Less than a month ago, I accepted a full-time position with a new local church in ministry with children kindergarten through fifth-grade. The church is new to me on the ‘day to day’, but I have long known their generosity, their heart for service, and their reputation of training up leaders for more than 15 years from those who serve within the Emmaus community there. Good people, indeed!

The senior pastor asked me this very question the first time I met with him and a representative from the Staff Parish Relations Committee. One of our challenges as local church staff is to guard and prepare for ourselves that which we encourage for the congregation we serve. We have to creatively prepare for opportunities to engage in worship, corporate worship. As followers of Christ, we, too, are called to follow the directive by the author of Hebrews to ‘not forsake gathering together.’

“Then I (the apostle John) looked and heard, the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand (THAT’s community!). They encircled the throne and the living creature and the elders (serving a God of order.) In a loud voice they sang (singing is still a part): Worthy is the Lamb (Jesus) who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” Revelation 5:11-12 NIV

This was revealed to John of how Jesus will be worshiped in Heaven. I am SO visual, it gives me a great picture of what it means to worship our great God.

How can we worship Him today in power? I have power over my emotions, my disposition, and setting my own priorities. I have the power to set aside one day a week as my Sabbath. Fridays are my Sabbath.

How can I worship Him today in wealth? With my money. Returning to Him which was His in the first place is an act of trust and obedience. Giving is the act of returning a tithe (10% of my increase). Since I am no longer in services when the plate is passed, I have now set it up for my bank to issue and mail the tithe.

How can I worship Him today in wisdom? With my mind. Romans 12:2 reads, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Jesus understood that any authentic transformation will happen for all of us in our minds first. When I am regularly in The Word, learning the language and vocabulary of God, transformation takes place. This one is seriously on me. If I claim I am not hearing from God…If I state that ‘I don’t get fed at church’… If I hold on to the idea that my personal preferences for Sunday morning worship determines if I worship or not… I am SO out of sync with what God intended worship to be.

How can I worship Him today in strength? With my body. I KNOW my triggers. Peanut M&Ms are my Judas sin…you know, sin that comes at you looking like a friend, kissing you on the cheek, then turning on you. I may not be able to scale a 10 foot wall, but taking care of my body is worship. Thank you, Fitbit, for the accountability help.

How can I worship Him today in honor? With my deeds. I honor our great God when I bake a cake, write a note, make a phone call, send an encouraging text, share a casserole (this is how we really share love in the south, right?), bring a flower, go above and beyond in my work, drop off a 24-pack of toilet paper when my neighbor has house guests due to a funeral or a wedding. How and when I serve should bring Him honor.

How can I worship Him today in glory? With expressions of hope, encouragement, and forgiving well.  Glory has a weight to it, a leaning-in quality. Ephesians 4:32 reads, “Be ye kind, one to another, tenderhearted, and forgiving one another, just as in Christ God forgave you.” So I give Him glory when I extend the same forgiveness He gives me. This is when worship doesn’t come easy. Yet He invites us to ‘lean in’ through prayer.

How can I worship Him today in praise? With my words and my speech. My words can heal or hurt, my countenance when sharing those words can help or hinder. My heart is heard by my words and how they are shared.

Worship is not where I go or the type of songs sung, it’s how we are to live. Not once a week, but every single day. I listen to sermons by podcast, sing to my favorite worship songs on my cellphone at the top of my lungs and in sign, attend other worship experiences that take place other than on Sunday mornings, and give online. I take bible study in small group, share life and accept accountability in a weekly Emmaus Reunion Group, and have my personal ‘quiet time’ (which is sometimes FAR from quiet) with the LORD each morning. Oh, and in my new position, I sing and dance before the LORD with little people every Sunday morning. How wonderful that our Great God has offered us the tools to serve AND the tools to worship the One and Only whose abundant love has ruined me for the typical, the ordinary, the mediocre.

“Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” Psalm 100:2

Ever have a situation that takes up WAY too much space in your head? It not only stays in your head, but lays heavy on your soul? And the situation is much more personal, because you are directly involved? It takes place in your world, in your house, in your backyard, on your turf. I used to filter my response with, “If I am still troubled to the same degree as when it happened, or even more so, after three days, then I need to do something about it.”

It’s been three days and I’m still twisted.

