Philosophy - Childrens Ministry Online

Winter Camp Instead of Summer Camp

by Kenny Conley | Dec 9, 2013 | Ideas | 1

A year ago I was really challenged by something I heard and read. The concept comes from Seven Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner and Lane Jones. The idea is to think in terms of steps as opposed to programs. This comes from one of Reggie’s chapters and he was talking to me about this last year and it really challenged me in the way we do summer camp for kids and students.

Here’s the concept. Every ministry has to decide on what is most important. Well, they don’t have to, but if they hope to be effective, they will. If everything is important, than nothing is. Everything will compete for money, resources, volunteers and families and everything will be okay and nothing will be superb. I’ve found this to be amazingly true. At Gateway, we’ve decided that relationships are the most important thing and we’ll do everything we can to value the relationship a small group leader has with a student/child. Everything!

Well, this caused us to evaluate camp. Good old summer camp.

Kidmin non-negotiables

by Kenny Conley | Sep 12, 2012 | Ideas, Volunteers | 2

The last couple of days, I’ve been talking about creating safe environments within your children’s ministry. It’s too important to “wing it” or think that the chances of something happening are slim, so it’s not worth getting so particular about everything.

Today I simply wanted to introduce a couple of non-negotiables. Hopefully, if you read this, you’re already doing these things. I’d love to hear back from some of you and know what your non-negotiatbles are.

Background check and screen all workers – This doesn’t matter if they work every week, once a month or two times a year. If they have access to kids, they need to go through the process. What about having parents come in and help? This is an area where some people fudge a little. I’m obstinate about this.
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My problem with Christian media

by Kenny Conley | Mar 24, 2012 | Ideas | 2

I really enjoy reading, especially fiction. I have so many books on my “to read” list and sometimes I can get into a rut. The cure is to pick up a work of fiction to keep me going. While in Middle School, I was first exposed to Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness. For years it held the “my favorite book” award in my heart. Unfortunately, it’s been 20+ years since I’ve read it and it’s become more of a distant memory. Then something changed.

In the past 5-10 years, I’ve become increasingly tired of most Christian media, primarily novels and movies.

The dropout myth?

by Kenny Conley | Jan 4, 2012 | Family, Ideas | 1

There’s a very interesting article worth reading over at childrensministry.com about the infamous “dropout” rate that is causing many churches to question the effectiveness of their ministries and causing many...

I am already thinking about promotion Sunday

by Kenny Conley | Nov 15, 2010 | Ideas | 10

A few days I got an email from a friend in TN asking me some questions about how and when we promote. I’m really glad he asked because it reminded me of some questions I wanted to revisit and some frustrations I’ve...

How I’m dealing with Halloween

by Kenny Conley | Oct 26, 2010 | Ideas, Random | 9

So, three years ago I wrote a post about Halloween titled, “Halloween = Satan?” I had almost forgotten that I wrote it. Since Halloween is coming in a few days, I figured I’d address it. Like I said before, I...

Our new organizational strategy

by Kenny Conley | Oct 21, 2010 | Ideas, Leadership | 4

So, I’ve written about the problems I’ve experienced with departmental organization, the need for a different approach, as well as theories I’ve come across and thought about. Now it’s time to share with...

Creatively organizing ministry

by Kenny Conley | Oct 20, 2010 | Ideas | 5

Lately I’ve been talking about organization in Kidmin and how far too often we just default to the departmental model even though it might not be the most efficient in the long run. So, I’m going to throw out a...

The new face of American Evangelicalism

by Kenny Conley | Oct 20, 2010 | Ideas | 2

I recently came across this video clip from ABC News that aired last Spring. Sorry if you’ve already seen it. What do you think? So much of what is said here rails against the how I was raised within the church. The world...

Inefficiency in kidmin organization

by Kenny Conley | Oct 19, 2010 | Ideas | 5

Yesterday I wrote about Org Charts and ministry, specifically how most children’s ministries use a standard departmental model by default. I’m convinced that although departmental models might be natural they tend to...

Ministry and Org Charts

by Kenny Conley | Oct 18, 2010 | Ideas | 5

This week I plan to write a little about how Kidmin is organized.Â Ultimately, I’ll speak from my own personalÂ experienceÂ as well as my thoughts and opinions. However, during this week, I would love to see and hear how...

Freakonomics: Incentives (part 2)

by Kenny Conley | Oct 13, 2010 | Ideas, Random | 4

So, yesterday I wrote about my Freakonomics movie experience and how it reminded me why I don’t like incentive based programs. Kids get left out because the same incentive doesn’t work for all kids. I was having...