Tomorrow my son will be the Teacher’s Assistant in his first grade class room. As part of his special day, Liam needs to decorate and fill a lunch bag with five things that define who he is. Now, granted, Mr. Bedi didn’t use the word “define” but rather “that tell the class about you.”

This is a show and tell of sorts. Once Liam has finished his presentation, Mr. Bedi will chose five kids to ask Liam questions about the items.

For example Liam chose:

Legos: He’s obsessed with them right now.
Money: He is big into saving money to buy large things (Read large Lego sets)
Book: He LOVES reading.
Pencil: He loves to draw
Ball: He has fun throwing/kicking/shooting balls around the yard

This is a great idea not only for a school class room, but also a small group in children’s ministry.

If you’re a small group leader, introduce yourself with your top five. Kids LOVE knowing about more about you. Having tangible items that they can hold or touch will make who you are more memorable to them.

Have your kids share about themselves. This is a great way for your kids to know more about each other and become more comfortable sharing what’s going on in their lives. For the first few weeks of the year, have one child bring in this Top 5. Have the other kids in the group ask questions.

The more we know about each other, the more likely that we’ll form a tight-knit community of faith. Something that even kids need!

I’d love to know: What are your Top 5?

I’m in the middle the third week of a new ministry year. I think that my head hurts more today than it did during the week before we launched our programming for this year. I went into yesterday thinking that I’d be able to get down to business and focus on getting my work done. But as days go, it was one filled with non-stop meetings and conversations. It turns out that work of three-weeks in is more difficult than the work of one-week out.

Thankfully the first meeting of the day set the tone for all that would follow.

Every Tuesday morning throughout the ministry year, our entire family ministries team gathers to celebrate ministry wins as well as pray for what’s on the horizon. Our meetings throughout September have been more motivational than usual. Our resident family ministries guru knows that we need encouragement.

Yesterday he brought in our executive pastor who followed the promptings of the Spirit and shared with us exactly what we needed to hear.

When God called Isaiah as the prophet to Judah, Isaiah’s job description was to do what God called him to do even when no one would listen to him and reject everything he had to say.

Isaiah asked, “How long will this take?” And God basically says, “Until I’m finished doing what needs to be done and Judah is laid to waste.”

So let me understand this: Isaiah has one of the WORST job descriptions of all time that will zap him of all of his energy and will offer not one bit of personal satisfaction.

OK, as long as we have that straight.

It’s no wonder that about halfway through Isaiah’s journey we find Isaiah 40…

²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.

³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

We’re here. We’re felling it. We’re experiencing the effects of making ministry happen, and we’ve got a long way to go.

It’s only September.

Yesterday, I was encouraged and reminded that God is still on the throne. God is still in control. We must faithfully serve him in His calling on our lives, whatever that may be. He will give us the strength to complete it in his time (not in ours).

And that, my friends, is hope!

What is offering you hope and comfort right now in the craziness of your life?

Launching a ministry year boils down to a few weeks of chaos. Here are 25+ things that have kept my attention at work this past week.

01. Fill my iPod with get-down-to-business playlists

02. Finish scripts

03. Get those scripts to leaders

04. Drink coffee

05. Have a day filled with SEVEN meetings

06. Record DV:FX teaser video

07. Record and edit Fridge Card video

08. Check on recruitment progress

09. Not get to writing projects (Sorry XXX and Orange Leaders – they’re coming!)

10. Drink more coffee

11. Recruit volunteers

12. Make a plan B if volunteers don’t come

13. Stress out (just a little)

14. Drink water

15. Calm down

16. Write e-mails to leaders

17. Beg and plead for some people to volunteer

18. Hide in coffee shops and libraries to write.

19. Stress out (just a little)

20. Watch TV

21. Calm down

22. More writing

23. More e-mails

24. More meetings

25. Create visuals and design postcards

26. Beg some more people to volunteer

27. Drink coffee

During this past week, it’s been one thing after another. I’m thankful for a team of amazing individuals who have helped ease the stress off the list that kept getting longer. You all know who you are, and Discovery Village would be NOTHING without you. I’m looking forward to a great year; just make it through another couple weeks. Praying for you all! We can DO this! It’s “Make it work” time!

Do you use 252 Basics? Do you handout the Refrigerator Cards every week?

Do your kids use them for the right reasons or for making paper airplanes?

In the past few weeks, we’ve decided that we needed to share with our kids why we give them these colored pieces of paper each week as they leave their room.