Those of us involved in ministry with children in the local church are spunky, creative, and nurturing. We also submit to the authority over us, keeping our heads down and doing the work. We typically avoid ever drawing so much attention to ourselves that we become targets. We are well-informed and can quickly read a room for safety because we are usually followed by little people and harm will not come to our own ‘on our watch.’ It’s kinda like the gift the LORD gives and grows in Moms and Dads to expand our peripheral vision to a complete 360 when it comes to our kids. We are easily influenced by those with credentials seemingly a tad better than we perceive our own because we wish to serve at our best. We don’t push back and we keep the peace although we are ferociously protective of the kids in our charge and our fellow servant leaders.

There are strategies we can learn to engage in these critical conversations well. When our natural response is to freeze, fight, or flight, Rev. Dr. Scott Hughes, Director of Adult Discipleship at UMC Discipleship Ministries, has been blogging and sharing around the country equipping folks to lean into these critical conversations with courage. Scott and I collaborated on what that engagement could look like for those who minister with children at a learning event last weekend. In the book Crucial Conversations we can learn to prepare for that conversation using the acronym STATE providing an ‘easy way to introduce risky information and defuse emotion, making it possible to keep a conversation on track.’ (Crucial Conversations)

S – Share your facts…this was my expectation, but this is what I saw happen; address the gap between expectation and reality.
T – Tell your story…this is how you felt and what you are now having to do as a result of the gap between expectation and reality.
A – Ask for other’s paths…ask questions for clarity and understanding with the goal of creating an environment of safety making him/her feel his/her opinion matters.
T – Talk tentative…presenting your story as a story and not as fact; refrain from pre-judging motives
E – Encourage testing…perhaps asking, “Do you have an alternative explanation for the discrepancy?”

Well, it’s been three days and I am just as twisted as I was when the situation took place. The expectation was one thing, the reality was something altogether different. My tribe was affected and I feel responsible. Ugh! I know the ‘whats’. I can use the STATE method to prepare and stay in my lane. The challenge now is ‘when and to whom?’  I covet your prayers…

“Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.” 1 Chronicles 28:20

Chantal and I became quick friends during my family’s time in New England. I had accepted Christ as my savior at 10 years old at VBS, but she made Him Lord of her life as an adult. She was on the disciple-of-Jesus express train and I jumped on with all I had. We sharpened one another as iron sharpens iron in the Lord’s army as wives, mothers of little people, and weekday preschool teachers. One evening a week from 8-9pm we would call one another to share prayer requests and then pray our hearts out over the phone. At the top of our prayer lists were to become the Godly wives our Creator called us to be and that our children, all under 7 years old at the time, would love the Lord with all their hearts, souls, and minds at an early age. We fasted one day each week for God’s call on the lives of our children, even to pray for their future spouses. Yet even with all of our intentionality I felt limited in my prayer vocabulary, until I picked up a copy of Stormie Omartian’s The Power of a Praying Parent. Thirty chapters with thirty prayers at the end of each chapter along with scripture. Whatever day of the calendar month, that’s the chapter I would pray for my children. That was 1993.

Godly parents desire to be faithful to pray for their children. I’m thinking today’s parents are just as challenged as I was in prayer vocabulary. I have always encouraged parental prayers as part of a parent’s spiritual discipline, and The Power of a Praying Parent was the best resource I’ve ever used. Though I started this prayer practice when my littles were under the age of 7, it was when they were in middle and high school these chapters were especially helpful: Praying Through A Child’s Room, Learning To Speak Life, and Avoiding Addictions. A fruitful resource indeed and in paperback still available today.

“Having raised children from birth to adulthood, I’ve come to realize that one of the main things our children will take with them when they leave our realm of influence is their faith. If we can be sure they have strong faith in God and His Word, and the love of God in their hearts, then we can know they are set for eternity. Our prayers can play a big part in helping them achieve that.” Stormie Omartian, The Power of a Praying Parent (p. 204)

While listening to the podcast , The Kid’s Ministry Collective I heard of a new book Bible Praying For Parents and immediately ordered two copies. Keith Ferrin and Judy Fetzer collaborated to publish a book of prayers straight from the Holy Bible. Mrs. Fetzer collected these 365 prayers and sent them to herself and others through her blog www.mamahenprays.wordpress.com. Y’all this book provides more than just a book of prayers.

