by Chase | Kid Min, Leadership
Adults should become more like children during worship.
Notice I didnât say âact like children.â
Lord knows that some of you all have enough drama posted on Facebook! The last thing that you that you need is to add to your issues by fighting over crayons and spilling goldfish crackers all over the worship center!
Let me say it in another way: We should spend less time trying to make children worship like adults and more time worshipping like our children.Â
This is counter to what many of us believe. Whether it was our upbringing or some other reason we often try to force adulthood onto our children. Truth be told, we expect children to grow up quickly and mature faster than they should.Â
Before I get too deep into this conversation, I promise you that this is not a post about parenting and how to raise your child. In fact, it is the exact opposite.
You need to become more like your kids. Yes, that is correct. You, the adult, needs to become more like a child in your relationship with Jesus. And if you think this is absurd, this isn’t my idea, but a teaching from Jesus. Check it out:Â
- Matthew 18:3-4 âAnd he said: âTruly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.ââ
Why would Jesus say this? Simple. Kids have no other choice but to be rely on others.
Jesus was making it clear that pride and self-righteousness have no place in the Kingdom of Heaven. We must humbly submit to Jesus and rely on His provisions. Adults need to depend on Jesus while they journey with Him.
This verse gets me thinking about some of the ways that children worship. Each week I lead the large group-teaching portion of our Kids Worship. I love seeing how elementary kids interact with one another and worship with Jesus.
At times we all come into a worship setting with the wrong attitude and heart. I know children are not perfect. I get that. But I do think that some adults would experience more of Jesus when they release their control and depend on the Spirit of God to move in their lives.
There are many areas of our lives that we try to hold onto our idea and preferences more so than allowing Jesus to move in and through us. Below is a short list to serve as a conversation started around this idea of shedding our pride and fully depending on Jesus in the same way that a child depends on a parent for care.
Here are a few reasons why adults should worship like children.
4 Reasons Adults Should Worship Like Children
Kids Are Excited To Attend Church
Kids are excited to experience God, connect with other people, serve one another, voice prayer requests, and create crafts that center on the dayâs Bible passage. Their energy for worship is contagious to the leaders! They have a joy about life and a faith that believes that Jesus will take care of everything. Many adults need a fresh wind and excitement about the things of God.Â
Kids Are Ready to Learn
When I lead kids worship each week our children are ready to learn about Jesus each Sunday. Many of them bring their Bibles to church, they sit attentively, and remember content from week-to-week. They crave knowledge about Jesus and live out the lessons that they have learned.
Kids Are Not Afraid To Ask Questions
If you spend time around kids you know that they will ask the most random questions! But notice that they are willing to ask anything to learn more and to engage in conversation. One key to community and discipleship is to be willing to ask questions. Asking questions takes humility and a confession that you do not have it all together.
Kids Are Willing To Try New Things
Kids are spontaneous! They are willing to seize opportunities for fun and adventure. Many adults in our churches need to come back to an adventurous spirit. Jesus wants us to journey with Him with a spirit of dependence and adventure (not with a cantankerous attitude).
Now What?
Does worship seem cold and disconnected from Jesus? In what ways do you need to lay aside your pride and humbly depend on Jesus?
What other reasons would you add to this list?
by Chase | Kid Min, Leadership, Student Min
Humans were created to live in relationship with one another.
In Genesis we read that God knew Adam would need more fulfilling relationships than simply having nature â humans need humans. (Genesis 2:18)
The foundational key to discipleship is relationship: This is how humanity exists and why Jesus endured the cross. Without relationships, discipleship fails. Thriving and sustainable churches understand that every ministry (from the welcome team to the worship band to the nursery volunteers and beyond) must build a culture that values people over programs. While programs are important to reach our mission to preach the Gospel, they are nothing more than a tool to further the mission.
We know relationships are key, but along the way church ministries start moving away from relationships into ministry management. Letâs be honest, relationships are tough! To be invested relationally with others means that you are committing your time, energy, finances, and care to a smaller group of people. It is far easier to serve on the outskirts of relationships than to be invested in others’ lives. So many fail to invest relationally and are consumed with busywork inside the church.
