by Nick Blevins | Jul 5, 2018 | Children's Ministry, Family Ministry, Freebie, Student Ministry, Volunteers
One of the best things we can give to our volunteers is clear expectations. A clear, concise, well-written job description can go a long way towards communicating what we expect from volunteers. Volunteer job descriptions can also help you clarify your vision for the...
by Nick Blevins | Oct 10, 2016 | Children's Ministry, Family Ministry, Partner With Parents, Student Ministry
If you don’t know what Orange is, it’s a non-profit company that helps churches win with families. They help by creating strategies, curriculum, resources, leader training, conferences and more. You can find out more on the What Is Orange website....
by Nick Blevins | Oct 5, 2016 | Children's Ministry, Family Ministry, Student Ministry
Last week, our family ministry staff, along with about 10 volunteers, attended the Orange Tour stop in Lancaster, PA. We attend the Tour every year and it was a great experience as always. Unlike past years, we went north to Lancaster instead of south to D.C. and the...
by Nick Blevins | May 30, 2016 | Student Ministry
I have attended church regularly ever since my mom first took me when I was 2 years old. By the time I was a high school student, I was fully involved in our student ministry and I loved my church. There were so many key relationships, experiences, and learnings in my...
by Nick Blevins | May 2, 2016 | Children's Ministry, Family Ministry, Student Ministry
Last week I had my annual trip to the Orange Conference. It’s a week I look forward to every year. I posted notes from the first and second main sessions, but here are some general takeaways I had from the conference. It’s a random list in random order. A...
by Nick Blevins | Apr 28, 2016 | Children's Ministry, Family Ministry, Student Ministry
I’m at the Orange Conference this week, and I’m blogging notes from main sessions. Here are my notes from the second main session. Andy Stanley The church saved my life, in a preventative way. You are preventing more than you can ever imagine in the lives...
by Nick Blevins | Apr 28, 2016 | Children's Ministry, Family Ministry, Student Ministry
I’m at the Orange Conference this week, and I’m blogging notes from main sessions. Here are my notes from the first main session. Monday is Coming The theme of this year’s Orange Conference is Monday is Coming. The question we’re challenged...
by Nick Blevins | Apr 25, 2016 | Children's Ministry, Family Ministry, Student Ministry
I’m headed to the Orange Conference this week in Atlanta, GA. It’s one of my favorite weeks each year where I get to learn from top leaders, connect with friends, gather tons of great ideas, network with some new leaders and be stretched all around. As...
by Nick Blevins | Apr 11, 2016 | Children's Ministry, Student Ministry, Volunteers
Almost a decade ago I was at a conference for churches who were thinking about going multisite. It was a small gathering of about 100-200 leaders, so it felt different than a typical conference. I’m not sure how it came up, but the speaker was talking about...
by Nick Blevins | Apr 6, 2016 | Student Ministry
A few weeks ago there was a flurry of conversation in the interwebs stemming from a comment Andy Stanley made during a message. You can read some about it here. Andy Stanley has been a huge influence on my life as a Christian, husband, father, pastor, and leader....
by Nick Blevins | Mar 16, 2016 | Children's Ministry, Family Ministry, Lead Small, Student Ministry
A couple weeks ago I was honored to speak to the amazing preschool ministry volunteers at Park Valley Church. The topic I was asked to speak on was How to Partner With Preschool Parents as a Small Group Leader. Here are the 5 points I shared, that I believe apply to...
by Nick Blevins | Mar 14, 2016 | Children's Ministry, Leadership, Student Ministry
In a previous post, I talked about the importance of being a habitual learner in relation to leading a growing family ministry. It is the most common attribute I see in great leaders. One of the ways I wrote that we can become habitual learners is to build it into our...
by Nick Blevins | Mar 9, 2016 | Children's Ministry, Student Ministry, Volunteers
Some time ago our family ministry team read the book Creating Magic by Lee Cockerell. It was a great read with a lot of helpful leadership principles. The book Be Our Guest is another great resource, and while our family ministry team hasn’t read it together,...
by Nick Blevins | Mar 7, 2016 | Children's Ministry, Family Ministry, Leadership, Student Ministry
As everyone who works in ministry knows, it’s hard. You never get it all done and every week there are urgent things that have to be balanced with the important things. In the midst of it all it’s easy to fall into the trap of simply managing what we have...
by Nick Blevins | Mar 2, 2016 | Children's Ministry, Family Ministry, Student Ministry, Volunteers
In the survey I recently did, volunteer training was one of the top topics family ministry leaders were interested in. Training volunteers is crucial and I believe it is something many leaders struggle to do well. It’s also something that isn’t a...
