I turned 29 last month, and as I get closer to ending this wonderful decade of being a 20-something, I've been reflecting on the last 9 years, and all the changes I've undergone, and how God has grown me. 

I am preparing to share in a couple of children's ministry classes this week at my Alma Mater, Indiana Wesleyan University. I LOVED my time there, and wouldn't trade my 4 years there for anything. The time I spent there was crucial to making me into the children's pastor I am today, but nothing could have prepared me for the great learning and growth I've experienced firsthand in ministry. As I pondered what I would share with the class of children's ministry students, a few things came to mind. 

I've been working as a children's pastor for 9 years now, and have served at 4 churches total (3 of them in a paid position), and after 9 years working in children's ministry, the one thing I know is that I don't know much! I have made many mistakes, have learned things the hard way, and still have a LOT to learn and a lot of areas of growth. 

 I am called to children's ministry, and I am committed to serving God for the rest of my life. It's not easy, and if I'm honest, there are times I've wanted to quit. But you don't stay in ministry for the long haul because it's easy; you stay because you commit to not giving up, even when it is hard. I'm in it for the long haul. 

Here are a few things I would share with students who are preparing for children's ministry...

9. Always keep learning. 
I will admit that there were times in ministry I felt like I knew everything, and times I felt like I knew NOTHING. It's important to be a constant learner. I want to always look for people to learn from and help myself grow as a leader. I've joined Jim Wideman's mentoring group, Infuse, which has been, by far, my biggest source of growth and learning (other than my college experience). I've had leadership mentors and children's ministry mentors. I love to read books and attend conferences, and learn via social networking (twitter, blogs, etc) and networking with others in my field. I have been a part of local children's ministry networking groups, and since moving to Atlanta, have enjoyed visiting several churches, always with paper and pen in hand, and a list of questions. I want to never stop growing and learning and developing. I am hungry to learn, and I want to stay that way, no matter how long I'm in ministry.

8. Get Good at People Skills and Problem Solving. 
I originally got into children's ministry because I LOVED working with kids...and was surprised to learn that the number one thing you deal with in children's ministry is ADULTS, not kids. If you're doing it right, most of your leadership will revolve around leading parents, volunteers, staff, etc. If your people skills are weak, this will be a huge challenge. I have had to make myself grow in people skills and problem solving, and am STILL growing and learn every day. I've learned a lot the hard way through my own mistakes, and I've learned a lot from the mentorship of GOOD leaders. Work to develop yourself as a leader, and learn to get good at solving problems and conflict management. There are no perfect people, so you will always have plenty of opportunities to practice good conflict management. Get good at taking criticism. Get good at having hard conversations and confrontations. Get good at speaking truth and love, and learn to be a problem SOLVER instead of wallowing in problems. 

7. Get good at volunteers.
I learned pretty quickly that if I wanted to do successful children's ministry, I couldn't do it by myself. Research shows that leading volunteers is the most difficult group of people to lead. I would say volunteers are the most rewarding group to lead if you do it well. I can honestly tell you right now that I have a truly AMAZING group of faithful, passionate, dedicated volunteers. They inspire me. They go above and beyond to give their all to the children's ministry, and we have more and more people join our team every week. Many of my volunteers have become my best friends. In some areas, I've had waiting lists for volunteers before. Because when you can lead volunteers WELL, they will line up to serve and join the team. Learn to recruit, lead, train, and develop volunteers well. Learn to appreciate them, respect their time, value them, and pour into them. If you can't get good in this area, your children's ministry will only grow as far as you can do by yourself, but when you raise up and release leaders, God can multiply the ministry and affect more lives than you ever imagined!

6. Be disciplined about your work, but also about your rest.
Work hard. When you're on the clock, get good at managing your time, and being productive (get rid of time wasters). There will always be the temptation to take shortcuts and be lazy, but don't give in. Do your job with excellence, even in the tiny details. Work ahead, instead of waiting until the last minute. Learn to become organized, even if it doesn't come naturally to you. Be disciplined about your work. But also be disciplined about your rest. There will be seasons of working overtime and giving up days off, but you need to make sure you take time to refresh and refuel, and no one else is going to make sure you do this. It's up to you. You won't be able to keep going for the long haul if you don't learn to balance your time and make time for your family and friends and rest. Also- many pastors don't have close friendships. It's important to have encouraging, refreshing, authentic friendships and support systems. In college, I was completely surrounded by wonderful godly friends, fun, community and accountability that close friendships bring. But then I moved to another state that was 600 miles away from all my family and friends, where I didn't know anyone. The first year or two were lonely...and it would have been hard to continue living and doing ministry at that lonely place. But thank the LORD I found great friends and God brought me an amazing, supportive husband, and since moving to my new church, I have been overwhelmingly blessed with godly, supportive, loving friends. Be disciplined enough to make sure you get community, fellowship, and accountability in your off time. 