Below are three habits that, when left unaddressed, can hinder relational ministry.
3 Habits That Hinder Relational Ministry
- Affirming the Ministry Without Partnering in Mission
Pastors know that you agree with the student ministry. If you didnât affirm it, you would be seeking to serve at another church. Ministries do not need a head nod of approval but committed partners who are rolling up their sleeves to do work. Partners invest relationally.
- Asking About People Instead of Using Direct CommunicationÂ
As a youth pastor and I chatted over coffee a few weeks ago, we discussed a weird phenomenon that church members fall into. It is the thought that asking other people about a person is the same as directly asking the person. Confused yet? Some people would rather pick up the phone and text 12 people to ask why someone has missed church instead of directly talking to the person who wasn’t there. If we are going to build relational ministries we need people to check in and minister directly to those in their small groups.Â
- Serving People Without Investing in People
Handing out a bottle of water with your churchâs name is an easy way to say you are doing ministry without actually building relationships. As I stated above, ministry happens through relationships and at times those relationships will be frustrating, costly, and time consuming. Ministry leaders must avoid service opportunities that promote service that is void of relationships. Donât get me wrong, serving in tangible ways meets immediate needs, but if you never build a relationship you will never be able to make lasting impact.
Now What?
In what areas are your ministries avoiding investing relationally?
by Chase | Kid Min, Leadership
If you are a kid ministry leader you know that summer means that it is time to promote VBS!
Many churches (especially in the Bible Belt) utilize Vacation Bible School to disciple children and serve as an outreach to the community. There are plenty of variations of the traditional VBS model of hosting daily programming on your campus, but no matter how your church ministers to kids you will be doing some promotion to get dates, times, costs, and locations out.
Can I be honest? VBS is one of those weird, churchy things. Trust me, I’m all for having a VBS event if it works for your community, but “Vacation Bible School” sounds weird and confusing for outsiders to the faith.
- Why would their child want to go to school during summer break?
- What is a Bible school?
- Will their children have fun or will they only memorize long passages of the Old Testament?Â
If we are not careful our event promotions can communicate a different message then what we are hoping is conveyed to the community. Because each church leads a different variation of VBS it is easy for parents to become confused as to what VBS is for YOUR church.
Even with an event like VBS, an event that we assume everyone knows what we are talking about, we must strive for clarity because the vast majority of people that we are hoping to reach have never stepped foot inside of our churches.Â
Before you design posters, set-up banners, and schedule Facebook ads here are two questions you need to answer:
2 Questions To Answer As You Promote VBS
Are We Communicating More Than Childcare?
Does your promotion material communicate life-change? Are there stories being shared or is your VBS viewed as free childcare? I know that you would never view VBS as childcare, but does your community? You will always have parents who are content with dropping their children off at the door and head home, but does your literature, promotions, and videos create a drop-off culture? How are you communicating the power of Jesus, importance of worship, and need to invite outsiders of the faith with your congregation?Â
Can Our Website Answer Parentâs Questions?
How much information is on your website? If you hope to leverage VBS as an outreach for your community you must think through the questions parents who have never been on your campus will have before they send their child. What food will be served? How are allergies handled? What is needed to register? How many leaders (and how are they screened) are in each class? Your website must be prepared to answer the most frequent questions that parents may have. This will limit the headaches you will experience and the number of phone calls you will receive.Â
Now What?
How can your team communicate the life-change that will happen at VBS?
by Chase | Kid Min, Leadership, Student Min
When you are stuck or unsure of how to proceed, what do you do? What is your go-to for making an investment in your ministry?Â
Maybe you check Google to see if there is some info out there that would help. My wifeâs go-to these days is Pinterest. She knows that someone else has probably already written about the project sheâs up against, and sheâs a whiz at finding tutorials for just about anything.
