“The best question a leader can ask his/her team is, ‘What’s missing?'” ~John Maxwell
I LOVE the women who make up our Children’s Council. In the beginning of my tenure, we met monthly. We now meet quarterly and I adore their company. I enjoy meetings, but meetings with a purpose, a focus, take-aways, and ‘circle time.’ Those meetings give me insight, a filter, and energy.
Last Tuesday we gathered at the local Starbucks because we can get caught up, laugh, and speak face to face as we wait for our dessert in a cup. It’s relaxing, a breather for a hectic day.
Sitting in a circle, we each picked up a folded card that would ask questions to prompt our opening conversation. These questions were emailed earlier in the day to give time for prayerful consideration:
What are we doing well?
What is confusing?
What is missing?
What are we not doing well?
What is fruitful?
What has energy?
Taking notes offers a filter when implementing programming and communicating to our families in the days and weeks to come.
I then passed out a 2015 calendar (I spent the previous couple of weekends in Microsoft Publisher to prepare) with sermon titles, special events, school holidays, and the dates of Fantastic Friday/Parents Night Out, Faith Milestone events, VBS, and CLUB345…the dates of the non-regular-Sunday-stuff. The goal: Families need to plan ahead ( the council should be our greatest advocate and talk up these activities way ahead of time) AND the greater calendar offers the filter to not overwhelm our families and servants in the regular rhythm of our community.
Then, a front/back page of 2014 Celebrations as well as 2015 Plans, along with a more detailed explanation of upcoming Faith Milestone events with the what, the who, the when, the why, and the where that will be shared at next month’s Administrative Council meeting. I also introduced the upcoming three worship services in 2015 that will take place on the fifth Sunday of the month: Families First On The Fifth with a glimpse of what that’ll look like, but really just a ‘jumping off point.’
We started at 6pm and departures started a little after 8pm. It took a while, but a productive and focused meeting where everyone spoke, everyone shared, and everyone laughed.
Three MUSTS for meaningful meetings:
1. Great preparation – have a plan, share the plan ahead of time (ex: emailing the questions to prayerfully consider along with the reminder email.)
2. Great participation – have something where everyone shares, all voices are important (what folks talk about offer a glimpse into what their hearts and minds are taking up the most space in their heads.)
3. Great prayer – before, during, and after.
Top takeaways from last night’s meeting?
1. We have renewed energy for Sunday school (good thing because I had a copy of Sunday School That Works: The Complete Guide To Maximize Your Children’s Ministry Impact put out by Group Publishing for their take away and our discussion for our winter meeting.
2. As an alternative to our typical SCREAM Retreat in March, we will offer a day away retreat called “Deep And Wide” in July. 9am-9pm and only for rising 4th, 5th, and 6th graders…a faith milestone at Mrs. DeDe’s house (great response from the Moms on the Council because I live 45-50 minutes away from the church in the mountains of North Georgia.) We’ll hike, swim, go the movies, and have a program specific to practicing ‘soul training’ and answering their own personal call into ministry.
3. Sending the weekly Sunday school challenge by text to the families of the older kids.
4. Incorporating the traditional songs with motions in Sunday school…there’s great truth in the traditional songs of ‘Deep and Wide,’ ‘My God Is So Great,’ and ‘He’s A Peach of a Savior,’ etc.
“The most effective children’s ministry director is the one who has an inner circle of champions and advocates who believe so much in what you’re doing they will hide bodies for you.” ~ Lynley Jones, Children’s Ministry Director, Asbury United Methodist Church, Lafayette, Louisiana
I am in awe of reading this post. When i was first appointed chair of our children’s program i was excited. For three years now I have worked as a sunday school teacher and participated as VBS director…I thoroughly enjoy working with children…and have always felt it to be a group or team effort to bring the different activities to light…however…I recieve little help to pull things together..I am quite surprised that anything gets accomplished.
Our whole Sunday school dept needs to be revamped and our children’s program is in need of new life. However, I have met up with some very large obstacles in my attempts implement any thing different or not what has been done the last 20 odd yrs…thus I feel resulting in our children’s numbers to drop drastically. Once something is done…ex..VBS format done differently…and with little to no help in decor or executing the program..peolpe through out their approval.
my thing is I attempted a christmas practice today…the CD I had was criztizied b/c it was adifferent format…so I ordered the tradtional music with no talking parts. And I once again feel the wrath from some individuals. Am I not in the right area of ministry work…do I need to step down… I am at a lost and quite frankly ready to leave my church. Please any advise would be appreciated.
Sweet One, sounds like you need some easy wins and quickly. When I first started at WC, where I am now, I accepted the position ONLY after they had 2-3 praying for me my first 6 months…for favor, for help, for energy, for kindness. My heart hurts for you. Been there. Let me invite you to call me at 404-493-1683. And invite you to ask 1 prayer warrior at your church to ask another to pray for you for the next 6 months…ask them to pray for the above items AND to pray for your family-the ones who love you most and your church family. Write them notes of encouragement/thanks for praying for you monthly. As hard as it is to not take personally, ask the Lord to let what you are feeling in criticism to roll off your back…meaning, you hear them and just smile and nod. You may want to do something altogether different to get an easy win that isn’t anything you’ve done before. Call me and we may be able to think of something that would be easy, require a minimum of volunteers but would be a huge hit and give you some faith deposits in the banks of those who have a critical spirit. We all know that a critical spirit is NOT of the Lord and sounds like you need some protection. We, too, have begun revamping our Sunday School and I’ll be blogging about that soon. In the meantime, perhaps you’d like to get a copy of the Group Publishing’s book mentioned in the blog. If nothing else, it may give you the fuel your spirit needs to keep going. Stepping down may be what is best, but only after you’ve heard clearly from the Lord to do so. Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s not of the Lord. Praying for you…
Thanks for a great, inspiring post and for sharing it to the facebook group where I found it.