• A Kidmin Giant?

Posted by: kidhelper on Friday, December 19th, 2014

When I asked one of my new graduate students to give me a metaphor that would describe her coaching experience from the beginning until now, she paused and thought. So I waited for any response, then it came. She said, “David and Goliath.” “Can you elaborate on that thought?” I inquired.

“Well, when I started out in children’s ministry, I was so ill prepared that I read all the resources I could. I found children’s leaders on the Internet, blogs and Facebook and Kidology. I was just overwhelmed with all the great things everyone else was doing. So I was attempting to be like them. I wanted to be ‘like the big boys—the Giants in children’s ministry.’ I really did not have the skills or the training to copy them, and much of what worked for them, was not working for me. I wanted to be a Giant, like them! It was just so intimidating. However, I continued to make attempts to impress others with my Giant efforts—wanting to be something I was not.”

She discovered in her searching for help, that Kidology was offering a Black Friday Special for their Kidology Coaching Program. She took advantage of the sale—not really knowing just what the program involved. She was assigned her personal-ministry coach and the mentoring/coaching process began.

It is normal for a coach to take a while to figure out just how to work with a new student. She was only responsible for one children’s church hour on Sunday. She was paid part-time to oversee about 30 kids, but she was making attempts to impress me with her efforts. It was not until I had a brief conversation with her Pastor on the phone one day, that I got the clue how I needed to work with her. She was such a willing worker, that she would volunteer to do whatever was needed to help the church, which was distracting to her concentration on children’s ministry.

That is when things changed for us. We decided to work on a job description, which she did not have. We eliminated everything that was extra curricular to accomplishing her ministry. Then she became accountable for how she was managing her tasks by recording her daily routines. She started planning more and pre-thinking her program. More children came. She responded to the need to provide activity for the children between services—it was called Connection Time. Then her Children’s Church was too big for the room. She recruited more leaders and divided the program. Now she was overseeing three ministries—we adjusted the job description. The rooms were quite dated and needed some renovation and upgrading, so we worked on a remodeling plan. I sent her $10 for an investment project and she raised over $2,000 that she applied to the room makeover plan. The Pastor began to take more notice in her Monday morning emails to him called “Sunday Wins.”  So when some problems surfaced with the Nursery, he asked her to look in on it. She did and the problems were solved. Now she was overseeing four programs and we changed the job description again.

The couple that was teaching the children on Wednesday night had some personal problems and had to step down. The position opened up, so the Pastor asked her to fill in for a few weeks. So she tentatively filled in, thinking another would be assigned to take her place, but no one came forward. She continued serving Wednesday nights, more kids were coming and parents were responding to the enthusiasm of their children. He could not find a replacement. He never replaced her. Now she was overseeing five ministries with a job description.

She was a bothered when the Pastor picked another couple to run VBS and she was asked to assist them, she really wanted to lead it, but it was not her place, so she humbled herself and was compliant. We talked our way through that time. The next year the Pastor asked her to oversee and lead VBS. We worked on her plans to improve the former efforts, which she did. She set a goal of 120 kids and 148 showed up. It was a very successful effort.

The Kidology Coaching Program has helped my student to become a David, a humble disciplined servant that has learned to trust God to take down giants. God now is doing a mighty work in my student. We are seeing a change in her orientation—A David and not a Goliath perspective!

Her children’s ministry has grown to over 100 children during our Kidology Program. She will be joining the graduate program in February and aspires to be a full-time children’s pastor.

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