Bible Praying For Parents is a great tool for brief, breath prayers for our kids for every day of the year. The book also includes a section for Bible praying by categories such as anger, anxiety, family relationships, temptation, and more. And if that wasn’t worth the $14.99 price of the book, the back section is entitled: Bible Blessings.

Forty-three blessings are listed in the order they are found in the Bible. Blessings to speak over your children at night, as they head out the door, while eating a meal, or wherever you wish to speak God’s Word and truth so they know the power and mystery of the One who loves them even more than you.

“From 2 Thessalonians 3:5 Blessing: ____________, may the Lord direct your heart into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.” (p 293)

Hand in hand through childhood

When we read the Bible we learn God’s vocabulary and of His history and plan for His people. When we pray God’s vocabulary over our children, we hear His heart for our own, and our children hear His voice. This new resource should be beside every prayer chair on the planet because this I know: No one will pray for our kids like we will. Lord, may we be found faithful to do so regularly and well.

“A Godly Mother guides our steps…nurtures our growth, encourages our Spirit, molds our character, commits our lives to the One she’s been raising us for.” Julee Lynn Boren 1971-1998

Need to know if you are on the right path? Need to know if the vision for your ministry is in line with the plans, vision, and mission with the church you serve? Need to join the conversation of informing yourself and others of where the Spirit is headed in your organization? Need to let the leadership know what in the world you’re doing and how long it takes to do it? Offer regular and periodic evaluations!

If you are not doing a job well, I’d hope you’d hear about it very early in the ‘running down that road’ process. But what if you don’t hear anything…neither encouraging nor critical?

What if you are in a constant state of evaluation, but your organization doesn’t offer a time for you to share the passion, dream, successes, and challenges across a table that got you the job in the first place? And who knows your goals? Your professional, your personal, your ministry goals? Do a regular self-evaluation!

There is something about putting such information on paper that offers accountability and gives clarity for a season, a ministry, an event. I so need this since I’m thinking about next Sunday, next year, and five years down the road all at the same time!

The idea behind self evaluation is that our judgment of what we think we are doing and what we actually are doing is not always the same. This is why it is so important to perform regular self evaluation. – Stanley C. Loewen, Health Guidance For Better Health

A colleague in my district children’s ministry networking group shared a list of five items she was being asked to respond to for this very purpose. With this list of questions we can easily and quickly put onto paper our response to offer focus, reflection, and even measure results. I do it every six months.

1. High points of your responsibilities

A job description outlines the bare minimums. A responsibility description outlines the much-less-cumbersome-to-outline responsibilities of the role one serves on the leadership team. Some responsibilities are seasonal. Some responsibilities have a greater impact on others on the team. This lets me outline a few of those things that are a priority and what I love which gives me energy and fosters the greatest creativity.

2. Three goals

Where do I want to see the ministry go this year? Though there is lots to do, what are the most important things to keep before my eyes, my heart, and my passions? These will offer clarity for what is actually in my bucket, the dogs in my hunt, and the runway on which to land my plane with deadlines.

“If all I do is tasks, I leave a ton of value on the table for creativity and initiation of doing things better.” – Seth Godin

3.  How am I taking care of myself?

What do I have in place over the next six months to maintaining healthy boundaries? From my most recent self-eval: Check and set my weekly schedule, Emmaus Reunion group weekly meeting, Blog writing, Partnering with CEF, Children’s Ministry Connection, District KidMin Networking Teams by my attendance.

4.  Who is on my ministry team?

Put onto paper 5-7 of the names of my inner circle, my go-tos, my champions, and who I can intentionally invest in over the next six months.

“Do for one what you wish you could do for everybody.” – Andy Stanley

5.  What can my pastor do to help or empower me?

This keeps me realistic in my expectations, helpful to the whole team, and gives me the vocabulary to have courageous conversations with my team leader. When I meet with him/her I am not rambling for what I need this week and something different next week. It keeps me focused for a bit of dreaming without being a high-maintenance team member. It does the ministry no good to confuse my organizational team leader when it appears I am all willy-nilly in the needs of the ministry. I limit this to a list of only three items. One item is always something to pray for me.

“Self-evaluation and assessment should be a major part of our lives as believers.” Sunday Adelaja

Self-evaluation helps remind me of my why. It helps me see what is most important in the coming six months so I am not easily distracted by the busy stuff on the calendar. It offers evidence of meeting measurable goals. It gives clarity in how and what to best communicate to my team sold out for Jesus and little people. It lets me know who to invest in.

