I have enjoyed all the years (20+ full-time years) that God has allowed me to be a children’s pastor. In that time I have read numerous books, seeing that I read an average of 2-3 books a week, attended many conferences, attended more seminars than I could recount and the list goes on of ways I have taken in information of how to have a successful ministry.

I wonder sometimes if we make having a successful ministry more difficult and illusive than it really is. While nothing worth doing well is ever easy, certain commonalities seem to exist that successful ministries share with one another.

So, without having to pay the price of travel, hotel, conference fee, restaurant prices and all, allow me to offer up some of the common thread observations that what many call “successful ministries” tend to do.

* Have a clear vision. Vision is defined in many ways but in this case I am referring to the ideal end picture

* Set clear goals. This is the yearly, monthly, weekly, daily steps that need to be S.M.A.R.T.’ed out (Specific/ Measurable/ Attainable/ Realistic/ Time Bound) to keep momentum moving forward to carry out the vision.

* Get the right people on the bus and in the right seats, as Good to Great Jim Collins explains.

* Communicate clearly what people are responsible for and hold people accountable.

* Stay disciplined in working the plan.

* Enjoy and stay grateful on the journey. Never lose your joy and gratefulness toward God, so stay plugged in through prayer, and reading His word. Show your gratefulness to those who go on the journey with you.

I do understand it’s much more complicated than this in practice, but these are the things I see in common with the most successful ministries. Focus on these, and you’ll be doing as well as the best of the best!

Which of these disciplines does your children’s ministry most need to improve?

What other disciplines would you consider necessary for success?

I know there always feels like in ministry that there is so much to do and to get done. How do you tackle the things you need to do? Get rid of the things you should not be doing? Keep your teams focused and going all in the same direction?

There is a way to use the word PLAN which could be used as a tool to help keep you moving along with your mission. One place that has recorded using this PLAN is over on: Fuller Youth Institute.

Originally published as “Evaluation Part 2: Planning the Work and Working the P.L.A.N.” by Mark Maines for FYI in April 2006.

Priorities
Lasting Results
Action Strategies
Next Steps

By tackling these questions in succession, many have found that their ministries can stay more focused on the mission, more informed about what to do next, and more accountable to see those plans through. Here’s basically what it looks like:

Priorities:

What we want to carry out.
What are the most important things we need to do in our key ministry areas to move our mission forward?
What are the things we need to do and complete in the coming year? Coming months? Coming weeks? Coming days?
Lasting Results: Setting the targets for performance

Lasting Results:

What will be the results that will help us know we have accomplished our priorities?
How will we set these targets so that they become an exercise in faith as well as effective leadership?
Action strategies: Setting the stage for execution

Action Strategies:

How will we go about accomplishing what we want to see happen?
What are the right strategies, or best practices, that we might use?

Next Steps:

Making our “to do” lists
Who will do the work?
When will it be accomplished?

Have you made your P.L.A.N. for ministry success?
What tools do you use to keep you moving forward with your mission?

I have always enjoyed reading motivational tidbits over a variety of topics in life. I think for me it gives me that little extra boost as I prepare to craft my Sunday children’s message, travel and speak somewhere, or really the more I think about it, just about anything I do it helps motivate me.

Here are some that I read this morning, hope they assist you as well.

These come from William Arthur Ward, one of America’s most quoted writers of inspirational maxims:

* Do more than belong: participate.
* Do more than care: help.
* Do more than believe: practice.
* Do more than be fair: be kind.
* Do more than forgive: forget.
* Do more than dream: work.

I ran across this video and with so many things in it I thought – yes, I love it! This type of technology for me is extremely appealing. Then my mind goes to how could we capitalize on this type of technology in children’s ministry?

What if as families pulled into the church parking lot on the windows of the church it had a movie of what experience your kids will be going through for the day.

What if on the way to service our phones would alert us of missionaries birthdays, and the kids could Skype them briefly and hear updates of how they are impacting the Kingdom of God and if the child wanted to they could record the conversation and send it to the children’s pastor to potentially be shared at some point during small groups.

What if kids could scan their phone to pay their tithes which throughout the week parents were electronically adding their allowance to or money that the kids were working for throughout the week.

The list really goes on and on of the possibilities. What would you like to see happen with this type of technology?

Do you like or dislike this type of technology? Why?

Staying plugged into kid culture takes some very deliberate strategies the older one gets.

Knowing this, it does take some deliberate decisions to stay plugged in which is why I want to lay out some of those deliberate decisions that I take.

1. Hang out with kids
This may seem very obvious but how many of us actually do it? The best way to find out what kids like is to hang out with them at programs, events, games, and recitals. Ministry doesn’t just happen in an office. It happens where people are.

2. Ask them what they’re into
Just by hanging out with kids you’ll learn a lot if you just take time to ask questions. Ask kids what their favorite shows and movies are, what they like to read, and where they wish they could vacation at and why? Be creative with kids as you ask them questions, but don’t make it feel like a questioning at your local police station. Write down your findings, I like Evernote because it syncs with between all of my devices. Sometimes I just have my phone with me while gathering information, sometimes it is my iPad mini. With Evernote, it doesn’t matter I have it covered with all my info gathering synced between all devices.

