This was the second year I was invited to serve as a coach at the annual Children’s Pastor’s Conference sponsored by International Network of Children’s Ministry. It’s one of the many highlights of the entire week. INCM does a fabulously thorough job of training coaches to be great listeners to direct our fellow children’s ministry champions to understand they each have what it takes to fulfill God’s call on their lives where He’s called them to serve. With forms in hand to better clarify our time together, we begin our thirty-minute session diving into the deep end of being new to children’s ministry or whatever has him/her stuck.

Communication among staff was the common topic shared at my table. These are a few thoughts we shared together:

First, ask these inquiries of fellow staff members/pastor(s):
1. What is the best way to communicate with you?
2. What’s off limits?
3. Tell me about the best children’s ministry leader you ever worked with.
These three inquiries are good to ask of new staff members, as well, after he/she has been there a couple of days. And always come bearing a gift of some logo-ed swag or a tasty beverage from Quick Trip.

Second, when setting a meeting date for a face-to-face or phone call, follow it up with an email, “As per our conversation today in the hallway, let’s confirm we will meet next Tuesday (date), at (time), at (location.) Will that still work for you?” It’ll give time to check schedules and get a response that you heard properly. Then follow up with a text the morning of the afternoon meeting or the evening before a morning meeting. If a text reminder works for the dentist, it’ll surely work for you. Once confirmed, do your very best to not make changes. To make changes tells your colleague/pastor that your time is more important than his/hers, and it’s unprofessional and disrespectful. If it happens to you, make it a matter of prayer and forgive so your head can move on. We have an enemy who doesn’t want church staff to work well or be unified in purpose and it’s NOT your fellow staff member/pastor(s).

Third, pray for favor in the eyes, heart, and mind of your fellow staff member/pastor(s) for yourself and the ministry you lead. This may sound silly, but I also pray that the Lord would lead the staff member/pastor to like me. Yeah! It’s totally okay to ask in prayer that people would like you. Pray also that you would like him/her. The Body of Christ is better when working together in community which means we must talk and communicate well with one another as brothers and sisters in the Lord.

What would you add?

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Ephesians 6:12-13

It is an ugly, awful, terribly misguided myth that churches can’t grow during the summer. Don’t listen to it. Don’t buy into it. Don’t settle for it. Summer is the perfect time to try new things, change up each week, and be so invitational it makes your hospitality team wonder where you came from. You’ve got to intentionally plan for it.

It’s not just about VBS week, but the weekend after and every day until fall programming starts. I know of too many churches offering amazing Vacation Bible Schools as ‘outreaches’ yet plan nothing special to offer afterward to continue to build relationships, connections, and faith-formation experiences beyond a laid-back Sunday morning. We put in all that work, all those resources, and we’ve dropped the ball. We take a summer break. We think since most people are gone during the summer, we just can’t pull it off. I’m not gone. Are you gone? These are some of the holidays we’ll be celebrating intentionally the summer of 2020 in an effort for our church family to linger, build relationships, and invite our community to share.

5/31…5th Sunday/Pentecost Sunday – wear red to church (also the start of our VBS!)
6/7…National Chocolate Ice Cream Day – mini chocolate ice cream cones after 11am service
6/14…Flag Day – wear your Red, White, & Blue
6/21…Pops with Pops for Father’s Day…popsicles with Dad– photo booth in CLC
6/28…McPeachern…enjoy a BBQ lunch and all the peach fixins after all morning services during the height of our state’s peach season. This is the only McEachern Kids fundraiser of the year so the kids will be serving and we’ll all be wearing any McEachern Kids tshirt we’ve got in the closet.
We invite each age level to bring the following to the CLC kitchen first thing that morning:
Each Kindergartner & 1st grader: 3 huge bags of tortilla chips & 1 bottle of BBQ sauce
Each 2nd & 3rd grader: 3 large bags of rolls for BBQ sandwiches
Each 4th & 5th grader: 2 pans of homemade peach cobbler (we provide peach salsa, peach tea, and our fabulous men’s ministry prepares 140 pounds of BBQ pork)
7/5…National Graham Cracker Day (serve S’mores between services over Sterno in jars)
7/12…National Eat Your Jello Day (serve multicolored Jello cups)
7/19…National Ice Cream Sundae Day (7/20) – Ice Cream Truck Sunday. Other ministries get in on this one but giving tickets to each of their volunteers to get a free treat from the ice cream truck. Last year, we partnered with the adult education team and the nurture team of senior adult and counseling ministries, then split the cost three ways.
7/26…National Bagel Day – serve mini bagels & cream cheese in Welcome Center & 5th grade Parent breakfast – Next steps for rising 6th graders
8/2…National Ice Cream Sandwich Day – serve mini ice cream sandwiches; I Can Go To Sunday School Faith Milestone for all rising Kindergartners at 12:15-12:30pm
8/9…Promotion Sunday! Meet & Greet for Sunday school at 9:30am (Theme?)
8/16…Freeze pops with Parents after both services
8/23…Bubble Bash (fizzy drinks, soda, sparkling cider, Bubble gum, Bubble wands, foam pit, etc.)
8/30…5th Sunday – Everybody’s Birthday Party (Glee Club/Cherubs sing at 11am service); classic party games + cake & punch + party hats (decorate) + treat bags + Jesus message + balloon games + group games

Gather some of your leadership. Pull out a watermelon and some lemonade. Plan for some great summer Sundays!

