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Andy Dukes joins the podcast to discuss ways we can leverage digital resources to better our kids ministry.
Check out ministrygrid.com
Top 5 Reasons Every Kids Ministry Leader Should Use Ministry Grid
Ministry Grid is a great resource for the church. You can train your leaders with a customized experience while saving time and resources. I don’t know any kids ministry leader that doesn’t need more time and resources. Consider these reasons:
5) You can choose from thousands of videos and customize the experience for multiple teams.
4) Your leaders can train at their own pace and in their own place!
3) The sessions are led by experienced people from varying backgrounds and churches.
2) Training on Lifeway curriculum is offered absolutely FREE! You can eliminate much of the “how-to” teaching meetings with the online format provided by the folks who actually create the curriculum.
1) It allows us to fulfill our role as leaders in “equipping the saints.”
Visit the Ministry Grid home page and click the “learn more” button on the bottom of the page and try it out. You can register for free!
Jeffrey Reed serves as the Director of Kids Ministry for Lifeway. He came to Lifeway with a wide variety of ministry experiences including worship leader, director of children’s ministry, and executive leadership in several growing congregations. Jeffrey’s posts will give your heart and brain a workout, just like the fitness Boot Camp he leads in the mornings for Lifeway employees. Jeffrey and his wife Katherine have four kids.
Train Your Leaders … Easily
The church was growing. God had just called me into children’s ministry. We actually had dozens of volunteers coming forward to serve in the children’s area. (That’s another blog, altogether.) I scheduled my regular quarterly training session to prep these awesome volunteers to work with our kids. Out of the 20 or so volunteers that had signed up, only nine came to the training. I was discouraged, but rescheduled the absentees for another night. Six showed up. Two coffee shop visits, one breakfast appointment and one last-minute-after-church meeting later and I had finally trained all of the volunteers…at least in the basics. That was only round one.
We still had not delved into the specifics of what it means to be a great kids small group leader. By the end of the year, I had spent over 30 hours at 12 different meetings training 20 volunteers. I had a dozen new folks sign up before I was even done with the first group. Would it ever end?
The importance of the time that a kids director or pastor spends with their leaders and volunteers is critical. It’s a challenge to keep up with the process of training your leaders. I would have given almost anything to have a tool that would take a bulk of that leader-training load off of my shoulders. Now a solution is coming to address the important issue of ongoing training.
I don’t usually tout specific ministry tools, but I feel that this one is a no-brainer. Ministry Grid – launching on Tuesday, November 12 – is an online tool to help you with your training needs. It’s one of the coolest things to come along the leadership pike in years. You can take the load off of your shoulders and let Ministry Grid train your leaders for you. You’ll be able to track each person’s progress and ensure that they are getting the best training possible.
It’s not designed to replace discipleship. That one-on-one time with the people that you lead is essential. Ministry Grid can be a great tool for passing on information and training that your volunteers, servants, and leaders can take in at their own pace and at their own place.
You can customize it for your own ministry. You’ve got to check out this online resource.
Lead well.
Jeffrey Reed serves as the Director of Kids Ministry for Lifeway. He came to Lifeway with a wide variety of ministry experiences including worship leader, director of children’s ministry, and executive leadership in several growing congregations. Jeffrey’s posts will give your heart and brain a workout, just like the fitness Boot Camp he leads in the mornings for Lifeway employees. Jeffrey and his wife Katherine have 4 kids.
3 Must-Have Qualities for Leaders
F.A.T. It’s an easy acronym to remember, and it usually brings a negative connotation. But today, I want you to start searching for F.A.T. kids ministry volunteers.
Faithful. Obviously, you need workers who are faithful to The Lord. On top of this, you need to see commitment in other areas of their lives. Can you trust that they will take time to prepare the lesson? You need faithful stewards leading the kids of your community.
