Childrens Ministry Online

Be Strategic

Posted on 23. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.

From day one of engaging with Orange (more than 4 years ago), the word strategy was a word I heard often. It’s not a new concept, but it was something that was brought to my attention again last Friday and I’m glad it was. Reggie painted a clear picture of the importance of strategy. He described how many great churches have incredible mission and vision statements that never really seem to do anything. Many of those church’s doors are closed now.

Strategy – A plan of action with an end in mind.

I love it. I’m leading a breakout at Illuminate in Nashville in a few weeks titled, “What Matters Most.” In this breakout I’m going to speak about how sometimes we lose track of that particular “end” in mind or maybe the “end” we’re focused on really isn’t as important as it should be.

I wonder what would happen if we as ministry leaders scripted out all that we did in a given week or month and then asked the very important question, “What is specific end we’re trying to get to as a result of this event/program/resource/meeting?” I think it would reveal what things we’re doing that are strategic and those things that are just wasting time. Man, do I hate wasting time. What’s worse is when I’m wasting time and don’t even know it.

Families, kids and students need us to be as strategic as possible. We must be strategic with our time, our tallent and our resources. How are you being strategic today?

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Do you have a whiteboard in your kitchen?

Posted on 16. Nov, 2010 by Kenny.

I mentioned earlier today that I just finished Patrick Lencioni’s book “The 3 Big Questions for the Frantic Family.” I’m also nearing the end of a small group built around “Revolutionary Parenting” by George Barna. Both book, written by two different authors from two different perspectives and two different end goals seem to have one major thing in common.

Success isn’t going to happen without intentionality and planning.

I got the very strong feeling that families who are intentional and plan around the development of their family and kids are peculiar (not that this is a bad thing at all). I remember several years ago (before Titus), Sara and I went off for an overnight trip in Dallas to develop a mission, vision and core values for our family and people thought this was kind of weird.

The conclusion I’m coming to is that families that proactively go after the spiritual development of their kids are the types of families that have whiteboards in their kitchens. Maybe it’s not that extreme, but maybe they have sticky notes all over their bathroom mirrors (not reminders of when to pick up the kids from school) or giant sheets of paper taped to the wall in their home office outlining their goals, plans or improvement plan.

So, are you a whiteboard family? If you’re one of these types of families, how do you chart, write or display your family strategy?

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State of the Gate 2.0

Posted on 26. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.

Every year my church has a “State of the Gate.” It’s really a gathering one evening of the week, usually at the beginning of the year where we share great stories from the previous year, share any exciting news and then cast vision for the coming year. This year we tried something new. Since we’ve recently launched our internet campus, we broadcast the State of the Gate over the interwebs. What a cool experience!

I still don’t know how many actually participated, but a pretty large group of people logged in with their facebook and twitter accounts and interacted with each other during the broadcast and asked questions during the Q & A. It was a totally unique environment. The people who watched live had a much more engaging experience than any State of the Gate in the past. In addition, the video content will remain online for people to watch later. In a tech savvy, DVR and overwhelmingly busy culture we live in, this format for special services like this seems the way of the future.

Click here to check the live site, you can read the chat dialogue until Sunday when it will be replaced by Sunday’s chat log. Feel free to watch the videos below, they illustrate our church’s current restructure to better engage our body in serving the community.

State of the Gate 2010

State of the Gate 2010 | Intro from Gateway Church on Vimeo.

State of the Gate: Attend, Grow and Serve

State of the Gate 2010 | Attend Grow Serve from Gateway Church on Vimeo.

State of the Gate: Q & A

State of the Gate 2010 | Q&A from Gateway Church on Vimeo.

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Why attend the Orange Conference 10: Reason #4

Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.

You’ve probably heard the statistic that more than 70% of students walk away from their faith within one year of graduating high school? Reggie has been working on a study about the loss of faith in college students and it’s turned into a book called “Slow Fade”.  This is another hot question in the Christian community over the past several years and the topic of many studies (and even controversy over what it means).  Reggie has a unique take on what is happening that will bring clarity to this issue.

You may be thinking, “I work with kids, why does this matter to me?” That’s a dumb question. Of course it matters to those who work with kids becasue these kids walking away from their faith are our investment. Most of these kids sat in our children’s ministries for YEARS! We’ve got a lot invested and it matters greatly. The solution to this problem may start with what’s happening in our children’s programs.

