Methods need to shift in order to keep people engaged.  If we won’t, people won’t experience the presence of God, healing and hope because they’ve unplugged from the godly influence.

Similar to Dr. Lee’s challenge, Rick Dubose of North Texas shared, “unless we choose to change the structure to meet the changing families, our church won’t continue to be effective.”   For example, a family of two function fine in a one room apartment; but a family of six would truly feel the pressure and crunch of that environment.

How adaptable has your ministry been to the changes of your community?  Are you willing to change the structure or format of your ministry offerings to remain effective?

Rather than fight to get them to be more like you – which will never happen – be creative, see how you can leverage the world that they live in to help pass along the message you have.
One idea, inspired by the RSA Illustrate people is to augment your talk with drawings…here’s a sample that I’ve used:

The week I used this, the student’s were captured. I had their full attention for the length of the video and several moments after – not a peep. I used the moments after to clarify the message and drive home a few points….

And believe it or not, this video only took about 2 hours to create. I’m sure that my next one will go from brain to screen much quicker since there will be less of a learning curve on my end.

Here’s what I used:

1. Story – we’re using Tru, but any story will do
2. iMovie – Windows movie maker may work as well
3. Garage Band – any way to record your voice so that you can import it into your movie software
4. ScreenChomp app on my iPad – I’m seeking another app, but this one will serve me for now. It’s possible to do the entire talk on ScreenChomp, but their server seems to have issues with large videos.

Here’s the process:

1. Record the story. (This is where I used Garage Band)
2. Using screen chomp, illustrate a point. It’s helpful if the illustration is longer than what you are saying.
   * With screen chomp, you have to save the movie to their server, then download the mp4…another app may save the file locally.
3. Import into iMovie.
4. Using the clip adjustment, adjust the speed of the clip to fit the portion of your talk.
5. Repeat 2-4 until you’ve illustrated everything
6. Show the movie

As you can see, with the right tools, this is a simple process that enables you to make a quick video to get a point across or to illustrate an entire talk. Just don’t over use it, the natives will get restless.

What are you doing to facilitate native learning in your classroom?

• Visuals can be accessed in any order
• Increased interactivity
• Unique point of view – presenter can pan and zoom on the visuals
• Greater flexibility with multimedia and social media

1) Prezi – The mother of all nonlinear presentation tools.  Create your presentation on a large canvas, zoom in and out on the canvas, jump around from text to image to video.  Other similar tools without the panache include Pachyderm, Dizzy.js, and Speakflow.

2) PowerPoint – If Prezi is the mother of nonlinear presentation tools, PowerPoint is the father.  While not created inately for nonlinear work, with plugins like ActivePrez by GMARK, PowerPoint can add a toolbar at the top of any presentation to allow the presenter to jump back and forth through the visuals seamlessly.  A similar plug is pptPlex.

3) ProPresenter - Awesome and powerful software for Mac or PC.  I’ve used ProPresenter in multiple ministry environments and it is my favorite tool for presenting.  A fully featured impressive product.

4) Projeqt – So many cool features in this web tool: pull live tweets, blog feeds, insert audio notes or interactive maps, and view streaming video (to name just a few).  Projeqt is a crazy cool tool that you have to check out.

Have you used any of these tools or other nonlinear presentation software?  Let us know in the comments!

For me Pinterest is a powerful tool in my creative workflow.  My gift is not in coming up with ideas, it’s in making good ideas better, or taking an idea and making it fit for a particular context.  If you’re like me then Pinterest can be a huge time saver when it comes to the creative process.

Pinterest is all the best ideas of the web in one place.  It’s ultra-collaboration, the cross pollination of hundreds of ideas, at your fingertips.  From crafts to bulletin boards to ministry environments Pinterest gets your creative juices flowing.

Go make some art.

KB

It’s important as you consider the plethora of ideas for summer outreach you provide what naturally suits your congregation.  Take a look at what other churches are doing and attempt to complement one another instead of competing.  Families tend to go to all types of church organized events over the summer to meet their needs.  Don’t take offense; be grateful!  Be prepared to find your niche and meet the needs of families in your community considering God has placed you in this community body just as He pleased. You have a role to fulfill.

In order to get your ideas rollin’ we’ve listed several ideas you can use to reach your community this summer.

VBS.  One of the most common outreach tools for churches in the summer is VBS.  If your church has the resources to invest deeply in a VBS ministry, then run with it!  Thank God for churches who see this as a way to reach families and share the gospel in fun ways.  Because of familiarity with traditional VBS in our society, it won’t be unpacked here.  Instead, let’s look at how churches can utilize ministries when cost and limited volunteers is a deterrent.  Utilize a borrowed VBS curriculum from the previous year (or simply buy a current year VBS curriculum).  Provide all the bells and whistles of VBS curriculum and resources for Sunday morning services or once week on a night when church typically doesn’t happen or during the day with a day camp can be other resourceful ways to maximize these detailed tools.