We certainly don’t serve the Lord for pats on the back, but everyone needs to know regularly they are doing a good or great job. If we know the importance of volunteer appreciation and practice it with words of affirmation, small tokens of appreciation, notes of encouragement, birthday celebrations, and the occasional afternoon tea at the local coffee house, wouldn’t we also wish to hear and experience these same practices as staff members? If you are not getting it, then prayerfully release the expectation of someone doing it for you. Take yourself to lunch and celebrate your ministry through self-evaluation!

“God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.” Psalm 46:5

Children, on average, laugh 200 times per day. Adults laugh 15 to 18 times a day. Serving and leading little people can give you the chance to make up your laughter deficit. We tend to think of humor as part of our genetic makeup, like brown eyes and blond hair, but a healthy sense of humor is a learned quality that is developed well in early childhood. Paul E McGhee, Ph.D. shares in Understanding and Promoting the Development of Children’s Humor, “Humor is a form of play. It is intellectual play or play with ideas.” A healthy sense of humor builds vocabulary, supports creative thinking, fosters social interaction skills, and promotes life skills necessary to cope with stress and hardships throughout the adolescent and adult years.

Early on, infants respond to physical stimuli like blowing raspberries or playing peek-a-boo. They enjoy silly faces and sounds and especially the faces of those they love. In the toddler years, visual humor is very funny. Making faces, putting on a silly hat, or using an ordinary item in an extraordinary way will have toddlers laughing out loud. When my grandson pushes the bubble mower, he is serious about mowing the yard, floor, or rug and he’ll hardly laugh. But empty the bucket of bristle blocks onto the floor and place the empty bucket on his head and he’ll run through the house squealing with delight. KidsHealth.org reports, “Anything that disrupts a pattern or expectation is funny to a toddler.” That explains how a diaper placed on your head, Daddy’s shoes worn by a preschooler, or knocking yourself on the head with a pillow and pretending to fall over will amuse your little one.

Other fun games you can play that will build a healthy sense of humor in a preschooler is Ring Around the Rosey, This Little Piggy, or Row, Roy, Row your….Car. Changing the lyrics of familiar songs will also make them laugh. As a preschooler’s vocabulary increases, so will opportunities to laugh.

Preschoolers are eager to show off new ways to be playful and they look to you for the proper response. One of the best ways to teach a healthy sense of humor is to be playful yourself. Be willing to be silly, wear odd hats, sing familiar songs with odd lyrics, and laugh along with them. Laugh well and laugh loud.

So the next time a bucket is emptied on the floor and your preschooler treats an object differently from its original purpose, be ready to laugh with your preschooler. You just might have a future stand-up comedian in your presence or a kid who can deal with whatever life throws at him/her in the most healthy response. So what should be your response? Full on belly laugh. Be a laughter encourager. Life skills, indeed.

“She is clothed in strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.” Proverbs 31: 25

Faith formation is not just a Sunday morning activity. There are firsts, milestones, rights of passage with specialness wrapped all around which can offer faith experiences and sticky spiritual memories. I believe each local church, each family even, can prepare an ordered format of FAITH MILESTONES offering intentional firsts as part of a student’s faith experiences.

A retreat is time away from our normal life for the purpose of connecting with God on a deeper level.  1 Peter 4:10 was the focus of our day away at Ms. DeDe’s for rising 4th-6th graders and last week’s annual Deep & Wide Retreat: where we go deeper in our relationship with God and each other & where we look wider in our scope of influence than just our own little world.

$45 per student provided supplies, lunch, snacks, dinner, movie tickets, rental van to carry everyone to and from, and a great tshirt. Our AMAR District summer interns brainstormed the scripture, the schedule, the activities, and the supplies needed for the kids to learn more about their personality gifts, their spiritual gifts, and practice serving others in their every-day. Parents pick up and drop off at my home. Most of them carpool because I live 40 minutes north of the church.

10-10:30am Rock painting
Finding painted rocks are huge in our area, so we started the morning by painting rocks we would later hide on the playground and in the pool area of the neighborhood to delight others we would know nothing about. What happened? After going swimming the second time, we observed and heard the squeals of a family as they were finding our painted rocks and uploading pics on the Canton Rocks Facebook page.

