Childrens Ministry Online

Dear kidmin curriculum publishers: Video access

Posted on 16. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.

This topic is closely related to my post last week about video curriculum, but from a different angle. More and more churches are relying on video driven or video rich content for their curriculum. Sometimes the video supplements the lesson and at other times the video is the lesson. In either of these cases, using video curriculum has been difficult to equip our volunteers for the service they are leading. I’m not sure if curriculum publishers have thought this through at all. So I get a DVD (or video file for those publishers that are pushing the limits) that I’m going to use at my weekend experiences. However, I have 3-6 lead teachers that have to interact with the video. Or I have 50 small group leaders that really should see the video beforehand so they know how to lead their group best after seeing it.

When I get this video, how do I prepare my leaders?

• I can tell you what I’m not going to do. I’m not going to order 3-6 discs for my lead teacher, nor am I going to order 50 for my small group leaders. That would be financially irresponsible.
• I’m not going to host a training every week (or once a month) just so everyone can see the videos. That would be a waste of everyone’s time.

So here’s what my options are:

• I can just let my leaders not really know what the video is about and have them wing it as best as they can.
• I can make copies of the DVDs and give one to each of my leaders.
• I can rip the video of the DVDs, put them on youtube or vimeo and share the link with all my leaders.

One of those options doesn’t adequately prepare my leaders. Two of those options are technically illegal. However, I know many children’s pastors who do the last two. Why? Because they want to equip their leaders and they don’t see any other way. They don’t want to break the law… they just want the ability to get their teams ready.

Can’t there be a way  or a place where leaders and teachers can view the video on a website that we can direct them to? Maybe the video is kinda crappy, so you don’t have to be worried about someone stealing it.

The same it true with resourcing our parents. In order to equip our parents to lead at home, we’d like to let our parents see the same video their kids saw on Sunday. It can provide a great frame of reference for discussion around the dinner table. However, I can’t in good conscience broadcast videos I’ve ripped and uploaded to youtube. But, I don’t really have any other options. Can’t there be a way to give my parents access to these videos where there isn’t a concern about content being stolen?

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Helping volunteers grow

Posted on 12. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.

One of the things I love most about Gateway is that central to the mission of our church is the fulfillment of the Great Commission in EVERY aspect of ministry. For year, my focus as a Children’s Pastor was to help kids know and follow Christ. It wasn’t until coming to Gateway that I really began considering the spiritual health and growth of those serving kids. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been concerned about my volunteers spiritual condition, it just wasn’t my job. It was their responsibility to be in a small group or accountable relationship to be growing. I just needed them to help me reach kids. Sure, we could debate the pros and cons of this setup, but Gateway challenged my thinking about caring for and leading volunteers spiritually.

The problem is that many of the volunteers and leaders serving in our children’s ministries aren’t in small groups. Many times it’s for good reason. So what about their spiritual care? Who’s responsible? If I’m leading my area at the pastoral level and Ephesians 4 tells me it’s my job to equip the saints, then perhaps the spiritual condition of my volunteers is my responsibility. Think beyond that for a minute. What if my elementary small group leaders at the 9:30 service were growing together spiritually in the same way a small group would? Wouldn’t that make my team more united, consistant and effective in working together? You bet.

So the diagram above was developed by Gateway several years ago to show how people at Gateway can be cared for spiritually. The stars represent people who are not connected spiritually at Gateway. The idea is to get those who are not connected to link up either with a small group or join a serving team. We all know there are many who gravitate toward serving before they would a small group. However, either path is good. As you can see by the diagram, many people on serving teams are also in small groups. Nothing wrong with that. However, directors and coordinators also try to create groups within the serving team. Maybe 5 of the 9 small group leaders at a service will decide to do a study together. So within that serving team, 5 people who serve in the children’s ministry begin receiving spiritual care and support by a serving group. They serve together and grow together.

It’s a great model and were seeing some great things happening spiritually in the lives of our volunteers. All this helps us make a greater impact on the lives of kids. It’s modeling what we expect to see happen in the lives of kids as well. What do you think?

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Another thought on volunteers

Posted on 17. Aug, 2009 by Kenny.

Two weeks ago I did a little series on requiring parents to serve. Last Sunday night I was at Taco Bell with one of my volunteers (to me he’s more of a friend than “volunteer”). He had been reading my posts and shared with me his story about volunteering. Over a year ago I had a chance to share vision to our church and recruit new volunteers. My friend’s wife signed him up. He was reluctant to volunteer, but she knew he liked kids. His intention was to sign up for something he could do every other week. However, when I talked to him about becoming a small group leader, I didn’t really give him an option other than every other week.

