We get the first full week of the summer with Vacation Bible School AND the last week of the summer in our community at Ultimate Summer Camp. We are the only game in town that last week of the summer (or so we’re told) and we rock the event inhouse for 4 year olds through rising 6th graders. The directors of our Recreation Ministry and Youth Ministry take the lead for the 1st-5th graders. A fabulous Weekday Preschool teacher takes the point for the littles. We hire staff, we enlist volunteers, and we wear the kids out!

Each day was themed with a popular reality television show, began with free play, then to chapel with the day’s message which roped through the entire day. The week’s Bible theme: 1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”  These are just a few of the highlights of each day:

Monday theme: Amazing Race

Chapel: Hebrews 12 – God had a race set out for Jesus; God has a race set out for each of us.

Activities: Races, scavenger hunts all over campus, Science Lady (fellow kidmin champion) came with race and motion activities, staff spoke of their many nationalities from around the globe, Gaga ball, Dodge ball.

Tuesday theme: Top Chef

Chapel: Luke 22 – Just as we take individual, ordinary items in a recipe to make something amazing, Jesus did the same with bread and juice.

Activities: Decorated ice cream sundaes (littles) and baby cakes (bigs), outdoor waterslide, made edible playdoh, taste test skills.

Wednesday theme: Fear Factor

Chapel: Matthew 14 – When we are afraid, we can pray. God hears our prayers. Immediately Jesus responds because Jesus is always with us.

Activities: Greased watermelon wrestling which led to watermelon smearing fun, race to eat and finish unknown foods, races with friends attached with jelly & marshmallows, finding gummy worms in whipped cream without hands, cup spill (100 cups filled half with nothing, half with ‘stuff’; student chooses a number and that cup gets dumped on their head).

Thursday theme: Little Big Shots

Chapel: We all have gifts, but only ONE God raised from the dead and is alive today. Only place where ‘incredible’ is noted in the scriptures is Acts 26:8.

Activities: Talent show by group, Big Screen dance off, child-directed art, shaving cream, Talent show by individuals. (The Greatest Showman was HIGHLY featured here by the students.)

Friday theme: American Ninja Warrior

Chapel: 1 Corinthians 10:31 There’s always another course and we are in training. American Ninja Warriors train in a gym. We celebrated the end of a course a few months ago, then we rested. But now we begin a new course, a new school year and we must be in training to follow Jesus all the time. As followers of Jesus, we train at church. Be sure to come to church and gather with other kids who love Jesus because there will always be challenges along the way.

Activities: Science lady returns with 15 science stations, Staff Sargent Marine came to lead conditioning drills and martial arts skills, Ninja Warrior obstacle course.

With a closed Facebook group, we ran Facebook Live videos on the last 3 days…. which gave us a huge boost in families joining the closed group…which means our kids’ stuff is now running in those families’ Facebook feeds. Winner-winner-chicken-dinner!

Followup: Families invited to Promotion Sunday’s Pop Into Sunday School by email, word of mouth, and social media with bubble wrapped hallways, tootsie pops, ring pops, and pop-rocks in the parent packets AND an afternoon old-fashioned pot-luck with a couple of water slides for kids to get wet 3-5pm after all our services are completed for the day. Bring your own chair, tent, and enough food for your family and plenty to share.

“Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name.” Psalm 103:1

A pastor called me recently asking my thoughts on what their new Children’s Ministry Director should do to get started. After 30 minutes on the line, he shared with me that he was in the car and could I send him everything I’d just said by email. Ha! My response, “Absolutely, but not today.” I was in the middle of our 3rd day of Ultimate Camp, setting rosters for the next Sunday, finalizing the new school year calendar of events, lunch was on my desk, and two amazing high school girls were stuffing parent packets within 3 feet of me.

Everyone will offer something different, but he called me, so this is what I shared…

Get Immediate Expectations – Pastor, please meet with your new CMD and inform them clearly, preferably in writing, of what you want to see within the next 90 days. Two questions I’ve always asked the senior pastor/my supervisor were, “What looks like success to YOU?”, and “Tell me about the best CMD you ever knew.” This is the starting standard.

Get the church rhythm – Pastor, please give your new CMD an idea of what the church calendar will look like over the next year, even an overview, so that if a Christmas Eve play or Mother’s Day special music is expected, your new CMD doesn’t hear about it two week’s prior by a passing church leader in the hallway. OR peruse the bulletins over the last year after you give the church secretary/admin a Diet coke over crushed ice.

Get covered in Prayer – SPRC, please set up a weekly prayer team of 2 or 3 (Matthew 18:20) for your new CMD’s first 6 months. This dedicated prayer covers a multitude of misunderstandings and invites a great deal of favor.

Get Connected – Require your new CMD to get connected with other kidmin champions in the area. Each North Georgia UMC Conference District has a networking group and the contact people can be found here. The research claims the average ‘life span’ of a new director of children’s ministry is 18 months…unless connected with others outside their own house/church. This is an investment into the long-term.

Get the Resources – Share the closed Children’s Ministry Facebook groups in the area that are available to safely and confidently ask questions, share resources, and know what trainings are happening near and far.

Get the book – Sustainable Children’s Ministry: From Last-minute Scrambling to Long-term Solutions by Mark DeVries and Annette Safstrom. It’s all about setting up the systems that build a healthy ministry and a healthy ministry leader. This is a go-to book for every new and old CMD.

