RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

Monday morning.  It follows a weekend of ministry while simultaneously ushering in a new week of ministry opportunities.  Successful children's ministry leaders know how important it is to start their week off strategically and not just stumble through it.  Here are 10 things they do to ensure Monday propels them forward to a great week of ministry.

1. They re-fill their tank.  A weekend of ministry can drain your tank.  You give...give...and give all weekend.  It can deplete you emotionally and physically.  Successful children's ministry leaders know this and take time to re-fill their tank on Monday morning through time with God and meditating on His Word.

For many who are in full-time vocational ministry, Monday is their day off and they take time to rest and replenish physically as well.  Whether Monday is your day off or not, it should be a day where you find time to re-fill your tank in some way.

2. They write appreciation notes.  They take time to write at least 4 to 5 appreciation notes to volunteers, parents and co-workers.

3. They look back and learn.  They look back at the weekend, ask these three questions and learn from the answers.

• What went well?
• What needs to be improved, changed or stopped?
• How did we see God move?  What life change can we celebrate?

4. They check the dashboard.  These are vitals like attendance, first-time guests, volunteers, salvations, baptisms, return guests, etc.  They look for patterns, trends, areas of strength and areas that need attention.  They keep a pulse on what areas are growing, plateauing or declining.
 
5. They make a to-do-list for the week.  They plan out their work for the week.  This includes incorporating any notes they made coming out of the weekend.

6. They prioritize their work.  They prioritize the list they made to ensure the most important things...the biggest impact things...the things that will move the ministry forward...get done.  This includes focusing on the things only he or she can do as the leader and delegating the rest when possible.

7. They prepare for meetings.  If they have meetings with staff, volunteers, parents or other leaders, they prepare. 

8. They make sure new families will be followed up with.  Whether it's a postcard, phone call, email, text or other form of communication, they make sure new families are contacted within 48 hours of their visit.

9. They respond to emails.  Instead of letting emails pile up, they get to them early.

10. They send a report to their Pastor or direct report.  They are pro-active in keeping their Pastor updated by sending a brief report from the weekend about what went well, improvement steps and praise reports.

Time is one of your most precious commodities and there is never a shortage of things clamoring for it.

How you choose to spend your time will determine your effectiveness.  As I have watched and learned from successful children's ministry leaders, I have found that they focus their time on four key areas.

Personal Growth
Ministry is an outward expression of the inward workings of God in your life.

Effective leaders know that who they are is more important than what they do.  They know if they will be who they are supposed to be it will enable them to do what they are supposed to do. 

Effective children's ministry leaders spend time working on their...

• relationship with God
• spiritual growth
• leadership
• people skills
• blind spots
• strengths

The discipline of spending time working on yourself is not always easy.  If you're like me, it's easier to drive a car than it is to wait patiently by the gas pump while it's filling up.  I don't have time to sit and wait for the car to fill up...I've got places to go...things to do.  But remember, you can only skip the gas pump for so long before you run out of gas and come to a screeching halt.

The same applies to personal growth.  You can skip it and be effective...but it will be very short-lived.  Neglect filling up personally and your ministry will come to a screeching halt.

You may be reading this right now and you've been so busy working on the ministry that you haven't been working on yourself.  You know you're running on fumes.  Is it time to move personal growth back to where it should be on your time list?

Don't let the lid on the ministry be you.

Family
Effective children's ministry leaders know that their first ministry is their family.  They make sure they invest first in their own marriage before they try to help other people's marriages.  They make sure they invest first in their own kids before they try to help other people's kids.

The health of your family is more important than the health of your ministry.  Healthy ministry flows out of a healthy family.  

Take a look at your time allocations.  What does it reflect?  Where you spend your time tells what your priorities are.  Is your family a priority?

Team Building
Effective children's ministry leaders know that success in ministry is not in what you can do but it's in what you can empower others to do.  They spend more time equipping others to do ministry than they spend doing the ministry themselves.

Look at their week and you will see a big chunk allocated to enlisting, equipping, encouraging and empowering leaders.  Look at their budget and it will reflect the same.

Time spent building leaders is never time wasted.

Ministry improvement
The most effective children's ministry leaders spend lots of time perfecting the ministry through evaluation, feedback, adjustments and changes.  They spend time making things better rather than just letting it coast.

