Archives For Vision

Children’s Pastors’ Conference 2013–Orlando

January 18, 2013

I’m attending the Children’s Pastors’ Conference in Orlando and promised people attending my breakouts that I would put some resources online. So here you go.

 

Breakout: Why Children are the Most Important People in Your Church

Why Children are the Most Important People in the Church Presentation Slides

Seasons of the Soul Handout

Breakout Audio (MP3–This is audio of the same breakout from a different conference.)

If you are looking for more information about the breakouts email me. Or come to the Children’s Pastors’ Conference in San Diego.

In Discipleship, Evangelism, Jesus, Kidmin, Leadership, Values, Vision ,
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not-a-fan copy

Not a Fan of Church

October 27, 2012

In the last Pew Research survey nearly 34% of 20somethings raised their hands and said, “I am not a fan” of church. Basically when asked if they affiliated with a church, they checked the box marked “none.”

A few days ago, Ed Stetzer entered the fray and wrote an article entitled: Christianity Isn’t Dying, Cultural Christianity Is

I’d summarize his main point as: We are not seeing a real decline in actual believers, just nominal or cultural Christians who are no longer claiming an affiliation with church.

I’m just really glad that Ed Stetzer has clarified that the church isn’t really losing true believers, just its influence with nominal Christians who weren’t going to heaven anyway. So we should all breathe a sigh of relief—it’s not as bad as we might have thought.

All snarkiness aside, I agree with Ed Stetzer’s explanation.  The primary issue however, is not whether the “nones” are the “nominal” Christians of a previous generation.  The primary issue is about influence. “None” while more honest, seems to be a step in the wrong direction. It means that the church is losing influence with people in the community and it is losing influence at a greater rate and in a more pronounced way with 20-somethings.  That’s a big deal.   

Henrietta Mears was fond of saying, “The church is one generation away from extinction.”  It isn’t alarmest; it is true.  The situation is no less true because it is urgent.

The braver question is not “who?” but “why?”  Why this group now? And what role did the church play in creating this? What responsibility should we take and what changes do we need to make as a church to reach the next generation?

“The church leaders who are seemingly most concerned about the dropout rate of that demographic [18-25 year olds] are the very ones who create the weekend experiences that this demographic finds entirely uncompelling.  To say it another way, the group responsible for connecting eighteen- to twenty-five-year-olds to local congregations are the catalysts for driving them away.”

from Deep & Wide by Andy Stanley

I happen to believe that Christianity may be becoming less a part of our culture because many churches have fallen in love with a mid-century, cultural church model rather than falling in love with the mission of the church.  I’m speculating here, but my guess is, it is those churches that will be most interested in this explanation that seems to try and reduce the urgency of our mission.

In Church, Evangelism, Values, Vision , , ,
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The Gospel is offensive. Unfortunately, we offend people before we even get to the Gospel.

The Gospel is offensive

Posted on October 24, 2012 In Leadership, Values, Vision ,
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Children’s Pastors’ Conference-San Diego 2012

March 9, 2012

I’ve had several people ask about getting information on the breakout I did at San Diego called Why Children Are the Most Important People in the Church–Everything you wish your senior pastor knew about Children’s Ministry.

So here is the information you are looking for.

Why Children are the Most Important People in the Children

Breakout Audio (MP3–I fixed the audio so that it is a littler clearer than what you may have bought at CPC)

Seasons of the Soul

Thanks for coming to my breakout.

In Children's Ministry, Church, Discipleship, Evangelism, Fammin, Kidmin, Leadership, Vision , , , , , ,
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Children’s Pastors’ Conference 2012–Orlando Breakouts

January 13, 2012

I’m attending the Children’s Pastors’ Conference in Orlando and promised people attending my breakouts that I would put some resources online.  So here you go.

Breakout: I’m Not Creative: Leading people who don’t think they are creative.

I’m Not Creative Presentation Slides  (I use prezi.com.  Click the link to the left.  You have to sign up for a free account to download it.)

Breakout: Why Children are the Most Important People in Your Church

Why Children are the Most Important People in the Church Presentation Slides

Seasons of the Soul Handout

If you are looking for more information about the breakouts email me.  Or come to the Children’s Pastors’ Conference in San Diego.

