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Finding Joy in the Mundaneness of Ministry

Kathie Phillips

 

Over time, things can become very routine.  We wake up at the same time everyday, brush our teeth (and if you’re like me, you only buy one brand of toothpaste), drink coffee from the same cup, take the same route to work everyday…you get my drift. We don’t even have to think about it – we just do it, sometimes so well, we could do it with our eyes closed.

If you’re in any type of ministry, you very well know that certain aspects of your job can become routine after a while, too.  You know…doing the same things over and over because Sunday (or Wednesday or Friday) is always coming and there are things that need to be done so that ministry can happen.

Some of my responsibilities occur like clockwork.  Here is what is typically found on my to-do list every week:

Sunday:  Game time! All of my weekly prep pays off today!

Monday:  Edit curriculum for upcoming lessons; catch up on email from the weekend; follow-up with notes from Sunday; work on bigger-picture projects; writing

Tuesday:  Email lessons to leaders; handle email; staff prayer; Children’s Ministry staff meeting; return phone calls

Wednesday: Director-Level staff meeting; staff prayer; paperwork

Thursday: Final prep for Sunday; meetings with our family meeting team; staff prayer

Give or take other duties, depending on the time of year, these are almost always on my to-do list.  Do I love my job?  You bet! Can my job tasks become routine? You bet!

“Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.” (Colossians 3:17, The Message)

So how can we find joy in the mundaneness of ministry?

1. Recognize that joy is a choice.  Most of us don’t wake up joyful, especially if our day’s to-do list is long.  So you need to choose joy.  Choose to see each day (and its tasks) as a gift from God.  Choose to live joyfully in the calling God has placed on your life.

2. Realize that ministry means hard work.  Ministry doesn’t just happen.  It takes a process of steps to get from point A to point B.  That oftentimes means long hours preparing for ministry to happen and doing tasks that we might not like to do.

3. Shift your lens.  Think about all of the children and families who walk through the doors of your church each week.  Think about the opportunities you have to help them know, love and follow Jesus.

The work order you put in to have your facility cleaned helps families feel their child is in good, safe and sanitary hands.

The copies you make (or have made) will bring the day’s lesson into focus for many children.

The lessons you edit help ensure that the important things are taught.

The craft supplies you shop for and gather will help children will allow them a tangible reminder of God’s love for them.

The ideas you pin on Pinterest help you present God’s Word as creatively as you can so that each child learns in the ways that suit them best.

The time you spend designing a cool graphic for your communications will help draw families to information.

The emails and phone calls you made helps prepare your volunteers and lets them know you are there for them.

The meetings you attend remind you that as a team, you are all working together for the Kingdom of God.

The crumbs you sweep off of the floor reminded you that children love snack time!

The time you spend in prayer helps you remember the reason why you serve.  It’s about Him, not you.

Join the conversation: What helps you find joy in the mundaneness of ministry?

{Book Review} “Children’s Games From Around the World”

Kathie Phillips

One of the things that makes our Children’s Ministry unique is that we offer a missions-emphasis program for our preschoolers, elementary-age children and preteens.  Second Sunday for the World, offered on the second Sunday of each month October – June, exposes children to other cultures, introduces them to church-supported missionaries, and allows them to pray for people around the world. They learn to have God’s heart for the world by serving others locally and globally.

I always keep an eye out for missions resources for children.  Many of my ideas come from Pinterest.  (You can check out my KidMin Missions board here.)

My friend Steven Knight has compiled a new resource that I was thrilled to take a look at.  Children’s Games from Around the World provides 23 fun games from 22 different countries.  These games are great complements to Sunday lessons, VBS, and missions programs.

About the book:
 
-eBook
-45 pages
-includes interesting facts about each country
 
What I Liked:

I love that many of the games are active – they get the children up and moving.  This is especially important to our ministry because we have an abundance of boys who like to throw balls (and each other occasionally!), run and jump.  I also love that the countries are listed alphabetically in the table of contents, making finding a game for a particular place fairly easy.

Each game’s directions are clearly laid out, so it’s easy to follow, even spur-of-the moment if needed.  I was also grateful to see that several interesting facts follow each country’s game.  The games can be fun & informative!