One year later and my friend is one of the best volunteers I’ve ever worked with. He’s a small group leader at two of our four services and he along with another friend helps me lead our child dedication services. He’s passionate about kids and he steps up in a major way. There’s no doubt that this guy has it in his blood.

What if his wife hadn’t signed him up? Perhpas he’d still be sitting on the sidelines. I’m conviced that there are other men and women who can revolutionalize our ministries. They just need to be asked.

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Volunteer Week – Developing Leaders

Posted on 21. Feb, 2009 by Sara.

So, this week we’ve chatted about a number of volunteer topics:

• Assessing our volunteer culture
• Recruiting new volunteers through expos and cold calls
• Providing an orientation process for new volunteers
• Training volunteers

Now it’s time to examine the leadership structure within a ministry.

WHY HAVE LEADERS?

You cannot do this job alone. Why? Because you are limited. You have weaknesses. If you don’t believe me ask your spouse…or your teenager.

With a team of leaders you have a team of increased time to pour in the ministry. You have more hands and feet to do the work. And you have the collective strengths and talents of many people.

You will be more effective if you develop leaders.

THE PATH TO LEADERSHIP

Here are a few things to consider:

1. Rome was not built in a day.

2. God rewards those who are faithful with a little with more responsibilities.

Why are these two points important? Continue reading.

Sit down with a piece of paper or a whiteboard and map out your dream structure for your children’s ministry. What is your vision? What are your steps to accomplish that vision? What people do you need to make that vision happen? If you had an endless supply of amazing volunteers, what roles would you put in place to bring about your vision?

Draw nice little organizational charts of your dream structure. Type up job descriptions for your dream roles.

(NOTE: If you have no idea what I just said, ask around and find a project-planner type to sit down with you. Or call me! I love project plans! I get excited about them like some people get excited about candy or Christmas.)

Now…remember points 1 and 2 from above?

Your dream will not happen today. It probably won’t happen tomorrow either. So pull out your calendar and map out a time line of when you’d like to bring it about. Create steps to your big goal.

Assess your current people. Who is dependable? Who has talents that fit some of your dream roles? Watch your volunteers and pray for guidance. Then personally invite the volunteers you think you can see as leaders to step up their commitment. Give them specific new responsibilities. Over time as they are dependable in those roles, add more responsibilities.

ADMINISTRATORS VS. LEADERS?

Children’s ministry is made of two things – tasks and people.

There are Mary’s in this world. They love people. They love to sit around with people – listening, conversing and interacting.

Then there are Martha’s in this world. (As a sidenote I do think Martha is misunderstood. If Jesus was coming to my house, I’d want to make a little lunch for him. Wouldn’t you?) These people make lunch. They get jobs done, sometimes forgetting people along the way.

I think sometimes in children’s ministry we get distracted by our tasks. These tasks can be curriculum, theology, out-of-control storage closets, ratios, etc. We raise people up to accomplish the tasks.

But we forget our most important resource – people!

Training people to lead people is much harder than training people to accomplish tasks. Why? Because people have feelings.

So in your dream organizational chart, don’t forget to include both administrators of tasks and leaders of people.

WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES OF LEADERS?

I once created a leadership scale. I picked some qualities that mattered to me in my leaders and a created a scale of 1 through 5, 5 being the best.

Here are some of the qualities that mattered to me in leaders:

• Dependability
• Creativity
• Kindness Toward Others (To their face and behind their back)
• Ability to Navigate Conflicts Graciously and Honestly

As I watched my volunteers and spent time with them, I would mentally make notes of where they were in these qualities. I also would spend hours each week talking with volunteers through email, phone calls, lunches, etc. As I got to know them better I would make notes of their experiences and talents.

Then one-by-one I would start matching volunteers with leadership roles. I would meet with them and personally invite them to increase their time investment in the ministry.

INTERVIEWING LEADERS

Gateway Community Church has a next step for aspiring leaders – a leadership interview. It was one of the more grueling interviews I’ve ever had. It blew any job interview I’ve ever had out of the water. In the interview process, we chatted about my beliefs, my behaviors, how I’ve handled various tricky situations, and my current struggles that might embarrass our church. Wow!

I’d recommend this step for your leaders. The Bible says that we are like precious metals tested by fire. Turn up the heat on your volunteers a little. See what they’re made of. The quality ones will walk through the fire and your ministry will be stronger for it.

TRAINING LEADERS

A coworker at my last church gave me some advice on training leaders. I know this advice was not from his own head, but with my apologies to the original author, the source has been lost in translation.