5. Your relationship with your lead pastor (or direct report) is make or break. 
When you're looking for churches, don't try to look for the perfect church; it doesn't exist. There will be conflicts or issues of some type wherever you go, but the most important thing is this: you can deal with any issue, problem, or conflict that arises, if your lead pastor has your back, and you have his/hers. If you have mutual respect and a healthy relationship, you can face anything that happens. You need to work for a pastor you can submit to, respect, and be authentic and real with. You should have your pastor's back no matter what, and they should have yours. 
Leading into my next thing I've learned...

4. There will be problems or issues wherever you go; don't play into church politics.
It's true. One thing I've learned from visiting other churches and talking to other children's pastors, even children's pastors of mega churches with thriving children's ministries... they all face difficulties in some form. I recently met with an intelligent, highly qualified and passionate leader of an awesome ministry, and she told me stories of severe behavior issues with kids, parents yelling at her and going to her pastor to complain about her behind her back, church members accusing her of things she didn't do, and even more. But that was only part of the conversation. The rest was about how much she LOVED her job and her church and the kids and people. You WILL face trials. You won't please everyone all the time. I have many stories I could share, but the important thing is that I've learned from every difficulty and conflict, and I've learned not to play into gossip and church politics. No matter how great and healthy your church is, there will be people involved, and people aren't perfect. Don't play games and don't gossip. 

3. Don't neglect your own relationship with God.
Fruitful ministry only happens out of the overflow of an intimate relationship with God. The best thing you can give your ministry is your relationship with God, because people don't need more of YOU- they need more of HIM. John 15:4 says a branch cannot produce fruit if severed from the vine; you are the branch and Jesus is the true vine. Apart from Him, you can do nothing. This one can be hard for children's ministry leaders, because we can DO ministry and keep ourselves so busy, that we may not even notice right away that we're not connected the Lord... until we start to burn out and grow weary, and our well runs dry and our fruit withers. When you're connected to God, He produces ministry and life change and fruit. It's not something you can make or fake or do on your own. But often times, we can get so busy, that our own relationship with God can easily become the last thing on our minds. Make yourself put Him first; do whatever you have to do to keep this number one. You can't do it without Him.

2. Remember the purpose of WHY you do what you do ...to bring children to Jesus. 
I'll be honest, it can be easy to get caught up in the details of events and recruiting, and remodeling, and planning, and curriculum, and object lessons, and all the day-to-day details of leading a ministry. It can be easy to turn on auto-pilot and forget the true purpose and calling of leading kids to relationship with the Lord. But you MUST make yourself remember, and you must constantly cast that vision to your team. There is no more valuable investment than investing in the life of a child, and helping bring them to Jesus. Children are important to God, and helping them experience Him is our number one goal. It's not just making sure the check-in system works and the motions to the songs are right, and the snacks are stocked in the preschool room, and all the prizes are ready... those things are important, and I am ALL ABOUT excellence in every tiny detail, but the number one most important detail is bringing kids to a relationship with Him! He changes lives! Don't let yourself forget this. 

1. 1 Cor. 16:13 "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong."
You're in a battle. The church doesn't need wimps; it needs warriors. You are on the front lines, and Satan is ready to steal, kill and destroy. You are fighting, and you need God's armor and strength. There will be times when you will need courage- seek God. There will be times you will need wisdom - seek God. There will be times you will be weak, and need His strength- seek God. There will be times you will need faith- seek God. He will equip you to carry out the calling HE has given you. He will give you wisdom and strength. You're in a battle, but God has already given you victory. This is one I have to remind myself of daily, and I'm STILL LEARNING to depend fully on Him day by day.