10:30-11 Lesson #1 True Colors Personality Quiz
Take and discuss the different personalities and how accurate they are. How can we use this to better understand ourselves and others? Discuss how better knowing who you are, and your gifts, helps you better understand how you can help serve God’s purposes. The different colors and personalities each offer different ways to best serve others.
Orange: drawn to active mission projects, building houses (Amelia Earhart and Teddy Roosevelt)
Green: curious and logical innovators who can solve issues (Moses, Ben Franklin)
Blue: drawn to outreach, relationship building (Oprah Winfrey, Abraham Lincoln)
Gold: drawn to admin jobs in the church, office (George Washington, Henry Ford)

11-11:20 Make lunch of sandwiches, chips, fill water bottles

11:20-12:00noon Lesson #2 Spiritual Gifts Assessment
Dissect the 1 Peter 4:10 scripture. Discuss how we must work together as ambassadors for the Lord. How to use spiritual gifts to serve others in church, at school, in the community, and in the world. God can use even what you think is the smallest of gifts. David was small and though he was young, yet he protected his people with God’s help and a little slingshot. Esther was a woman in a time where women did not have any power, yet she saved her people by changing the king’s mind. Gideon was a farmer, but God made him into a mighty warrior who saved the Israelites from the Midianites and other meaners. Rahab was an innkeeper whose strong faith in a God she’d only heard about in stories led her to risk her life by hiding spies in her home. Moses ran away from God at first due to fear, but then he led the people to the Promised Land. Noah picked up his family and built an ark due to his huge faith in God.

12-12:30 Hiked to reservoir and picnicked lunch

12:45-2:00pm Pool time with snacks during Adult Swim/whistle blow/lifeguard breaks

2:30 Movie: Cars 3

5:00pm Lesson #3 Debriefed Movie
Proverbs 19:21 & 1 Peter 4:10 Discussed how, in the movie, each car had a different gift/purpose though all were cars/vehicles. Though McQueen had gifts he used to win, he also had gifts he could use to help others win. Jesus served others in many ways, never taking the glory for himself, rather giving it all to his Father. Discussed how each student could help others win.

5:30pm Prepared fruit salad and deep dish pizza
The rising 6th graders (since this is their last Deep & Wide) used their gifts to teach and coach how to prepare the fruit salad and the deep dish pizza. Played games while cooking: Spoons, Pit

7-8pm Distribute painted rocks around neighborhood playground and pool area and go swimming

8-9pm Returned to pack up for pick up and enjoy fruit sorbets (a tradition) Discussion of how they served each other today, their experience watching/hearing the family making painted rock discoveries, how they can carry on serving the others they live with (family), at church, and in their community.

I love these kids. I love watching the older ones teach and coach the younger ones. I love hearing the stories and seeing the comments on social media sharing their Deep & Wide Retreat experience. Enjoying their company in the everyday with the thread of the scriptures throughout makes for sticky spiritual memories. The interns and I debriefed realizing we accomplished a lot in one day without rush or mishap. We engaged every learning style and offered laughter, competition, creativity, and all the physical needs through food and lots of water. You can find out about past Deep & Wide retreats here and here. The amazing tshirts (designed by the interns and our friends at Sportsprint) we’ll wear to church on Sunday. What does your kid’s first retreat look like?

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10

This darling, little book picked up from the Cokesbury display at North Georgia’s Annual Conference is an in-your-face challenge for God’s people to respond to children in the church and in the community based on John Wesley’s instructions to Methodist preachers found in the “Large Minutes.” Rev. Dr. Christopher Miles Ritter came to learn early in his ministry career that Wesley believed in ministry to children. So much so that I didn’t have the right to call myself a Methodist preacher if I didn’t spend time with children. My copy is so marked up, starred, underlined, pages turned down, and used it looks like it’s been in my library for 20 years.

Rev. Dr. Chris Ritter is an ordained elder/clergy in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference of the United Methodist Church where he has served as the Directing Pastor of Geneseo First United Methodist Church since 2009. Dr. Ritter considers the following seven things to be the bare minimum in ministry with children:

1. Teach them intentionally – A Christian education should have no other end but to teach them to think, and judge, and act according to Christ. Stop the excuses! Don’t buy into the idea that once your kids have aged up or aged out, so have you.

