Will what happens in your church THIS SUNDAY matter in someone’s life ON MONDAY?

At Orange Tour you’ll discover how to:

  • Design a strategic experience each Sunday.
  • Reach families who don’t show up this Sunday.
  • Craft a message that lasts far beyond Sunday.
  • Help small group leaders stay connected to kids after Sunday.
  • And much more.

Getting your entire team on the same page is important! When you experience fresh insight and new ideas together it creates a team synergy that is powerful and lasts week after week after week. It has been a tremendous honor to be a part of the Orange Tour for the past three years. I’m more excited about this years Tour than any of the others because we’ll be in more cities and be able to host more people than ever before.

Orange Tour is expanding into more regions than ever before to make it easier than ever before to get your entire team to the event. For a complete list of locations and dates click here.  Registration kicks off on June 9th if you register on that day you can save $50.

Want more details? You can get all the facts at www.orangetour.org. Hope to see you there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seems like I’ve been being asked about this a lot so I thought I’s repost this from my blog over at www.KidminCoach.com on my KidminCoach Talk blog.

Hope you enjoy…

It’s your first day on staff as children’s pastor at a new church. The senior pastor has introduced you to the staff, donuts from your first day welcome party have been reduced to crumbs in the bottom of an empty box, and you’re sitting alone in your office. Now what? How you handle the next few months will have a tremendous impact on the remainder of your ministry. Let’s make sure you get off on the right foot.By the way, this advice applies whether you’re launching a ministry from scratch or you’re the new children’s pastor at a church of two thousand plus.

1. First, do nothing.

Spend a few months not changing anything that’s currently in place. Use the time to find out what’s been done in the past. Ask lots of questions. Observe carefully. You need to understand exactly how the pastor, parents, kids, and current volunteers define a “great” children’s ministry. It’s likely that their definition won’t be in complete agreement, but everyone will assume your definition of “great” matches his or her own.

 2. Now Fix Something- but something small.

Find one small problem and fix it. Don’t tackle anything big yet; nobody knows you well enough to trust you, and you may create a bigger problem than you solve. Find something- anything- that makes life a little better for your kids, teachers, or kids’ families. You want people to realize that you’re actually good for the organization and worth listening to.

3. Connect with your leader.

When you go into a church to serve as children’s pastor, decide you’ll be committed to and support your senior pastor. I believe every church staff member should give the senior pastor what the leader wants. We need to all be working toward the same goal. When you come into a church, ask yourself, “What can God teach me through this pastor?” Your teachable attitude will allow you to do significant ministry and also grow spiritually.

4. Figure out where you are.

Once you understand the pastor’s vision for the children ministry, see if you have the resources you need to meet it. Is the correct leadership in place? Do you have the right tools—the curriculum, furniture, and rooms? Summarize on paper how you view your current ministry situation. Summarize where you think the ministry should go, too, and share what you’ve written with your senior pastor. This is your pastor’s chance to fine-tune your direction before you set out and make changes.

5. Join the team.

Go to lunch with other people on your church staff, one at a time. Ask what’s important to them.  Hear their heartbeat for ministry. Remember that even if the youth group consistently leaves the room you share in chaos, you and the youth pastor are on the same ministry team. Next year you’ll be releasing some of your children into the care of that youth pastor. Esteem that pastor and offer your support. If we want others to respect us, we need to respect them. That means respecting everyone on your team. Don’t fall into the “Us versus Them” trap. “We’re all on the same team.”

6. Determine where you’re going.

Set goals area of your children’s ministry. What do the kids in the Nursery need? The preschoolers? Be specific. Here’s a great exercise to help you develop goals: Ask yourself what you want children to do when they’re adults. Make a list. You want them to know Jesus? Write it down. Want them to have a servant’s heart? Write it down. Want them to be givers? Put it on the list. Now you become those things, and put people who do those things in front of children. Teach children what God’s word says about those things, and model what living it looks like. Let your ministry be a place where children see what God wants them to become and where they can practice serving, giving, and being faithful. People follow people with a plan. If you haven’t developed a plan in your first three months to get from where you are to where you’re going, people aren’t going to follow you.

7. Communicate with the right people.

Most children’s pastors spend 90 percent of their time working on communicating with kids. That’s great, but you need to communicate with other audiences, too. Create a newsletter that tells parents what you’re teaching and what’s on the schedule. Since you can’t assume that “take-home Papers make it home, you have to communicate by snail mail, e-mail, or even a worker webpage. Look for ways to keep information flowing to your team also remember to communicate upward.