“They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.” Psalm 145:7

Each January we gather for a pasta dinner as a leadership team before the first Sunday of the year. We met at Olive Garden last year, but our team continues to grow so we met at a team member’s home this year. We picked up fabulous take-out of meat lasagna and spinach tortellini with all the yummy bread and salad from a local Italian restaurant so we could easily move around, chat, share holiday news, and enjoy each other’s company.

To open our leadership conversation, I passed out several index cards, the 2020 Super Summer Sunday idea list, and the five major celebrations of the previous year to toot our horn about. We invited everyone to write on the index cards any thought, idea, or suggestion which came to mind to turn in at the end of the evening. Included on the celebrations sheet were our planned and scheduled experiences designated as Meat, Milestones, Mountain Top Experiences, and Marvelous Moments for McEachern Kids.

Conversations…
– 5 major 2019 celebrations (toot their horns) See last week’s blogpost
– June through August Summer special Sunday brainstorming (why?)
– Idea of a monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly thirty-minute Children’s Ministry Open House immediately following the last Sunday service to enthusiastically introduce how we can join in a family’s quest to grow closer to Jesus AND offer a tour of our environments, spaces, and routines.
– Idea of a Summer Book Club for K5-3rd grade (index cards came in with book suggestions and people to talk to)
– Ideas of more inter-generational opportunities (index cards came in with suggestions and people to talk to)
– 2020 Family Christmas event
– Ideas for topics for Parenting With A Purpose classes

The stack of handwritten index cards were filled with ideas, drawings, dreams, and requests to get together soon to discuss further. I read them over tea the next morning and I couldn’t quit smiling. I share life with the most amazing Jesus disciples.

Next Monday I’ll be making a bunch of phone calls to reserve foam pits and Ice Cream trucks. Now I’m ready for the Family Ministry team meeting next Tuesday to calendar the summer and much of the fall with room reservations and online registration forms ready in February. Wednesday and Thursday we will gather images and map out the communications plans for the year for those Marvelous Moments especially.

How do you get to brainstorm and celebrate all of your children’s ministry team’s pasta-bilities?

“They gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.” Acts 14:27

Sunday comes every seven days and now that Christmas has been a huge success, it’s time to think about Easter. Let me stop you right there inviting you to take thirty minutes to do two things:
1. Write down five major accomplishments and successes of the last year to report anywhere you can, and
2. Write down five resolutions – lenses through which you’ll look in the year to come.

First, the five major accomplishments/successes of 2019…for me?
1. Parenting With A Purpose Classes for parents and grandparents as we walk into the challenges we face to lead our littles to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength AND love our neighbors as ourselves.
2. Initiated a God & Me and God & Family program for 1st-5th graders to share with their parents who will be recognized on 2020 Scout Sunday in service with brunch.
3. Began an exclusive monthly experience for 3rd-5th graders in play, Bible study, and service we call CLUB345.
4. Offering three Christian education and relationship building, developmentally appropriate experiences for 11am service: K5 & 1st grade Children’s Church, 2nd & 3rd grade Bible Black Belts, 4th & 5th grade Well-Versed Kids deep diving into the Holy Habit of journaling.
5. The incredibly committed leaders who faithfully prepare and execute these experiences and more. I’m surrounded by the most amazing team of Jesus guys and gals! Our team is built not on tasks to be accomplished, but friendships to be made.

Second, the five areas of resolve as my responsibility as a leader in 2020…for me?
1. Jesus every time, every Sunday, all the time.
2. Get trained in community. Attending a training/conference on my own only helps me. But in community, the partnership is plentiful, the brainstorming is relevant, and the implementation is shared so to equip my church and other churches through shared events. #bettertogether
3. Remain in upgrade mode, tossing or passing along what we can not use from the closets, and asking more questions than making statements in every conversation.
4. Stay in the word: The Bible. A regular diet of God’s word lets me know His voice when it’s time to shoot a cannonball or eat a frog. Bible Reading is the holy habit that reminds me He is who He says He is, and I am who He says I am.
5. Offer developmentally appropriate experiences which are sticky where children and families can build relationships with Jesus and one another straight-up…not a stretch…not an afterthought…not just a goal, but the purpose.

Ministry Architects calls this exercise ‘balcony time.’ “In balcony time, we step out of the wild, rushing current of doing ministry and step into a place where we actually work on our ministries. It is in the balcony that we gain the perspective to work on our ministries, not just in them. In the balcony, we find the leverage to move our ministries forward; it’s in the balcony that we learn to say no to secondary priorities in order to attend to the most essential ones.”

Can you schedule some balcony time before you start a new year in ministry?

“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” Ecclesiastes 7:8