Fifteen Smart Things To Do Your First Year

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FIFTEEN SMART THINGS TO DO YOUR FIRST YEAR

It’s your first day on staff 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 staff 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 area of ministry you’re overseeing, 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 for your area of your ministry. What are the needs? Be specific. Here’s a great exercise to help you develop goals: Ask yourself what do you want the people you minister to become?. 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 them. Teach others what God’s word says about those things, and model what living it looks like. Let your ministry be a place where people 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 ministers spend 90 percent of their time working on communicating. That’s great, but you need to communicate with other audiences too. Working with young people? 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, create an app, 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 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 your 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 those you minister to. 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 folks 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 person in ministry is to work on leadership skills. We have to be problem solvers, encouragers, cheerleaders, coaches. You simply cannot spend all your time speaking. Ask the Lord if you’re more valuable to your pastor being a leader of leaders and a problem solver than as a teacher. There are other people who can teach 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.

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3 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Kidmin

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I had no ideal in 1977 when I said yes to my Pastor to covering Children’s Church for a Sunday that 43 years later I’d be writing this blog post. I also had no idea what God had in store for me. I’m thankful for all the wonderful doors, like this one that He would open. I am also thankful for the early years I had serving Kids and families at Southside Assembly in Jackson, Mississippi. I’m still in contact with so many of those kids it’s also hard to believe that those first 12 year olds are turning 55 their next birthday. (Thanks Facebook for making me feel old.)

In those early years I wish I had known to grow my leadership as well as my ministry. I understood that it was my job to help make healthy disciples. I understood the importance of training kids now for a lifetime of service in a local church. A huge mistake I made in the early years was focusing on the group of kids that made up my ministry and forgetting that to have a healthy ministry I also needed to work on relating to the three groups of adults that all kidmin leaders also have to work with. Parents, (since not a single child in my ministry has a drivers’ license), adult leaders, and the level of leadership above you. A healthy leader raises their own abilities to communicate and lead all three groups of adults. It was years before I studied leadership and worked on growing my abilities. I remember when I wrote my first book Children’s Ministry Leadership- the you can do it guide back in 2003 Children’s Pastors told me I wish I could have learned this from you twenty-five years ago and I always told them the same thing, I wish I had know this stuff twenty-five years ago too! The truth is I had to choose to add leadership to my arsenal of puppets, costumes, and magic tricks.

 If I wanted to make healthy disciples I couldn’t do this without including parents. I wish I had known then what I know now that “What happens at home is more important than what happens at church. ”The second thing I wish I knew was the importance of partnering with parents. You see every teacher knows a child does better in school with help from their parents. This is also true with spiritual things. Healthy Discipleship is a product of a healthy ministry that can be built by a team led by a healthy leader.

The third thing, I wish I knew was that you have to build a team to not only build a healthy ministry but to have make healthy disciples. Those early years I was a one-man show. I now know kids need other adults in their lives that will tell them the same thing their parents are saying at home, at church. Besides that you need a team to help you follow-up and care for kids. You can’t do it alone. To build a team it calls for duplication as well as delegation.

As you work on your leadership, build a team and partner with parents it helps you relate better and win the respect and trust of the leadership above you. 

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Living Your Best Life

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I love John 10. It’s such a powerful chapter, so many thoughts to take captive and make obedient here. John 10:10 is one of my absolute favorite verses in this chapter because it sums up God’s plan for us! He wants us to experience life, abundant, wonderful life through Him. Here’s 3 ways I’ve found to live your best life!

Number 1: THINK RIGHT.

I’ve found that my biggest battlefield is located between my two ears. If you’ve hung out here on this blog or if you have read any of my books you’ve heard me say “How we think effects what we do!” In other words your actions come from your thinking. If we want to do right, we have to think right. That’s where God’s Word comes in. It always works and adjusts your way of thinking to His way of thinking when you line your thinking up with what God’s Word Says.

Number 2: DON’T COMPARE

One of my Infusers shared this word with me and my other coaches she heard from another coach it was Comparanoia. It’s when you are paranoid because you compare yourself to others. I know a lot of Christian leaders who have fallen victim to this including myself. It’s not just when we compare ourselves to others but even when we compare ourselves to ourselves from past seasons. I’m finding that the season I find myself in now is different from previous seasons of my life. Instead of looking back and wanting to live in the past, I want to be like a river and look ahead to where God is leading me. I want to choose that where I’m headed is God’s new direction for me toward the future He has for me. I’m not going to compare my life to others or to past experiences and desire God’s present plan and purpose for my life.