So Anne Ferris, our music coordinator, and I made this really cheesy video… in one take. It’s not flashy, but we think it might actually get to the point.

(p.s. I think I really like making stupid videos using iSight and iMovie on the MacBook. It’s just too easy…. )

We’re starting to gear up for our family production around Ada Bible Church. We’re making sure everything is in place for opening night on October 7. Next Sunday we’ll begin our buzz-campaign in the elementary environments. Matt Bell and I shot this quick promo-video.

One camera. One take. One laugh after another… at least we think so.

This video was shot in HD. Depending on your Internet connection, you might want to let the whole video load before trying to watch the whole thing. Enjoy!

I know. That seems like a stupid question. OF COURSE we trust our volunteers, you say. Why else would we put them into a room with children?

But, how about trusting them enough to give you input for the way you run your ministry? Do you want to hear what they have to say? Would you ever let them take ownership of their volunteer role?

Ask yourself these questions:

What do your volunteer meetings look like? Do you have them? Are they geared towards you telling them what they need to know? Or are they a forum to discuss what’s happening in your children’s ministry with a common goal of making the ministry better?

If your meeting could be said in an e-mail, don’t have the meeting; write an e-mail. Your volunteers will thank you. However, if your meeting requires a white board, thinking caps, and real dialogue, you may actually have volunteers signing up to attend that meeting. Our volunteers live in the environments we create. They know them like the back of their hand. They know what works and what doesn’t. They know what they’d change, and what they’d completely throw out the window. Make sure your volunteers are part of the solution. I’m guessing that they’ll have better ideas than your team will.

When was the last time you sat across the table from a volunteer and asked him or her for three ways that you could make your curriculum more effective?

I like what our team puts together for weekend programming. I actually think we’re pretty good at it. We create some really great ideas for our kids. And you know what, I don’t want to hear that someone doesn’t like them. I also know that the collective intelligence of our 200+ volunteers is greater than that of the 6 staff people I bring to a creative meeting. I need to hear what they have to say. I need to really listen to it and take it to heart. This doesn’t mean I’m required to put everything I hear into practice; I don’t do that with my own ideas. But, this will ensure that I’m at least hearing ideas that are not our own and biased towards our own programming fall-backs.

Do you leave openings in your children’s ministry curriculum for volunteers to personalize and adapt the lesson or small group activities to fit the needs of their small group?

Giving freedom is always scary. We take such ownership of the curriculum that allowing our volunteers to adapt and personalize it makes us feel like we’re being irresponsible. However, if our small group leaders are really being the small group leaders that we hope they are, they will know their kids better than we will. They will know the perfect story from their own life that will not only hit home that bottom line but also will gain a huge amount of relational equity with those kids.

Do you regularly seek out information from those who are least likely to give you their opinion?

Chances are that the people who aren’t talking ARE thinking and processing what they see and do in your ministry. To be sure, these folks have an opinion. They could be just waiting for you to ask them for it.

Don’t know where to start?

Try an informal survey. I’m positive that I’m not giving many of you a new resource by mentioning Survey Monkey. However, I wanted to highlight it anyway.

This is a simple on-line app to help you gather and collate the information you’d like to receive. We’ve been using this for quick after-event surveys all the way to large-scale end of the year surveys for volunteers.

Don’t wait until the end of the year to get feedback that could help make your program better.

Around February this year, we sent out an e-mail survey to several volunteers. We broke down the mini-survey into categories and asked open-ended questions:

Staff Interaction
If you have contact with staff, how would you describe that interaction?
What would you maintain, what would you change?

Role/Training

How have you grown in your role this year?
How could we help you improve in your role?
Would you be willing to train someone in your role?
What topics would you suggest for our training session next fall?

Community
How would you describe the level of community with other volunteers in your room or that you regularly interact with?

Parent Interaction
Do you interact with parents in your role and how would you describe that involvement?

Recruitment
Have you invited anyone to join serving in your area or in DV this ministry year?
Who do you think could do your role and does not serve currently in DV?

Discovery Village in General
When observing DV each week what areas do you perceive are going well?
What areas do you see need improvement?

A great idea to impact kids and families would be:

Comments:

Overall, I was pleased with the results. The ones which I would have rather not had to read, I need to read in order to grow as an organization. We used the results not only to improve what we could on the spot, but we also used what our volunteers said to influence the goals we wrote for this current ministry year.

I’m looking to send out a survey this November. I’d love to hear your questions that have lead volunteers to give you the answers you need to hear. Please comment and post them below.

