Leading your ministry culture through a pandemic there are some good practices. Following these leadership practices will ensure you can reduce stress, engage your teams, and still maintain productivity as we venture through this uncharted territory.
1. Focus on communication
Your team needs you to be the voice of calm and reason. They rely on you to take action and set the tone, so use every opportunity to reinforce your organization’s mission and values, explaining carefully how they relate to the current state of affairs. If you are calm, confident, and have a plan, it will reassure them that everything will be OK.
Suggestion: Communicate regularly with your team, preferably daily check-ins on video with an app like Marco Polo, where you can see them. Leading your ministry culture through a pandemic I recommend checking in with various levels of team members differently. Follow the structure of Jesus. He had His 1, His 3, 12, core, multitude (anyone that the Children’s Ministry touches), masses (this would be the whole church). Develop these levels and daily check-in with your 1. Weekly your 3, monthly your 12, Bi-monthly your core, quarterly your multitude, and every six months with you masses.
2. Foster virtual team interactions
In this time of isolation, virtual communities are essential. Without the regular face time in the hallways, meetings before and after services your team members need to maintain frequent interactions and foster personal connections among one another still. You can do this through team messaging and collaboration apps, virtual meetings using conferencing tools, or setting up social media closed groups.
Suggestion: Find new ways to interact for both ministry meetings and also social interactions, such as virtual coffee breaks, book clubs, or even resource and idea-sharing groups. I enjoy using Trello to keep all of our projects and ideas. Sharing ideas and collaborating with one another keeps us close and our culture always growing upward.
3. Develop clear policies
Remote work looks different for each employee, and volunteer, depending on their needs and those of their families. With daycare and school closures, many of your team members are multitasking throughout their workday. Empower teams by providing flexibility to balance their conflicting time demands. Keep a close eye on everything you are wanting from them. Remember, you care more for them as a person than the position they serve in.
Suggestion: Determine with your team what you all want to be “core ministry hours” when team members should all try and be available to collaborate, and outside of that time block allow flexibility and an open schedule where your wants will decrease to allow everyone to have family time and more. I find it best to manage for outcomes and not the process while in seclusion.
For more on policies, you may also want to read: Resist turning a temporary into a permanent situation,
While leading your ministry culture through a pandemic, what have you found to work well?
Trello 
Rescue Time