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Getting Parents “In”

July 27, 2009 in Communication, Family Ministry, Lead 5



Bad Parenting 092307, originally uploaded by masterthon2004.

It’s a super tough thing for people in Children’s Ministry. Trying to get parents to jump the hurdle and just invest in their kids spiritual walk. Transitioning from a drop off mindset to one that is creatively leading their child’s spiritual journey is way more than a baby step walk. But how do we get them to step out where they may feel uncomfortable.

I think this blog from Seth Godin gives some great insight. He talks about the marketing of a unicycle. Basically you go from failure to success in what seems like an instantaneous change. It’s an incredibly great read and like most everything Seth does takes 2 minutes.

But from our side. How in the world do we “Create non-unicycle moments” for Parents? How can we get them to celebrate what may seem like a meaningless failure? How can we get them to push forward even though the only thing that continues to be in their face is failure?

What opportunities can you take to Get Parents to recognize the influence they have on their kids, while they stare in the face of failure?

Sold Out !!

July 24, 2009 in Communication, Family Ministry, Lead 1



Michael Jackson – Sold Out !!, originally uploaded by Lu-Gu.

Now I know what you’re thinking. Some other guy posting about Michael Jackson. Well not exactly what this post is about. In fact, it’s not what the post is about at all.

But really this post is about being Sold Out. And not the cliche “Sold Out for Jesus” even though you should be.

But what about events? Do you ever sell out events in ministry? I mean it’s one thing to desire to sell out but do you sell out.

Like do you let people in at the door without tickets or something? Let me tell you a story.

We had an event at a local water park that we capped out at a number of people for comfort and experience. We sold tickets and our advance publication let people know that tickets will be sold out and they will not be able to get in without a ticket. We sold out this Sunday before the event on Thursday. We had a ton of people call day of and wanted tickets even though we had already sold out. We let them know we were sorry but that we didn’t have any tickets left.

Now up to this point I’m sure everyone in ministry has been here. You’ve sold out an event and we’re ready to go.

But what about those people that show up unannounced “clueless” that they needed a ticket. Where do you draw the line between communication and ministry?

This time it came down to the fact that we felt if we sold tickets at the door we would be saying one thing (no tickets available to those that called) and doing another (selling tickets at the door) over holding a hard line and possibly hurting some families in the process that didn’t receive, understand, or were even unaware of the message about needing tickets.

But where do you draw that line? Where do you cross the line for giving to people and yet making sure that people understand the communication is there for a reason and that they need to make preparations for it?

Tough one to do but where do you draw that line?

Little Big Planet over 1,000,000 levels!

July 22, 2009 in Family Ministry, Lead, Tech 1

I saw this article in USA Today talking about how Little Big Planet a game for PS3 with the tagline “Play, Create, and Share” has received over 1,000,000 levels to play online.

Just goes to show you that media creation is at an all time high. With only 2.4 million (insert overstatement joke here) people playing this game. That is a great ratio of level created to player.

This is where our KiDs and Students are headed. How can we develop this and put some structure behind it without totally killing their desire to do so?

Altars

July 21, 2009 in Family Ministry, Lead 0

Stone altar, Dzibilchaltun, originally uploaded by cpence.

Here’s a list for you:

Noah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Balaam, Saul, Elijah, David, Solomon, and Ezra

What do these guys have in common besides being in the Bible and the fact that I am probably about to use them to teach you something?

Well these were all people who built altars to honor God after a particular experience with God. And let’s not forget Abraham who built more altars than anyone else in the Bible.

Altars in the Bible symbolized communion with God and memorialized significant encounters with Him.

For modern day altars we have Baptism and well… that’s about it. In Children’s Ministry we have a Child Dedication class as well to memorialize a significant spiritual development point in both parents and KiDs.

But what else? I think we would all agree that encounters in the Bible are plentiful, but what percentage of those encounters are baptisms?

Now please don’t take this as a criticism of baptism because it’s just not. Baptism is the first step in showing obedience to the new Lord in our life. It is a symbol of the death, burial & resurrection of our Lord and describes our relationship with Him. We’ve died to the old self and been born new of the Spirit of God.

But instead what spiritual development points are put into place for kids’ lives past baptism? What rites of passage per se does your Children’s Ministry or Student Ministry have in place to symbolize spiritual development.

What are your thoughts? What can we do to help our kids understand when they have a significant experience with God?

Beach thoughts day 1

June 30, 2009 in Family Ministry, Lead 0



quiet beach, originally uploaded by *MaryElise*.

Over the next few days while my wife and I are on a wonderful beach getaway I want to share some thoughts with you hoping that you might be able to suggest a fix or a solution.

So here we go.

I am in the middle of this right now…

How can you break through the noise of apathy? See we want to latch ahold of parents ears and let them know that they need to care and command their child’s spiritual walk.

The problem isn’t the parents who care however, it’s the parents that don’t that causes the problem.

How can you change apathetic parents into passionate parents? Is it a program, is it a campaign, is it a handout? I literally have no idea.

What makes an apathetic parent stop and say wow, that’s me? I need to make a change.

I’m praying that the Holy Spirit wakes up some parents but is there something that we can do to change the apathetic mindset?

