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Leadership Lessons from “Restaurant: Impossible”

Kathie Phillips 6 Comments

One of my favorite TV shows is “Restaurant: Impossible” on Food Network.  If you are not familiar with the show, let me give you a quick overview.  With two days and $10,000 Chef Robert Irvine goes to a failing restaurant with the hopes of turning the business around.  Chef Robert chats with the owner, the staff and patrons to find out why the restaurant is failing.  Then, after ordering several dishes off of the menu (he has rarely liked anything on the original menu), he outlines the problems that he’ll address.

Most times, the owners don’t have a clue how to run their business.  Other times, the owners have lost their passion.  They have been failing for so long that they have little hope of ever recovering.

I love the show for many reasons but what I love most are all of the leadership lessons that the owners learn.  I learn a lot too.  Aside from serving really bad food, the reasons why most of the restaurants are failing can be narrowed down to four areas:

1.  Poor service

2.  Poor leadership/management

3.  Outdated decor

4.  Poor marketing

Sadly, these things are often true of Children’s Ministries.  Sometimes, leaders can get stuck in a rut or get accustomed to flying on ‘survival mode’ that we don’t give thought to the details that make our ministry shine.

Use the checklist below to see what areas your ministry might need to address.

Poor Service

  • Do you have friendly greeters stationed to greet families as they enter your children’s areas?
  • Do you have a check-in system?  Is it efficient?
  • Do you try to alleviate long lines at check-in?
  • Do you walk new/visiting families and their children to their classrooms or do you just point them in the right direction?

Poor Leadership/Management

  • Do you have enough staff to cover each classroom?  If not, are you working towards that goal?
  • What are your ministry’s strengths?
  • In what areas does your ministry need to grow?
  • Do you have key leaders (volunteer or paid) in place to help shoulder your ministry’s responsibilities?
  • Are your volunteers aware of what is expected from them?  Do you have written job descriptions in place?
  • Do you hold regular volunteer training opportunities that equip your volunteers to do their job effectively?
  • Do you appreciate your volunteers?  How do you show them?
  • Are you growing as a leader?  Are you reading, taking classes, and/or attending conferences/workshops to become better in your craft?
  • Do you have a mentor, someone who can pour into your life and hold you accountable?
  • Are you mentoring someone?

Outdated Decor

  • Does your ministry area scream “1980”?
  • Are your classroom spaces kid-friendly and kid-appealing?
  • Are your classroom spaces clean and sanitized?
  • How can you spruce up your ministry area, even on a limited budget?  A coat or two of brightly colored paint?  New tables and chairs? New flooring?
  • Are the books and toys in good condition?  Do you have working batteries in all of your battery-operated toys?

Poor Marketing

  • Does your ministry have an informative, eye-catching brochure?
  • Does your website have up-to-date information?
  • Is your signage clear and visible?
  • Does your ministry have a logo?
  • How do parents and those in your church body and neighboring communities view your ministry?

These are just a few things to think about when leading a Children’s Ministry.  Help your ministry grow in 2013 by addressing areas that might be pulling your ministry down.

I’d love to hear what you’d add to the list.  Share your thoughts below!

Volunteer Information Packet Must-Haves

Kathie Phillips 2 Comments

When volunteers join our ministry, they are given a packet of useful information to provide insight into our ministry’s policies and procedures. The packet is usually distributed at our volunteer training but occasionally a volunteer will join our ministry mid-year. That’s why we always have packets ready to go.

Our volunteer packets are usually a colored 2-pocket folder (without the 3 prongs): green (for our elementary ministry) and blue (for our preteen ministry). Here’s what’s found inside:

Left Side of the Folder

  • Children’s Ministry Pocket Guide to Discipline (published by Group)
  • Children’s Ministry Pocket Guide to Special Needs (also published by Group)
  • Leading a Child to Christ pamphlet (available through Lifeway)
  • Our ministry handbook*
  • Age-level characteristics information sheet

Right Side of the Folder

  • “Your Favorite Things” information sheet (a pdf copy is available under the “Leader Resources” tab)
  • “What You Do Matters” poster
  • Morning-at-a-Glance (schedule)
  • Lesson Schedule for the Quarter
  • Class List
  • Sub Contact List
  • Resource Closet Supply List

Providing these packets have helped ensure that our volunteers are not only informed but equipped to serve.

