Categories: Leadership

Easter weekend is over. You did it! The volunteers showed up (mostly), the kids were energetic, the lesson landed, and you survived the holiday chaos with your sanity roughly intact. So now what? Here's the thing nobody tells you: what you do in the week after Easter matters just as much as everything you did to prepare for it. So here is the post-Easter to-do list I think every kidmin leader needs. 1. Rest - I know, I know. You are already thinking about what's next (VBS and summer programming anyone?). But listen: your body and your brain just ran a sprint, and they need a minute to catch up (plus, we'll get to summer in a minute). Rest is not laziness. It is faithfulness to the calling you can't sustain on empty. Take a real day off. Sleep in. Take a nap. Go for a walk in the sunshine. Read a book just for fun. Spend time with your people. Do...

Ministry has a way of tugging us in a hundred directions at once. Some days you’re dreaming big, praying big, and planning big. Other days, you’re digging through the weeds just trying to pull the details, supplies, and volunteers together for Sunday. And most days? You’re doing both at the exact same time. Both the big picture and the details matter. Both are valuable. Both are part of how God wired you to lead. But living in the tension between the two can leave you feeling stretched thin, scattered, or stuck in survival mode. So how can we balance both? Here are 3 steps to start with: Evaluate and rearrange your time. Take a hard look at where your time is actually going each week. Are you spending most of it reacting to urgent tasks, or are you carving out space for the things that matter most in the long run? Shifting your schedule to...

For better or worse, social media is one of the main places today's parents spend their time. That means it is also one of the biggest opportunities children’s ministry leaders have to support, equip, and partner with families beyond Sunday morning. The goal of kids ministry social media is not to entertain kids or keep up with trends, or even to go viral and grow your reach. It is to come alongside parents and remind them they are not alone in the work of discipling their children. When used intentionally, social media can build trust, offer encouragement, and create meaningful community with the families you serve. So when thinking about your children's ministry social media, keep these 3 goals in mind: 1. Connect: build trust, clarity, and understanding Remember that your audience on social media is the parents in your ministry, not...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=""]Ministry leadership is a balancing act. It’s about holding two very different kinds of work at the same time. In one hand, we carry vision: the big picture, the dreaming, the long-term planning, the God-sized thinking. In the other, we carry action: the details, tasks, supply bins, emails, and logistics that make ministry happen week after week. (Sunday is always coming, right?) And most of the time, you’re living in the tension between the two. There’s the pressure to make things happen right now and the responsibility to think about what’s coming 6 weeks and 6 months down the road. The need to meet expectations today and the desire to create something healthy for tomorrow. It feels like a tug-of-war sometimes, but that tension is actually a gift. Think about it like this: A tightrope only...

I'm in Evansville, IN at the KidzMatter Conference this week, hosting the Deeper KidMin booth in the resource center and teaching 3 breakouts! One of my breakouts is all about how we can best serve young families in our church. My breakout session walks through a S-E-R-V-E acronym, with each letter highlighting a specific action leaders must prioritize with young families. While I'm saving the full details for those who attend my breakout at the conference, here's a little nugget from that session to help you serve the young families in your church... Families with littles are in one of the most demanding, exhausting, and spiritually significant seasons of their lives. When it comes to ministering to families with young children, one of the best things we can do as leaders is to SERVE them well. What does that look like practically? Here are 20...