What I Think Was Missing:

It would have been great if each country could have been identified by its flag or location on a map (again, educating the children).  Some had identification; some did not.  It also would’ve been helpful if each game was categorized as “high energy” or “low energy”.  That information is useful to me when selecting a game.  Lastly, a list of needed supplies would make selecting and prepping for a game super easy.  This is also something that I take into consideration when selecting a game.

My Recommendation:

This resource is a good one to have in your arsenal.  If you’re like me, you’ll refer to it regularly.  For a limited time, Steven is offering this downloadable eBook free of charge to everyone who subscribes to his blog, KidMin Tools.  I encourage you to check it out!

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Kathie Phillips

Hi friends! Several weeks have passed since I’ve last posted.  Like you (I’m sure), we have been busy getting ready for Christmas.  Here’s a snippet of what’s been going on in my kidmin world as we’re making final preparations:

For Everyone

Our Worship Arts department selected “For Everyone” as our theme & sermon series for Advent. We are learning how Jesus came for EVERYONE.  Each year our Children’s Ministry provides Advent devotionals for our families, so we wanted to try our best to factor this theme into our decision regarding our selection.  Originally, the theme of “Born for the World” was tossed around, so we chose one that fit that theme (even though it was reworded to “For Everyone”).  We landed on this devotional from Creative Communications.  We have heard a few parents tell us this was the best Advent devotional we’ve selected so far.  Yay!

MANGER-ON-THE-MANTEL-HANDOUT (1)

Deck the Halls

On the first Sunday in Advent (Sunday, November 30th), my church held an all-church event where our entire congregation (including children) were invited to come out to decorate the church, make crafts (including an Advent wreath) and enjoy a meal together.  Started last year, Deck the Halls is one of the few all-church events we offer throughout the year and it’s so much fun!

Sunday Programming

All of our kidmin Sunday programming for Christmas will obviously center around the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  For younger children (toddlers & preschoolers), the lessons will be simple, as this might be the first time many of them hear about the Christmas story.  Since many of our older children (elementary students and preteens) have heard the Christmas story before, we are being intentional about helping them personalize the story in a different way, while having lots of fun of course.  I’ve incorporated some ideas from ideas I’ve collected on Pinterest.  You can check out my kidmin Advent & Christmas board here.  There are over 230 ideas!

Worship Time

Each year, our Pre-K children – 5th graders lead the worship for our family Christmas Eve services, so on each Sunday during Advent (during their regularly scheduled kids’ worship time), they practice the songs they will sing.  This year, we added our 3 year-olds to our worship time and they are just precious. Songbooks, CDs and a video showing the motions are provided to families so that children can rehearse at home.

Christmas Eve Services

Every year, our church holds four (4) Christmas Eve services, with the first two being designed for families.  Children’s Ministry works closely with our Worship Arts department to plan and implement these two services, which will include:

  • a welcome/call to worship given by yours truly
  • lighting of the Advent wreath by two families
  • our 3 year-olds – 5th graders leading the families in worship
  • several older students sharing a special reading
  • a solo by one of our older students
  • a family friendly (and shortened) sermon
  • candlelight ceremony (we provide battery-operated candles for children)

Just a few things we’re doing to get ready for Christmas.  I’d love to hear (and see!) what you’re doing.  How are you getting ready for Christmas?

A Twist on Volunteer Training: “Leader Lunch & Learn”

Kathie Phillips 2 Comments

 

Training and equipping our kidmin leaders is of utmost importance if we want them to lead well in their ministry area and to have longevity in serving with us.

There are many challenges when it comes to volunteer training, however.

How can we make it beneficial to rookies and veterans alike?

How can we make it appealing so that they’ll actually come out for the event?

Are there some creative elements we can incorporate to make it fun and memorable?

What can we call it other than ‘training’?

How do we make it both informative and engaging?

There are so many resources available for kidmin leaders to take advantage of to train and equip volunteers.  One of the best resources, in my opinion, are workshops that I attend.  Many times when I travel to national workshops I am unable to take staffers or volunteers with me, so I try to find ways to share what I’ve learned in various contexts.  Usually, I purchase audio recordings from the places I attend and pass them along to others.  However, I felt compelled recently to try something different.