2. Know them personally – Hagrid took Harry Potter to Hogwarts, Obi-Wan introduced Luke to the ways of the Force. Gandalf called Frodo into the Fellowship of the Ring, Morpheus helped Neo take off his blinders. Batman had Alfred. Daniel had Mr. Miyagi. Bill and Ted had Rufus. Mutants were recruited by Professor Xavier to become X-Men. Could it be that Hollywood makes billions of dollars telling these and similar stories over again because they have tapped into a deep spiritual longing within all of us? Side note: Who is your Obi-Wan? Who is your Daniel?

3. Pray for them intensely – One way to pray with them is simply to bless them in Jesus’ name.  It was said that Wesley always had a smile and a kind word for children, and would place his hands on their heads offering a heavenly benediction. Let’s go beyond praying for their safety and traveling mercies. Join me in prayers and fasting a meal a week for them to hear God’s voice, have a hunger for God’s word, and a fearless witness to fulfil the adventure He has for each of them.

4.  Mentor families meaningfully – Not only is the home the primary unit of spiritual formation, but it is also the place where we tend to either use or lose our Christianity. Let’s have some honest conversations of living out our family’s spiritual priorities in a regular and faithful way. We have time for what is important. How our kids will view their calendars (and Sundays) as adults is how they see us view each day (including Sundays) when they were kids.

5.  Challenge ourselves continually – Pastor Ritter offers the challenge to expand the definition of ‘our kids.’ Poor children are not that difficult to reach…they have time on their hands. Poor kids are never too busy to go to church. What does fishing for kids look like in your community? He goes on to write about the first Sunday Charity School in 1780, and by 1821, roughly a quarter of the kids in England, 1.25 million, were in a Sunday school paving the way for universal education for kids. You many not have the means to bus a load of kids to church, but your kids have friends. Following Jesus is not comfortable, convenient, nor cheap, yet the payoff is huge! Thinking about it is not the same as doing something about it.

6. Shape our ministries appropriately – Children need an advocate, an adult who is seeking their good. Sometimes this involves defending them, sometimes providing for them, and sometimes simply expecting the best from them. Kids insist on changing and growing up, kinda how God wired them/us. The gospel message doesn’t change, but the delivery better. Ministry is all about relationships, yet relationships are cultivated differently than they were even five years ago. Are we engaged in on-going learning to be better at leading kids and their families? A friend confided that she knew it was time to retire when she no longer wanted to learn anything new. What is your plan for learning and growing your ministry with children more deeply and effectively?

7. Care for them practically – Pastor Ritter opens the chapter, “You don’t know the story of Methodism until you know the story of a place called Kingswood.” He then goes on to tell this amazing story of the children of coal-miners considered a little better than beasts.

There is so much goodness in these mere 80 pages I want to offer two books to give away. Comment below how you are meeting one of the seven in your context as an encouragement to your fellow kidmin champions because we are better together. Two different recipients will be mailed a copy in August. You may not have time for a 600 page treatise on Wesley, but this little book will remind you why you’ve been called where you’ve been called.

“Take care of the rising generation.” ~ John Wesley

It’s kind of a hobby I have to listen to podcasts and read books/articles about Main Street marketing (business to consumer) through social media. That’s what we do…market and promote our ministries to and on Main Street USA. We can argue all day that ‘ministry isn’t business’, but there are many best practices in business that can benefit ministry. From 2005 to 2016, the percentage of Americans on at least one social media platform has climbed from 5 percent to 69 percent. Who doesn’t want a piece of that? (Pew Research Center, January 2016)

One easy way to market your ministry is collecting email addresses because email is still king. Do you have a system in place to get and use email addresses? When folks register for events or the basketball program or apply to be volunteers, include a line for email addresses. As tedious as it is, I use the first couple of weeks following VBS and the start of basketball season to update and input email addresses into an excel worksheet started when I first arrived at WC six years ago. Just the email addresses. Larger churches can use Constant Contact, Mail Chimp or other online tools, but for a small to mid-size church, excel still rocks.

At least once every other month I will send an email to that huge email list inviting them to an upcoming event. People expect to get emails once they’ve joined us for something. If someone wants off the email list, they’ll let me know and I oblige quickly. Many are reading emails on their phones, so the email should be short, sweet, and to the point.

