not to do.

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The Homeless Blogger: Conference Roommates

Posted on 24. Oct, 2011 by Kenny.

My third Homeless blogger post was generously hosted by my good friend Sam Luce. Sam Luce is one of my closest friends and a true partner in ministry. We have many things in common, but we’ve also been involved in many projects together. You can check out his killer blog right here!

In this post I wrote about conference roommates. I think I asked Sam to host this post because he’s been my roommate on more occasions than you can imagine. We’ve shared a room at the Hampton Inn in Middle Tennessee for at least a dozen night over the past few years. Essentially this was a silly post about my other good friend Matt McKee and I sharing rooms at Kidmin. Of all the speakers at Kidmin, I think that Matt and I were the only ones sharing a room. I wasn’t being down on anyone else, but just took the opportunity to say that the conference experience is far too short and if at all possible, I never room alone. There’s just too much to learn, share and experience. Read the whole post here.

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Starting a local Kidmin Network

Posted on 24. Oct, 2011 by Kenny.

I believe that one of the most powerful things that we can do in ministry is to network and connect with others who do the same thing that we do. It’s probably the best way that we can learn. Plus, it’s always encouraging to be able to connect with someone and get help when you need it. For the past 4 years I’ve been actively connecting with ministry leaders from around the US and world and it has literally changed my approach to ministry. However, I’ve never been great at connecting on a local level. I’ve never had a good model of what that looks like. So, last year I launched a Kidmin Network here in Austin, TX.

This week I’m going to share my experiences of networking on a local level. The group in Austin has been a true blessing and I’m actually in the process of helping to launch a similar network in San Antonio (about 80 miles away). Plus, next week I’m gathering with local kidmin leaders in Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville, TN. Some of the same principles apply to these meetings in TN as they do for the groups I’ve started here in Texas. Stay tuned, it should be fun!

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Road Trip to the Volunteer State

Posted on 18. Oct, 2011 by Kenny.

That’s Tennessee in case you didn’t know that.

Next week I’m taking off to spend three days in beautiful Tennessee. I’m actually flying into Nashville on Tuesday morning and I’ll be driving all over the state. So, here’s my road trip itenerary.

• Tuesday: Nasvhille
• Wednesday: Knoxville
• Thursday: Memphis

Honestly, I’m heading to TN because we’re going to be hosting an Illuminate Conference there in a few months (February 18th to be exact). So I’m going out to take care of some details and while I’m at it, I’m hoping to connect with kidmin leaders all over the space. So, I’m setting up lunches in all three cities where I can meet and connect. I may even have some time to connect outside of those lunches, but the schedule is starting to fill up pretty quick.

So, if you live anywhere near any of these three cities, I’d love to have lunch with you! Maybe you know someone in kidmin near any of these three cities. I’d love to have lunch with them too! Let me know either way so that I can get you all the details!

Can’t wait. I have a feeling that there will be some video blogs next week!

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Doing ministry alone

Posted on 29. Sep, 2011 by Kenny.

I just had lunch with the Austin Kidmin Network. A year ago this group didn’t exist. Currently the group is up to 50 people, represented by about 15 churches. We’ve got a long way to go to connect other churches in our city, but some amazing relationships are developing. Yesterday I spend a few hours with one Children’s Pastor talking about doing some radical things together so we can truly collaborate and be the church in a city. I love it.

You know, I totally get it that there are many who really aren’t going to network a lot online. Some people are going to lurk and read and not really connect online. However, there really isn’t any excuse for not networking with others in your city. It’s way too easy.

So, here are some questions:

• When was the last time you had lunch or coffee with a kidmin leader at another church?
• If you run into a complication, do you have the names of numbers of other local children’s pastors you can call?
• When was the last time you implemented an idea that you got from what another church was doing locally?

If you answered never, or it’s been more than a year or something like that to the three questions above… I dont’ need to say it, do I? I don’t want to shame anyone. However, I do want to say this. You should NEVER do ministry alone. Whether you’re a church with 10 kids and no staff or a church of 1000 kids and 10 staff… don’t do ministry alone. For both big and small, not networking, sharing and getting help from others is a mark of arrogance, selfishness and a bunch of other unfriendly words I’d like to write down.

What do you think would honor Jesus? I think that working in unity blesses him. I think that helping the church down the road that doesn’t have all the resources you do blesses him. I think that calling that bigger church and asking for the tour and asking questions blesses him. It builds the church, the body of Christ.

Okay, I’m done with my rant. Don’t do ministry alone!

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Orange 2011: Networking with Brian VanderArk

Posted on 05. May, 2011 by Kenny.

I had the privilege of sharing a meal (it was more like cheese fries) with Brain VanderArk from Ada Bible Church. Sorry, this is the best picture I could find of Brian. Before last week, I had not met Brian, but I’ve sat in several Orange Conference Breakouts over the year and I’m good friends with his favorite employee… Dan Scott (I just made that up about Dan being his favorite… but if I were Brian I’d give Dan a HUGE raise). Actually, a whole bunch of people from Orange kinda showed up at a restaurant and I just invited myself to sit at the “Ada” table with Brain and Dan and some other staff (plust that guy from Scranton… Daren Kaiser).

I ended up having a great conversation with Brain about local networking. He actually led a breakout this year on the very subject and I plan to purchase that session later to have a listen and encourage you to do so as well. He told me the story of how he and his team created a network of family ministry leaders in their local community. He revealed that it was actually the start of how they were exposed to the Orange strategy which eventually led Ada to being one of the leading “Orange” churches in the world. Pretty amazing! We spent quite a while talking about the advantages of networking as well as the barriers that we’ll face while developing a strong and thriving network.

I was especially encouraged to have this conversation since just 3 or 4 months ago I helped start a kidmin network here in Austin that is almost 50 people strong. It’s still young and new, but I’m very encourage by what’s happening! I think I’ll write about how we started a network in Austin in a few weeks… maybe I can get Brian to speak into that as well. So, follow Brain on twitter or introduce yourself to him the next time you see him at Orange!

Best of all, Brain paid for my cheese fries! Thanks Brian!

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