Tag: kidmin

Rest for the Soul

Kathie Phillips

This week, my family and I are enjoying some time away at one of our favorite places to relax–a cabin in the woods in nearby West Virginia.  Suited perfectly for rest and refreshment, it is a home that has a wall of windows that looks out onto the tall, mature trees.  The house also has a wonderful screened porch to be able to be in nature without being in nature.  Internet and cell reception is spotty, so it’s a great place to disconnect and reconnect with God and loved ones.

In addition to reading, watching movies and playing board games with the family, one of my favorite things to do here is feed the deer.  Once the food goes out, at least eight deer come closer to the property to feed.  It brings to mind Psalm 42:1:

As the deer pants for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. (NLT)

So often as a leader, I can get bogged down with details of the ministry–scheduling, ordering/purchasing supplies, deadlines, lesson-planning, recruiting, email–and lose focus of the God I serve.  Do I take time each day to acknowledge God before I go about my day?  Do I ask for His will to be done and not my own?  Food for thought as I gear up for the upcoming ministry year.

What about you?  Does your soul long for God?  How does He bring refreshment to your soul?

One of the Worst Recruiting Strategies

Kathie Phillips 1 Comment

I have a few pet peeves about recruiting for Children’s Ministry but one that ranks up at the top of the list is when leaders say they need to “fill holes”.  Every time I hear that, I get chills up spine.  Think about it.  What message do you think that philosophy sends about a ministry to a prospective volunteer?  I don’t serve, I just filled a hole.

I believe that the way in which a volunteer is recruited is directly related to the way that they serve.  If someone is recruited by a leader who shares the vision and mission of a ministry, that volunteer’s potential is unlimited.  They will have a vested interest in the ministry and are more likely to serve longer and take on more leadership roles.  If someone is recruited to “fill a hole”, they will likely not even know or care about where the ministry is going and are likely to serve a much shorter time.

Let’s show potential volunteers how passionate we are about what we do and recruit them as a ministry partner, not a “hole-filler”.

Ministry and Motherhood

Kathie Phillips 3 Comments

Balancing ministry and motherhood is something that I’ve tried to manage for the six years that I’ve been on-staff in Children’s Ministry.  It hasn’t always been easy.  Sometimes I feel like I pour too much of myself into my work while neglecting time with my children and vice versa.  Instead of thinking of it as either-or, I have tried to intertwine the two.  Here’s how:

I involve my children in my ministry.  This won’t work for every family (my children are teenagers) but my children actually enjoy being a part of my ministry.  In fact, they call it “our ministry”.  They are able to offer great insight into music choices, games, events and resources.  My little test group, if you will.  Not only does this help me stay relevant and “cool” with the kids at church, but it helps my children feel like valued members of our ministry (which they are).

As a result, I’ve seen them use their gifts and talents.  My son has seen me lead Sunday School and is now a teen small group leader for 6th grader boys at our church.  He not only prepares his lessons ahead of time but he finds ways to shepherd the boys as well as provide an atmosphere of community within the group.  He has also taught me a thing or two about technology (namely how to design a PowerPoint presentation).  My daughter is extremely artistic.  She has helped design brochures as well as sets and bulletin boards.  She has also researched craft projects and has written skits for the children.

I ask their permission before signing them up for events, etc..  I value my children and their need for personal boundaries by not signing them up to help me at events.  I don’t automatically assume that they will be present or fill open slots.  Because of this, they look forward to going to church and volunteer to serve in various ways.

I value their opinion.  When I was presented with a new ministry opportunity last year, I talked it over with my children (and my husband).  Because the opportunity would involve changing churches, their opinion was vital to my decision.  Talking it over with them and getting their insight strengthened our family and helped them to love, not resent, moving to our current church.

I am aware of negative talk about the ministry.  Volunteers don’t show up.  Someone may disagree with a decision I’ve made.  Someone may complain about this or that.  But my children don’t need to hear that.  It’s not their burden to carry.

As often as I can, I take them along with me when I travel for work.  My children are unsung heroes of my ministry, so taking them along with me is a reward for them.  Those trips have been some of the best times we’ve had as a family.

I value them by leaving work at work.  I love Children’s Ministry.  I love to read about it and talk about it.  But I also love my family time and try to protect that at all costs.  Saturdays and Sunday afternoons are reserved for family–movies, good conversation, a delicious meal, a road trip.  Just good, quality time to connect.

Although I love Children’s Ministry, motherhood is my most important ministry.  But having my children integrated into my ministry is the best of both worlds!  I could not imagine ministry life without them! 🙂

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?