But what happens when you are stuck spiritually? There are a lot of good answers to that question — reading Scripture, seeking out a fellow Christian for advice, and so on. But the one thing you cannot forget, the one we all most often leave out, is prayer.
Prayer. That’s it.
I know how we read blog posts so resist the urge to close out of this because there isn’t anything “new” here. The truth is that we, the spiritual leaders, can quickly dismiss prayer because we are busy working in ministry.Â
The Bible is full of instruction on this.
Not enough people to do the work you just know God can do in your group, community, family? Of course there isn’t! God says the laborers are few and to pray for more!
Feeling lonely and desperately desiring really fellowship with other Christians? Pray for it. Pray honestly and earnestly that you would be someone who understands what it means to bear one another’s burdens and that you would find others who are also willing to do that.
Kids in your Sunday school class not talking on Sundays? Pray. Ask God to use His Spirit to convict you where you need to change and to give you inspiration in your planning so you can add in questions tailored to your students.
4 Tips for Unceasing Prayer for Ministers
1. When the problem comes to mind, say a prayer.
This can be a long prayer or a short prayer, but bringing the matter to God in the moment of need is key.
2. Intentionally remind yourself to pray.
If you absolutely cannot forget to do something, what is your go-to method to remind yourself? Do you set alarms, make lists, e-mail yourself, tell a friend ⊠whatever you do for the most important things you absolutely cannot forget, do it to remind yourself to pray.
3. Make a list and refer to it often to see how God is working.
When you pray repeatedly for the same list of things, youâll start to notice the movements of God in those situations. If youâve got a list handy of what you have committed yourself to in prayer, you will be able to update it. Youâll see where God is moving, and you will be able to rejoice in His faithfulness.
4. Pray Scripture over your situation.
You probably had some Bible verses come to mind as you read Point No. 4. If God says He is capable of something, and you need Him to do that for you, read those verses and ask God to act. Ask Him to bring you to other areas of Scripture that you need for your own growth, too, because letâs be honest — we arenât perfect, and we need to be sure that nothing we are doing is hindering our situation.
Prayer that works is prayer with consistency, with regularity, with sincerity, and with strategy.
If you could get God to do just one thing to make your ministry so much ____ (better, easier, wider reaching, deeper, whatever you need) during this season of ministry, what would it be?
How can you improve your prayer life and ask God to give you that?
by Chase | Leadership
Have you ever seen someone hang on to something for far too long? As church leaders we are constantly strategizing about how we can update our programming.Â
For some reason programming reminds me about a time in middle school that we experienced a significant snow. My family lived on a corner lot at the bottom of a hill, and both the roads beside our house were perfectly sloped for sledding. My friends and their parents came over, and we went snow tubing throughout the night.
Tony, one of my close friends, brought his neighbor Jessie. For some reason, Jessie didn’t want to participate. One of my primary goals in any social situation is to get people to have fun. It’s not a phrase I would stick on a bumper sticker, but it’s a very real goal of mine. I want people to experience joy and fun and adventure as much as possible! I tend to convince people to get out of their comfort zones and try new and exciting (and terrifying) things. It was the same with Jessie.
We finally talked Jessie into tubing down the street with us. We told him all he needed to know: (1) Hold on tight, (2) scream with joy, and (3) let go and slide off the back of the tube before the bottom of the hill. Number 3 was probably the most important, because there was a bank at the bottom of the hill, and then a bunch of trees and bushes.
I’ll go ahead and skip to the part of the story you already suspect. Jessie didn’t get off the tube before it crashed over the bank. When it came time to slide off the tube, he was too afraid to let go. He was involuntarily gripping the handles of the tube tighter and tighter. He landed in a tree (yes in a tree), very bruised and thankfully not hurt.
This is a story I think about a lot, even though I don’t see my childhood friends all the time and it doesn’t snow a lot to remind me of it. I think about it because there is a tendency in the church to hold on to things quite tightly, even when it’s time to let go and move on to something else.