In Children's Ministry, Church, Kidmin, Leadership, Mission, Spiritual Development, Values, Vision , , , , , , ,
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Why Youth Leave the Church: An Interview with Chuck Bomar

December 19, 2011

Just in the last year there have been several books written on the topic of youth leaving the church.  Among them You Lost Me by David Kinnamen at the Barna Group; Slow Fade by Reggie Joiner, Chuck Bomar and Abbie Smith; Sticky Faith by Kara Powell.  The topic of youth leaving the church is perennial—that is it seems to be a topic that pops up in cycles.  (Check out my post on an article called Why Do Teenagers Drop Out? From Teach Magazine Summer of 1963.)  While it draws a lot of statistical studies the truth is, for those of us in youth ministry it’s personal.  We know the kids who walked away from church and faith.  They are more than numbers they are faces.

This last week I had the opportunity to corner Chuck Bomar and ask him some questions about why youth drop out and what the church can do about it.

How do you create belonging in your church?

In Church, Discipleship, Evangelism, Orange, Spiritual Development, Stumin, Sunday School, Values, Vision, Youth , , , , , ,
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What’s happening to the child in your Children’s Ministry?

October 26, 2011

Measured on the dial, an hour a week to prepare a life for eternity is too brief a time to allow one wasted moment or one careless touch upon a soul.  Henrietta Mears

Let’s face it, the amount of time we have with a kid is not growing.  Once you take away vacation and sick days we probably only have 40 hours a year with our most faithful kids.  And, when I look at all of the non-purposeful unstructured time in many Sunday kidmin programs, we could have much less than that.  One estimate puts actual teaching time at only 17 minutes on an average Sunday.  That would be less than 12 hours per year.   The mission of leading kids to Jesus and the limited amount of time we have to do so each week, demands that we become intentional about every minute we have with our kids.

When “Sunday’s coming” it is easy to get into thinking “How am I going to fill the time?” versus “How am I going to leverage the limited time I have?”  If leveraging the limited time you have with kids each week is important, I think the best thing we can do to make every minute count is to clarify what a win looks like at every level.  A win is what are we aiming for in everything that we do.

Clarify the Win

In baseball, there may be all kinds of “wins” like strike outs, catching fly balls, tagging a runner out etc. .  . but the difference between a winning team and a losing team boils down to one thing: how many runners cross home plate.  The ultimate goal is to get as many people to cross home plate as possible. That’s it.

Define the “win” of your kidmin:  If you only accomplished one thing what would it be? 

Just like baseball, kidmin has wins. If you only accomplished one thing what would it be? You can define the win for kidmin itself, every program, every part of that program, every event, every volunteer role, every department.  A good place to start is defining the win for all of kidman.

A “win” is not a mission statement.

A “win” is more than a mission statement.  Mission statements tend to be broad and all encompassing: “We exist to magnify God by loving others the way Christ loved us to develop every person’s gifts to fulfill the great commission to reach the lost in Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth . . .”  That may be a great mission statement.  It says a lot of things.  A “win” is an irreducible minimum.  If we could only do one thing what would it be?

Here’s a great kidmin win: when a kid takes the next step in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.  That’s a win.

What it might look like: It could be the first time an unchurched kid comes to your church.  That’s a win. When a kid expresses an interest in following Christ.  That’s a win.  When a kid is open and transparent for the first time in a small group and a small group leader is able to speak God’s truth into that child’s life in a deeply personal and life transforming way.  That’s a win.  All of those are steps in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

Defining the win at this level will help you prioritize your ministry.  If you can’t clearly define how something you are doing, whether it’s a program, an event, or a part of a program helps a child take the next step in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, it might just be something that you should stop doing.  Here’s where you can begin making a list of things not to do.

A great resource for more on this topic is 7 Practices of Effective Ministry

In my next post, I will talk about what wins might look like for a Sunday Morning program.

What’s your ministry win?