Sure, you can by the book after Orange, but it will be more satisfying to get it at Orange, right? Yes. The answer is yes. If you haven’t already registered, click the button on the right. Your mother will be so proud.

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Why attend the Orange Conference 10: Reason #3

Posted on 02. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.

In this little series of why a person should attend the Orange Conference, I’m trying to show some of the great reason why to attend that aren’t totally obvious. Sure you’re going to learn a lot, you’ll get some great resources and network like crazy with all kinds of people. But there’s other reasons as well. Here’s reason number three.

This year Reggie will be unveiling a new strategy and resources for engaging parents. If you use ReThink materials, you’ve found that there are a lot of great resources for engaging parents, but not really one integrated strategy to present to parents of preschool kids or elementary kids. It’s been something they’ve been working on for some time and certainly a resource that people have been asking for. So, be sure to be there when this resource and strategy is released. Should be exciting! Click on the Orange Badge to the right to register for Orange.

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Orange Week: Leverage Influence Recap

Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.

Today concludes the primary posting for Orange week with the strategy element of “Leverage Influence.” So here are the blog posts from Thursday, the 5th day of Orange week.

• I started off Leverage Influence with a post about engaging students in meaningful ministry as a means of discipleship.
• Kendra Golden compares us engaging students in ministry to a drug dealer getting a kid hooked on drugs. Ha! I don’t think I ever would have taken that approach, but I like it in a weird way.
• Matt McKee posts about Leveraging Influence using another story form OrangeLeaders.com but then also sharing how it’s done at his church. One of the last things he said was significant. It was about being territorial about students and realizing we can work together to reach them.
• Sam Luce talks about the excellent relationship he’s always had with his youth pastor and how he’s been able to use students to serve in the children’s ministry and the great benefit they bring.
• Jonathan Cliff writes a post about personal experiences of growing in his faith when given the opportunity to serve in a significant way and how this is a powerful way to impact students through their service in Children’s Ministry.
• JC talks about the difference of using teenagers as opposed to developing them and what developing students in the light of service actually looks like.
• Dan Scott writes more about the strategy his church uses to leverage influence and empower students to serve within the church and outside the church.
• Gina talks about how serving is the most “actionable” component of the strategy and how we can empower students to serve both inside and outside the church. She also gets bonus points for adding DC Talk’s “Luv is a verb” video. I have very special memories associated with that album.
• Anthony talks about involving students in the mission, not just them being the mission. Good stuff with great examples.
• Nick Blevins also write about leveraging influence. He talks about how students have to see that they are the church as opposed to just attending one.

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Orange Week: Leverage influence

Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.

Leverage influence is the part of the Orange strategy that primarily targets students. Although I oversee a student pastor and student ministry, my primary ministry gifting lies in children’s ministry. I’d really appreciate hearing from some student pastors who are putting this into practice. However, I don’t speak from someone who hasn’t experienced this. I look at the students at my church and the ones who are strongest in their faith are the ones serving weekly in the childrens ministry or middle school. Most importantly, this is how I was “discipled.” I am a product of this strategic element.

What is this idea of leveraging influence? It’s equipping students to live out what they’re learning and to be a part of an adventure that is bigger than themselves.

Reggie explains that there are four philosophies of student ministry:

• Stop them from going to hell
• Keep them for raising hell
• Scare the hell out of them
• Give them weapons to charge hell

Our best resource for discipleship and volunteerism is to take a teenager and give them the tools and let them be a part of rescuing a generation. This type of mentality sets a teenager up for spiritual success. Here’s what I’ve seen in my years of ministry experience. I’ve seen student ministries where only adults are aloud to lead and students merely participate. This creates a church subculture that allows students no place to go once graduating from school as they’ve never had a chance to integrate with normal church life. I’ve also seen children’s ministries that “use” teenagers (I’ve been guilty of this as well). The sound booth becomes the Jr. High hangout. Children’s pastors are grateful for the help, but frustrated with the unreliability of these teenage helpers.

Let me speak more to the children’s ministry side of this issue of “using” teenagers? Once we have an integrated strategy, the concern of the children’s ministry should be both that of impacting kids and helping develop these teenage participants. I know too many chidlren’s pastors (including myself) who were called to the ministry while serving in childrens ministry as a teenager. What a great opportunity for kingdom building within our churches? How can we work better with student pastors to serve their goals for their teenagers?