This is the email that went out this week:
Let us help you get your student ready for a great school year with Grow Day Camp at Wesley Chapel, Monday-Friday July 24-28 (9-5:30 Mon-Thur; 9-12:30 Fri). For only $135 for the entire week your rising 1st through rising 6th grader can enjoy camp, small groups, archery, and still sleep in their own beds! Register today at http://www.ngumc.org/grow … then plan to join us for the Blessing of the Backpacks at 11am service on Sunday, July 30th! ~ DeDe Reilly, Wesley Chapel UMC, 4495 Sandy Plains Rd, Marietta, 770-993-4919

The next most-often used vehicle for marketing your ministry is Facebook. Most of the Mamas are on Facebook, so it’s a great way to communicate with families. Posting at least once a day is easy and helps your posts appear regularly in their timeline. Schedule it! Most of my families are on Facebook first thing in the morning, so my window of posting needs to be before 8am.

The following content stats about Facebook I found very helpful to me:

• 50% of the posts/content should be information/announcements – get an image and rock out the basics of who, when, where, how to get more info and a registration link. We have found that if we use an ‘outside’ registration link in the Atlanta metro area like Eventbrite, we get more of the community and not just our own church folk.
• 40% should be ‘shared content’ – what do you find interesting that supports what you are trying to do and ‘share’ it. Since what we do in ministry with children is faith formation, I subscribe to several blogs offering parents easy wins to champion for their kids with a faith  bent. The blogs I shared this last month included TodaysMama.com, iMom.com, AllProDad.com, Kidzmatter.com, ChurchLeaders.com, Parent Cue. A sentence or two why you think it’s important to share that content let’s folk know why you chose it and sometimes initiates followup conversation.
• 10% should be personality content which gives information about who we are, who you are. This is when we share content about who we are as a denomination, where the nearest voting precinct is to the church, the local community fireworks schedule, last day of school info.

THEN, ask the church staff to ‘LIKE’ everything you put out there and to engage in commenting to help with the algorithms of frequency. Ask your families to ‘SHARE’ upcoming events on their Facebook pages.

Our youth (the best children’s ministry volunteers on the planet!) use Instagram so the experts say to be sure the image there is close up, clear, a little off-center. Colors of the images that are brown, green, and blue cause the eye to linger longer. Steer clear of red and orange images. Think ‘nature’, not ‘fire.’

There are even gender preferences. Guys linger on images with straight edges, lines, and corners. Chicks on the other hand linger on images with curves, drapery, and the impression of movement. I’ll just let that sit there for a bit…

You can post all day on Facebook. It helps the algorithms. Post only once a day on Instagram and let it reflect the story of who you are since it’s more personal. Your peeps will recognize it’s you and won’t just scroll through. My personal story on Instagram has to do with tea and daily reading through the bible. I use WordSwag and Text over Image apps on my phone to market on Instagram which will let me share straight to Facebook and Twitter as well.

I use Twitter when I watch TV to find out if everyone else is thinking the same thing I am, or not. Crazy, I know! And I use Twitter when I’m at a conference, learning event, or to quote folks when I hear good stuff on podcasts.

The best all-in info ebook that is free and can guide you through a strategy and a plan can be found here.

What’s your plan for marketing your ministry next week?

Churches that don’t take social media seriously will soon lose any opportunity to engage emerging generations with the gospel. – from the Definitive Guide To Social Media in the Church (ChurchLeaders.com)

WC is located at the northernmost tip of one county with two other counties touching the corners within just a few miles. Because the suburbs of north Atlanta are filled with elementary schools, WC is surrounded by several elementary schools.

For six years, I have tried to get in at the closest one. I’ve walked in to meet the principals face to face and offered tutoring help.  Nothing. I joined the PTA for several years to get a calendar of events so not to schedule anything in conflict for my families. Nothing. Not even after multiple phone calls and emails. The only foot in the door we’ve gotten is they call to use our parking lot for fall and spring events if their parking lot is insufficient. I’ll take it.

Then I noticed several of the students in our program wearing “Rise Up” tshirts. I asked a third grader, “What’s Rise Up?” He began to share with me that it’s like VBS at his school where they talk and learn about Jesus. I did some research and found out he was right. Then I saw a few of my student’s parents pics on Facebook as a team of volunteers for Rise Up.

I jumped online to read everything I could about Rise Up 4 Christ and found myself immediately clicking on the get involved tab and filled out the application. After completing the background check and child safety protocols, I got an email from a lovely woman who loves Jesus and loves kids who was thrilled someone like me would apply. Huh…someone like me? We set up a meeting.

