Raising Kids & Youth in Ministry
The reward for all your hard work will have to wait till heaven, or so I thought. But this past weekend I felt like I got to cash in.
It hit me as the youth we took to Fort Nelson began to shine! They were involved in skits, spoke to a small church full of people, sang and/or played their instruments, prayed for other teens, did acts of service with joy, and more. I felt like one proud mama, even though only four of them where mine.
The weekend was a good reminder for me of lessons we have learned through the years.
1. Don’t ever look down on someone even though they are young.
Matthew said of kids, that their angels are consistently before the Father.
Don’t ever think that younger children don’t have what it takes when it come to kingdom stuff…in fact Jesus even says we won’t even see Heaven if we don’t become like little children. Listen closely to what they have to say. Their is no Jr. Size Holy Spirit…
2. Let the Next Generation be full participants in the life of the Church.
Take their ideas and suggestions to heart. I can’t help but think our churches would be growing by leaps and bounds if we took the creativity of a couple of preteens. I’m positive you would be putting in a rock climbing wall somewhere, or decking out your whole church for some event attracting kids. For those that have a hard time thinking of releasing kids to this extent in our precious church programs, think of Jesus in the temple at 12, teaching the priests. Maybe it’s time that we stop clinging to our seats on Sunday, and move…over.
3. Youth that are tied into the life of the church, stay in church.
And I’m definitely NOT talking about simply attending programs. Involve them in the leadership of your kids program. They will start to disconnect as early as age 10 if they aren’t involved in serving somewhere in the local church. Get them running your sound board for kids programs, running games, doing PowerPoint. This way they feel like they are a vital part of the church. Parents: protect your children from becoming so busy that they have no time for engaging in the local church.
4. Give preteens and teens an opportunity to lead, on the platform, during BIG people’s church.
Because they’ve already been given opportunity to sing, speak, lead, and minister prophetically in your kids and youth programs, they slide right into this role with ease. Most times shocking the socks off of adults who know that one of the greatest fears on earth is speaking in public.
5. Involve and invite them to your regular leadership training, your conferences, and even your board meetings.
Raise your expectations of them, and you’ll be thrilled by all great things that will come out of them, and how enthusiastically they will take hold of whatever challenges you throw their way.
6. Don’t ever underestimate small, messy, noisy, frustrating beginnings.
I know it’s going to be a sacrifice of long-suffering at times, but so worth it! And if you stick it out long enough, you’ll get to see a bumper crop of the sweetest fruit. This weekend I was fortunate enough to taste some of that fruit, as each of those teens were kids we have poured into over the years. For me personally, it’s been over 8 years invested, but oh so worth it!
~ Submitted by Sara Warriner
Evangel Chapel
Planning Your Next Step Part Three
Planning Your Next Step Part three is a reflective and responsive blog post.
Reflect
Look at your upcoming yearly calendar. How healthy is it? Have you planned vacation, family and rest time? Why have you or haven’t you taken the time for these important things.
Reflect on your ministry. What are you passionate about?
Reflect on a time when someone dumped a task on you? How did you feel? Do you tend to dump tasks on people or do you delegate wisely?
In your ministry and personal life, a lack of clarity leads to confusion. Reflect on different aspects you need to clarify the expectations. E.g. you might think you need to provide a choir throughout the year, but it may not be a priority for your senior pastor. Knowing this will help you prioritize your time and energy.
Respond
1 – Take your calendar and mark all important dates from the category covered. Highlight each category with a different color. Then highlight the dates and events you need to be involved in. Choose another colour to highlight dates/events that will play a role in your event planning (church or community event at large).
2 – Make a SWOT analysis for one of your goals, covering the strengths, weaknesses, obstacles and threats. For each factor match an action point and identify who could be responsible for this task.
3 – Make a list of the things in your ministry that you enjoy doing the most.
4 – Make a list of what you need to do. You might need to clarify your senior pastor’s expectation of what he thinks is the non-negotiable of your role. You can ask him these questions:
- When do I need to work in the office?
- What are the three most important things that need attention? What are the non-negotiable “to do’s”?
- What programs need to be delivered? What is the purpose and target group of each program?
- Which other committees, programs or events should I participate in? What is my involvement in the life of the church? What new initiatives am I asked to lead?
5 – Make a list of tasks you can delegate, and list the resources that volunteers will need to carry out that ministry well.
Planning Your Next Step Part Two
Here is part two from Caroline Bergeron on “Planning Your Next Step.”
SWOT Analysis
1. Strengths and weaknesses
Here you can list all the potentially positive internal factors. It is called internal because it depends on the actual ministry reality. When developing Strengths and Weaknesses, it is important to look at the church/ministry honestly, rather than being too modest or overly critical. Seek a balance between the number of strengths and weaknesses identified. While identifying your strengths, ask yourself these questions:
- What are we doing well?
- What areas of our church/ministry are healthy?
- What would someone who sees several churches like ours point out as being distinctive (either positive or negative) about our church?
- What resources can we call upon? How does this compare to our needs?
- What factors could reduce our effectiveness?
2. Opportunities and Threats
The Opportunities and Threats are called external factors because they are mainly gathered from looking beyond the boundaries of the church/ministry. To identify the opportunities, reflect on what community-based needs could be met by our church’s strengths and resources.
To identify the threats, reflect on things that are out of your control and could affect your event/program, like the weather or conflicting dates for example. Also reflect on what is changing in the community or society that will impact us in the future. These are things you need to be aware of.
Seeing potential problems before they happen, and finding creative ways to solve them, are two of the best ways to run a smooth event; or to make a considerable transition in your ministry.
