by Nick Blevins | Aug 17, 2015 | Leadership
Last week I did some consulting/speaking with Browncroft Community Church in Rochester, NY. I met with the family ministry staff during the day and spoke to their volunteer small group leaders for elementary and student ministry that night. Their family ministry team...
by Nick Blevins | Aug 3, 2015 | Communication
Some people love email and others absolutely hate it. Like me, I'm sure you lean one way or the other and it's probably influenced by your church email communication. Our staff uses email regularly and we expect our staff and volunteer leaders to communicate with...
by Nick Blevins | Jul 9, 2014 | Communication, Popular
If you serve on staff in children's ministry or student ministry, you probably put on some important events each year. Church event promo isn't exactly something we're trained in before serving in ministry but it's something we have to learn quickly. Most churches and...
by Nick Blevins | Apr 2, 2014 | Leadership
As a leader, one of your primary jobs is to develop your team. Just like a coach in sports, we should consistently push, challenge and encourage those we lead to get better. We should help them improve in the skills they need for their role and in leadership in...
by Nick Blevins | Mar 10, 2014 | Communication
There are many things I wish I had known about communicating when I first started my ministry job. Learning to communicate effectively can have a major impact on your ministry and the relationships you build. Whether it's with kids, parents, or volunteers these 6...
by Nick Blevins | Oct 2, 2013 | Family Ministry
Family Ministry Models – The BEST Approach and 6 Benefits If you're not sure what the family ministry model is (often referred to as NextGen), you can read my thoughts about it here. In short, it's encompassing everything a church does for children and...
by Nick Blevins | Aug 14, 2013 | Family Ministry
Designing a complete strategy for family ministry in a church (birth through college) should include more than focused initiatives at each grade level. We need to help families move between those age-specific environments and celebrate big moments in their child's...
by Nick Blevins | Aug 5, 2013 | Lead Small
We implemented children's ministry small groups when our church started as a new plant in 2006. It's absolutely one of the best decisions we ever made and we have seen so much fruit from it. This is over-simplifying it, but most children's ministry fall into one of 3...
by Nick Blevins | Mar 11, 2013 | Leadership
Creating a healthy church culture is probably one of the hardest things to do as a leader. It's hard for pastors leading their staff and it may be even more difficult for those who lead volunteers. Whether we're intentional about it or not, we are creating a culture...
by Nick Blevins | Jul 23, 2012 | Leadership, Popular, Strategy
What is Family Ministry? Family Ministry is a newer phrase used in the church world to represent how a local church serves families. In the local church (in America at least), that has taken on a variety of looks over the years, but can mostly be broken up into 2...
by Nick Blevins | Jun 11, 2012 | Faith
Andy Stanley is a pastor and author and is someone who has been hugely influential to my growth as a follower of Jesus. He has also helped me grow as a leader. The primary way in which he has helped me grow is through his teaching. His teachings are a big reason why I...
by Nick Blevins | Mar 19, 2012 | Strategy
Church growth barriers are commonly talked about in the local church and church leaders are always looking for how to overcome them. Usually however, we don't start looking until we have hit one and plateaued. In this post, I'll share my thoughts on the family...
by Nick Blevins | Dec 14, 2011 | Leadership, Popular
Leadership development is extremely important in churches, but often times it doesn't receive the time, attention, budget and focus that it warrants. There are numerous reasons for that, but I think one of the big reasons is we simply don't know what to do. What are...
by Nick Blevins | Aug 3, 2011 | Strategy
In ministry, it's important to plan for growth to allow growth. In this post, I'll share 7 questions to help you evaluate your church programming. Many churches are defined by their programming. It's easy to allow programs to define the church rather than the mission,...
by Nick Blevins | Nov 9, 2010 | Family Ministry
At Community Christian Church we have used Orange curriculum in children's ministry since before we officially launched the church in 2006. I think it's the best children's ministry curriculum and that, of course, is why we use it. I was familiar with their strategy,...