Leveraging influence involves creating opportunities for students to make a difference. At times this may call for folding papers, setting up curriculum boxes and other brainless work; however, what in ministry can we give them that is significant? People feel significant when we give them something significant to do? If the end goal is a teenager who is strong in faith and making a difference in the world, it’s unlikey that this will happen without engaging them in ministry work. In Think Orange, Reggie says “If what they ahve heard never moves from their heads to their hands, it will probably never make it to their hearts.” Create opportunities for students to live the adventure.

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Orange Week: Wednesday Recap

Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.

Sorry I’m a few day’s late on Wednesday’s recap. Between traveling back and forth to Dallas, attending the Orange Tour and then coming down with a nasty little stomach bug, I’m just now getting caught up again. So, let me catch us back up on the two Orange strategy elements being discussed on Wednesday

Elevate Community

• Kendra offers a very interesting view into the importance of Christian community. Of all the Christian disciplines, it’s the one discipline that translates easily to a new believer. It’s how God designed us, to have community.
• Matt McKee’s giving away ten Family Times Packs.
• Matt McKee pulls a story off of ornageleadders.com to illustrate this point, a story Reggie tells about his daughters need for affirmation as well as a description of what elevate community looks like at Matt’s church.
• Sam Luce writes about two components: The bigger you grow, the more intentional about being small you have to be and the world cannot compete with community.
• Jonathan Cliff shares personal thoughts about elevating community. He realizes that although he’s so much in the center of their lives today, it won’t always be that way and he must begin to seek out who those additional voices must be that will speak into his kid’s lives.
• JC shares his story about a Sunday School leaders had the kind of influence on him that we desire our small group leaders to have with our kids.
• Dan Scott shares about the strategy of his church in regard to small groups in every stage of a child’s life. I like it!
• Gina McClain writes about elevate community from her experience. I really like how she talks about equipping small group leaders to partner with parents… something that isn’t always central to the small group strategy.

Reactivate the Family

• Anthony has some great ideas about how his church is organizing some simple events that better connect families.
• Nick Blevins writes a great post about all the opportunities his church provides to activate the family. They seem to have a lot of really great ways to connect parents with their kids.

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Elevate Community: It’s gotta be in your DNA

Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.

It helps when the commitment to community is a part of your church’s DNA. If it’s not, then you need to find a way to change that. Otherwise your effectiveness to reach kids, specifically in student ministry will be severely limited. Fortunately for me, my church has small groups as a core part of the DNA. However, when I arrived almost 2 years ago, there had never been small groups in the children’s ministry. Now I’ve known a lot of childrens ministries have have existed without small groups, but not when there are small groups in every other aspect of the church. Needless to say, the leadership was begging me to launch small groups.Two years later, our elementary kids are more connected than ever. Because small groups are valued the same way in middle school, the 5th graders will promote right into a 6th grade small group. It’s too easy.

However, what we’re working on right now is taking is getting this DNA for community all the way down the line. What do I mean? Let me ask this question. What would community look like for a 1 year old? How about a 3 year old? We’re currently working on opportunities to create community environments for those very kids. Sure, the value of community is most realized when they’re older, but every kid needs community and we’re exploring what would look like for the youngest of those in our church.

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Reactivate the Family: What about when they need activating too?

Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this element of Orange. It seems like this is the element that has the potential to change everything… yet it’s the hardest to be successful in. Why? Because it’s something we can’t really control. Once we attempt to reactivate families, it’s up to them to lead their own kids. Us control freak pastors don’t like this so much… since we’re so good at it, right?

I’m pretty passionate about finding ways to engage parents. I’m a big believer that we’re not really successful until we see parents living this out in their homes, using our resources or their own without us begging them to. The problem I’m facing at my church is that I’m trying to reactivate families that have never been activated in the first place. What am I saying? We’ve got parents who know little more than their kids. This is where integrated comes in and expands beyond just student and children’s ministry. I need to work together and trust that our group life and spiritual formation teams are helping adults grow so that they can be a step or two ahead of helping their child grow. So, we’re looking to provide some materials that might teach the parents just before they turn around and teach the kids. Unfortunately, many of these parents are taking spiritual steps at a slower pace than their kids which means they’ll find it harder to equip their kids if they feel behind.

So, I’m currently working on developing some kind of process that will engage parents regardless of where they are in their faith or parenting process. I’m sure as it develops, I’ll share.

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