Get a coach – Even Olympians need a coach for encouragement, focus, direction, and a partner in ministry outside their own house/church. A person to talk with the new CMD one-on-one about insights, discuss the book above, etc. In the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, we have an amazing coach in Rev. Debby Fox. She’s a great connector and can offer names and contacts of other CMDs all over North Georgia with varying expertise and experiences.

Denominational theology – The pastor asked if I thought taking a class or two at seminary would help this new CMD in understanding Methodist theology. I don’t know about that. What I do know is that any new CMD is on the fast-track, because Sunday comes every week. I’ve discovered a jewel in the first seven podcasts of Small Groups in the Wesleyan Way presented by Discipleship Ministries. Rev. Scott Hughes and Rev. Steve Manskar do an excellent job of giving vocabulary, history, and a theological basis for the United Methodist Church and the Wesleyan way of approaching ministry. I never miss an episode.

Yes, this seems like a lot, but Sunday’s coming. These are all goals that can be accomplished within the first 90-120 days of employment. These are just my thoughts. What are yours?

“I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ.” Philemon 1:6

The Sunday school hour is a priority. It’s when children are involved in large group, then break up into developmentally-appropriate small groups by grade. If we run a ‘special’ on a Sunday, it always happens at the Sunday school hour because I want families to get into a new habit of joining us during that time. If Sunday school is a priority, then we want to do something memorable for the first Sunday school of the season. My colleague and dear friend, Katie Atcheson, who also leads ministry with children is part of our children’s ministry network in North Georgia and the POP INTO SUNDAY SCHOOL was her original idea. Thanks for sharing, Katie!

We prepared parent packets similar to what families receive when they go to their kid’s school for meet & greet. Ours included: school year calendar, parent/family interest survey to be completed and returned (family info and ways to serve in the ministry this year…think: parent volunteer list similar to what families get at meet & greet again), God Loves Your Family brochure, postcard for upcoming Glee Club & Cherub Choir open house, and pop-rocks (thanks for popping into Sunday school).

We had jars of Ring Pops and Mini Tootsie Pops for kids on Sunday as well as lined the main hallways with 1/2″ 24X250 (ordered two rolls) bubble wrap. When you step on it, it sounds like firecrackers! Can’t help but step on it. Can’t help but laugh. Can’t help but be surprised! I actually got an email from the church receptionist when it was delivered by Uline.com that the bubble wrap was too big for the church office door! We didn’t need all of it, so we cut the remainder into strips for the kids to pop upon arrival while in the Children’s Welcome Center.

The sounds of the kids popping and laughing were better than I imagined. It was noisy and made the morning a very special way to begin a new season of Sunday school. What did you do to begin a new year?

“Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story.” Acts 11:4

During a long and difficult season of healing from the deep cuts of stained glass, a dear pastor suggested I find a way to overcome being a pleaser if I was going to continue God’s call on my life to minister to children and families. A pleaser is a person who tries hard to make people happy or to make people like them. Was it that obvious? Of course it was. I wore that status like a pair of glasses. It was my lens when I began my call to ministry. Had Dawn Owens’ book Like Me Or Not: Overcoming Approval Addiction been published 15 years ago, it probably wouldn’t have taken me so long to be on this side of a struggle I’ll deal with my whole life. “Most of us are addicted to approval, but not everyone knows it.” (pg 9)

An approval addict’s wounds go deep and can be slow to heal because of the number of times we scratch them open. For many, the wounds have left scars we don’t want others to see. But scars fade and even disappear in the light of the wonderful gift Jesus gave us when He decided to choose the approval of God over the approval of man. When we do the same, our scars become so insignificant to us that we no longer realize they are there. (p 10)

Like Me Or Not is a raw book. Dawn Owens goes down trails I would typically avoid. Yet, she hits the nail on the head often. In each chapter Dawn addresses areas of everyday when we find ourselves dependent on the approval of others rather than focusing on the approval of God. She writes of insecurities, putting ‘me’ where God belongs in my focus, the lie of self-justification, social media, the individual choice to be angry or offended, rejection, comparison, and being a control freak.  Community, not comparison is how we show the world our Savior is alive and lives within us. (pg 125)

In every instance she points us to the scriptures where we find God’s heart, the perfect vocabulary necessary to learn the truth of who we truly are and whose we truly are. She writes of forward-moving steps to overcoming the addiction to people-pleasing by realizing who the enemy is, reminding myself who I belong to, recognizing the guilt and shame I’ve ever felt is not from God, and this is the kicker: forgiveness comes when I realize the person who hurt me or ignited my insecurities did so out of their own wounds. The walking wounded. Hmmm…

There probably aren’t any surprises in the text when you’re on the other side of approval addiction, but when it’s YOU, and you’re in the midst of a bad case of it, the practical responses to renewing our minds to seek to please the Lord are very helpful. She’s right for what it’ll take. It’ll take discipline and patience and trust in the one who speaks, “Beloved” to your soul. Study and pray the scriptures.  Fast from those things which encourage you to be conformed to the approval of others. Quit talking to other people about your decisions going instead to God in prayer. Take a true Sabbath. This and more is what it took for me. I have a stack of index cards with the scriptures which helped me turn the corner and wait on the Lord. If I don’t hear “Beloved”, even in my self-talk, it’s not of the Lord.

Dawn’s personal stories are real and she points us to Christ throughout. I’m grateful for her book and suggest anyone in ministry with others (is there any other ministry?) to pick up a copy. As a matter of fact, I’ve got one to share. Let me know by a comment below and I’ll announce the winner next week.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” James 1:5