Number 3: BE THANKFUL AND GRATEFUL

If you can be thank full you can be thank empty, I’ve found that a great way to stay thankful and grateful is to give God glory and credit for everything.  Another verse I love is Psalm 100:3 It says, “Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”  One of the mistakes older me doesn’t want to make that younger me made was to take credit for things Father God did in my life. We act like good ideas or even fruit that came from obedience was our idea. I had nothing to do with the results, all good stuff comes from Him. When I major on being thankful and grateful and acknowledge Him in all my ways, He makes my paths straight. Every opportunity I have today I am more appreciate of than any opportunity I’ve had  in a previous season. I don’t take serving at a great church for granted. I don’t take opportunities I have to write blogs, articles, books and speak to parents and leaders as ordinary. I cherish each opportunity to help others as gifts from God and special for such a time as this.

Want to live your best life? I do, more than ever! I dare you… read John 10 then walkout these 3 steps this week: THINK RIGHT, DON’T COMPARE, and BE THANKFUL AND GRATEFUL and watch your best life, God’s wonderful, His abundant life come into focus.

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What Are You Pursuing?

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There’s a big difference between choosing and pursuing. Choosing is about the short term while Pursuing is about the long term. Mr Webster says to choose means: “To decide on a course of action, typically after rejecting alternatives.” The problem is we’ve all made choices without rejecting the bad choices or alternatives. My wise Mom always told me “Don’t make the same mistakes twice there are enough different ones you can make every time!” So true, so true!

Making good choices is important but when you think about making intentional choices over the long haul choice turns into concise pursuit of a realized goal. The dictionary says to pursue means: “To seek to attain or accomplish (a goal), especially over a long period.” Most people especially me look and give up  quiet easily when searching for something lost while wives on the other hand have learned the difference between looking and seeking. Seek means you look until your find. The Bible speaks more about seeking than just choosing. Consistent seeking leads to pursuit.

In 1 Timothy 6: 11-12 it says “But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.“

This scripture tells us, “If there is a good fight then that means that there’s also a bad one!” I believe the bad fight that we sometimes fight comes from pursuing the wrong things. So my question for you is this, “What are you pursuing?” Why not make a list and put them in order by importance. Start with the list mentioned in 1 Timothy 6:11 and then add what is important to you especially your walk with God, your family and other important relationships and last of all your ministry. Spend some time listening to Holy Spirit. He will lead you to the truth and the truth will set you free. What are you pursuing could also be asked this way, “What are you aiming for?”One of my favorite tweets from my book TWEETABLE LEADERSHIP, “If you aim at nothing you’ll hit it every time.”

So what are you waiting for? Start pursuing all the things God is leading you to pursue.

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Controlling Crazy

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Life can get wild and ministry can get crazy. When you don’t think things can get any busier, they can and they do. In my life I’ve learned ‘busy’ is a relative term. What one person calls busy is not busy to another. The fact is no matter how you define busy it causes you to be deal with pressure. Pressure can cause you to grow or it can also expose weakness in your abilities. Either way pressure is your friend. People are paid by how much pressure they can handle and deal with. If you want to make more money learn to handle more pressure and how to control crazy.

Jesus is our help and peace in stressful times. He is our help when life gets complicated, but it’s up to us to call on that help. He’s given us His word that he will help us here are  just a few of the scriptures I stand on when life gets crazy for me. Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.” John 14:27 tells us “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:16 promises “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-. That other helper is also referred to as another comforter.  Jesus never leads you into something that will harm you. He is a safe guide His word always works. Jesus is the master of simplifying life. The laws of the Old Testament were many and complex yet Jesus made it very easy to follow them. 

Let’s take a look at Matthew 22:36-40…

36“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ◙ 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ◙ 40On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus’ answers concerning life are always simple even though they may not always be easy to carry them out. These verses simplified the law but they are a fulltime job to carry out. Paul had a heart for following the Lord example.  You can tell he patterned his life after the example of Jesus by writing in 2Corinthians 1:12   “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward. The devil always tries to complicate life just like he complicated God’s simple instructions to Adam and Eve.  He loves to complicate our lives by injecting wrong thoughts into our minds

2Corinthians 11:3 tells us “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

We must choose to keep life simple! Sometimes our responsibilities and the pressures of life affects us all in a negative way. We have to choose simplicity. In Luke 10:38-42 we find the story of two sisters. Sisters who made two very different choices in how they reacted to Jesus coming to their home. The scriptures tell us “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to Him.  She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what He said.  But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to Him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”  “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” The key to simplifying life for me is to be a student of learning better personal and time management. Have you read my book “Beat The Clock”? This  resource has helped thousands of leaders learn some leadership and time-management basics. With this in mind here are 15 Steps in keeping life simple and controlling the crazy.

