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Category: Ministry Leadership

Covers topics such as leadership skills, sustainable leadership, women in leadership, leading teams, developing leaders, meetings

Connecting with Absentee Children

Kathie Phillips 4 Comments

Children miss Sunday school for a myriad of reasons–sports, sickness, travel, weekends with non-custodial parents, just to name a few.  When a child misses for two consecutive weeks, a red flag should go up and you should make an effort to connect with the child and his or her family.  Doing so–or not doing so–could have a huge impact on your ministry.

I recently had lunch with a friend whose child does not like his youth group and who hasn’t attended the Sunday morning programming for an extended period of time.  As the conversation continued, my friend not only shared his frustration about not knowing how to handle this situation but his frustration in another area:  “My child’s small group leader didn’t seem to notice that he wasn’t there.”

So how can you connect with absentee children, before it’s too late?

Track attendance.  This will help you to know when a child has missed for two or more weeks.

Contact the parent/guardian.  This can be done very casually by phone or email.  Don’t invade on their privacy, but let them know that (1) you notice that the child has missed church for “x” amount of weeks and (2) you wanted to follow-up to see if everything is ok.  Is there an issue or need that needs to be addressed?

Send a postcard to the child, saying that you miss seeing them and that church is not the same without them.  Not only do children love getting mail but they also love knowing that someone cares enough about them to not only miss them but send a note.  Here are inexpensive cards that you can purchase for your ministry.

Make a big deal when they return to class.  Shower love on them and warmly welcome them back to the class.

Let it never be said that your ministry “didn’t seem to notice I wasn’t there.”

How many weeks do you allow to pass before you connect with absentee children?  How do you connect with them?

Ready, set, launch!

Kathie Phillips

This past Sunday, we launched Route 45, our brand new preteen ministry for 4th & 5th graders.  This launch has been almost a year in the making.  A team of 4th & 5th grade teachers, parents, and I met for months to plan for the launch.  Here’s what some of what the planning items included:

  • crafting a vision statement and ministry goals
  • selecting a curriculum
  • finalizing the ministry year calendar and lesson schedule
  • designing a logo
  • recruiting small group leaders
  • and the list goes on.

Despite all of this planning, the launch date was met with excitement and apprehension for me personally.  I began to think, “Why did I do this?”  “Why didn’t I leave things the way they were?”  “Why didn’t my husband stop me?!”  I left for church praying that God would bless our day.  And boy did He!

The excitement in the air was palpable!  Their new space was ready for them, the music was blaring and the team was ready.  The children were filled with excitement and anticipation of seeing what Route 45 was all about.  Children who had dropped out of Sunday school in the previous years made reappeared.  Laughter filled the room as a game of human scrabble was played.  Eyes were focused intently as the large group teaching took place.  Discussion and smiles were noticeable during small group time.  At the end of the morning, preteens recalled the day with smiles and anticipation of what we had planned for next week.

All of the nervousness I felt passed and was replaced with pride, peace and affirmation that God placed this vision on my heart for these preteens.  What an honor!  I felt that He was well-pleased.  I am no longer apprehensive–I feel more fired up than ever!

Is fear of change holding you back?  What might you gain by letting go of fear and trusting God for the outcome?

Grace Under Pressure

Kathie Phillips 1 Comment

If you are a fan of morning television, you might have heard rumblings in the past week or so regarding Ann Curry’s departure from the Today Show.  Today, the rumors were confirmed…she is in fact leaving her coveted host chair on the popular morning program.  She announced her departure this morning.  Ever since the internet buzz began about her rumored departure, I specifically tuned in to see if she would ever mention it.  She never did, but her facial expressions and body language did all of the talking.  She looked sad, her shoulders were hunched over, her laughs not as hearty.

She referred to the job as her “dream job”.  Who ever wants to leave their dream job like this, for all the world to see?  In my humble opinion, Ms. Curry did a great job under the circmstances.  There are two things she said that stood out to me:

“I have wanted to give you [the viewers] the world.”  Leaders have big dreams for the future.  The sky is the limit.  Although many women preceded Ms. Curry, she wanted to bring her own personality to the role.

“For all of you who saw me as a groundbreaker, I’m sorry I couldn’t carry the ball over the finish line.  But man, I did try.”  Abrupt changes can leave a leader feeling like they’ve let their followers down.  They can also feel like their work was unfinished.  But trying is a really big part in wanting to make a difference.

I am looking forward to how Ms. Curry will move forward in the future.  I am hopeful that the grace she exuded today will keep her dreaming bigger and better.

Hello, Summer!

Kathie Phillips

I don’t know about your ministry, but our ministry does not slow down during the summer.  Between our end-of-year volunteer appreciation picnic, recruiting (for summer and fall) and Summer Bible Camp, our workload during the summer keeps us quite busy!

One of our biggest tasks for our summer is preparing for summer programming.  We give our school-year volunteers the summer off to rest, recover and re-energize for the fall.  This means that in order to staff our ministry, we rely on parent volunteers and members of our church body to serve.  This poses quite a challenge, considering travel schedules to work around and the reality that people just don’t want to serve.
To make the transition to summer programming a little easier on our seasonal volunteers, I have chosen a summer volunteer-friendly curriculum for the past 3 summers.  We use a video-based teaching time (which takes a huge burden off of a seasonal volunteer’s shoulders) and have our volunteers facilitate small group discussion, games and activities. This is something that our volunteers are very comfortable with.

Although our summer volunteers are seasonal and may serve just one or two Sundays, it is important that they be aware of some basic ministry information, such as arrival times, class schedule, safety policies, and classroom discipline.  I recently put together a “Summer Serve Handbook” for our volunteers containing this important information.

What does summer look like in your ministry?

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