Tag Archives: Staff
Does your youth pastor hate you?
Posted on 02. Nov, 2011 by Kenny.
Sorry about the title, but I wanted to get your attention. It may have been a little extreme, but it does tie in… kind of.
I’m writing an article about the relationship between children’s pastors and student pastors. Interesting subject, huh? I’m pretty much done with the article, but I’d love to gather some data around one element I wrote about. So, would you answer the single question below describing the relationship between your student ministry and children’s ministry. First, let me define the relationships:
Dysfunction Junction: You totally don’t get along. There is virtually no relationship. Communication is non-existent, dismissive or even hostile.
Mutual Existence: The relationship between your two ministries is healthy. There is a respect for each other, maybe even friendship. Although respect is present, the ministries don’t really work together, culture, values and practices are different.
Integrated Partnership: The two ministries work together on many projects. Resources and ideas are shared freely and both ministries work together toward a common goal.
So, which description best describes this relationship at your church? (feel free to be honest, votes are anonymous. I promise… I won’t… or can’t… send the results to your student pastor.)
In order to get good results, I need data. Pass this post/poll on to others to answer so we can get some good information about the state student ministry / children’s ministry relations.
Continue Reading
Christmas prayer stations
Posted on 14. Dec, 2010 by Kenny.
At Gateway we have a monthly gathering where the staff comes together to pray. We creatively call this time, “all pray.” Ha!
So, today I was in charge of all pray and since our Christmas production begins next week, the focus really needed to be about all our efforts in regard to the production. When I was assigned this all pray a few months ago, I had an idea and we implemented it today. My staff came together and helped me get everything done and everything turned out great.
So, the theme centered around the subjects of Christmas carols and choruses. There is so much depth to many of the songs we sing at Christmas. We, we set up seven prayer stations around our auditorium building. At each station we had an 11×17 poster with the name of the song with all the lyrics. Below the lyrics, we had a few scripture verses that tied into the song as well as a few prayer points inspired by the song/lyrics. Finally, we had a CD player at each station playing that song on a loop. As staff wandered from station to station, they could sing with the CD, they could meditate on the scriptures and personally or corporately pray through the prayer points.
It was a fun and creative way to pray for our church and ministries during the Christmas holidays. It was very laid back as some people joined with others to pray and others just kept to themselves and prayed on their own. I think the stations would have been a great, but totally different experience if you put everyone in groups and had them move from station to station together.
Attached are the PDFs (I forgot to say, we also had 8.5×11 handouts so each participant had their own guide).
My designer created these in pages, so if you have pages and want the originals, you can grab them right here.
Continue Reading
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.
Continue Reading
The perfect Children’s Pastor?
Posted on 12. May, 2010 by Kenny.
Okay, don’t give me grief on the title, I know there isn’t a perfect Children’s Pastor and the perfect Children’s Pastor for one church could be a horrible Children’s Pastor for another. It’s not that cut and dry… but go with me here for a minute.
Children’s Pastors come in all sorts of shapes and sizes to fit churches of all shapes and sizes, but what do you think are the characteristics of the “perfect” Chidlren’s Pastor. And when I say the “perfect” Children’s Pastor, I’m referring to the kind of Children’s Pastor who is the solution to some of the problems discussed in my post from yesterday (and comments). You may or may not agree with me, but Kidmin has bad PR in the church today which I believe is part of the reason there is such a shortage of great Children’s Pastors. We need more Chidlren’s Pastors who will change the landscape of Children’s Ministry for the average church. What does that Children’s Pastor look like? What are they good at? What is his/her skill set? What are the essentials?
I’ll start with a few.
The “perfect” Children’s Pastor is a strong leader. He/She spends as much time (or more) investing, ministering, praying for and building into other adult leaders as he or she does kids. The “perfect” Children’s Pastor understands that he/she must multiply or he/she will fail.
The “perfect” Chidlren’s Pastor is well-rounded, well-versed in multiple disciplines. He or she is educated. He/she doesn’t have to have a specialized degree (although that doesn’t hurt), but he/she should be able to hang intellectually with the parent, volunteer or fellow staff member who is highly educated. Newsletters, blog posts and emails from this Children’s Pastors aren’t riddled with grammatical errors and typos. He or she is a strong problem solver and can push through the most difficult problems. This “perfect” Children’s Pastor has a strong understanding of the Bible and theology. He doesn’t necessarily have a Seminary or Bible School degree, but it’s obvious he or she has read and knows the “good book.” He or she also has his/her finger on the pulse of what’s happening socially. He or she is current with language, dress and and what’s currently popular. He or she is a student of culture and doesn’t come across as someone who is trying to fit in, but actually does fit in and understands those in the culture.
The “perfect” Children’s Pastor is innovative and a risk taker. He or she doesn’t do what he or she has always done. He or she constantly evaluates past events and programs and makes revisions based on success, changes to the culture and a wide variety of other factors. He or she doesn’t change just for the sake of change, but is willing to do anything to see ministry success. The “perfect” Children’s Pastor has a little bit of a rebellious streak in him or her. He or she is not satisfied with the status quo and will not stop until what is no longer relevant is overthrown.