8.  Update job descriptions.

Everyone needs a job description. I like to give every volunteer his or her job description, plus everyone else’s job description. When volunteers know where they fit, everyone does better. Write your own job description first, and submit it to the senior pastor for tweaking. Then write everyone else’s description. When your job description aligns with the pastor’s vision, and the other job descriptions align with yours, you’re all on the same page.

 9. Build a team.

We say team building is important. We even believe it. So why don’t we do it? If you don’t allow others to learn by doing—coaching and encouraging them as they go—there’s no way you’ll build a team. See yourself as a coach and a mentor whether you have a team of two hundred or a volunteer staff of two. Delegation is good: it’s letting someone represent you in accomplishing tasks and duties. You need that. But even better than delegation is duplication: creating an exact copy of an original. When you instill your heart and passion in another children’s worker, you’ve gone beyond just delegation and actually duplicated yourself.

10. Be visible in worship.

It’s important for your own spiritual life that you be in worship. It’s also important for your own spiritual life that you be a worshipper. Your actions set an expectation that every children’s ministry volunteer should be growing in his or her faith. Sit right down front, and be visible as a cheerleader for the church, not just for your own ministry.

11. Use the church calendar.

Make sure your church office has a central, master calendar and use it. Staying coordinated with other ministries avoids facility conflicts. It also increases participation in children’s ministry because families don’t have to choose between conflicting meetings.

12. Tend to the budget.

Find out how budgets are done, by whom, when, and what the approval process is. Become an expert in the process before you have to produce an annual budget. You can accomplish more with money than without it, so don’t be shy about figuring out how to ask for money. To create a budget, ask yourself what you want to accomplish in the lives of your kids. Then develop on paper a ministry that meets those goals. Price the programs and total them up. That’s the budget you’ll ask for.

13. Shelve the great program you did in your last church

The program that went well in your last church may not meet the needs of children in your new church. Always start by identifying needs and then finding a program or curriculum that addresses those needs.

14. Be creative and open to change.

Creative people are open to new ideas. They put things together in innovative ways. They tweak and twist and rearrange stuff. And they don’t accept the first solution offered just because it’s the easiest. That tiny change you wanted to make in your first few weeks may just be adding some direction signs so that people can find their way from one place to another. A small change, but a huge difference.

15. Do the job only you can do.

The first priority for any children’s pastor is to work on leadership skills. We have to be problem solvers, encouragers, cheerleaders, coaches. You simply cannot spend all your time in classrooms with kids. Ask the Lord if you’re more valuable to your pastor being a leader of leaders and a problem solver than as a teacher of kids. There are other people who can teach kids, but you may be the only one who can do your role. 

This might not seem like a full year’s worth of things to do but believe me, these fifteen things will keep you busy. It’s not easy doing all fifteen of these at the same time. Some will be easier to accomplish than others. The key is to remember this first year is all about relationships. One of the best words of advise I could give a person in a new position or church would be to remember that ministry is a marathon it is not a sprint. Don’t try to do everything that needs to be done all at one time. It’s also important to remember that your family also needs you. They are new too. They’ll make the needed adjustments they need to make if they have you leading them. Don’t be an absentee parent. Be the leader at home as well as at the church.

 

 

 

In 1995 I started a podcast before podcasts were cool.  I had been a member of John Maxwell’s Maximum Impact Club for a few years when I started realizing most people in Children’s Ministry didn’t know much about leadership. It was not mentioned at conferences, just puppets, magic, juggling, clowning and how to make ballon animals. I realized that there was just one group of kids that we had to work with and three groups of adults. How I work with all four groups determined my success not just how I worked with kids. What three groups of adults are you talking about? Glad you asked, 1. Parents, 2.Workers, 3. The level of leadership above you.  So I created a monthly audio leadership resource for Children’s Pastors by a Children’s Pastor. I called it “The Children’s Minister’s Leadership Club.” I started on cassettes, then moved to CD and then moved to digital downloads. Somewhere along the journey I hanged the name to theClub. In 2005 I started giving it away free to Leaders under 30. In the last 21 years I’ve seen thousands of kidmin, stumin, nextgen and even senior pastors be a part of theClub. About a year and a half ago I changed the format to include leaders I’ve been coaching through Infuse to give back. A few months ago I asked some of my infusers if it was time to move to a podcast. So with their help it’s here “theClub Leadership Podcast with Jim Wideman” is officially on iTunes.

