The perfect Children’s Pastor doesn’t exist. The perfect fit at one church could be a terrible fit at another. The “perfect” Children’s Pastor is a subjective idea. However, I would venture to say that there are some key qualities or ideals that set some apart from the crowd. Children’s Pastors who excel in these EIGHT QUALITIES are truly special.
Read More
This last year we made some significant changes to the way we teach elementary kids on Sunday morning. We went from a team of 10-12 that covered production in two environments for three services to a team of nearly 40 for a well-executed service in one environment for three services. It has been a game changer. However, when we were getting ready to launch, it was very difficult to find any video resources that showed what a highly executed elementary service could look like. I contacted several churches and no one had any kind of video, which is funny to me. Since we relaunched in January, I’ve recorded the service every week.
This week, the folks over at Seeds released the Kids on the Move: LIVE service they performed at the Seeds conference. In years past, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching the services the’ve recorded. Church on the Move does kidmin programing at a level that is unattainable for 95% of most churches, but they certainly are inspiring. There’s always something to learn from watching what they do. Check out their most recent video release below.
Read More
The High School serving trip to Branson I wrote about last week and the strategic view of a spiritual path of lost to leading has had me thinking quite a bit lately. Gateway Branson is crazy focused on reaching the homeless and working poor in Branson. Currently, they are working with about 20 hotels, serving meals to 700 or so people every week. They know that there are about 400-600 more that they need to provide meals for and they’re working hard to get the resources to do this.
Here’s what I love about this model of ministry. They have a hyper specific target, the poor and homeless. They know how many they are. They know where they live. They are actively pursuing ministry to their target. Probably within the next couple of years, they will have a significant presence that saturates their target. I think that success for them is probably where everyone in any one of those hotels feels loved and cared for by Gateway Branson. When that kind of environment is created, people will experience the life and freedom that only comes through Jesus. I’m sure their work will never be done, but with this very strategic target, you could almost set a deadline for “completion.” X Number of meals a week, X number of events at each hotel each month and X number of small groups/recovery groups at each hotel. I love that kind of strategy.
Last night I experienced the same kind of excitement about Gateway Austin.
Read MoreWhile in Tennessee last week with Jim Wideman and my Infuse group, we had a very interesting conversation about legends and legacies. It can be a fairly controversial topic because many ministry leaders really don’t get...
Read MoreSo I’m in Birmingham and yesterday I got to spend four or five hours with Daniel White, one of the Children’s Pastors at Church of the Highlands. Incredible guy. Sam Luce, Daniel and I hung out at a Starbucks until...
Read MoreA good friend of mine just introduced me to a really cool new service (at least new to me). It’s called 99 designs. I can’t wait to give them a try. Over the years, I’ve used a variety of sources for design....
Read MoreFellow blogger James at Help, I’m a Children’s Pastor created a great resource for Kidmin this Christmas season. It’s a different take of the Christmas story he wrote and produced. Whether you use it for a...
Read MoreI don’t know if you’re like me, but I always enjoy seeing what other people name their various age group environments. Even more so, I love to see the way they’ve branded the environments. Some have great...
Read MoreWhen it comes to programing your services every week, we want it to be good. We want it to be really good. Why? We want the kids to have fun! We want the kids to come back and bring friends! We want kids to clearly hear the word...
Read MoreIf you’re like me, you’re always looking for GREAT children’s music to both lead kids in worship as well as play in your environments as families pour in and out. Time and time again, Yancy delivers with great...
Read MoreFree curriculum! Did that get your attention. I heard about this a while back and thought to myself, “what a great idea!” We’ve been using 252 Basics and My First Look for over two years at Gateway and...
Read MoreMusic is a powerful tool. It has a powerful affect on environment. I remember walking through UpStreet Kids at North Point Church for the first time a few years ago on a Sunday morning and they had High School Musical booming...
Read More
Recent Comments