He suggested these steps for leaders:

1. Tell them what to do

2. Show them what to do

3. Do it together

4. Watch them do it

This is a great way to transition your leaders into their new roles. If you’re a control-freak like me, it also gives you a chance to trust your ministry baby to another leader.

ONGOING DIALOG WITH LEADERS

Again, with my apologies to the original source (if it’s you, please credit yourself here!), Kenny once heard that people will not just do what we expect, they will do what we inspect. So once you have leaders in place, set up a review process. Be a part of their ministry from time to time. Have debriefing sessions to chat about their course. Give them a forum to seek your advice and guidance.

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Volunteer Week – Training Volunteers

Posted on 20. Feb, 2009 by Sara.

A couple years ago, Kenny and I and our colleagues experimented with training volunteers. We did a big expo and recruited nearly 100 new workers in January. At the end of February, we held a seminar-style training on Saturday morning.

Why did we choose seminar-style training? We wanted to give our volunteers the chance to dive a little deeper into topics that really interested or concerned them. Also, we were a multi-site church and we wanted our volunteers to see and feel the energy of the entire team assembled at once. We hoped this might encourage those who felt isolated in their work.

SCHEDULE

Our schedule looked something like this:

8:45 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. – Continental Breakfast and Roundtable Discussions

9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. – Large Group Assembly

10:15 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. – Workshop 1

11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. – Workshop 2

11:45 a.m. – 12:00 a.m. – Closing Assembly

THE DETAILS

For the ROUNDTABLE BREAKFAST we posted signs on the tables based on ministry areas, encouraging volunteers to meet others who worked in their areas. We set index cards on each table with icebreaker discussion questions specific to each area – “How long have you served?”, “What’s the funniest story yet from your experiences?” and “How do you deal with <fill in the blank> scenarios?”

We wanted to accomplish these activities in our LARGE GROUP ASSEMBLY time – teambuilding, encouraging and training. We started with an icebreaker game to encourage the volunteers to interact with each other. Then our worship band led a short worship set and our senior pastor spoke a short encouraging thank you message to our volunteers. We ended with a funny skit demonstrating some of the key training issues we wanted to address.

Our WORKSHOPS were the meat of our seminar. We invited a few guest speakers and asked staff and key leaders to teach various topical sessions. A few of our workshops included the following topics:

• Orientation for New Volunteers
• How to Deal with Angry Parents
• Puppeteer like Jim Henson
• First Impressions – Make Our Ministry a Welcoming Place
• All You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Classroom Control
• Database Training for Check In Volunteers
• Child Development – What Can Kids Do at Every Age? How Does It Apply to Children’s Ministry?
• How to Lead a Child to Christ (This was our most popular session! You’d be surprised how many people are scared to do this!)
• Improve Your Public Speaking Skills to Kids

SUMMARY

I have mixed feelings about this approach. Three to four hours on a Saturday morning was pretty demanding, and only about one-third of our volunteers attended. Also, the schedule was pretty tight. We asked for feedback from attendees, and most people said they felt the workshops needed to be longer. However, most who attended also said the training was very useful and was well worth their time.

We considered doing the seminar a second year, but expanding to invite other churches in our area. I liked that idea, because the time and resources spent on the training would have a wider audience. Churches that might not be able to afford the big national conferences could also have access to local quality training.

What do you think? Would you like to see trainings like this available in your area? Would your teams participate? How would you hurdle the time barrier?

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Volunteer Week – Welcoming New Volunteers

Posted on 19. Feb, 2009 by Sara.

One day I called to check on a volunteer. He’d agreed to volunteer, but according to the ministry director, he’d never showed up. Our call went something like this:

Me: “Hi. Can I speak to Mr. Jones?”

Him: “No Mr. Jones lives here. Only a Mr. Johnson lives here.”

Me: “I’m sorry. Is this <insert phone number here>?”

Him: “Yep.”

Me: “Well, perhaps I have the wrong name. Do you attend <insert church name here>?”

Him: “Yep.”

Me: “Hmm…have you volunteered in our kid’s ministry?”

Him: “Yep. I signed up a couple months ago and worked every week for about a month. But no one ever spoke to me, and I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to be doing, so I stopped working about 2 weeks ago.”

WHAT???!!!!!

We actually had a volunteer sign up and show up for duty for a whole month AND NO ONE EVER SPOKE TO HIM?! AND WE HAD HIS WRONG NAME ON FILE?! Are you kidding me?!

Needless to say that particular ministry director did not last long. (No. It wasn’t Kenny.)

So ladies and gentlemen, let me ask you: “What is your volunteers’ experience?”