My experience that night in the snow with Jessie is the best illustration I can think of to remind myself (and I hope others too) that even when we are afraid to let go of things, sometimes it really it time to let go — because holding on more tightly causes a bigger mess with more pain and frustration.Â
The thing that churches and ministries have the hardest time letting go of is programming and be willing to try new things. It’s not the why of our ministries — we never change the message of Jesus. Instead, it’s the how.
Everyone else may have jumped off the bandwagon of a certain way of doing things, but we haven’t. And then we are left paralyzed and wondering why things aren’t working. Then, after holding on and holding on some more, there is a huge crash and we are left trying to heal our wounds. We may even question continuing that ministry at all, if the crash was bad enough.
- This looks like a youth group that is using the same methods and teaching points it used 20 years ago, when teenagers were dealing with problems differently and weren’t as tech savvy (obsessed). Attendance falls, leaders get frustrated, and the cycle continues.
- This looks like curriculum that transfers knowledge well but doesn’t include any components specifically geared toward relationship building. Attendance falls, leaders get frustrated, and the cycle continues.
- This looks like events that bring in a lot of first-time visitors who don’t return as second-time guests. Again, attendance falls, leaders get frustrated, and the cycle continues!
So what do we do when the way we used to do things — the way that used to work so well — is no longer bringing large numbers of people to the Lord? Do we accept the small numbers as God’s will, or can we imagine for a minute that change could potentially bring those large numbers back again?
Don’t misunderstand me, I’m all for programs in churches. We need a variety of strategic programs (activities, services, whatever you call them) to get believers invested in their relationship with Jesus and their communities. But at times, we are so reluctant to let go of something that has always existed or consider changing something that we end up crashing!
Here is the key: When we cling to a program more tightly than we cling to Jesus, it’s time to reevaluate our hearts, mission, and vision.
Programming must be fluid, flexible, and able to be adjusted to reach an ever-changing world with the unchanging love of Jesus!
It’s the ministry leader’s job to make sure people and programs stay on mission. I’m a pastor, so this is something I pray about all the time. A major component of my job is to prayerfully consider whether the activities and programs under my guidance need any changes or adjustments.
Four Ways To Update Your Programming
1. Spring Cleaning
Often times your ministry’s programs are fulfilling the mission and vision of the organization. To increase the spiritual depth, develop leaders, or reach outside of the church walls you might need a small adjustment. This might be something as simple as a shift in the curriculum you’re using. This uses the same model, but simply changes a small aspect.Â
2. Partial Remodel
If there is a core issue with your programming not fulfilling its mission and vision you will need to take on a larger project. Think about your kitchen. It might be time to remodel your sink, cabinets, and flooring but these changes do not warrant you knocking down your house and starting over. An example of this would be changes to Sunday morning kids worship. You will continue to do kids worship, but now you’re adding in a small group component to add in a relational aspect. Structure of the program doesn’t change, but you may need a revamp an aspect or make an addition.
3. Complete RebuildÂ
When your program or ministry is not fulfilling your mission and vision and there is no way that you can restructure you may need a complete rebuild. This involves shutting down that programming and creating something that aligns with the organizations vision. You don’t stop ministering to that group but you completely rebuild the way you’re ministering to them.Â
4. Continual Maintenance
Everything is going great, people are growing, you just keep it running smoothly. Your house will continually need TLC and your ministries are no different. You cannot leave them alone (or ignore the potential problems) for long periods of time. Regular care for leaders, clear communication, and management of the budget are required.Â
What’s Next?Â
What ares have your team been praying over and wrestling with? How can you bring your team around the table and start to evaluate the effectiveness?
by Chase | Kid Min, Leadership, Student Min
Every church leader I talk to has the same frustration: People are too busy to serve at church.
It’s been this way for quite some time, so we started rotations to help convince busy people that serving is doable. The aim was to make ministry more manageable and volunteer friendly. But over the years, we have created a dangerous culture that values volunteers more than actual ministry.Â
Nearly every church has a rotation of some sort within their church. Within family ministry (my context is babies through college), volunteer rotations run rampant. Volunteers have the option of serving one out of four (or more) weeks in an area.
