Staff-Parish Committees work overtime when staff teams shift. Local churches are paddling like ducks below the surface with remote staffing, the Great Resignation, and families shifting to be closer to their loved ones. Including the children’s ministry leader early on in the search for a youth/student leader or weekday preschool director would be of great benefit to a local church’s organizational health.   Those who lead littles and not-so-littles serve the same families, share much of the same spaces, require coordinating calendars of special events with the same leaders, and overlap in developmentally appropriate discipleship for entire families. How they work together can make or break a discipleship pathway, and do unnecessary harm or incredible good to a local church staff culture.

This we know: 

• If someone is applying for a professional position in a local church, it’s a given he/she loves the Lord, is in love with His Word, and desires to set the table for spiritual growth for those they serve.
• We have an enemy who will do his darndest to mess that up. 

How the table is set for the start of a great relationship between the kidmin lead and the youth or preschool/nursery leads would include inquiries to how people work, how people learn, what sucks the life out of someone, and how people feel appreciated.

If I were invited to be on the search team, I’d ask questions that related to their systems, logistics, communication, tools, their experience in sharing spaces, accessibility, budgets, and Safe Sanctuary. These are the items that can make or break a working relationship. The hard reality is that the lovely folks who make up the search team are not the folks the new hire will work alongside day in and day out. 

If I were invited to the table early on I would ask…..

What jobs did you do before going into professional ministry?
What tools do you use to communicate with leaders? Students? Parents?
What tools do you use to set your personal calendar?
How far in advance do you calendar? Communicate an event?
How do parents fit into your idea of ministry?
How does children’s ministry fit into your idea of ministry?
What ticks you off? (pet peeve?)
What blogs and podcasts are your first choices? (invite him/her to pull out his/her phone)
How do you learn to be a better director/leader?
How do you network with other directors/leaders in your profession?
What do you know about us/this organization?
Tell us about your ministry/professional friends.
What are your thoughts on Safe Sanctuary?
How do you get your worship on?
What do you do when you’re frustrated?
How do you celebrate a win in ministry?
Tell about a time you had to get something done even though it wasn’t your responsibility.
Would you consider yourself to have a strong work ethic? Share about a time you had to go over and above in a work situation.
What is your least favorite thing about leading in your ministry? What is your favorite?
Tell about the best boss you ever worked for? Best kidmin lead you ever served alongside? Best ministry partner?
When is your Sabbath?
Tell about your youth leader when you were in middle/high school.
Tell about the small group you are involved in right now.
What continuing education do you engage in?
What was a recent small group study you took?
What did you do during the quarantine?
How you do ministry today, why did you set it up that way? (middle & high together; middle with high)
What are your thoughts about Confirmation? (for student leaders)
What is your favorite season of ministry?
Tell about a time you got into trouble.
What is a favorite scripture passage to teach from?
What time do you typically wake up in the morning? Go to bed? Early riser? Night owl?
Tell about a time you had a major win in ministry.
What is your family tradition for Christmas Eve?
How do you feel appreciated at work?
What is your favorite board/card game you play right now?
What do you wish you knew when you started in ministry that you know now?
Tell about a couple of your dearest volunteers where you currently serve?
How do you serve as a volunteer today?
What do you want to be known for?
How often do you meet with a mentor?
What is the best way to communicate with you?
What have you learned about leading others through the last 18 months?

I want to be in his/her corner, not just in their circle. I hope they have questions for us. For me. Candidates for professional staff should have lots of questions for us, too. They are interviewing us as a team as much as we are interviewing them. I’d expect them to come prepared. I’d also expect the challenge of more than one candidate so those new on a search team have something to compare. Otherwise, everyone who loves the Lord is ‘impressive’ and there’s not an opportunity to adequately discern the ‘best candidate’ to take the organization to the next level.  Ministry is work and it’s the best work you can do with a healthy, collaborative and innovative team sharing the journey well from the get-go.

How a team works together and appreciates one another can make or break a local church’s impact on the community. It all starts with relationships of honor, trust, consideration, and safety. Let our yes be yes and our no be no as faithful disciples who serve a great God.

Faith Milestones are those teaching workshops offering developmentally appropriate faith formation experiences for kids shared with someone they love and who loves them. Children’s Ministry offers multiple faith milestones each year specific to holy habits such as prayer for 1^st and 2^nd graders and their families.