I know I"m still a baby in this world of leadership, and I hope I can say I've continued learning and growing and serving faithfully every day of my life. 9 years down, and, Lord willing, many more to go. I'm thankful for my wonderful church, pastors, volunteers, kids and families, and husband, and I'm thankful that I get to wake up every day and serve in children's ministry. Even when it's challenging, there's nothing I would rather do.


-Lynne

What an honor it is to be able to lead a child to the Lord and see Him transform their lives! We should be ready to help kids respond to Him and make life-changing commitments whenever the opportunity is given. 

Many people are saved as kids, which makes them one of the biggest mission fields in existence! They are building their foundation for the rest of their lives (and eternities), and we want to help them grow strong roots and become strong in their faith. Kids are naturally curious and formidable. Kids may not understand EVERYTHING about salvation... but I believe adults don't understand everything about salvation either. That doesn't stop us from believing. I know I didn't understand everything about salvation when I was saved at age 17. Kids can have a true grasp of what it means to be forgiven and to have a relationship with Jesus. We know from the Bible that Jesus loves children, and He wants us to bring the children to Him. That is what this is all about- being prepared to bring kids to Jesus. That's what children's ministry is all about.

Here are some tips for leading a child to Christ. Included at the bottom are some resources you can download and use in your ministry. We don't do "altar calls"  too often, because kids can feel a lot of pressure or not truly understand. It's more likely that kids will make commitments in their small group setting, with a leader who has been mentoring and investing in their lives, and can answer their questions and have a real conversation with them. Altar calls can be a great way to inspire kids to make a commitment for God.

We encourage parents to be the ones to have faith-conversations with their kids and pray with them to accept the Lord. 

Three Steps for Children's Ministry Leaders

1. Empower Small Group Leaders to have faith conversations with kids.
2. Fill out a Commitment Card.
3. Celebrate and connect with parents. Provide resources for growth.

Tips for Small Group Leaders and Kidmin Leaders


Important things to remember….

1.    Don’t do all the talking. Ask questions; let the child talk. Let the child ask questions, and help him/her look up the answers in the Bible.

2.    Don’t use big or confusing words. Instead of the phrase ‘Ask Jesus into your heart,’ which is too abstract for kids to understand, use the phrase ‘Ask Jesus to be your very best friend.’ Avoid big words.

3.    Say It. Ask the child to communicate what he/she is doing, to make sure they understand. Ask if he/she has any questions.

4.    ABCs. Go through the ABCs with the child, and use a Bible to help the child look up the Scripture verses.

5.    Pray. After going through the ABCs, pray with the child. Ask if he/she wants to pray too.

6.    Celebrate! Tell the Children’s Pastor, who will follow up with the child’s parents. Fill out a Commitment Card (1 for the child, and one for the church to keep). We will follow up with Next Steps for discipleship for the child.

A- ADMIT you are a sinner & ASK for forgiveness!

•    Romans 3:23- “For all have sinned & fall short of the glory of God.”
  
•    1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
  

B- BELIEVE in Jesus as your Savior & BECOME a child of God

•    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one & only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

•  John 1:12 “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
  

C- CONFESS that Jesus is Lord & CHOOSE to follow Him daily!

•   Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

•   Luke 9:23 [Jesus said,] “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
  

FREE RESOURCES
Click below to download

• Leading a Child to Christ  Tips and Scriptures for Kidmin Leaders and Group Leaders
  
• Commitment Card to fill out with kids
  
• Baptism Info packet - One of the follow-up resources we provide, to help kids see if they are ready for baptism, give their parents this baptism packet, which includes devotionals and discussion questions for parents to have with kids
  

Question - do you remember when you gave your life to the Lord? Who prayed with you and inspired you? Mine was my youth pastor and his wife, at age 17. They eternally impacted my life, and I am forever grateful for them and their investment in me and bringing me to the Lord.

-Lynne

A few years ago, I would have said that recruiting volunteers was one of the most challenging, if not dreaded, parts of my job. I almost envied people who worked at regular jobs, with people paid to work under them. Those people had leverage; they have paychecks to offer. I thought I had to somehow convince people who ALREADY have real jobs to do something for NO PAY, sometimes doing a job that they didn't really enjoy and wasn't always easy and fun, on top of their already busy and full lives. I felt like I was guilting people into doing something they didn't want to do....

Then, God changed my heart and showed me that investing in children's ministry is a valuable investment for people, a way to build others up, increase their leadership and allow them a chance to make a difference, to use their gifts to serve, grow in their faith, and join a team where they could be connected with others. 