Seems harmless enough, right?
Over time, I believe this system leads to volunteer burnout, frustrated parents, and kids who aren’t ministered to effectively. Here are a few unintentional issues we have created within the family ministries with volunteer rotations.Â
The 9 Pitfalls of Volunteer Rotations
(This applies to both kids and student ministries. I use the word “kids” just to keep some consistency through the post.)
Your Leaders Are Not Rested
One of the main reasons for rotating volunteers is to give leaders flexibility and rest. But the truth is that many volunteers are on multiple rotations (nursery, welcome team, kids worship, etc.) and rest never actually happens. They end up serving in more areas of the church because it’s “just one Sunday out of every four.” They probably serve just as much as your leaders who serve every week in the same area, but they end up with multiple areas of responsibility, more than one set of procedures to learn, and lots of people to know and minister to.Â
Elevates Leader Preference Over Kid’s Needs
Is rotating teachers best for the adult leaders or the kids? Rotations cater to the needs of the volunteers. Kids need consistency, relationships, and mentors. Rotations can communicate that we value adult’s schedules more than the kid’s spiritual needs.Â
Administratively Exhausting
Pastors dread the words, âCan you find me a replacement?â Trying to get new leaders on the fly when the volunteer for that day cancels, doesn’t show, forgets, or is sick is a nightmare. How do you find a replacement? Can you get them extra curriculum? Does the new person have a background check? Constantly finding replacements and continually reminding people that it is their week to serve is administratively exhausting. It is much easier to have a few substitutes ready when needed than to recreate your entire volunteer roster every week because it’s summer vacation season or a holiday.Â
Kids Do Not Know The Leaders
If your Sunday school class had a new teacher each week, how would you get to know them? Honestly, most kids simply don’t. Sure, they may know Ms. Heatherâs name, but they don’t really know her or feel secure with her. There is too much transition and newness to create safe environments. I’ll say it again, kids need consistency, relationships, and mentors. They don’t need a new adult with a new way of doing things every week.Â
Leaders Do Not Know The Kids
Working in kids ministry is more than teaching a lesson â it is about knowing your kids, their hobbies, and their families so you can connect with them and minister to them. Rotations make it impossible for a leader to develop relationships with kids. If you only minister to a kid 12 times a year, you have not made a lasting impact.
Parents Do Not Know The Teachers
When parents have questions, it is hard for them to navigate which teacher is the main teacher. Who is the contact for the upcoming summer camp? Who knows the details about the family campout? Who puts names on the list for baby dedications? More often than not, a teacher on a rotation has no idea. And from a parentâs perspective, it is difficult to learn four leaders’ names. The less connected the parents feel, the fewer opportunities you have to minister to their kids.
Inconsistent Teaching and Styles
When four teachers rotate in one room over four weeks you essentially have four teaching styles, four schedules, and four routines for the group of kids to experience. The more leaders you add to the equation, the more inconsistent each week is (even if they are using the same curriculum).
Lack of Policies
The less a worker is in the room, the fewer policies they remember. This isnât to say the worker isnât a great person. Volunteers have the right intentions. But when you serve once a month, it’s easy to forget child protection policies, checkout processes, what needs to be cleaned, and how to handle discipline problems. If you serve on more than one rotation, you have to remember the procedures for even more areas.Â
Lack of Ownership
Whose job is it to minister throughout the week if leaders only work once per month? The hope is that all the volunteers in an area are praying for the kids and their families, thinking of ways to connect with them throughout the week, encouraging kids to grow in their faith, and more. But is that realistic? No. Ownership of that ministry area fades when you see your role as a once-per-month commitment only.
Now What?
Do you only have rotating volunteers for your ministry? If so, how can you secure more consistent leaders?
If you have consistent teachers from week to week, how can you encourage them to keep serving faithfully but also provide rest for them?
