Kathie Phillips, Author at Kathie Phillips

KidMin Conference 2013 – Day One Notes

10/12/201310/12/2013 Kathie Phillips 1 Comment

So, we made it to the 2013 KidMin Conference! I am so excited to be here!

Friday Morning – Pre-Conference

This morning, I took a Pre-Conference track led by Jim Burns from HomeWord. Jim taught about “Partnering With Parents”. Here are a few highlights:

*When you reach the family, you reach the world.

*One of the major purposes of the church is to mentor parents. Parents then mentor their children, and the legacy of faith continues from generation to generation. There is a 300% chance that high school graduates who have come from homes who’ve regularly engage in faith conversations at home are more likely to not walk away from the faith.

*When you welcome a child, you welcome Jesus (Mark 9:36-37).

*The family, not the church, is the greatest influence in a child’s life.

*Moms are by far the most influential person in a child’s spiritual development. Here’s the breakdown on the top five (5) people, in order, of influence in a child’s spiritual development: (2) Dad, (3) extended family, (4) friends and (5) church.

*Why keeps us from partnering with parents?

It means more for us.
We’re insecure – kids are easy, parents not so much.
We might encounter parental resistance, especially if the child has openly shared things happening in the home.
We have no say in Adult Education.
There is conflict with the Senior Pastor.
Parents don’t have time.
Parents have different priorities.
Non-traditional family structures are hard to navigate.

*As Children’s Ministry leaders, we serve parents by providing four primary tasks:

Information (communicate clearly to parents)

Send parent newsletters.
Have parent meetings (gather parents for dinner, decadent desserts and information/trainings). Consider having spiritual offerings as well as needs-based offerings).
Let parents know of seminars, workshops, etc. at nearby churches, hospitals, etc.

Assistance (support the family structure)

Hold special seminars. Get people in your church who have specialized training to speak to parents – teachers, doctors, therapists, etc.)
Have a library of parenting resources (books, CDs, podcasts, etc.). If you don’t have a permanent space, have a mobile cart and park it in a highly visible area.

Encouragement (encourage parents)

Schedule a Parent Recognition Sunday, a special Sunday service where parents are celebrated. Have the kids put a video together, serve lunch or dinner, etc. to honor their parents.
Write notes of encouragement to parents.

Involvement (parents in your ministry)

You will always need volunteers. Consider, however, expanding what you need by asking parents to assist with areas they’re gifted – parents who fundraise for a living can help raise $ for mission trips, event planners can help plan events, etc.
Have a parents counsel to help speak into the ministry.
Have opportunities for parents and kids to do together.

Friday Night – General Session

The General Session started with awesome worship (this has never disappointed me here at KidMin). Worshiping with other kidmin leaders is always a wonderful experience.

The Session’s keynote was to be delivered by Joni Eareckson Tada but due to illness, she was not able to attend. So, the Skit Guys led the session and did so wonderfully. They spoke on Mark 2:1-12. Here are a few highlights:

*Jesus delights in us bringing people to Him.

*Jesus could have healed the man on the spot but He didn’t. He said his sins were forgiven. We think we know our need but Jesus knows best.

*Ministry doesn’t turn off when we turn off the lights.

*God has called us to put people on the mat and lead them to Jesus.

I am looking forward to more learning, laughs and encouragement tomorrow!

Countdown to the 2013 KidMin Conference!

10/09/201310/09/2013 Kathie Phillips 5 Comments

In less than 24 hours, I will be headed to Group’s KidMin Conference in Columbus, OH for 4 days of rest, worship, learning, fun and fellowship. I cannot wait! Last year, I was so disappointed to miss it (read my lament here). This past weekend, I developed a sore throat and thought, “Oh no! Not again! I cannot miss this year too!” I am feeling better and am glad because I really need to be around my kidmin friends, many of whom I’ve already scheduled to meet for lunch to catch up and share.

In an effort to ‘go green’ this year, conference handouts are available for download from the app. While I found this process to be a bit overwhelming, I was able to navigate it and select the workshops that I’ll take. Here’s an overview of what I’ll be taking:

Friday: I will participate in Jim Burns‘ Partnering with Parents Pre-Conference track. ‘Partnering with Parents’ is a phrase that has been the buzzword for a few years now and it means different things to different people. To me, partnering with parents is more than shoving a take-home paper in their hands at the end of the worship service. I feel that it’s providing ongoing resources in a variety of experiences (not just programs, but experiences). I am looking forward to this intensive pre-con track and will, hopefully, walk away with great ideas to implement at my church.

