Archive for April, 2009
Tweet-ups, 3am web shows and the Orange Conference April 29th, 2009
Had a great night last night. A lot of that is thanks to a couple young guys that I work with at Brookwood Church, JC and Josh. They’ve been using blogs and social media to connect with people for years. So, after watching them for a couple of months I decided to join twitter about a year ago and I started blogging about 3 months ago.
The result of all this is that last night I got to meet an incredible group of children and student pastors that I may have never met if it weren’t for social media. We’re in Atlanta for the Orange Conference and last night we joined about 50-60 folks at the Varsity for a “tweet-up.” Not sure I would have known what that was a year ago but I’m glad I do now.
I’ve been attending conferences for years. I usually float in and out. Hang out with my team, learn some great stuff, and that’s about it. But now, coming to the Orange Conference feels more like a reunion. I get to see these guys that I’ve been talking to and sharing ideas with for months. We live literally in every corner of the country but if you were at the varsity last night you’d have probably thought we had all worked together for years. Most off us we’re meeting for the first time but there were inside jokes, shared stories, great ministry conversations, it was great.
So I’m thankful to our young guys for helping me enter the twitter/blogosphere. But in the light of day, I kinda of wonder if I staying up till 3am as they hosted a spontaneous live web show was the smartest move for me. I may be too old to be that cool. That said, I’m looking forward to a great day with my team but caffeine is a priority this morning so I’ll log off for now.
Posted in Blog, Children's Ministry, Thinking Out Loud | Comments (0)
5 things you might not know about me… April 22nd, 2009
Inspired by Pudge and JC here are 5 things you might not know about me…
1. I attended the University of South Carolina on a Tuba scholarship and majored in Tuba performance.
2. I learned to tie my shoes online… when I was 31 (really, check this site out you may have been tying your shoes wrong all your life)
3. A couple of my more colorful hobbies are balloon art and origami.
4. I once attended a wedding where Hulk Hogan was the best man and Howard Stern attended. (it was kinda weird to see Howard Stern sitting 5 pews ahead of me in church)
5. My wife danced in the pregame show of the Superbowl when it was in Atlanta. (that’s technically not about me… but it’s cool)
Ok, that’s enough about me let’s hear from you. Leave a comment or if you have your own blog post 5 things we might not know about you.
Tags: 5 things, Jessica Gable, me, shoe tying, super bowl, tuba, USC
Posted in Blog, Random | Comments (1)
Out of the “Church” Box April 8th, 2009
One of the volunteers in our children’s ministry is the CEO of a large company. I had the opportunity to meet with him yesterday to talk about the children’s ministry at our church. I thought I was meeting with him to help him understand what we’re trying to do in children’s ministry…
That’s not exactly how it went down.
Instead he spent an hour and a half telling me why our children’s ministry wasn’t as effective as it could be. Now, You have to know this guy to appreciate him. He’s not a jerk. Most guys who try to tell you what your doing wrong are just complaining or trying to grab power. But this guy loves God, loves our church, loves our pastor and I know he wants what’s best for us.
Even though I knew all this I was still a little defensive. Yeah, this guy knows a lot, but he doesn’t know anything about leading a children’s ministry. I tried to do what I know I’m supposed to do in this situation and just listen and have an open mind. But I have to admit I’m not very good at that, so instead I went with the “healthy debate” approach.
At one point as we were “discussing” small group environments I mentioned something about Northpoint church. The response I got from this guy was interesting,
“Who the h— Is Northpoint?”
The thing is, he wasn’t being argumentative, he really didn’t know. At that’s when I realized something, most of my volunteers don’t know who Northpoint is either, and they don’t care to. I think it’s easy for us to get caught in the church box. If you’re in ministry it’s where you spend most of your time. We go to church conferences, read ministry blogs, buy “church leadership” books. We become experts in field that doesn’t always relate to the people we’re leading. Just because I know what I’m doing it doesn’t mean my volunteers know what I’m doing. I think it’s possible that we become blind to this because when we start spouting off all our “church knowledge” to our volunteers they just assume we’re right and back off.
Fortunately, the guy I was talking to isn’t the type to “back off.” He didn’t have all the answers. Some of his ideas we’re way off. But he did have a very different perspective and he asked some questions in a way that I hadn’t thought of before. At the end of the day talking to this guy who knew nothing about ministry helped me learn a lot about how to do ministry.
I’ll wrap this up with a few of questions for you. How do get out of the “church box?” Who are you talking to that challenges your ideas and perceptions? Who has a completely different outlook on life that could challenge your status quo? If you don’t have someone like that I’d encourage you to seek them out.
Also let me hear from you. What are some of the ways you’ve found to get an outside view of church and ministry?
Tags: Brookwood Church, Brookwood Kids, Children's Ministry, Leadership, ministry, Volunteer Minisrty, Volunteers
Posted in Children's Ministry, Leadership | Comments (3)
Lead the Leader – Pt 1 April 6th, 2009
Last week I introduced a series of posts based on lessons I learned in a workshop I attended years ago. (apparently it was MANY years ago if you listen to some of those who commented on the post ☺) The workshop was called “Growing the Children’s Ministry You’ve Always Wanted” and it was presented by Gordon and Becky West. The principles I learned there have had a huge impact on my ministry and I wanted to pass them on in hopes that you will find them equally valuable.
First, an illustration. Take your best guess…
How much is an eight-foot piece of rebar worth. You know, plain old steel plugged into a mold and formed into a bar. Of course prices could vary, but usually it costs around $5. What if I took that same amount of steel and refined it a little more and formed it into horseshoes? Now it’s worth around $10.50. Ok, let’s take this a little further. Suppose I take the same amount of steel and form it into needles. If I did that it, it would be worth nearly $5000. Let’s take one final step. What if I took the same amount of steel contained in a $5 piece of rebar and formed it into fine Swiss watch mainsprings. In this case the steel would be worth nearly $250,000. That’s not an exaggeration!
Here’s the principle:
It’s not the material; it’s how the material is used that creates value.
Now a question:
How are you using your volunteers?
Are you investing in your people and doing everything you can to help them reach their full potential, or are you “plugging holes” with your volunteers? In the first five minutes of that workshop I realized why my children’s ministry was failing. It was because I thought I was a children’s minister. I mean, that was my title, right? However, the reality of children’s ministry is that if you want to grow the children’s ministry you’ve always wanted, you can’t be a children’s minister. You must be a volunteer minister.
If you have more than 10 kids in your ministry you’ve already got more kids than you can effectively minister to by yourself. Think about, Jesus chose to disciple only twelve men and He’s God. It would be pretty arrogant of me to think I could effectively disciple twenty, right? This means, if your children’s ministry is going to be effective, you’re going to have to invest most your your time not in working with kids but in developing volunteers.
There’s much more to come so stay tuned. For now, I’ll leave you with this. What are you doing to develop “watch spring” volunteers in your ministry?
Tags: Brookwood Church, Brookwood Kids, Children, Children's Ministry, Conferences, Gordon and Becky West, Leadership, ministry, Ministry 101, Volunteer Minisrty, Volunteers
Posted in Children's Ministry, Leadership, Volunteers | Comments (2)