Promotion: FB event (2 months out), bulletin (1 month out), posters (1 month), personal mail (3 weeks), fliers home from Sunday school (1 week), large group announcement (2 weeks), talk about it everywhere (3 weeks), email (2 weeks)

Set up a quiet room with two chairs at each station

• Photo station with Jesus
• Names of all registrants on a jumbo post-it note where I can see it (prompts me to use all kid’s names in attendance; know who’s not yet arrived)
• Start on time; end 5 minutes early
• Starter activity: kids pick up an empty bag; squishy Jesus; handout; ink pen

Schedule

5:45-6pm             Welcome; write-in the blank handout (big fills out the blanks while littles watch/listen and hold squishy Jesus); act out 2 prayer stations; surround room with pictures of kids praying artwork
6-6:15pm             Self-directed remaining stations
6:15-6:30pm       Review 4 steps of prayer (Greet God, Thank God, Ask God, Close in Jesus’ name); invite each child forward to receive their certificate (read one aloud so they know what the certificate says; students receive their certificate AFTER they tell me aloud their favorite station – as they speak aloud I tell them “I LOVE hearing your voice! God wants to hear your voice EVEN MORE!”; close in repeat-after-me prayer and group photo

Handout: How To Pray

Prayer is t_____________________ and l__________________________ to God. (talking; listening)
Prayer can be shared

1. In your m_________________ (mind)
2. Out l__________________ (loud)

For meaningful prayers, it is best to pray

1. By yourself and in a q___________ place. (quiet)
2. With someone you t__________ and love. (trust)

When we pray we speak to our Lord God, three in one:

God the Father Creator.

                Jesus, God’s only son, our Savior and friend.

                                The Holy Spirit, our helper and comforter.

G______ the Lord. (Greet) – who are talking to?

T______ the Lord. (Thank) – grateful for God the giver of all good things

A______ the Lord. (Ask) – after thanking God we can ask for help

Close in Jesus’ n_______. (name) – We do this because Jesus is our Savior, our mediator and go-between between death (physical and spiritual) and eternal life. We also close with saying AMEN because it means we accept or agree with what’s been said.

Pray for f___________ (forgiveness)

Pray in a g__________ (group)

God will answer prayers with a Y____, N_____, and a N______ Y_______. (Yes, No, Not Yet)

Prayer Stations (stations prepared from ‘What’s in my closet? What’s already in my hands?’)
Prepare signs for each station AND prepare a take home paper with same info/images to their take-home bags so they can implement clearly at home.
Journals – composition books; trace hands of those you love (as you pray, place your hand on the traced hand)
Glory celebration bells – celebrations of ‘glory!’ to praise the Lord (place in a room where everyone meets)
Berenstain Bears book on prayer to take home (read aloud book is super kid-friendly)
Prayer cubes leftover from last Easter (hardy, hand-held item with prayer language)
Fidget spinners – thankful prayers while it spins until it stops; waiting prayers for in line or waiting on appointments (encourages longer, unrushed times of listening and talking with God)
Mini scented playdoh (aka prayer-doh) – when hands are busy, minds are calm (God’s favorite smell = our prayers! Psalm 141:2)

What’s already on your shelf or in your supply closet? Make it simple, limited text, add an image of what you’re doing and kids can take it from there with someone they love sharing the teaching and practice.

“I call to you, Lord, come quickly to me; hear me when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense, may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.” Psalm 141:1-2

Want to get something rolling? Sending out an email or posting an upcoming event in a newsletter will not get you the results you want. Necessary? Yes. Enough? Absolutely not!

First, roll it out 60-90 days in advance. Why? Families need the time to budget margin, head space, and money to make something happen. Love them well enough to give them a heads-up in lots of ways that something important is coming up and they won’t want their kids nor themselves to miss it. They may wait until the last minute to register, but partnering well means giving them lots of notice.

Second, promote the ‘something special’ as an invitation. Why? Families don’t want their children to miss out. FOMO is real for everybody. Snail mail the invitation, then use emails, bulletin announcements, posters, pre-service slides, and parent text messages as reminders. Prepare postcards for invitations because (1) the postage is cheaper, and (2) it will hang on the family bulletin board or refrigerator as a reminder alongside the team schedule (recreation; sport; scout) and school schedule. That postcard/flier will set as a visual reminder that something important is coming up.

Third, if you charge for an event, reward the early registrations with a cost that appears as a discount. Be a good steward and know your costs, but have a soft registration deadline at one rate and a hard registration deadline at a higher rate. Charging an additional $25 for a retreat fee will soften your edge for that late registration. Incentivize good registration habits.