Once a week or one week at a time (coordinate it with the other churches to make it possible for parents to have something for their kids throughout the summer.  We know we’re not a babysitting service as children’s ministers BUT if that is what we aim to provide our families, it’s okay!  It becomes a service to the families when they don’t have to pay a ton for sitters throughout the summer.

Rally Nights.  If your church lacks the people resources but has money to invest, bring a speaker in for a four night rally (old school- kid’s crusades).  Having an outsider come in takes the weight off your team for prep or presentation.  It’s also great for your team to see how someone else does ministry with kids.  You provide a handful of volunteers for body ministry and prayer workers.  This is a simple but powerful way to either provide outreach or give a good boost in the “spiritual arm” of your church kids.

Summer Day Camps.  Parents really are looking for inexpensive, healthy activities for their kids to participate during the long (boring) summer days while they still need to work.  Day camps can help with that need for either one week or throughout the summer.  Check in your community for churches who organize these fun, adventurous camps.  You may join efforts the first year and then establish your own the next. Day camps can take on themes, projects or simply character development.

Backyard Bible Clubs.  This is a dynamic way to multiply your efforts as a ministry.  You can have the church host outreach events but to give read- to-use resources (in a bag or bucket) to families empowers them to do the outreach in their neighborhood among people with which they’re already connected.   An option to synchronize your community Backyard Bible Clubs could happen allowing an end of the week gathering at the church to take place.  Utilizing recycled VBS or Sunday School curriculum or creating your own could save you money and provide lots of easy to use tools.  Do a small Google search on this and the door to amazing ideas will opened to you.

Wacky Wednesdays.  Turn your mid-week lessons to a time of outdoor fun.  Kids are eager to play and hard to get settled when it’s nice and sunny outside.  Have outdoor activities planned through the summer and kids won’t want to miss the mid-week.  Each week can be opportunities for kids to bring friends for big fun and little faith time (as opposed to the traditional big faith time and little fun).  There’s nothing wrong with changing it up for the summer; many other routines aren’t the same.

Mentors.  When a retired person or an older teen connect with younger kids, life transformation will be immeasurable.  Kids and teens spell love T-I-M-E.  When the summer slows down for kids this is a great time to create the opportunity for mentorship and caring connections.  There are many organizations that already have a program like this so don’t re-create the wheel.  Find out what they’re doing.  Take their manual and rewrite it for your ministry setting.  Take advantage of the local kids clubs as a safe place for your mentors to hang out with the kids.  But don’t limit the mentors to organizations.  Some like to fish, run, do crafts, paint and the list goes on and on.  Let kids learn a new skill while learning about Christ through casual conversations. When summer is over, both the kids and the teens/adults will look back at those months as a special time of growth.  When kids need someone, parents know who to call for support.

Movie Nights (at homes outdoors or at the church in/outdoors).  Picking a movie out, making some popcorn could create just the opportunity for families to get on your campus or in your yard.  If the goal of the movie night is to provide something for the kids, a parent area full of intentionally chosen hosts could connect with the parents who attend.  It’s also a good time for parents to encourage other parents.  There are books like Group’s Blockbuster Movie Illustrations, or Group’s Dinner and a Movie: G Rated that provide quick talk sheets that accompany movies.  Note:  make sure you have permission to show the movie publically from producers.

Summer Holidays.  Maximize the summer holidays by opening your doors to your community through picnics, celebrations, and presentations.  It wouldn’t hurt to create a couple of holidays for celebration like summer kickoff party or an end of the summer party.  If you have your plate full for the summer, hand this sort of outreach off to small groups to adopt as their summer outreach contribution to the congregation.

People Resources

Remember, as a family ministry, think of what the families need over the summer.  Kids need something to do, working parents need inexpensive provisions for their kids, teens need something to do to keep them out of trouble and churches want to meet those needs.  Providing a variety of outreach ideas over the summer doesn’t have to be all about you, the lone ranger.  Get others involved.  Share the ideas and provide the resources.  It’s a wonderful time to mobilize the body for outreach.  By doing so, needs will be met and you won’t be exhausted when the summer comes to an end.  Enjoy your summer, don’t think of it’s as a heavy weighted season of ministry.

Note:  It is vital to the safety of the kids and the church that you follow steps to reduce the risk of abuse in your church.  Richard Hammer in his book, Reducing the Risks of Abuse in Your Church is FULL of steps and implementation tools to put safety in place.  All volunteers are to be screened and policies must be enforced.

Ingesting these outreach ideas can be overwhelming.  Some of the ideas shared are too late to start this year but it’s a great year to go observe another church’s event and get the inside stories and pointers.  Some ideas are perfectly revealed as the answer to your summer plans.  Take a moment before you sink your teeth deep into summer programming and pray.  Ask the Lord to reveal His perfect plan for your ministry.