God showed me all of those things, and I started seeing volunteers as something more than just a warm body doing a job; but as leaders and servants of the Lord, using their spiritual gifts and doing something important as part of a team! Instead of dreading recruiting, now I look forward to the opportunity to help people grow as leaders, develop their skills and gifts, and serve in one of the most valuable areas of ministry. I love sharing the vision of children's ministry and seeing people get excited about it!

The people who serve in children's ministry are not MY volunteers, working for me- they are part of a team, who works together for the Lord. They are part of a culture that VALUES children's ministry. They are serving in areas that they are passionate about. They are taking ownership of their ministry. And they are always on the lookout for passionate, gifted people, to join them in this incredible ministry! Now THAT is recruiting at its best! That is what it should be! 

We welcome new volunteers to our kidmin team regularly, because we are always on the lookout for people whose gifts and passions fit certain roles in the children's ministry. Passionate, excited volunteers are the best recruiters (more about volunteer retention in another post). 

The important part comes AFTER the initial ask or interest. What you DO with those people who initially say YES to serving, matters more than getting the "yes," because it determines how long they stay and how happy they will be! Here are our 5 steps for assimilating new volunteers. 

Since we have an awesome leadership team in the children's ministry, the cool thing is, I'm not the only one doing the recruiting, training and assimilating! We have ministry leaders over various areas of ministry, and they are empowered and equipped to do all of these steps on their own teams. 

1. Fill out a volunteer application
This is the first thing we ask people to do if they are interested in serving. Fill out the application (attached below, if you want to see it) and turn it in. We do a background check on all our volunteers, so this is when we get their permission, and run the national and state criminal background check. **We also make sure, via the application, that they are abiding by our other volunteer safety policies, like a 6 month church attendance for supervisory roles (3 month for non-supervisory roles).

2. Meeting with the children's pastor or ministry leader 
I get together with all of our new volunteers for a brief meeting -- sometimes lunch or coffee; not always. Sometimes the meeting is just a conversation before or after church. If they are serving in an area where they report directly to a different leader, then that leader will have this meeting. The goal is to give an overview of the children's ministry and just to get to know the person, answer any questions they have. We also talk about spiritual gifts and try to determine the person's gifts. If someone doesn't know his/her spiritual gifts, we have an assessment we can give them. Once they know their spiritual gifts and strengths, then we look for a spot for them to serve where they can best use their gifts. 

3. Training 
We do a mandatory training series for all of our children's ministry volunteers and leaders annually. It consists of 2 meetings on Wednesday nights in August, before we kick off our Fall semester (we have tried different times, and this seemed to work the best for our group). We try to make these meetings fun and meaningful. We use them for informing and reminding everyone of our policies, as well as team building and vision casting, and we also do in-depth team training for specific ministry areas. We also do team training sessions all throughout the year for different ministry areas. Our security team just had a specialized training for their volunteers, and other ministry leaders organize their own training sessions for volunteers. This is something that is always going on, and it's always a good time to jump into the team and come to a training meeting! We are always looking for ways to help develop our teams and add value to the leaders. Sometimes we go to conferences together (shout out to Illuminate, led by Kenny Conley! Awesome conference for volunteers!!). 

4. Hands-on Training 
The fourth thing new volunteers do is come and observe and help with another, experienced volunteer, who can teach by example. One mistake I used to make is skipping to this step before any of the others, just throwing people in without the groundwork. We like to pair new volunteers with experienced volunteers and leaders, so they can ask questions and learn from each other. This part is important, and appreciated by the new team members!

5. Evaluate
It's always important to follow up with new team members, and evaluate- no one is ever "locked in" to a certain role or position. If it's not a good fit, we want to move them to a new job where they can thrive and enjoy! If we have done the first 4 steps effectively, usually people are in the right spot, but we still like to let people know that there is nothing wrong with trying a different place to serve, to find the right fit! 

We don't just want warm bodies in a room, doing a job they don't care about. We want energetic and visionary team members, who love serving and are in the right spot for God to use them most effectively for HIS purposes.

It makes a huge difference in the energy and culture of the children's ministry when the team is full of people who love each other and love serving in children's ministry, and it also makes others want to join the team to be a part of something so great for the Kingdom!


-Lynne