Fourth, use every means possible to promote your event. I have a jumbo post-it note in my office to remind me of all the ways I can promote ‘something special.’ I don’t have to think about it or wake up at 3am wondering if I forgot to send in the pre-service slide. If you plan a year in advance, and we all should, we know what’s coming up. Prepare your marketing and promotion materials 60-90 days out and roll it out appropriately. Think creatively: Invite a youth to come to kid’s large group to be interviewed about when they participated in that ‘something special’ to give testimony to the other kids, let kids wear a sandwich board in the Narthex or on the front lawn, place fliers on the sanctuary clipboards, mail a hand-written personal invitation, mail a full-page flier, always say ‘bring a friend’, send a personal invite to someone a kid loves (grandparent, parent, teacher, neighbor, etc.) Put it in the bulletin. Everyone knows that if a new person comes on campus on Sunday they WILL read the bulletin, every single word. Think 7 hits to knock it out of the park. Once registration begins, send out an email to the early registrants to invite their teammates, schoolmates, and neighborhood friends. It is not intuitive to invite a friend for real until AFTER the parent has already registered their own child. A gentle reminder to ‘bring a friend’ is much more personal after the initial registration.

Fifth, tell the stories of why this upcoming ‘something special’ is special at every table and in every hallway. Use every table space to further the conversation with personal invites. Your social media space is another table where you sit with friends and family. Push it on your personal social media feeds. If you are on social media, sharing what you’re doing at your local church should be all over your feed. Your involvement at your local church is a major part of your life as a disciple. It’s not just your job, it’s part of your personal discipleship. 

Our jobs, our discipleship, our message of hope in Jesus depends on His disciples using every tool at their disposal to get the word out. Go tell. Let’s do this!

“He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” Mark 16:15

Our local church offered a ministry fair for the congregation to learn more about the opportunities to serve within the local church. Each ministry and small group was invited to set up a table with visuals and be ready for conversation to invite the local Body of Christ to serve or at the very least, get more information about the ins and outs of serving within the various departments, small groups, and age-level ministries in addition to choir, technical teams, and hospitality. The congregation would make actual commitments the following week in worship.

A Ministry Fair may seem old school, but I’ve gotten the most traction for energy-filled ministry by going old-school in fresh ways especially over the last two years. As the lead for children’s ministry, we decided to post the many new opportunities to serve. New opportunities to help defy four myths of serving in family ministry in the local church.

Myth #1 – Serving in ministry with families is only on Sunday morning.
Most church folk steer clear of anything that will take them away from their Sunday school class or will alter their Sunday morning routines. What we know today is that fruitful, life-giving ministry will take place on other days of the week and much is done behind the scenes. Offering life-giving ministry to families outside of Sunday morning is going to be our bread and butter and fits the rhythms of today’s families.
Our response? Tuesday night kid’s Bible study team, summer Thursday night drive-in team, drive-thru live nativity team, Campfire Christmas team, bus drivers, bulletin boards (I have 4 located on campus), social media friend team, small group hosts.

Myth #2 – Serving in ministry with families is only for adults.
It requires some thought, but every single ministry in the church should have developmentally appropriate ways for children and youth to serve alongside adults. Children and youth can serve in meaningful ways. We offered a sign-up card which listed new areas for children and youth to begin serving and learning skills to help them share the love of Jesus at home, at school, and at church.
Our response? Family small groups, McEachern Kids monthly missions team, playdates K5-2nd, card writing, special projects (one-and-dones that come up), food (bake, cook, host), table cloth care, first-time guest hospitality, special needs friend team.

Myth #3 – The goal of the ministry fair is to toss the net for volunteers to fill spots.
The ministry fair is a great place to take a relationship with a fellow disciple to the next level. I want to invite someone on fire for the Lord to spend time with others on fire for the Lord. I pray the Lord will not let me nor my team be satisfied with mediocre discipleship. Energy draws energy and builds life-giving energy. I’m trusting the Holy Spirit is working in the minds and hearts of His people to do something for Him. Family ministry could be the answer to THEIR prayers.
Our response? Home improvement classes, family summer local mission trip, small group hosts, skills classes, sanctuary kid’s host for clipboard team, summer special events, spring special events, winter special events.

Myth #4 – Only the ministry lead should talk about the ministry.
The children’s ministry theme was “There’s a SPOT for you in McEachern Kids”. All of our team members wore polka-dot clothing on Ministry Fair Sunday. People knew (I mentioned it for two weeks prior in the children’s moments) that whoever the congregation saw wearing spots would be the best people to talk with about serving on the McEachern Kids team. The one gentleman on our team who did not wear polka-dots (he’s a general contractor so there’s not much beyond flannel and plaid in his closet) instead dedicated his entire morning (both services and in-between services) recruiting and chatting with two specific men and would not let them go until they returned a completed sign-up card to me.

How could a ministry fair help you minister to families and encourage the Body of Christ you serve to love littles and their bigs to Jesus in new ways and beyond Sunday mornings?