Available. From crazy work schedules to family matters to television season premiers we just can’t miss (Fall season openers, y’all), we find ways to tie up every minute of the 1,440 we get per day. Your ministry leaders must be available physically and mentally. Find volunteers who are available to block out times in their schedules to serve wholeheartedly.
Teachable. In each year of leading, I’ve learned 20 times more than I’ve taught. These lessons come from the pastors over me, the co-leaders, and the kids or students I’m teaching. If your leaders aren’t teachable, chances are there’s a pride issue. Humility is a part of the teachable factor you’re seeking.
Besides keeping an eye out for these qualities in others, it’s important to do a self-assessment. Would your friends say you’re faithful or flaky? Are you available when brothers and sisters in Christ need you? What have you learned from your surroundings today?
Here’s to hoping you find F.A.T. people within your church! Once you find them, consider making training easier with Ministry Grid.
What other qualities do you seek in your ministry leaders? Comment below!
A Tool for Easy Leader Training
Your people are good at what they do. Of course they are—God made them that way. But do they know they are? Often times, the only difference between filling a spot and serving with passion is the empowering knowledge that comes from training. But many times the training they need is not available at the time and place they need it.
Ministry Grid is a web-based training platform that makes developing leaders simpler and more effective than ever before, removing the obstacles most churches face in training leaders and providing the right training at the right time, no matter the ministry role that needs it. Ministry Grid features:
- More than 1,000 video courses from parking lot ministry to the pulpit
- A convenient web- and mobile-based platform for training anytime, anywhere
- Intuitive Learning Management System to easily assign training, monitor progress, and assess giftedness for all your people
- Customizable content, including the ability to upload your own and turn off unwanted content
- Affordable subscription rates priced according to your ministry size
You’ll find great leader training resources, like 8 Approaches to How Kids Learn:
If you’re interested in learning more about Ministry Grid, check out ministrygrid.com. You can even sign up to view exclusive pre-release content.
Leave a comment below about how your church does training and I’ll select five people to receive a 30-day gift card to Ministry Grid.
Great Children’s Ministry Training Content. Online. For YOUR church.
“If you give children your attention, they’ll be drawn to you,” says Clayton King, Founder of Crossroads Worldwide. Ministry Grid captured King’s leadership training session at Lifeway’s 2012 Kids Ministry Conference.
King encourages that just as children approached Jesus in Mark 10:13-16, the same is true for leaders and volunteers in your church’s children’s ministry. Children naturally gravitate toward those people who are investing in their lives.
“You are being like Jesus to those children,” King states. “Because to a lot of the children you are serving and ministering to, you’re the only Jesus they’re ever going to see.”
King explored lessons about children from Mark 10 at this leadership training event. He encourages that the children’s reactions to Jesus in this passage reveals three specific things about their character to keep in mind in your children’s ministry.
First, children are into people not power. They instinctively understand that life is about people, not attaining power in this world. This truth further reveals how we should all live as Christ-followers: recognizing that the kingdom of God is all about people.
Second, children are about innocence and not influence. King emphasizes that children are naturally honest, often telling the truth with brutal honesty that many adults would shy away from or tiptoe around.
Lastly, children are empty and not yet established. King describes children as canvasses that have yet to be painted. By serving in children’s ministry, we’re helping fill their minds and hearts. King encourages filling them with such things as the Gospel, mercy, compassion, and patience.
As King summarizes, “They’re going to be filled with something. Let’s fill them with the Word of God.”
Preview this video and other free leadership training sessions at ministrygrid.com.
Ministry Grid is a subscription-based, online leadership development platform for pastors, staff, and volunteers that is unmatched in scope of content, customization, and simplicity. You’ll find more than 1,000 video sessions on topics, ranging from parking ministry to polity, with more added continually. You can even upload your own content, turn off unwanted content, and put your church’s own logo and skin on the site. An intuitive Learning Management System makes assigning courses and tracking your people’s progress a snap. It’s training made simple. Coming Summer 2013.