In Children's Ministry, Church, Discipleship, Family, Famin, Fammin, Jesus, Kidmin, Leadership, North Point Ministries, Sunday School, Values, Vision , , , ,
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Religion and the Bad News Bearers: Significant Decline in Church Attendance

October 7, 2011

I know this Wall Street Jounal Article is a little old, but I still think it is worth commenting on.

This is lame—and this is the lamest part of all:

“Surveys always find that younger people are less likely to attend church, yet this has never resulted in the decline of the churches. It merely reflects the fact that, having left home, many single young adults choose to sleep in on Sunday mornings. . . . Once they marry, though, and especially once they have children, their attendance rates recover. Unfortunately, because the press tends not to publicize this correction, many church leaders continue unnecessarily fretting about regaining the lost young people.”

It is this sort of thinking that is exactly what is fundamentally wrong with how some people view the potential of 20 somethings. The thing is: 20 somethings who left do seem to come back after marriage and kids. But they largely come back having lost their first love and lacking the revolutionary spirit they had in their youth. They come back as church attenders, not as leaders or kingdom pioneers.

This sort of mentality robs the church of leaders. Leadership statistics show that most of our church leaders made a lifetime commitment to ministry in their early 20’s if not before.

There seems to be a strong corollary between healthy growing world changing churches and their engagement of 20 somethings. To name a few churches: Reality, Hollywood Pres (in the 40’50′s), North Point Community Church, Passion City, Mars Hill in Seattle, Elevation Church. All these churches have successfully engaged 20 somethings and deployed them in service.

We must secure a life time commitment to Christian service in High School and then train for that service in college (18-25).  We lose our youth because we are not engaging them in significant service tied to a compelling mission.

I think it is clearly short sighted not to leverage the passion of 18-25 year-olds. Jesus seemed to think so. The disciples were probably 18-25. Some will say as young as 13.

I don’t know how to say this more strongly—but this sort of stuff really makes my toes curl.  What do you think?

In Church, North Point Ministries, Spiritual Development, Values, Vision , , , ,
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Children’s Ministry Manifesto Pt. 3

October 2, 2011

When I’m fighting for more money for the Children’s Ministry budget, more space in the building, more volunteers, and more time for announcements during the service it really is because I believe that the child is the most important person in the church.   

How many adult problems would be solved if every preschooler who entered our churches left knowing they have a Heavenly Father who loves them?  Or what if every elementary child left knowing they can place their trust in Jesus for every area of their lives?  Or what if every High School student left knowing their place in God’s story and having made a lifetime commitment to serving Christ.  What if every college ministry developed that calling to life service?  What if everything we did for children focused on winning them to Christ . . .

The child is the most important person in the church because when you save a child you save a life.

In Children's Ministry, Church, Discipleship, Evangelism, Jesus, Kidmin, Mission, Values, Vision , , , ,
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Children’s Ministry Manifesto Pt. 1

September 29, 2011

While I wish my job were easier, that volunteers would be beating down my doors to be a part of Children’s Ministry, that curriculum would be less expensive and require less preparation or that Mary would just show up on time—at the end of the day I don’t really care about the cost, or if it’s easy on me or easy on our volunteers.  What I care about is whether or not our ministries, our programs and our materials effectively lead kids in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

I like the fun games, great crafts, hoppin’ music, and compelling videos.  But I like all of those things, not because they are fun, or great, or hoppin’, or compelling, I like them because I know that I must engage the heart of a child so I can help them take their first step in connecting with their Heavenly Father.

I like great materials.  But what I wish every curriculum publisher would know is that a curriculum is not as important as who is investing in my kids each Sunday. I’m not interested in easy, no prep, or no fun.  Most of all I want small group leaders and Sunday school teachers that will be there every week, developing relationships with kids and families and then layering God’s truth into their lives in a relevant way each Sunday.  I want to see lives changed and families transformed.

There is one thing that I know I have in common with every Children’s Ministry Leader, Pastor, Family Pastor, Sunday School teacher, Youth Pastor and children’s worker–that I am in ministry because I believe that there is nothing more important than a person’s relationship with Jesus Christ.

In Children's Ministry, Church, Discipleship, Evangelism, Kidmin, Spiritual Development, Values, Vision , , ,
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