“Why not start panicking in advance? Why not start taking emergency measures while there’s still a chance that those emergency measures will actually accomplish something?” – The Big Moo

A prayer request came over our prayerLink in the past month:

“Please pray for [name withheld] Bible Church. One of the Sunday School teachers collapsed and died while teaching a class of young ones (3rd grade?) last Sunday. Pray for the family as well as the entire congregation as they deal with so many emotions during this difficult time. ”

After the initial shock, my immediate thought was… the KIDS! How horrible for those children to witness such an event! How difficult for parents to navigate their children through this time.

Then my mind went to… what would WE do if that happened?

We have emergency response.
We have great care pastors who would help parents in anyway they could.

But we have up to 80 kids in a room at one time… would we move them? Of course we would move them, but where and how? What would we say?

No one prepares for moments like these.

We prepare for tornadoes, fires, stalkers, people with guns, but death? I know of no ministry with a plan in place for dealing with teachers (et all) who drop dead on stage. Interestingly enough, I’m not sure that as a result of thinking about all of this that I’ll go to my team and work on drafting up a plan of action to include in our volunteer manuals and trainings.

I do know that we have volunteers in place and working in our environments would handle an emergency of this caliber with quiet urgency. Each would care for children and families with grace and love. We’d trigger the emergency response and get who we need where we need them. In the following weeks, we’d have a team of care pastors “armed and ready” to assist families in helping their children recover from this experience.

How about you? What will you do when the unthinkable happens? It will, maybe not as the this church experienced, but you will face a moment in your ministry when a plan needs to be mobilized and triggered. Will you be ready?

I’d love to hear more about your emergency plans.
Comment or drop me an e-mail at dscott@adabible.org.

For the past several years we’ve tried hard to instill the virtue of generosity in the hearts of children. We’ve gone so far as to budget money to “put on” a service project once every quarter. We write these projects right into the weekend curriculum and champion them in both our small and large group gatherings.

For some of those projects we’ve partnered with local and international ministries. We could boast amazing stats at the “good” we’ve done through these projects. They were successful for what they were, but we question whether they make a lasting impression of teaching stewardship.

We’ve taken an offering for years. We placed design-friendly offering containers that fit in with our children’s environments. However, we’ve never really promoted these. Sure there are always kids putting their offering into the “parking meters” in Discovery Village, yet we’ve realized that there is a good chance that our kids don’t even know where that money goes.

We want to change that.

This year we’re laying out a concentrated effort to encourage stewardship. Here’s the skeleton of our plan to make that happen:

OFFERING:

We will begin to take offering in small group during the first part of the hour. We won’t make some huge spectacle of the whole thing, but small group leaders will pass around a container and pray over the money that it will be used to glorify God.

Rather than put the money collected towards a project, we are going to have that money go towards the general fund. We know that this isn’t as “sexy” as missions work in Africa or shoes for the homeless. However, we want the kids to understand that putting on church every weekend cost money:

Our Cascade Campus spends $20,000 on cookies and juice over the course of the year.

In our children’s ministry, we make roughly 3300 copies each week.

Our electric budget is roughly $70,000 per year.

We want our kids to feel as though they are a part of something large than themselves. We want them to know that even at a young age they can make a difference in God’s world through their own resources.

CLEANING UP:

Have you ever walked into a children’s ministry environment after a service? Have you ever wondered how the place could look like such a disaster area?

We want our kids to take ownership of that space and the resources they use. We will have recycling bins in the back of the room for paper and plastic water bottles. We hope that this will help students learn more about how God wants us to be stewards of the planet as well as our financial resources.

TITHING:

We realize that most children will get their offering money from Mom or Dad. However, as they get older and begin making money or receiving an allowance, we will encourage them to give of their own finances. We do not want them to feel this as an stodgy obligation but rather a joyful expression of worship to the God who has given so much to us.

Also because this money goes toward the general fund, we’ve encouraged small group leaders that if they feel lead to put their own tithes and offerings in the container in small group. If this happens, we feel that it will be a strategic teachable moment. Our kids don’t have an opportunity to watch their parents give in the adult services; this is a way for our children’s ministry to partner with parents and be another influence in their child’s faith development.

We know we don’t have it all together, but we know we need to attempt something. This is where we are now, and we expect to learn a lot this year. I’d love to hear how you teach stewardship in your children’s ministry.
Drop me an e-mail or comment below.

If you could plan any event with a sky’s the limit budget, what would it be and how would you stage it?