The “perfect” Children’s Pastor is a communicator. He or she is as comfortable talking to a room full of adults as he or she is speaking to a room full of kids. He or she desires “face time” on the main stage not just to recruit but because it’s important to make that connection with the adults. He or she returns emails and phone calls and doesn’t hide behind email or text messages to have difficult conversations with parents, volunteers or staff.
Okay, that’s just a few. I’d love to see what you think are key characteristics of the “perfect” Children’s Pastor.
Continue Reading
Team Orange
Posted on 06. May, 2009 by Kenny.
Last week it was my privilege to take my staff to Orange. Perhaps you saw them.
Last year I attended Orange just a few days before coming on staff at Gateway. It was very hard to not want to just jump in and making 101 changes right away. Instead, I changed the few things that I could and waited for the right time. In September I had a few of my staff watch “The Essence of Orange.” Leading up to Orange, we were all discussing how this would work in our church. Now that Orange is over, we’re talking less about “if” and “how” and more about “when.”
I’m very proud of my team. We’ve undergone many changes this year. The team has changed a lot in the last 12 months. We’re serving more children and we have a stronger volunteer base. I’m excited to walk into this next season of equipping families with these people. GO TEAM!
Continue Reading
Can my staff meet your staff?
Posted on 23. Apr, 2009 by Kenny.
Last year I went to Orange alone. I wasn’t on staff anwhere (I started at Gateway the Monday after the conference). Going to Orange I knew about five or six people. It was a lot of fun, but I really wish I could have met more people. It helps to arrange some of that before you go.
This year I know of at least 30-40 people that I’m planning ot meet. I imagine that I’ll likely connect with dozens more. It’s going to be so cool.
I’ve seen the benefit of collaboration in my life and ministry this last year. I’m encouraging my staff to make some new connections with people in thier areas. They’re planning to meet people, but I thought I’d give them a head start as well. Here’s who I’m bringing that need to make some connections:
Early Childhood Director: She oversees brith through kindergarten, about 400 kids each weekend.
Early Childhood Coordinator: She assists the director and helps with volunteer staffing, so I know she’d love to connect with other Early Childhood people as well.
Production Director: She writes scripts, shoots and edits videos, leads production teams and worship teams for both elementary and early childhood. I’d love for her to connect with others doing this stuff as well.
Interim Multi-Site CM Coordinator: We’re still looking for our CP at our South Campus, but I’d love for our interim person to connect with other leading ministry at a small (100 kids) multi-site campus.
I have other staff coming, but they’re already well connected. If you are in any of these roles or have staff memebers who are in these roles, can we connect? I’d like to get my people talking to your people. Collaboration is amazing and it’s a value I want all of my staff to live out. Feel free to leave a comment and I’ll respond to you by email!
Continue Reading
Where do you find children’s ministry prospects? (Seeking CM Employment Part 4)
Posted on 10. Oct, 2007 by Kenny.
Well, every time I’ve had to hire and fill a full-time children’s ministry position, God has opened up the door and provided just the right person… and usually in just the right time. The two children’s pastors I hired last year were already attending our church. The elementary coordinator I just hired I actually found on a website. So, let me share with you where I looked and what tools I used. I’ll wrap up this post with a personal opinion and kick it back to you for your thoughts. [...]
Continue Reading
Asking the right questions (Seeking CM Employment Part 3)
Posted on 09. Oct, 2007 by Kenny.
When I was interviewing for the church that brought me down to Texas, they sent me a list of questions to answer. It was an incredible survey that did two things. For one, it asked me the right questions to better communicate who I was and what my vision/mission/strategy was for Children’s Ministry. On the other side, it gave those asking the questions a good thorough look into who I was. [...]
Continue Reading
Making your resume count (Seeking CM Employment Part 2)
Posted on 24. Sep, 2007 by Kenny.
Here’s my second installment of my series on getting a job in Children’s Ministry. As I said before, I just hired an Elementary Director and have just gone through the process of posting the job, reviewing resumes, interviewing, making an offer and all the things in-between. It was about 3 years ago that I went through this process as well, so it this part is still fresh on my mind as well.
In this post I’m going to talk about the resume. For most job applicants, this is what will determine what will stop the process immediately or get you to the next level, which for me was an email or a phone conversation. [...]
Continue Reading
I hired myself…. 6 times.
Posted on 27. May, 2007 by Kenny.
Okay, that’s an exaggeration. I didn’t hire all of my staff (some were inherited). But, 4 out of the 6 people who work with me in CT Kids all have the same personality as me. For many years I’ve been a big fan of the Myers Briggs personality test. For all kinds of staff trainings, I’ve given this test to my team. Now there are all kinds of personality tests out there, but this is by far my favorite. It seems to go a step beyond the others as it divides the population into 16 different personality types. Click here to take the test and click hereto learn more about it. I’ve often found it helpful to take as a group as it shows how different temperaments can work together and how teams can avoid conflict by better understanding they way everyone is designed. I know it’s helped me show a lot more grace to those who often frustrated me. It’s part of understanding the unique way that God has designed us. [...]
Continue Reading