They are constantly asking questions like...

• What's working?
• What's not working?
• What needs changed?
• What do we need to focus on?
• How can we improve?
• What are we missing?

They spend time looking through a microscope that's laser focused on the ministry and how to improve it.

How much time are you allocating for these 4 key areas?   Below is a tool you can download and use to evaluate.  Make every week...every day...every hour...every minute...every second count.  What you do matters...a lot...so be wise in how you invest your time.




If you'd like a copy of this infograph, feel free to email me at dalehudsoncm2@gmail.com.

Many churches say children's ministry is a priority.  But actions speak louder than words.

Here are 5 telltale signs that children's ministry is NOT a priority at a church.

1.  Lack of Personnel
The people in the church see serving in children's ministry as a punishment that has to be endured.  There are lots of people in the choir loft while the children's ministry has to beg for volunteers.  Adult Sunday School classes are full while the children's Sunday School classes often have to be combined because of lack of volunteers.

Take a look at where people are volunteering in your church.  It speaks volumes about how important children's ministry is. 

2.  Lack of Promotion
You never hear children's ministry mentioned from the platform.  If there is an announcement about children's ministry in the bulletin, you need a microscope to see it.  There are full color brochures about adult ministry but black & white brochures about children's ministry.  If a new family didn't ask, they would never know you had a children's ministry.

Take a look at what your church promotes.  You promote what is important to you.

3. Lack of Program Funding
The percentage of your budget that is spent on children's ministry is miniscule.  While money is spent on fresh flowers for the table at the front of the church every week, the children's ministry funding withers away.  Sunday school teachers recycle what little resources they have, while a brand new church van sets in the church parking lot.

Your church budget reflects what its priorities are.

4. Lack of Physical Space
While women's ministry has the best rooms in the church, the children's ministry is banished to the basement.  The carpet in the children's ministry area is stained.  The chairs in the children's ministry area were brought off the ark by Noah.  And when it's time to build, children's ministry is an afterthought.

Your church building speaks volumes about how important children's ministry is.     

5. Lack of Percentage of Kids 
The percentage of kids in your church is very small.  There are lots of empty chairs in your children's ministry rooms.  It's been a long time since the giggles of children was the predominant sound in the hallways and the cries of babies spilled out from the nursery.

The percentage of children attending your church reflects how important children's ministry is.

If these telltale signs describe your church, be encouraged.  You can turn things around.

In this post,  I share how you can make your church a place where kids want to be. 

And in this post, I talk about how children will bring God's blessings to your church.

2015 is here!  I'm excited about another year of children's ministry, aren't you?

As you look at 2015, it's important to take some time to prepare for what's ahead.  Here's 7 steps that will help you and your team get ready.

Step 1 - Evaluate last year.
Take a hard, honest look at last year.  What worked well?  What flopped?  Where did you have momentum?  Where are the weak spots?  How many kids and families did you reach?  How many new volunteers did you enlist?  What goals did you reach?  What goals did you not reach? 

Step 2 - Take time to think, plan and pray.
Before you jump into the new year, take time to sit and just think, plan, and pray.  I take our team on a one-day retreat in January for this purpose. 

Step 3 - Identify your priorities.
Out of steps 1 and 2, identity what your priorities will be for 2015.  What do you want to focus on?  What are the few things that you really want to pour time, energy and resources into?

Step 4 - Set goals.
Once you've established your priorities, set goals that you want to reach.  The goals should be specific and measurable.  An example would be to enlist 25 new volunteers.

Step 5 - Create a strategy.
Create a strategy that will help you reach the goals you've set.  This includes spiritual steps, programming, events, classes, etc.

Step 6 - Set your calendar.
Translate your strategy onto your calendar.  Every item on your calendar should be a step that helps you reach the goals you've set.  Be very strategic with your calendar.  Don't do anything just because you've always done it or are trying to keep it alive.  Sometimes you have to let something good on your calendar die so something great can live on your calendar.

Step 7 - Rally the team.
Include key leaders in steps 1-6.  And then once you've completed steps 1-6, rally the team behind the 2015 vision and strategy.  Share the passion you have for seeing these things come to fruition.

Can't wait to see what God is going to do in and through your team this year!