Saturday: Many of my workshops will focus on different aspects of leading volunteers. On Saturday morning, I’ll take Dale Hudson’s Building a Volunteer Team: Enlisting Your Team. Dale is one of my favorite kidmin bloggers, so I can’t wait to hear him share on this topic. On Saturday afternoon, I’ll take Gina McClain’s Sustaining Growth in a Large Church. I always love to hear from large church kidmin leaders. And I really dig strong women leadership in kidmin.

Sunday: Leading volunteers will continue as a theme on Sunday. I am looking forward to Craig Jutila’s Why People Won’t Volunteer for You because I really want to know. I am hopeful that he’ll address not only the “why not’s” but also strategies for effectively recruiting.

Monday: Before heading home on Monday, I will sit in on Jenny Funderburke’s workshop, Building a Volunteer-Friendly Culture. Again, I dig women leadership in kidmin and I have never heard Jenny speak. Besides, I want to change the landscape of the volunteer culture of our ministry, so I’m thirsty for ideas.

I also have the privilege of leading the Thriving in Transition Connect Group at the Conference. We’ll talk about what brought about the transition (promotion, a move to a new church, switching from kidmin to student ministry or vice versa, etc.).

I will try to blog throughout the weekend and if I get caught up in CELEBRATING too much, I’ll post the notes when I return home. If you’re attending KidMin, I’d love to meet you!

Handouts have been printed and my stack of business cards are banded together. All I have to do now is pack my bags and be on my way! Lord willing I’ll see you soon, friends!

Are you attending the KidMin Conference? If so, what workshops are you taking?

Settling In…Finally!

10/08/201310/08/2013 Kathie Phillips 2 Comments

I’ve mentioned several times through this platform that the question I’ve been asked most in the last few months has been, “How are you doing with everything?” Earlier this summer, I accepted a new position at church and just a few weeks ago, my father-in-law passed away suddenly. So, it’s not surprising that, “How are you doing with everything?” has been the million dollar question…too bad I can’t collect each time I’ve been asked that! 🙂

It wasn’t until last week that I really felt like I was in a groove. As a result of the new position and additional responsibilities, many aspects of my ministry were (temporarily, I prayed) on the back burner. If you know anything about me, you know that I am all for having a personal ministry. I love connecting with people under my leadership – volunteers, children and parents. Sadly, I have not had the chance to offer as many personal touches as I had in the past. That really bothered me and left me feeling like I wasn’t leading well.

While things are still quite busy and we continue to settle in to the new ministry year, I found a couple of hours to work on re-introducing a few personal ministry elements. These included expanding our social media presence and resuming our weekly Parent Connect e-newsletter. I feel strongly that if we are partnering with parents, the lines of communication should not only be crystal clear but also varied in approach. We have to get the word out to parents where they are likely to spend the most time.

Many of our parents are on Facebook more so than Twitter, so I have concentrated our social media efforts to Facebook only. I have been thinking about our ministry’s social media presence and whether we should have one page for each area of ministry (Nursery, Early Childhood, Elementary and Preteen) or just have one page for our entire Children’s Ministry. In the end, I decided to create pages for Sprouts (our Nursery environment) and The Backyard (our Early Childhood environment) – we already had pages for The Treehouse (Elementary) and Route 45 (Preteen). We are still spreading the word about these pages, but feel free to stop by and take a look.

In addition, I communicate weekly with parents electronically. Years ago, I sent a weekly email, communicating what’s coming up, what the children would be learning and any resources they could take advantage of. But let’s face it – the look of email is boring. So, I wanted to spice things up and make it visually appealing while still delivering important information. Thankfully, our Middle School Director inspired me to use Mail Chimp to accomplish this. Honestly, it was one of the best moves I have made. I love how creative I can be in crafting communication to parents.

There are several other things brewing in my head that will be added in the coming weeks and months but we’re taking it one step at at time. These simple but effective means of communication have made me feel like screaming, “I’m back!!” And that feels really good!

How do you communicate with parents and volunteers? Leave me a comment below and fill me in!