May God’s kingdom be exalted through your outreach efforts this summer and may the people of your ministry feel they have been effective as well.

What easy ideas do you have for outreach you’d like to contribute?  Share them here in your comments!

We’d love to hear you ideas for Mother’s Day – this year my church will be giving hugs and kisses to all the women in our congregation. Maybe I should clarify two points – it’s Hershey’s Hugs and Hershey’s Kisses and yes, all women.

Sometimes it is obvious who the moms are – the ones with kids. But Mother’s day isn’t just about the joyful reminder of your great kids, it’s also a reminder, a painful reminder for all the women who have lost children (and for those that can never have women). For years I’ve struggled with what to about this awesome and painful holiday. My solution has been to acknowledge both with the hope and grace of Christ.

This holiday, as leaders of the Church, let’s not forget the pain of infertility and the pain of loss as we celebrate those special women who gave us life.

The danger with such a relationally intense ministry is that, if we are not very mindful, we can find ourselves empty, tired, and discouraged.  We give and give and give until there is nothing left to give.

So… “Who’s Supporting You?”

http://www.creationswap.com/media/968

If someone or multiple someones haven’t already come to mind your already in trouble.  We can’t do what we do with out having intentional relationship in our lives where we are being supported, encouraged, and mentored.

Below are three key relationships I have found essential to remaining effective as a ministry leader who supports a relationally intense volunteer ministry.

Attend church regularly.  I don’t know how many children’s ministry leaders I have met that can’t recall the last time they attended “big” church.  If that’s you, this has to change.  And right now, as you plan and recruit for the fall, is a great time to make sure that happens.  It is absolutely essential that you spend regular time with your faith community worshipping, learning from God’s Word, and participating in communion together.  If you believe it is essential for others, it has be essential for you as well.

Participate in a Small Group.  You need a group of people that you can hang out with each week, where you can just be you.  Where you can take off your ministry leader hat and put on your follower of Jesus hat.  Where you can be encouraged through the study of God’s Word and prayer.  Where you can be supported and strengthen.

Find a Mentor.  We all need someone who is a little further down the path then we are to help us get to where they are.  In ministry we do this for people all the time, but if we don’t have anyone “up-line” from us, that can be our anchor and support, we put all those who are depending on us at risk.  And I recommend this relationship be more of a spiritual couch then a business couch.  More then we need someone to help us build the right programs…we need someone who helps us make sure our heart is continually surrendered to Jesus.

What are some other relationships/ways you find support in your ministry?

KB

When parents tearfully explain their fears and concerns for their kids, God uses the Body of believers to encourage them to walk in His confidence.  As an outsider it TENDS to be easier to see what’s going on in a family.  Without the emotional entanglement, spiritual support from pastors, friends or leaders can lead parents to think more rationally and systematically.  AND if the family has a working plan and communication tools intact, these can be referenced and so reinforce their parent goals.

Perhaps providing resources or a seminar, like Confident Parenting by Jim Burns or giving the book  by the same title, can help them be prepared as a confident parent when it’s tough.

When was the last time you provided a resource for parents?  Is it about that time again?

While it is true that our jobs can pull us out of being a part of the main service from time to time, we need to be in their – it IS part of our job. In order to function well within the local body it is vital that you are involved with the adults of that community and that you spend time in worship together. It builds bonds with them and strengthens you walk with God – both a vital to a successful ministry.

It’s also common to hear children’s pastors talk about their concern when a number flashes on the screen – they wonder what is happening, will the parent respond, and any number of things. I’m not sure this is an okay thing.

Yes, we are responsible for all that happens in our ministry. But I have to ask: “Is being distracted in worship your job or is it a lack of faith? ”

You are a temporary steward of the ministry you are in. It belongs to God and what happens in it is up to him. He expects that you will staff the ministry to the best of you ability and with competent people. If you have done that, why are you worried about the number on the screen. Your workers should know where to find you and will come and get you if the need is great – otherwise, focus on worshiping your creator, not the task He has given to you.

Is this an oversimplification? I’d love to see your comments below…

I hope not.  And my hope is based more on my desire to see leaders and teachers use tools that speak the language of the learner more than my love of technology.  Here are 5 ways to use a digital Bible in your ministry setting:

1. Start with Youversion.  Youversion is a web tool and app for almost every platform. Download here.
2. Make notes on the passage you are studying in your ministry environment and share it with parents on your ministry Facebook page.
3. Promote a reading plan for volunteers.  You can sign up for a reading plan and receive daily email reminders and content that you can forward to a volunteer team.
4. Submit your own reading plan.  Studying something specific?  Put together a reading plan and submit it to Youversion so everyone on your team can follow along digitally.
5. Use Live Events to make your small group curriculum available to leaders to use in their groups.

Using Live Events functionality you can get interactive in a small group setting.  With a smartphone or tablet, let kids post their own prayer requests and praise reports and answer questions using live polls.

What are you waiting for?