Archive - December, 2008

Friday Five

December 12, 2008 in Friday Five with 0 Comments

Here are my five favorite blog posts from the week:

Craig Groeschel – Successful Ministry – 1 – Craig talks about size of ministry vs success

Steven Furtick – If you think something good…. – I'm bad at not acting on things I think. 

Perry Noble – Four Arguments You Just Can't Win – Part Two – Every growing church deals with this accusation and I think the key is re-shaping people's definition of "deep".

Tony Morgan – All Churches Are Marketing – Follow up to two of his previous posts

David McDaniel – He is now blogging, and that's a link to his blog…..of which you should subscribe

NFL & The Church Part 1 of 6

December 10, 2008 in Church Culture, NFL with 0 Comments

The Church (capital C) is my number one passion after God & family and the NFL is my number one hobby.  Throughout my history with each of them I've noticed some common things between the two of them, but in some cases it SHOULD be common but it usually isn't.  I'll post them all in no particular order.

Priorities

Below is a picture from inside the Ravens Training Facility in Owings Mills, MD.  Coach John Harbaugh has posted signs like the one below to remind everybody in the organization what their priorities should be.  According to God's plan our priorities should be God, family, Church, others, self.  Neither the NFL nor the Church does a perfect job (but who does) at keeping priorities straight but they have similar goals. 

You could replace "others" for "team" in the image below, add God to the top, and you would have a great poster for Christians.  It's obvious why God isn't at the top of the poster below, but it's also interesting to note that I've never seen any secular organization give credit to God, talk about Jesus, and pray more than NFL players do.  Sure, they aren't all like that but the vast majority are despite the fact that all we here about are the minority that cause problems……like shooting themselves. 

Ravens

Fear Quote from Andy Stanley

December 8, 2008 in Church Culture, Leadership with 0 Comments

I just read the book Fields of Gold by Andy Stanley.  I've had it for years but never read it.  But this tough economic time seemed like a great opportunity to open it up.  It's a great read that I highly recommend.  Here's a quote from the book about fear:

"The sooner you spread your fears out on the table and prioritize them, the better.  Analyze your fears for their true potency, then prioritize them accordingly.  Which fears warrant your attention?  And which ones are ultimately benign?  Wisdom is the key to sorting through your fears.  However, the more threatening the fears the more difficult it is to apply wisdom and sort them out."

These tough economic times have undoubtedly caused difficulty in sorting through fears because of how threatening things are right now.  I've found myself not applying wisdom and allowing fear to control my thoughts and actions.  Before that quote Andy mentions that we should not expect to avoid fear, but rather we should choose what we fear.  I pray that I will fear God and in doing so, will make wise choices.  
My biggest fears probably have to do with missing opportunities, messing up as a husband, and not being a wise steward of what God has given to me.  How about you?

Friday Five

December 6, 2008 in Friday Five with 0 Comments

Here are my five favorite blog posts from the week:

Catalyst – MISSIONAL? OR FICTIONAL – Interesting question posed.  I shared part of my thoughts via comment.

Jay Hardwick – Fundraising 101 with David McDaniel – Great thoughts from David for anyone looking to support their vision financially.

Tony Morgan – Synergy – This is part of what I'm praying we will see in Baltimore!

Steven Furtick – Let 'em Walk – A lot of church leaders would do well to learn this principle

Children’s Ministers/Pastors Should Be LEADERS

December 4, 2008 in Children's Ministry, Leadership with 3 Comments

Children's Ministers usually fall into one of three categories.  One category is that they aren't just children's ministers, but they're also student ministers or education directors and they're not really passionate about children's ministry anyway.  The problem there is obvious so we'll skip that for now.

The other two categories are people who are great with kids or people who are leaders.  Rarely can you find somebody who is both.  When I say "great with kids" I mean somebody who would be a great teacher/communicator to kids, a great small group leader, etc.  In other words, they're really good at doing children's ministry.  They're great people to have around because they set the bar high and are naturally gifted in that way. 