Ok now back to the beach :)

MGMT vs. TRAIN

June 25, 2009 in Family Ministry, Lead 1

abundant growth, originally uploaded by carolg2007.

When I worked at UPS as a part time supervisor we had a job motto:

“70% of your time you should be training your employees and the other 30% you should be figuring out a way to better train your employees.”

Training was a value that we spent our times perfecting. We had a person whose sole purpose was to train new people. As a result we were the best or second best hub in the region for awhile.

I am a trainer it’s what I do best. My gift is teaching people. So this was right in my sweet spot.

But I wonder how many times in “church world” do we get caught up more in managing than training?

Our job is to develop people and push them to grow in Christ. Or as Paul says “equip the saints” Ephesians 4:12

Too often especially in Children’s Ministry, we get roped into managing or spot filling. I pray alot that all over the world on Sundays, #kidmin peeps would pour into their volunteers instead of being only concerned about them being there.

But I want to know, what are you training your volunteers to do? What are a few must have skills of your volunteers? If you’re in a higher position of leadership, what are you pouring into your staff? What are you teaching others?

Barf Control

June 24, 2009 in Family Ministry, Lead, Life 0

Photo 7, originally uploaded by jcisonline.

So I’m at camp and on barf control right now cuz one of the kids is throwing up. Feel bad for the kids but he’s being a trooper.

Couple things I’ve learned:

* I’m terrible at barf control. I don’t know what to say or do.
* I remember my mom telling me to drink a sprite.
* I remember when I had serious stomach issues to sit up and don’t lay down.
* I asked other people what to do.

Totally on another world with this one. But it seems that too often I can’t or don’t know how is followed up by that’s ok or quitting.

Use what your given instead of given up.

By the way, didn’t mean to get Jesus up in here but He rooted His way into my thinking as I wrote this post.

I love Jesus :)

Incomplete Adults

June 11, 2009 in Family Ministry, Lead 1

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQak6ng0RXQ&feature=player_embedded

So basically I’m stealing this video from two places:

I saw it on Henry Zonio’s Blog

and he saw it on Scot McKnight’s Blog

But it’s awesomely funny and it will let you know that kids pick up on so much more than you give them credit for. So here is what I want you to think about: If you are in a relationship with God you are called to serve (my belief based on scripture you can go here to see a ton of verses and questions if you are wondering about our call to serve).  If kids can have a relationship to God do we give them opportunities to serve?

Again this is a different direction than the post that Henry gave, which by the way is incredibly awesome. I’ve been thinking about this so much with kids and teens that somehow they are only viewed as Henry says “incomplete adults”. However if we felt like these “incomplete adults” can have just the same impact on the kingdom as “complete adults (haha)” then would we view our preparation and time the same as we do now? I mean do we really believe that we are equipping, preparing, instilling, and developing servants for Christ?

I hope that this view of kids and teenagers as “incomplete adults” and thus less important members our the body of Christ doesn’t continue to be the majority view in the church. Because then the Missional Church that many church members have been praying for might never be realized.

I mean you have a generation desiring to help people and they may have to flesh out that desire somewhere other than the church because they aren’t complete adults yet. What are your thoughts?

Follow The Leader

May 28, 2009 in Lead 1

Follow The Leader, originally uploaded by Richard Martin..

We took our Leading from our Strengths assessment in March and have been working through them as a team. A couple things that I really solidified about myself.

  • I’m a leader (lion)
  • I’m an introvert (weird considering my strength on stage)
  • My adapted style is a team player (otter)

Anyway if you want to know more about this jibberish I’m spewing on you then check out this awesome resource. Great idea for couples as well :)

But it got me thinking. I have heard a few times in my life that Leaders are the best followers… After going through this survey and then looking at my life I can’t help but wonder is that true?

Let me know what you think…

Are all Great Leaders also Great Followers?

Finding Strengths in Kids

May 26, 2009 in Lead 5

So I’m reading through Practicing Greatness by Reggie McNeal awesome book by the way.

He talks about finding and developing your strengths. On page 71 he talks about Donald Clifton who is the former CEO and chairman of The Gallup Organization. He wanted to help people discover and build on their talent. One of the things that we are passionate for @BrookwoodKiDs. He said that:

“People are more fulfilled when they are working from their strengths. He observed that people had fairly complete vocabularies for weaknesses, thanks to our culture. Even though we may not have any medical training or background in psychology, we are fairly well acquainted with neuroses and various psychological conditions like depression, bipolar disorder, ADD, various syndromes, paranoia, and schizophrenia.”

It seems as most people discover their strengths by taking a count of their weaknesses. Not only that but listen to this:

“The result of our culture’s obsession with weakness is that each of us is very well acquainted with what we are not good at” -Reggie McNeal

So how can we help kids discover and develop their strengths?

There are 5 that Reggie gives but you’ll have to buy the book for 4 of them! I’ll give you one that is most important for someone trying to help others find their strengths.

Feedback

Alot of times when we ask for honest feedback we assume the negative will come. What if you took the time to give meaningful truthful positive feedback on some awesome strength that you see a kid possess.

It’s time that we develop kids’ strengths instead of pointing out their weaknesses.

So help me out.

Give me one practical way for kids/students to find their strengths:

K5-

Elementary-

Middle School And High School Students-

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