3. Think creatively
The aim of the SWOT analysis is to identify the key factors that will impact the church’s ability to achieve its purpose and vision. For focus’ sake, it is probably best to limit the SWOT analysis to no more than 10 factors for each of the four elements.
As you make your SWOT analysis, make sure to match action points for each factor of the different categories. Use action words to help you set clear guidelines. The goal is to help you build your Strengths, Reverse (or disguise) your Weaknesses, Maximize the response to the Opportunities, and Overcome the Threats. Take a look at the example provided on the next page.
DELEGATE WISELY
Place your different action steps into three different categories.
1. What do you love to do? Think about the things that fuel your life and ministry. Plan to do some of the things you are most passionate about.
2. What are you not good at? None of us can do it all well. The sooner you understand this, the better it will be. Recognize your limits.
3. What do you need to do?
Some things are yours to do, like it or not. You just can’t get around it. This may be communicating your vision for the ministry, planning the budget, recruiting volunteers, implementing policies or dealing with conflict. Remember, to have the credibility of your team and senior leadership, you must take responsibility for what is yours to do. I recommend that you clarify the ‘non-negotiables’ of your position with your senior pastor. He should clearly explain his expectations. If you need to do something you are not good at, find a mentor who can coach you in this area.
4. What can you delegate? Who would love this ministry?
There’s no place in God’s kingdom for control freaks. You need to let go of some things and delegate them wisely. Resist the tendency to simply dump tasks on people. Merriam Webster describes the verb ‘dumping’ as to let fall in or as if in a heap or mass, to get rid of irresponsibly. Have you ever had a task dumped on you? Have you ever dumped a project on someone else? God is calling us to be leaders who wisely delegate, which means according to Merriam Webster, to entrust, to appoint as one’s representative or to delegate authority.
One way you can delegate wisely is to ask yourself, “What will that person need to do a great job?” You see, the difference between dumping and delegating is in the empowerment. When you ask someone to join the team to fulfill a specific role or do a specific task, you need to give them the tools. This can be providing a clear job description, training or coaching. This may also include the resources they need to successfully accomplish the task, such as material. We will look at this in more detail in Module 4 on Volunteer Management.
Planning Your Next Step Part Three will be posted next week. Be prepared to reflect and respond to this teaching.
Planning Your Next Step Part One
In the next two blog posts Caroline has written some wonderful leadership training to help you begin 2012 with the best foot forward.
Do you ever feel like you’re running out of time? You may feel that you don’t have the time to do the laundry, attend parent/teacher meetings, visit the kids in your ministry or take a vacation. Time is flying by and our to-do list remains the same but think about this; each year God gives us a gift of 365 days. Each day is filled with 24 hours or 1440 minutes, to be more precise. In His great wisdom, God designed this to be enough for us to accomplish everything He asks us to do, including time for delighting in Him and our loved ones. The question isn’t whether or not we have enough time, it is, “Am I being wise and intentional in the way I steward my time and energy?” Am I spreading myself too thin in things that have the least impact and reward? The truth is that God gave you the gift of enough time for all of the things He asks of you. Are you doing what He’s asking you to do? These posts will equip you to become a better steward of your time and energy by giving you tools to plan a healthy calendar, do strategic assessment through the SWOT analysis, and delegate wisely. Remember that God gives you all that you need, including time, energy and creativity, so let’s make the best of it!
Plan a Healthy Yearly Calendar
1. Book family and refreshing time first
The first things that should go onto your yearly calendar are family and refreshing times. Mark dates that are important to your family such as anniversaries, birthdays, vacations, kids’ recitals, time with extended family, etc. Unless you set these times apart for the ones you love, you will end up neglecting those who matter most to you. My husband and I don’t go out on Valentine’s Day; it’s just too hard to find a babysitter, but we do plan a date two-three days after and it works great for us. Do what works best for your family and you.
With the same color, block off dates in your calendar for personal refreshing such as retreats, conferences, seminars and classes, time to seek the Lord, fasting, etc. These times will allow you to refocus on being who God is calling you to be and do what He is calling you to do. It must be your first priority.
2. List important work or church-related dates
Take another color highlighter and mark the dates that relate to work, church, your ministry and the community. Is there a time when your work is filled with deadlines and is more demanding on you and your family? Log it on your calendar. Any church event such as a picnic, Easter production or concert you need to attend? Put it on your calendar. What about your normal events in the children’s ministry department, like VBS, September kick-off and Christmas productions? Put it on your calendar. One thing that is very helpful is to mark down important dates in your community, such as March break, long weekends, city festival and neighborhood BBQs. As a pastor in Victoria, BC, one of the highlights of my year was the Victoria Day parade, one of the biggest parades in Canada. We had such a great opportunity to get our kids onto our dynamic and well decorated float to promote our upcoming VBS. Choose a color and highlight dates and events you need to be involved in. Choose another color to mark dates and events that will play a role in your event planning.
3. Look at your calendar
Look at your calendar as a whole. Consider family/personal life, work, church as a whole and your personal ministry. Then, think about the goals and projects that God is putting on your heart. Reflect on the amount of time you will need to prepare, promote, gather material, recruit volunteers, etc. Then pray about when this event would be the timeliest in your life as a whole. Remember, my goal through this reflection is to assure your longevity and fruitfulness in ministry. Sometimes, the healthiest thing you can do is to wait for the right time.
Now, is there any platform you can use to promote your event/ministry? I’ve used our involvement in the parade to promote our upcoming VBS. What are the opportunities from your church and community you can benefit from to let the word out about your new initiative?
Part two of “Planning Your Next Step” will be posted next week.
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