from 30K feet

Jump In - Recruiting

One of the things we are looking to be better at next year is recruiting volunteers all year long. One way we plan to be more intentional in this area is through what we call "Jump In."

Jump In is a way to allow people who want to serve in Fellowship Kids to test drive a spot before they make a complete commitment. We hope this will allow two things to happen.

1. We will see an increase in volunteers since people can try it out with little pressure to commitment. This fights that old fear of getting sucked into a position you can never leave.

2. This will help us get the right people in the right spot. We have seen people in the past that begin serving in a role that  we realize later they are not suited for. It doesn't match their gifts and passions but they are too far into it to change. So they endure to the end of the year but can't wait to get out. Obviously, it is hard to re-recruit someone like this since their experience wasn't positive enough.

Here is the twist on how we need to see Jump In.

Past: Jump In is a way for you to try out serving in Fellowship Kids to see if it is right for you with no obligation to continue.

Future: Jump In is a way for you to try out serving in Fellowship Kids to see if you are right for it with no obligation for us to keep you.

We need to believe that in Fellowship kids we won't take just anyone. Good people are not enough, we only want great people!

 

Asking the Right Questions - Part 2

The Sr. Leadership Team (those at the director level) for Fellowship Kids have begun the process of assessing the current year.  We are giving ourselves a "grade" in each area and ultimately looking at where we can make changes to better reach our goals.  We have also begun to look at what direction God is pointing us toward for next year.  This kind of assessment and forward thinking requires us to ask the right questions.

In the previous post I talked about the idea of focusing on the right questions, which are often the tough ones.  Asking the wrong questions can get a team off track quickly or create times of unproductiveness.  So what are the right questions for children's ministry?

Here are the questions we are asking:

Have we created a clear process of spiritual growth for kids that parents can engage in?

How is what we are doing helping parents do what they need to do?

Are we recruiting the right people for the right roles?

Have we given our volunteers what they need to be successful?

In Fellowship Kids we have just begun to scratch the surface with the right questions. What questions  are you asking in your ministry?

Asking the Right Questions

The Discipline of Decision Making is one of the characteristics that Reggie McNeal talks about in his book Practicing Greatness.

Good decision makers make sure they are working on answering the right question.  They know that answering the wrong question, even precisely, doesn't accomplish anything; in fact, it keeps leaders and organizations tied up in counterproductive pursuits, with potentially disastrous results.

The right question is often the tough question.

Examples:

Wrong question: How do we develop church members?

Tough question: How do we develop followers of Jesus?

 

Wrong question: How do we grow this church? 

Tough question: How do we serve this community?

 

In Children's Ministry, what are the right questions we should be asking? What are the wrong questions?

 

Talent and Life Mission

Reggie McNeal says "Unfortunately, many spiritual leaders do not make the connection between their talent and their life mission."

Much like Andy Stanley, McNeal encourages us to focus on our strengths and talents instead of trying to improve what we are not good at. But then he connects that idea to a leader's life mission.  In other words, as leaders our talents should be matched up to that which we have been called.

So it begs two questions:

1. Do you know what your talent is?  What is it that you are naturally gifted at?

2. Do you know your life mission?  Can you articulate it?

If not, some significant time in prayer and self-evaluation may be in order.