We met face-to-face last week along with her husband at the RISE UP offices. These folks have a great open door to gather students once a month for a little more than an hour speaking of Jesus and how He loves them…at the elementary school…a mile behind WC. The system is already in place and that ‘get involved’ tab invited me to play. They’ve only had this elementary’s chapter for a little over two years. There are multiple chapters all over the Atlanta and even one in Florida.

Right now it looks like I’ll be involved to champion the fifth graders to lead small groups and in worship with sign language and wait for it….dance moves! There are several times a year when this group of fifth grade leaders will gather for fellowship and training. Since I don’t live in the community, the largest space I can offer is WC. The first leadership meeting is in August and I can’t wait!

Rev. Junius Dotson is the top executive of Discipleship Ministries who began the ‘See All The People’ initiative for the United Methodist Church this summer. “ʽSee All the People’ is not a program,” said the Rev. Junius Dotson. “It really is an attempt to spur and ignite and inspire the spirit and movement of disciple-making across our denomination.” The first goal is to not focus on fixing churches, but rather be laser-focused for intentionally building disciples. The second goal of the initiative is to boost engagement with those outside the church. “It’s not about waiting for people to come to us,” Dotson said. “It’s about planting seeds, building relationships and knowing that once that happens, that really is the beginning of the disciple-making process … We can’t disciple people we’re not in relationship with.”

Everyone reading this is someone like me: loves the Lord, desires to build His kingdom, shares with others that God made them and Jesus loves them, and knows it takes relationship to make disciples. What’s something already happening in your community where you can get involved to ‘see all the people’?

“In the church there is no ‘them.’ There is only ‘us.'” ~ Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson serving the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church

There is something really special about being invited to join the launch team for books written and published by friends and colleagues. When it’s a children’s book (my favorite people)…from the bible (my favorite book)….about chicks in the bible (my bucket list for tea times when I enter the pearly gates)….well, I just put on the tea pot and pull out my favorite cup and saucer, ready to enjoy a treat.

Glenys Nellist, an English gal engaged in fabulous ministry in Michigan, is a grandmother, a mom to four young men, and Coordinator of Children’s Ministry for the West Michigan Conference of the United Methodist Church. Oh, and she writes poetry for little people wired for story and rhyme. Because of her deep passion for bringing the Bible to life for little people, I have copies of all her books on my shelf, on my bedside, and in my grandkids’ box of books. I have given multiple copies of her books as gifts to mamas who seek to be the spiritual champions for their littles because each one is filled with biblical truth, lovely rhyming text, and some have delightful lift-the-flaps with love letters from God, our Creator. The beautiful illustrations by Rachel Clowes from her Love Letter series have a gravity all their own and are utterly gorgeous. My daughter and I just gave copies of her Snuggle Times Prayers and Snuggle Times Psalms to my daughter-in-law who is expecting her first little one next month.

Glenys has added to her series of “Love Letters From God” a new book “Love Letters From God: Bible Stories For A Girl’s Heart.” As Glenys writes each girl’s story in kid-friendly language, she uses adjectives that could describe children of all ages and all stages: the first girl, the brave girl, the thirsty girl, and the generous girl. She includes a few you’d expect: Hannah, Esther, and Martha. I was thrilled she also included Eve (one who makes mistakes), Naaman’s servant girl (what’s a little girl’s book without the story of a little girl), and Rahab (one of the bravest women in the book.)

From Rahab: The Brave Girl from Joshua 2, “Rahab wanted to know a God like that. If he could take care of his people in such a wonderful way, maybe he would take care of her, too. Rahab was ready for a new start. She had made some bad choices. Was it too late for her to change, or could this God save her?” The lift-the-flap love letter  addressed to “Dear _____” reads at the end, “How amazing that Jesus would come from Rahab’s own family! But that’s what happens when you are brave and choose to follow me. I will take care of you in the most wonderful and amazing ways. Your caring friend, God.”

I’ve been thinking of a princess tea with my girls for next spring. This book will be part of the planning. This book will be part of my storytelling in Vacation Bible School this year since we’re covering Rahab and the Resurrection of Jesus. This book won’t stay on my shelf long. I probably ought to go ahead and order a box of copies. Love Letters From God: Bible Stories For A Girl’s Heart is a precious gift indeed.

“You are in my hand.” – Jeremiah 18:6 as noted from the pages 18-19 of “Love Letters From God: Bible Stories For A Girl’s Heart”