Remember how our mamas used to tell us to mind our manners? (At least mine did, but I grew up in Alabama and that’s what mamas teach there.)

Manners go a LONG way to transforming a ministry. Here are a few ways manners and simple kindness could make the difference for your ministry:

HOW DO YOU WELCOME VOLUNTEERS?

Unless you’re lucky enough to recruit a children’s ministry veteran, there is a really good chance your new volunteers are…well…NEW!

You remember how you felt your first day of high school at a new school? Or your first day on the job in your first real adult grown up job? Or how you felt the first time you went to dinner to meet your girlfriend’s parents? AWKWARD!

That is how your new volunteer feels. They feel new and awkward.

Have a heart! Help them out!

Here are a few simple ways to do this:

1. Call them before their first day of service. Introduce yourself. Ask them some questions. Find out their interests. Try to match them up with jobs that fit their interests. Find out who they already know. Try to pair them up with people they know.

2. I’m probably stating the obvious here – for safety reasons, have a process for new volunteers. Include applications, background checks and reference calls. Make sure these people are safe to be with your kids.

3. Take away the fear factor. Children’s ministry doesn’t have to feel like a fraternity hazing process! Have an orientation training. In today’s world, this could be a video and a bulleted list you email to them. Have some frequently asked questions and answers. Let them know what to expect, when to show up, what to wear, etc.

4. On their first day of volunteering, have someone show them around, or if you have the time, personally do it. Introduce them to other volunteers in their classroom.

5. Follow up on them. Call to see how their first day went. Check in a month later to see how it’s going.

First impressions are vital to your ministry’s success. What first impression does your ministry give new volunteers? A simple “Hello and how do you do?” friendly welcome to new volunteers may go a long way towards retaining your volunteers for the long term.

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Volunteer Week – Cold Calling New Recruits

Posted on 18. Feb, 2009 by Sara.

Cold calls.

Do those two words make the blood run cold in your veins?

Don’t be scared! After all, you wrangle large classrooms of energetic children week after week. If you can do that, you can take on the challenge of a few cold calls.

I found in my volunteer recruiting experience that a friendly phone call to parents worked wonders for my volunteer rosters. Here are a few things to consider:

WHO TO CALL?

How does your church record children’s ministry attendance? If you’re lucky enough to work at a church with a robust database, chances are you have pretty good records of what families are regularly attending.

Each quarter, I would run reports of all my kids who’d attended regularly over the past quarter. (You need to define for your church what “regularly” means.)

I’d remove any families from the list if I knew the parents were already volunteering in some capacity in the church. Hopefully you can do this in an automated manner if your church keeps records of these things.

The remaining parents were my call list and over the course of a couple weeks, I would have a calling campaign. It was a numbers game. The more people I called, the more I would recruit, because a few would say no and a few would not be home and a few would have bad phone numbers. The rest would say “yes”!

PREPPING THE FAMILY FOR THE PHONE CALL

A few days before I would have a cold call campaign, I would email the parents I planned to call. I’d share vision of upcoming things in children’s minsitry and some of the key volunteer roles I hoped to fill. I’d give parents a friendly heads-up that I would be calling. They could begin to consider if they’d like to help in children’s ministry.

A few people would actually just reply to the email, and I would have new volunteers without the phone call.

PREPPING MYSELF FOR THE PHONE CALL

Before making a phone call to the family, I’d review their record in the database. How recently had they attended? Were they members of the church? Did they have a baby younger than six months? All of these things factored into whether I called them.

How many kids did they have? What ages? What events did their kids attend? This information familiarized me with the family before the call.

THE ACTUAL CALL

My calls would go something like this:

Me: “Hi! I’m Sara Conley calling from the kids ministry at our church. How’s it going?”

Them: “Pretty good.”

Me: “Well listen, I’m calling you today, because we are expanding our volunteer team in the kid’s ministry and I wanted to personally invite you to be a part of it. Would you be interested in that?”

Are you ready for a shocker? Often, with the friendly personal invitation I just described, the family would say yes to me. In this scenario, I’d go on to arrange applications, background checks, training, and scheduling in the phone call.

Here are a few common reasons why they might say no:

1. TOO BUSY

Them:  “You know, we really can’t make a commitment like that right now. We are too busy.”

Me: “Oh yes, I understand. Listen, sometimes we need parents to fill in as subs. It’s not a regular commitment. It’s more of a last minute call if one of our regular workers cancels. Would you be interested in helping in that way?”

Again, another shocker. A great majority of people who couldn’t commit were willing to help as subs. And as I treated them right as subs – friendly, not calling every weekend, but respecting their time and calling occasionally – oftentimes, as their schedule lightened, they would join the regular schedule.