The problem is, they may not be leaders.  They'll do a great job of getting a new or struggling children's ministry growing because of the excellence in what they do but all of that will only last until more people are needed in order for the ministry to grow.  This is why churches should look for strong leaders when hiring children's ministers. 

In most churches, the children's ministry is the largest volunteer team.  In order to continue to grow and build that team you want a leader who can always take the team to the next level.  They do that by developing leaders who lead other leaders.  The create teams that they eventually step out of.  They delegate responsibility and not just tasks.  They invest heavily into a group of leaders. 

Children's Ministers who are excellent at doing children's ministry are a great fit for large churches that can hire them.  They'll help raise the bar of excellence and make sure that everybody is constantly thinking with the mind of a child during planning times.  But, churches shouldn't make the mistake of hiring an excellent doer when they need an excellent leader. 

In rare cases somebody is both, but that's far from the norm.  I don't claim to be either but I'm working on the leader aspect because the best I can offer as a doer of children's ministry is that I can easily act like a 7 year old…….even when not required to. 

Children’s Ministry Volunteers Then and Now

December 3, 2008 in Children's Ministry, Church Culture, Leadership with 0 Comments

Children's Ministry volunteers are absolutely crucial to a church.  In my previous post I talked about the arrival of children's ministry in recent years. I know children's ministry has been around forever in the form of Sunday School, but it's importance has changed along with the new strategies and methods that are sweeping the country.  

Disclaimer:  I know that Sunday School is not attached to a specific model/strategy of children's ministry but I will attach it to the teaching/knowledge based method where children are in classes and the leader's primary role is to teach.

In the Sunday School model the range of volunteer roles primarily included teacher and director.  Teachers taught specific age groups of children while directors led departments.  A great Sunday School teacher would be a gifted teacher, leader, small group leader, encourage, friend, and administrator. 
 
Now children's ministry environments are typically designed around maximizing one or two strengths of each person rather than requiring people to use gifts they don't have.  Small Group Leaders don't have to be great teachers and communicators don't have to be great small group leaders.  People who welcome guests don't have to be either and technical teams don't necessarily need to work with children.  Everything has become more specialized which requires more volunteers, but allows volunteers to use their giftedness more specifically than ever before. 
 
In order for this to fully function, the leader must involve volunteers through this strategy and create a culture where everyone knows how important their role is in the big picture.  I'll talk more about the leader in my next post.

Children’s Ministry’s Arrival

December 1, 2008 in Children's Ministry, Leadership with 3 Comments

Children's Ministry is an interesting aspect of the church.  Much like Student Ministry revolutionized the church starting a half-century ago, children's ministry is in the early stages of it's growth.  Just a decade ago a church staff would normally consist of a pastor, music minister, and a student pastor (if the church was large enough).  Student Pastors were considered a vital part of the church, even if the number of students was not really large enough to require a full-time position.  

Now, church plants are often launched with a pastor, worship leader, and children's minister.  The student minister and student ministry in general is still valued, but church plants are typically looking to staff Sunday morning environments first.  Most church plants do not have a separate environment for students on Sunday morning simply because there isn't a need for it.  Even if there was, it's usually not feasible to create that many healthy environments out the gate.  

So, children's ministry has arrived as a crucial component of the church.  This is obviously due in large part to the need to have a place for children when having services for adults.  But, it's also because everybody knows that reaching families requires reaching children.  Parents will deal with a lot if they know their kids are having a great time.  Also, the number of people that attend church in the U.S. doubles when you specifically look at families with elementary age children.  Parents are looking for help in raising their children spiritually and morally.  

At the Multisite Practicum Dave Ferguson said the most critical component of a new campus is the children's ministry.  But, his reason for saying that had more to do with volunteers than anything else.  Something I'll talk about in my next post.
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