The average airplane can have over 40 gauges. But only a few of those gauges are critically important at any given time. And maybe the most important is the one right in the center. Like the speedometer on a car, the attitude indicator may be one of the more important flight instruments on a plane because it shows the aircraft’s “attitude” to the horizon. In other words, it will tell you whether you are flying upside down or not. Kind of important.
Kidmin, like the cockpit of a plane, has lots of dials and gauges—lots of things that demand our attention like scheduling, team training and curriculum to how many popsicle sticks we need for VBS. It can be overwhelming. But what if some things are more important than others? What if there are some systems that require our attention more than others? What would be the attitude indicator for kidmin?
Apart from the basics like Jesus and the Bible—we know we need to point kids to Jesus and we do that through the Bible—, what would be the top five gauges we should give our attention to? What systems are really critical to the effectiveness of kidmin?
Here is a great top five from The Orange Leader Handbook also known as the Orange Essentials:
System #1: How we integrate leaders.
We can’t expect people to follow us if we are not on the same page going in the same direction. This is especially true when working with children and students. We are laying the foundation of a person’s life so we must all be working with the same end in mind. Having the same strategy to get there is a good place to start.
System #2: How we communicate truth.
How we say what we say is as important as what we say. Maybe we should communicate as if what we have to say is the most important thing that can be said. Since it is.
System #3: How we connect people.
Spiritual growth happens best in the context of close personal relationships.
System #4: How our church partners with families.
Parents have the greatest potential to influence the life of the child. Lasting impact begins with a system to effectively partner with parents to help them leverage their influence during the week.
System #5: How we mobilize every generation to be the church.
We have a lot of people doing church, but not a lot of people being the church. If kids are not being the church while they with us, how can we expect them to be the church when they are not with us?
You are in the cockpit of your ministry at your church. The gauges you give your attention to will determine the effectiveness of your ministry.
What do you think are the top five gauges we should be looking at?