2. NOT A GOOD TIME DUE TO PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES

Sometimes, families would not agree to help because they were in difficult personal times. I’m not really sure why, but complete strangers would pour their hearts out to me in these cold calls. I think they felt they could trust me since I was calling from church. And truly, I was willing to listen as empathetically as I could.

Listen with your heart in these cold calls. Even if these families are saying no to volunteering, they may be opening their lives to you. This may be your window into what is going on in the homes of kids in your ministries. Pray for these parents on the phone. Follow up on them. Find help for them.

If you genuinely care for these parents, they will remember. As they find light and hope in their lives again, they may seek you out and become a loyal member of your team. I’ve seen it happen.

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Volunteer Week – Examine Your Volunteer Culture

Posted on 17. Feb, 2009 by Sara.

What kind of culture does your ministry have? Did you create that culture on purpose? Did you get there by accident? Did you get there by poor decisions?

The Bible talks often of the church being a body. Have you ever considered the human body? The pieces and parts work together. One is not more important than another. All have purpose and meaning. Is this how your ministry functions? If not, how do you turn the tide?

Examine your culture. Here are a few questions to consider:

Does your ministry have a stated purpose? Do volunteers know where the ministry is going? If you stop and ask any volunteer, do they know what the common goal is?

Does your ministry have a clear structure? Do volunteers know where to go to ask questions? Are leaders adequately trained to behave with wisdom and discernment? Do leaders have your back when you are and are not present?

Do volunteers have clearly defined roles? Do they know what is expected of them? Simple things like written job descriptions can create healthy boundaries.

Is your ministry friendly? Do new volunteers immediately feel welcomed? Or do they have to fight to prove themselves before they are accepted? Do you create opportunities for volunteers to interact outside of serving?

Are volunteers held accountable for their actions? Do you check in with volunteers who no-show or show up late? Or do you “let it slide”? Are volunteers equipped to trade with each other if they’ll be out?

Does your ministry challenge the spiritual growth of volunteers? Do you provide opportunities for them to sharpen one another?

So many questions. I’d like to hear your thoughts and answers. A healthy ministry culture will attract and retain volunteers. What’s worked for you?

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Volunteer Week – Attitude Check

Posted on 16. Feb, 2009 by Sara.

In the summer of 1998, I’d been dating Kenny for nearly a year. He convinced me to work at a kid’s day camp with him in Germantown, Maryland all summer. We had a little drill there that has served me well as a life lesson.

When we’d see our kids’ energy dragging, the camp director would yell: “ATTITUDE CHECK!”

The kids would snap to and shout back, “PRAISE THE LORD!”

Cheesy?

Yes.

But it worked! Immediately the energy of the camp was once again buoyant and happy.

Sometimes, I think we in children’s ministry need an attitude check, particularly regarding our volunteers. Misery likes company.  Here are a few common sob stories I hear children’s ministers griping about:

1. “I can’t get enough volunteers.”

2. “I can’t keep the volunteers I get.”

3. “I don’t understand why my volunteers aren’t as invested as I am.”

4. “Why do my volunteers cancel last minute? Or no-show?”

Okay friends, it’s time a for a little “ATTITUDE CHECK!”

I’m going to say something you may not like. Your volunteers play a little game called “Follow the Leader”. They will go where you lead them. If you think they suck, maybe it’s because you suck at leading them.

Ouch.

Here’s the good news. Attitudes can improve. Leaders can be trained. Ways can be changed.

Check back this week. We’ll examine some simple changes that can transform the volunteer culture in your ministry.

PRAISE THE LORD!

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Guest Blogger: Sara Conley – Volunteer Week

Posted on 16. Feb, 2009 by Kenny.

Last week my wife wrote a couple of posts. If you missed them, you can catch them here and here.

I know I’m biased, but I felt she had some really good things to say. She’s actually worked on my staff as well as another campus’ staff as a volunteer director. She rocks. When she was a nursery director, only two times did she ever have someone no-show. Two times people, that’s unheard of. She developed an incredible report with her teams and she always knew who would be there, who wouldn’t and who’d be filling in.

So, I invited her to guest blog all this week. It’s Volunteer Week and she’s going to hit several issues regarding volunteerism. Here are a few examples:

• Your ministry attitude toward volunteerism
• Your ministry’s volunteer culture (didn’t know you had one… you need to read this one)
• Cold Call recruiting (sometimes you have to do it)
• Volunteer training

So, I’ll be blogging some this week as well, but if you only have time to read one post a day from this site… be sure to read Sara’s! You’ll be glad you did.

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