I attended Group’s KidMin Conference back in September and one of the workshops I took there was called “50 Ways to Bring the Bible to Life”.  (You can pick up my notes here).  I loved the premise and content provided, so I thought that it would be cool to teach my version to our elementary and preteen leaders.  I absolutely THRIVE on preparing for events like this, so I was very excited about how it would come together.

When I began thinking about a catchy name for this event, I knew that it wouldn’t be called “training”.  I mean, that screams excitement, right? NOT!!  So after some careful thought, I landed upon Leader Lunch & Learn.  This past Sunday, I hosted our very first Leader Lunch & Learn and it was great!  Here are some details about the event:

I wanted this event to be (1) a time of fellowship (over a delicious lunch that we provided, of course!), for the leaders to get to know each other better in an informal, casual setting; (2) informative – leading a group of children requires our leaders to know what they’re doing; (3) practical – I wanted the information presented to be something that they could use right away; and (4) engaging – I wanted attendees to get share ideas (it’s always a good idea to have team members learn from each other) and practice what they’ve learned.

Keeping those four things in mind, the event began to take shape.  I designed an invitation that was sent to adult and student leaders via email (I used Mail Chimp).  I set up responses to go to a form I created on Google Forms – very easy to do.  Then I used the workshop notes to come up with a time flow/outline for the 90 minutes that we’d have together:

Arrival

Welcome & Overview (5 minutes)

I welcomed everyone, thanked them for coming and gave them an overview of what our time together would look like.

Lunch & Fellowship (20 minutes)

Since we held this event immediately following our 2nd service hour, serving lunch was not an option.  I landed on a simple, delicious lunch that was very affordable and easy to set up:  I ordered a deli sandwich wrap platter and provided potato chips, fresh fruit, cookies, brownies, iced tea, lemonade and bottled water.

Introductions, Introduce the “Smarts”, Have team take “Smarts” Inventory (7 minutes)

Our elementary and preteen ministries are run separately, so many of the attendees had never met each other.  We took a few minutes to introduce ourselves and then I had them quickly fill out the “Got Smarts” inventory (that was included in the workshop notes) so that they could discover their primary “smart”.

Review responses from “Got Smarts” Inventory, Talk about “Smart Chart”, and Ways to Incorporate these ideas into their large group & small group times (25 minutes)

After reviewing the responses from the “Got Smarts” inventory, we discussed what each ‘smart’ looked like and ways to incorporate each ‘smart’ into our lessons. Since each of our volunteers is very gifted and creative, I wanted them to learn from each other, too, so they tossed out additional ideas that were not included in the original notes.  They had some great suggestions!

Group Assignment & Sharing

I wanted everyone to get some practice incorporating what they had learned, so I broke the group up into 3 smaller groups and assigned each group a Bible story: The Good Samaritan (Luke 10;30-37); Jonah and the Whale (Jonah 1); and Feeding of the 5000 (Matthew 14:13-21).  Their task was to brainstorm ideas to bring the Bible to life by incorporating each ‘smart’ into that particular Bible story.  Boy did they do an awesome job with that.  When they shared their ideas, I was blown away!  You can read their ideas here.

Wrap Up/Thank You’s

I closed our time together by reminding them to not be afraid to think outside of the box and infuse creativity into their lessons to help the Bible come to life for every student in their group.  I affirmed them, thanked everyone for coming and reminded them to take home a special treat I had prepared for them.  Since we were talking about ‘smarts’, it was only fitting to use “Smarties” in the treat bags.

Take-Home Treat (the front)
Take-Home Treat (the front)

 

Take-Home Treat (the back)
Take-Home Treat (the back)

As a result of preparing for this training event, feedback was so positive that we will offer a new topic every other month.  I asked volunteers for suggestions on future topics and so we’re set for our next event, which will be held in January.  I can’t wait!

Now it’s your turn – what does your volunteer training/equipping opportunities look like?  Share what works for you below!

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