3.Surf the web
Just by doing a Google search typing in: “Most popular sites for kids” it pulls up some great finds like this website regardless of when you want the info so you can always pull up the most recent updated info.

Here are just a few preferences from the kids in my ministry:
* Nick
* PBS Kids
* Cartoon Network

Here are a few preferences from the adult leaders in my ministry to help them stay sharp with their skills and building a network of support:
* Kidology
* CMConnect
* KidzMatter

There are just a couple of ways that work for me to stay connected with kids regardless of my age.

What would you add to this list?

I love what I get to do every day as a children’s pastor. I often even feel that I need to pinch myself because of the great honor of what I get to do. With this privilege and honor comes great responsibility as well. Because of this great responsibility I need to always check my productivity and not my busyness.

Here are some potential time wasters that will slow me down from being as productive as i can be in the children’s ministry that I get the privilege of being over. Let’s see if you may see some that you struggle with if not kept in check.

1. Email. I will start with this as it can be a never-ending battle. The bings, and bells, and dings and notifications that can come from the emails coming in that will always distract you from what you should be doing.

To help with this, turn all your notifications off and check your emails at predetermined times. I check mine at 9 and 3. It took me some getting use to realize that I really am not as important as I may have thought and my emails can wait until 9 and 3.

2. Internet searching. Here is an area that I can end up losing track of time as I link surf (clicking from one link to another, to another etc). No one ever link surfs to waste time we all do it for the purpose of research or productivity but let’s be honest, more often than not it ends up being a waste of time.

To help with this, set a timer on your phone, use an egg timer, an alarm clock etc for a pre-determined time and once it goes off, you have to stop. I schedule in my week 1 hour of link surfing. During this time it is always relaxing but at the end I always feel good because I stuck to my one hour and have no regrets.

3. Scheduling meetings. I can spend just as much time trying to arrange a meeting with a group of people as I sound in the meeting. This can end up being very discouraging.

To help with this, I first ask myself is this meeting even necessary? Then if determined that the meeting is necessary I go onto asking myself do I really need to meet with all of these people? Lastly, if the meeting is necessary and I have come up with a list of people I must have in the meeting I ask is there another way to keep everyone updated without everyone being physically present? This can be done by using tools like Skype, LiveMinutes, Google Hangouts etc.

There you go, just 3 potential time wasters but these 3 will rack up the time being wasted and keep me from being as productive as I could be in my children’s ministry.

What are your time wasters?

Do you struggle with these as well? If so how do you overcome them?

I am sure at the time of this writing many of you are going through what i am going through, the budget process. Even if you are not going through it at the time of reading this I would recommend sending this to your Evernote web clipper account for future use.

Here is one way of budgeting but it has brought my team and I great success for the next year of ministry.

We create what we call a success map. This is a document of 5-7 BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) that will need all the children’s ministries to tackle in the new year for success to be had. I am the one who puts those 5-7 goals out there but they mostly show the big goals my pastor has for our church. The main difference is that I will convert what I get from him into language that my teams can take on.

Example:
A. My pastor wants to create new ways to reach into our community.
B. I will translate into – Each cm department will create at least 1 new way to reach new families in our community that will equal a 5% gain of your current attendance.

After I have heard my pastor’s heart, set the children’s ministries 5-7 BHAG’s, given this to all my coordinators they go away and answer how each of their departments will help in accomplishing the BHAG’s. They will also add in some of their own ministry goals for their teams as well, and break these goals into quarters through the year. Some BHAG’s can not be accomplished in just one attempt and so many of them will continually be chipped at throughout the year, but at the end it can be said if they accomplished it or not.

The purpose of breaking everything into quarters is so all the coordinators can keep one another accountable for progress through the year.

Budgeting comes easy now that we know what we want to do, because we just go back in and assign dollar amounts to the quarterly goals. Using the example from above:
BHAG Goal:

1. Each cm department will create at least 1 new way to reach new families in our community that will equal a 5% gain of your current attendance.

January-March
Event/Place: Safe Place event. (Parents can drop their kids off for babysitting with our trained volunteers for free so they can go on a date, work late, catch up on whatever etc. from 4pm-7pm 1st Saturday each month).

Cost: Pizza to feed kids. 200 kids x $2.00 each child = $400.00 x 3 1st Saturdays = $1200.00

Hopefully you get the idea. You would keep pricing out all your goals and assign dollar amounts and at the end you will know what you want to do, the amount you will need etc. This is not the format we use with our success maps, that you will need to decide what is best for you. This is the formula we use though for successful budgeting in our children’s ministry. It also helps to see ahead of time what months are going to be more expensive than others if we need to make any adjustments.

I have seen when a company, a sports team, even a children’s ministry puts into effect some common elements that there is some natural momentum that is created which enables uncommon things to be accomplished.

