I have a lot of things I love about ministry. I love being a communicator. I love to write and speak, giving people tools to do what God has created them to do in new ways. I love to design new concepts, policies, and procedures. I truly believe policies protect people and thus are a […]

The second step in our volunteer orientation is the coffee one-on-one. We take a potential volunteer out to coffee to find out about them and share the vision, practices, and opportunities within Family Ministry. When I begin to talk about the role of the small group leader it is often followed by one question: What […]

It’s been said that, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” While there is now a dispute about whether the business management leader Peter Drucker ever really said it, we believe that the statement remains true. A company or ministry culture will “eat” or thwart any attempt to create, enforce, or move strategies or vision that is […]

I’ve been in some level of family ministry for over 20 years, and there is one statement I don’t think I’ve heard anyone say, “We have so many volunteers I really hope no one else wants to serve!” The fact of the matter is that most kid and student ministries are always looking for ways […]

The phase, or the time in a kid’s life that we influence significant relationships, understand present realities, and leverage distinctive opportunities, flow in a continuum that requires all kid and student ministry workers to have a basic knowledge how one impacts the other. The four phases that allow us to embrace, engage, affirm, and mobilize […]

There is nothing worse than trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. No matter how hard you push and pry it will not fit correctly. At this point there are two options: try to change the shape of the peg or put it in a different hole. Trying to change the shape […]

When my kids were younger, at two times during the year, Christmas Break and Spring Break, we would go through all the closets and storage boxes of clothes and discard anything that no longer fit. Some of the items were still in good shape. Some of the items were worn out. Some of them came […]

Honest moment: I hate difficult conversations! Difficult conversations keep me awake at night, make me second guess my leadership, make me worry about the person for days to follow, and push me into countless conversations with mentors about whether I’m doing the right thing. This is one part of leadership that if I never had […]

Orange—a strategy that combines the love of the family (red) and the light of the church (yellow) to make a greater impact. Our strategy has five essentials that help churches to influence the faith of the next generation. One of these essentials is Leveraging Influence. We believe that this puts hands-on faith that would otherwise just be […]

Team alignment can be well described through the sports analogy. Through middle and high school, I played basketball. While I wasn’t the best player you’d ever want to meet, I was pretty decent. In most games, I was a starter and got a decent amount of playing time. By 6th grade, I was 5’7” and […]