Please subscribe to it hand help me share about it to you local networks as well as your social networks. You can enhance your listening by joining “theClub group” on kidmincoach.com for more discussions with Jim on past and present episodes and other current ministry topics. Use the coupon code:GET10 to save 10% on the one time membership to this online leadership community.

 

 

 

I can’t believe 2016 is here! I am so excited to begin my 41st year of ministry.  I love New Years because folks naturally do 2 things that I’ve been telling #Kidmin leaders they need to do on a regular basis.  One-they need to evaluate. You can’t evaluate without asking some key questions like, “What worked in 2014?” “Do you know why they worked?” Once you find the answers make sure you continue you do this in the New Year. Now ask yourself, “What didn’t work and why?” My favorite question to ask myself is “What am I going to do different to produce a different result?” Same action always brings same results. The reason you have to determine what didn’t work is so that you don’t take bad habits into the New Year. The second thing you need to do is to set goals. A goal is simply a target or mark that you are aiming at. Where do you need to improve? I just don’t look at my ministry I start with me. What do I need to do differently in my spiritual life. I like to ask myself “Has there ever been a time in my life that I’m more in love with Jesus than I am right now? If the answer is yes, I’m the only person that can fix that. What do I need to change for my family? Yes God has called me into the ministry but according to God’s Word I’m also to be the priest of my home. Today we began the New Year with our annual family lunch of Blackeyed peas and mac & cheese and cornbread. During lunch I asked every member of my family including Sparrow what they were believing God for so I could pray specially for them. I’ve made a commitment to pray for those things and join my faith to theirs. I’ve also planned my vacations and identified trips and special family times I need to keep open on my calendar. I also set some other personal health goals. Next ask yourself what are your ministry goals? Seting goals is just the first set, the second step is to make a plan for each of the goals you are aiming at. I also ask myself what appointments do I need to add to my calendar to make each goal a reality. Appointments work better than Todo’s because they have a date and time. Some leaders ignore Todo’s and keep putting them off. Most of the time we keep our appointments. Evaluating and Goal Setting will make a difference in this New Year. The key is to not just do this in January but keep it up all year long. Set a recurring appointment the 1st of each month to evaluate what’s working so far and what’s not, as well as what do you need to do different and what do you need to make sure you keep doing? Also set a recurring appointment on the 15th of each month to ask yourself “How am I coming on my goals? “What do I need to adjust in my plan?” So this year let’s just not start the year off right but let keep it up and make 2016 the year we do what it takes to hit our goals in every single area of our lives.

I am so excited to announce that I have a brand new book that will begin shipping, October 1st, 2015 entitled TWEETABLE LEADERSHIP. I’ll be honest with you this is the book I wish I could have released first. It’s jamed packed with over 500 practical one liners and tid bits and Jimisms, the only reason I couldn’t have released this book first is because I had to write the others books first so this greatest hits book could be created.  My dear friend Reggie Joiner has been telling me for years to write this book. I should have listened to him. During the writing and editing process tons of infusers and the many others who make up team Jim would read and re-read this book and everyone told me the exact same thing, “This book is going to help a whole lot of people!”

If you look up the words that make up the title in the dictionary you get the idea behind this book.  Tweetable |ˈtwētəbəl| means suitable for posting on the social media site Twitter. Leadership |ˈlēdərˌSHip| means the action of leading a group of people or an organization:These two seem at first glance to really not go together but the truth is they really do.  I’ve take short one liners from all my books, talks and articles to impart nuggets of wisdom that will help you lead others as well as your ministry that happen to be suitable to be posted on twitter but more importantly that are suitable to apply to your life.

Inside TWEETABLE LEADERSHIP is a collection of more than 500 tweetable truths that that will help jumpstart your thinking and learning so you can apply them in your life. At the end of every chapter is a collection of some of my favorite articles and thoughts on practical leadership topics designed with just one purpose; to help you become a better leader! Over the next few weeks I’ve asked 50 of my kidmin friends and bloggers I admire to write an honest review of the book and also give some digital and acutal copies away. I’ll be posting the where-abouts of each blog here so you can have more chances to win a copy. Why don’t I start the give-aways with a contest here. I’ll give away 2 signed copies and a bobble head to someone who between now and September 16 leaves a comment here, and tweets: Want to win a free copy of #TweetableLeadership? Click here to find out how to enter http://ctt.ec/1fg1s+ #kidmin #nextgen

 Have fun and thanks for helping me spead the word about this new book!