*If you would like to see our ministry handbook, please email me at kidminspiration@gmail.com.

Do you provide information packets to your volunteers? If so, what do you include?

2 Tools We’re Using to Help Us Do Ministry Better

Kathie Phillips 6 Comments

I love finding tools to help make my life a little easier.  A few months ago, I discovered two online tools that have helped make our ministry more efficient.

According to their website, Basecamp is “the world’s #1 project management app”.  Our Family Ministry team began using this tool to help us better collaborate on joint projects.  So far, it has been wonderful!

Here’s how it works:  Our administrative assistant goes in to begin our project, sets our to-do list and assigns who’s responsible for what.  The to-do list can be assigned a date, so when you have a project due, you receive an email reminder.  (That’s very cool.)

What I love about this tool:  Like I mentioned before, Basecamp has helped our team collaborate better on projects without sending countless emails back and forth.  We have eliminated the need to scribble to-do lists on napkins or pieces of paper because there’s a running to-do list for each project.  Also, when you complete your assigned task, you can cross it off as “completed”.  Who doesn’t love that?!

Disclaimer:  While this tool isn’t free, the 45-day trial offer is.  We tried it out for 45 days, loved it, and decided to purchase a package.  I think you should check it out.

My absolute new favorite ministry tool is a program called Dropbox.  The tagline for this wonderful invention is “simplify your life”.  Something that promises to do that really needs to live up to its promise!

Here’s how it works:  Download the program from its website.  Then you’re able to create folders where you can save photos, documents and videos and then share them with a person or a group of people.  It’s very easy to use and best of all, it’s free!

What I love about this tool:  Every week, I would email my preteen ministry leaders their lesson for the upcoming week.  A few weeks ago, I discovered Dropbox and thought that this would be a great way for my leaders to access their lessons, which I could load up lessons weeks in advance.  We have just started using this tool, but I love it already and so do my volunteers.  They see upcoming lessons as soon as I ‘drop’ them into our shared folder.  I also love that the files are saved on all of my computers and accessible by my cell phone app.  The app is free!  Love it!

I am really not doing either of these tools justice by describing them.  If you are looking for ways to do ministry better, I strongly encourage you to check out these two options.

Do you use either of these tools or found other tools more helpful?  Tell me about it below!

Looking Back, Yet Looking Forward

Kathie Phillips

goodbye2012 hello2013

As 2013 approaches, I am overwhelmed with how much God has blessed me in 2012.  I have grown so much personally, spiritually and professionally this year, much more than I could have ever imagined a year ago.  Maybe you can say the same for yourself.

Looking Back

Growth and challenge are two words that I would use to describe 2012.  The thing is that those two words, growth and challenge can have positive and negative connotations.  Positive because God doesn’t want us to stay in a comfortable place, thus resulting in complacency. Negative because with growth and challenge often come pain, headache, hardship and deep introspection.

This blog is a result of growth and challenge.  In my very first blog post, I shared my ambivalence about blogging.  Yet here I stand seven months later!  God is so good!  I’ve always known that I’m up for a good challenge but this experience has really stretched me!

Here were our two most popular posts in 2012:

S-T-R-E-T-C-H Your Ministry Dollars (Most Popular)

Book Review and Free Book Giveaway:  “The One Year Be-Tween You and God” (Most Viewed)

Looking Forward

With that said, I am looking forward to improving and expanding this platform that God has given me.  In 2013, you will see a KidMinspiration logo, more guest posts, more product reviews, and downloadable resources that you can use in your church (leaders and volunteers) and at home (parents).  Spread the word…some great things are coming!

I hope you’ll join me on this journey!  I am so thankful for everyone who subscribes, reads, comments, “retweets” and “shares”.  Thank you for becoming a part of my extended family!  I am looking forward to connecting with you even more.  See you in 2013!

Blessings to you all,

Kathie

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