training
December 3, 2014
Part of the process for joining our Kids Ministry team is a personal sit-down interview with me, the Kids Pastor. I want to personally know every person who serves on our team - whether that is in an up-front or behind-the-scenes capacity. During this interview, I always stress three important principles that I hope will guide their decisions while serving in ministry: 1) Always Strive For Excellence We try to live Colossians 3:23 on a daily basis: "Whatever work you do, do it with all your heart. Do it for the Lord and not for men.” In every part of […]
November 3, 2014
I was looking through some old photos this weekend and came across the picture above. It's a shot from thirteen years ago that features our 2001 C.I.A. team. C.I.A. stands for "Christians In Action." C.I.A. is our Summer Discipleship/Leadership Program for 4th & 5th graders. As I looked at it, I realized that two of the eight members of that team are on our Pastoral Staff here at First NLR. C.I.A. has been one of the most effective programs I have ever started in my 23 years of Kids Ministry! We just celebrated our 15th graduating class. The graduates of CIA […]
September 2, 2014
Do you struggle getting volunteers for your ministry? If you do, you are NOT alone! Survey after survey tells us that recruiting and keeping volunteers is one of the biggest struggles for EVERY Kids Ministry Leader. Well, I have an incredible opportunity for you that will help change that statistic. My friend, Ryan Frank, was a Children’s Pastor for 15 years and is currently the CEO/Publisher at KidzMatter. He has created a FREE 4-part video series on how to recruit and keep amazing volunteers. The video series is called “Volunteer Breakthrough." In this video series, Ryan unpacks 10 Laws he […]
November 12, 2013
On November 2, 2013, I completed my first marathon - at the ripe old age of 40. I definitely would not encourage anyone to wait until they are 40 to run their first, but I wouldn't take anything away from my experience. It was an experience that changed my life - both the race and the training I went through to get there. I learned a lot of lessons through this marathon. Over the next several blog posts, I would like to share with you some of those lessons. I don't expect most of you to ever actually run a […]
June 24, 2013
There are so many posts and books about "How To Be A Better Leader." I've written a few and have read even more. So, I thought I would take a different route and give you a couple of tips on how to be a bad leader - in fact, the WORST leader you can be! 1) Be Unpredictable If you want to be a bad leader, make it hard for your team to know what you want, what you think, or what mood you will be in. Volunteers hate it when they have to guess what you feel is the […]
August 9, 2012
For too long, the church has been silent on the issue of SEX. Children (and adults alike) hear little to nothing on the subject of healthy sexuality from the church. Part of the reason it is not spoken about from the pulpit is that it makes us uncomfortable. It makes us uncomfortable because it rarely brought up in the pulpit. It's a self-perpetuating cycle, so we consider it off limits. Many parents are so paranoid about their kids becoming sexually active, they foolishly think that by not approaching the subject of sex for as long as possible, they will somehow […]