1. Set your priorities. This is something you have to get in the habit of doing daily. You can’t keep priorities if you don’t have priorities! Arrange your events, task and duties by priorities!

2. Keep your priorities in order. This is job one! The fact is priorities change. The order of your priorities may be different at different times. One of my favorite scriptures is Proverbs 28:2 “When a country is rebellious, it has many rulers, but a man of understanding and knowledge maintains order. This is you responsibility!

3. Delegate to others those things that they can do for you even if it’s short term. When you’re out of time the only way to get more is to use someone else’s. Make a list of everything you are doing that someone else can do and allow they to do it! Use checklists and job descriptions to get others to do it your way.

4. Use time saving tools. Some of the tools I use are my iPhone, iPad , a timer, iCal, voice mail, email, I even starting to use a program so others can choose an appointment so I don’t have to go back and forth with them and a laptop computer. But these tools can become time wasters if you use them wrong. Know when to talk not type, keep your notifications off when you are working on other things. Add a worker website, post videos and  let blogs replace worker meetings.

5. Do more than one thing at a time. Take advantage of commute times and wait times to study, have meetings, people development, return messages, and make assignments to others by phone. Use meals to put into people. Ride together and set up with the meeting is about. I pay so we’ll talk about what I want to cover on the way back we wrap up and make assignments on what needs to be carried out. Take reading with you wherever you go as well as other work. (Here’s another reason I love my Iphone!)

6. Decide what can be postponed or eliminated. This goes back to your priorities. Keep those activities and events that are urgent or important on top. Don’t just look at the task look at the time it takes to pull it off also. Learn to say no! Learning to say no also means saying yes to right things. To say yes to urgent and important matters means you say no to less urgent or important things. When time is short look to focus on now and don’t look too far ahead. 

7. Get creative with your family time. Take them with you whenever you can and combine family time with business and leisure activities. Call them and let them know you were thinking of them.

8. Schedule a break even if it’s only for a few hours. (Even convicts get time off for good behavior)

Some of my getaway places are playing guitar, going to the music store, Starbucks, the bicycle store and Best Buy.

9. Be open to change in your lifestyle (Different results require different actions)

Don’t despise change. It’s alright to do things differently. Guard your thoughts and your tongue

10. Do your homework and see what others do in hectic times. Check up on busy people – see what they are doing on facebook, or twitter. Network at conferences and also on sites like KidminCoach.com.

11. Stop and listen to Jesus.  Make time for the Word. It your responsibility to stay refreshed spiritually.

Feed your spirit daily you feed you belly daily. If you can’t go to church, listen to the podcast or watch the livestream. But it will truly help you spiritually to go to church.

12. When you are tired and busy, don’t think. Rely on a checklist. Paper is for remembering, your brain is for thinking and dreaming. Have the information you need with you when you go to meetings including, flowcharts and other reports. 

13. Don’t quit or make big decisions during busy and stressful times. Wait to make big decisions when things slow down. Also never make people decisions when time is limited. Slow down and think it through.

14. Develop a plan to make next year better the minute an event or activity is over.  Learn from your experiences and the best time to do this is while it’s fresh on your mind. Start next year’s file now. Speaking of planning ahead go ahead and put next year’s date on the calendar as well as plan as far ahead as possible. Do you have 2017 planned yet? Smart leaders plan as far ahead as possible to keep life balanced. Get feedback from others to help you plan better. A smart person makes time to listen and learn. When it’s over, crash. Get some rest. Always schedule a break between big pushes and events. Watch out for too many irons in the fire.

15. Do more by doing less. Focus on the main thing! Are you doing what only you should be doing, or are you doing things that someone else can do? It’s time to evaluate and ask yourself if you are focusing on the main thing.

To keep life simple and control the crazy, you must evaluate constantly. Measure your progress including your fruit, gains, loses and efficiency. Listen to your spouse on what should you discontinue, change and/or add. Things naturally get complex on their own that’s why you have to be intentional to keep life simple. Get out that calendar and make a plan to make you, your family and your ministry better.

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