Here are some of those elements that I have observed that help create this momentum.

1. Prayer and fasting. I know, duh. This remains in my observation the biggest, single most missed out ingredient. If this was to be implemented and nothing else that follows, incredible things would still take place and again without this single step, no incredible thing will last.

2. Visionary leadership. To many children’s pastors lead from someone else’s vision. They attend a conference and hear a vision or two and come back and try to live that vision out for their ministry. I again think this is the result of not doing the previous element of Prayer and Fasting.

3. Connection to the larger picture. It is great when that moment happens and you have done all the leg work and knee work (prayer), where you know where you are to this ministry you are in-trusted with. You begin to share that (visionary leadership) and people get excited and jump on board. Over time, their excitement dwindles. It dwindles partly because you are not doing a good job of connecting them to the big picture. Always find ways to share what they are doing is BIG and helps because….connection to the big picture. Share victories with your team as well.

4. Right timing. This is one I probably struggle with the most. Sometimes I will introduce an item and it falls flat so I throw it away instead of file it for later. Sometimes the ideas are just a little ahead of their time.

5. The Leader has…
* Humility. No lone rangers! If something fails the leader takes the blame. If something succeed the leader gives the team the credit.
* A holy unrest about the current atmosphere. Changes never happen until the discomfort of the current causes a desire and awareness to change.
* Confession of sin. The heart must be right.
* A calling. In the hard times the only thing that allows the leader to keep on going is an assurance of their calling.

These were only 5 elements that in my opinion will be in place for true momentum to take place.

How are you doing with these five?

Which one or ones do you struggle with the most and why?

What other elements would you add that contribute to momentum being built?

I get the privilege all day long to talk with people about ideas on how to keep God’s word and His ways in our families daily. Because this is a constant topic with parents, I know that all parents want to be successful in raising their kids and know that having God in their families is imperative to that success. For many parents, they just don’t know how or where to start.

Here are just a few suggestions:
1. Relate God’s word to everyday life and activities.
- Use your car time to discuss God’s word or His character. Why not just share what you are reading in your daily time with God. It will show your kids that you are not only telling them to do something but that you too are doing it.
- Take walks and discuss the wonder of His creation. Point out nature, animals etc and talk about what an incredible creator we have.
- Let your children see how you handle crisis that may arise. It is better to be strategic about this because they will see even if you don’t want them to.
- Discuss their day at the end of the day and share with them how they acted in Christ like ways.

2. Plan structured times of Bible teaching for the family.
- Choose a time that works for everyone, but make sure that you put it on the calendar and treat it like an appointment.
-Keep the Bible age appropriate.
- Encourage kids to take part. This time should not always be mom or dad preaching to their kids for 20 minutes. Remember, kids learn best by doing. Bring out some old clothes, props etc and challenge each member of the family to direct a home movie of a Bible story using only the props and clothes collected as a group. (These also make for some great bribery moments in the future).

3. Vary what you do during your family devotional time.
- Collect missionary cards (you know those cards that they give out that look like business cards and they want you to put them on your refrigerator and think bout them etc.). Put these cards in a basket and at the end of the day have your child pull out a card and pray for the person who is on the card you pulled out, pray for the place they are a missionary to.
- Vary the amount of time you have family devotion. Sometimes family devotions can stretch out too long because of your personal soap box. You may have put on your calendar an hour but one night it goes only 30 minutes, then end it. Think of how you feel when a meeting at work gets out a little early at times.
- When you go and pick up your child from kids church, stop asking if they had “fun” and start digging into what they “learned”. Use these lessons to continue to teach them throughout the week.
Talk with them about the days lesson they learned as you drive in the car, which then will bring you back around to my first suggestion above.

Repeat again.

What ideas do you have?
What have you found the best way to keep God’s business in your family business?

The way we can develop and empower the top 10% of our teams is not necessary the same as you do for the rest of your children’s ministry team. Let me explain, these people are cut from a different cloth than the rest of your people. I’m not going into all the factors that make them top performers (that can be another post for another day). I just want to focus on how we can tap into all of their potential.

Here are some of the ways I use to develop my top 10% of cm leaders:

1. Delegate to them: Once you’ve identified that they are a rising above the status quo, delegate some task that have more weight/importance than the everyday task. Keep in mind that you still maintain responsibility for it, but you are giving them the reins to let them run with it. Giving them empowerment.

2. Give them trust: Give them a lot of trust, let them see that you believe in them, don’t micromanage the project for them or continually look over their shoulder. Let them know that you are there if they need you, otherwise stay out of the way and see what they can produce.

3. Point them out: Let everyone else see and know that their drive and attitude is what you are looking for. Let them be a role model and/or mentor some of the other team members. I’m not saying play favorites with them; I’m saying acknowledge their abilities to step-up and go above their ministry description.

4. Raise the bar: Overachievers are competitive by nature, so give them a higher goal to shoot for. Challenging them will get them to push harder and in the process it will let them and you see where their weaknesses are, so you can mentor to them.