Would you get Real Fake Buildings to come and design your set? Would you hire a lighting designer to hook you up with a state-of-the-art LED light rig? Perhaps you’d make sure that your three video screens would sync seamlessly with said LED walls and your After Effects backgrounds played through ProPresenter.

Most of us would first look to environment and atmosphere. I mean I would. I drool over issues of Collide Magazine and the Real Fake Buildings’ website; I couldn’t imagine having the budget to do something about the designs in my head.

But then I read this poem by Billy Collins the other night…

Hippos on Holiday

Is not really the title of a movie
but if it was I would be sure to see it.
I love their short legs and big heads,
the whole hippos look.
Hundreds of them would frolic
in the mud of a wide, slow-moving river,
and I would eat my popcorn
in the dark of a neighborhood theater.
When they opened their enormous mouths
lined with big stubby teeth
I would drink my enormous Coke.

I would be both in my seat
and in the water playing with the hippos,
which is the way it is
with a truly great movie.
Only a mean-spirited reviewer
would ask on holiday from what?

And I began to wonder if the original plan for my sky’s the limit budget would be worth the money spent. Collins is talking about being enamored by HIPPOS!

Maybe my money should be spent on relationships rather than stuff?

After all, the greatest toys in the world turn out to be cardboard boxes and sticks; the most magical lighting can often come from a few flashlights around a campfire.

Maybe it’s time to rethink the way we put on the Big Show every weekend.

I keep going back to that line:

“I would be both in my seat and in the water playing with the hippos, which is the way it is with a truly great movie.”

All of the technology in the world won’t give you that.
Technology can enhance, but it’s the STORY and the STORYTELLER that will captivate kids’ hearts.

How can I spend my limited budget on that which will mimic those truly great movies in which we find ourselves lost in the story rather than the high-priced CGI?

Here’s what I’m thinking:

Invest in programming that is three dimensional, meaning that through the story the children become active participants rather than passive listeners.

Invest into great writers who can spin stories with ease and grace, who know what kids enjoy. People that can write humor without sounding like Sponge Bob and drama without that classic after-school-special ending.

Invest into those who will tell a really great story, people who will craft their words, emotions, and actions to engage and capture the hearts of kids. Give them resources to grow their skills and excel in their craft.

Invest in set designers who will do less for more, and make minimal sets seem like they cost a million dollars.

I want kids to feel as though they are the most important people on the planet for an hour each Sunday. That will only happen with programming backed up with solid relationships.

How about you? How will you do less for more and engage your kids this year? I’d love to hear your ideas.

I know that I was rushing.

I know I could have parked better.

I did have to navigate around an on-coming car.

AND, I was totally in the yellow lines. Perhaps, I was a teensy-weensy bit close to the car on my left.

BUT, I was far enough away that I could escape without as much as a scratch on his passenger side door.

When I came out of the store, this note was attached to my driver’s side window:

Now granted, I’m not saying my park-job was perfect. I’m not even saying that I didn’t deserve the reprimand; perhaps I did. However, the person wrote with a certain tone of voice, using an exclamation point. This person was frustrated with me and wanted me to know it…

On his church’s stationary.

I don’t know about you, but chances are that most of us would (hopefully) think twice before writing an angry note on church stationary and affixing it to someone’s car.

Right?

Honestly, I saw the note and laughed, but on the ride home I started to think about the implications of this note had it not been on my car.

What if I was…

someone who hated church?
an atheist or agnostic?
liked Christ but not his Christians?
spiritually on the fence with Jesus?
looking for a church?
dealing with a recent tragedy and not thinking straight?
parking poorly because my kids had a long day and were letting me know it?

What would a note like this tell me about your church and its members?

The stationary reads, “A church like you remember.”

I’m guessing whoever read this note would truly remember that this is in fact the church he remembers growing up that could have been irrelevant, the church that may have offered little grace to someone who doesn’t have it all together, or the church that cared more about the bad parking job than the reason behind it.

I realize that I’m not stereotyping a whole congregation on the grounds of one note. I need to deal with that in my attitude towards them.

We all have broken people, including ourselves, with baggage filling seats in our churches every week. We all have bad days and write poorly thought-out notes as a result of them. That is why the church exists, to be a safe-haven for the hurting and a place where we can grow together.

But if “they” is now “us” and if we attend and belong to a church family, we are now spokespeople for that church and everything for which it stands. We can’t do this sort of thing. Please, let’s not give Jesus and his church (and your local church) a bad reputation. Let’s work together to build the reputation of the Church.

Oh, and I’ll also try and work on my parking abilities.