• Coach’s Conundrum #4
4. “It’s Better to have a Big Goal and Miss It, Than to have No Goal and Hit It.”
This is sort of the play-on-words, but there is a big truth behind it. We accomplish more by trying to work a plan than we do by having no plan. Moving forward is better than moving backwards. Forward motion is preferred to no movement, at all. So it is better to be a dreamer with a plan than to be a realist with no options. You could call these two styles: Possibility Thinking or Impossibility Thinking.
I have seen this in children’s ministry.
• Cut for Production
Cut for Production
I have often questioned what good could come from some great disappointment in my life and/or ministry. I have known fruitful times of ministry to followed by some calamity that just seemed to bring it all to an abrupt halt, followed be another season of productive work. These apparent surges and setbacks feel like the changing tides on cyclical ministry. Having abundance following by a period of great need. Or having things come together with such detail only to be followed by nothing going on or coming together.
• Coach’s Conundrum #3
3. “Work expands to fill the time allowed.”
This is something that continues to impress me, I find that time pressure is the motivational trigger that compresses the time a project needs for completion. The extremes do occur, too much time and too little time, but for this conundrum to work, we determine the pace to finish on time, mostly. The constant variable is “when does it have to be done?” The answer becomes…
• Coach’s Conundrum #2
2. “You Can’t Catch Fish in the Bathtub!”
If you want to catch “little wigglers,” you have go where the fish are. Having significant “fishing pools” for catching little ones for Jesus means you first have to do some deliberate demographics in your towns and communities to determine where the children are located. Then, you have to determine just how you might reach out to those families with young children. These are the beginnings of a “child-bridge strategy.”
• Coach’s Conundrum #1
Coach’s Conundrums This is a new series: my collection of pithy principles that need some explanation. The implementing of these conundrums could alter your paradigm for children’s ministry or influence the way you approach kids.
1. “You keep ‘em, by the way you win ‘em!”
When beginning your Children’s Ministry you try multiple programming options to find your strategy to attract, win and assimilate new children into your ministry. So here is what I have learned: If it takes sports programs to attract kids to your program, it will take sports programs to keep them attracted to your program. If it takes trips to amusement parks (like Disneyland) to attract kids, then it will take more trips excursions to keep them coming. So here is a short list of ways to attract kids: summer camping, music, magic, Bible study, small groups, Sunday school, Children’s Church, stage performances, day camping, club programs, and personal attention from the leader. All these, and many more, are solid pathways to attract kids, but the secret of keeping them coming is sustained programming in the same vain.
• Top 100 CM Blogs
The Top 100 Children’s Ministry Blogs
Tony Kummer did some serious searching on the Internet for what he calls the “Top 100 Children’s Ministry blogs. He set up a standard by which he used to evaluate what blogs would qualify for this “top” honor. If you are interested, you can check it out! Can you find Kidology here? http://www.Ministry-to-children.com/top-100
• God Speaks
Did YOU Ever Hear God Speaking to You? I am reading Bill Hybel’s new book called The Power of a Whisper. It is a book about how God talks to us, recognizing His voice and learning how to follow his leading in our lives. As I have been reading this book, I am recounting the times that I have experienced God talking to me.
So I have been making a list of the times I can remember, very distinctly, that He has spoken and has given me instruction.
• Ten Reasons I Like IPAD
My Top Ten Reasons for Liking My IPAD
I got my IPAD the first week they came out in the Apple Store, the next day I went to India. I had lots of travel time on the international flight to learn how to use this new technology. Now I have made another trip to India and a trip to Panama. These are my Top Ten Reasons why I like my IPAD.
1. The battery lasts for 11 hours. It runs one program at a time.
2. Very compact, light weight and excellent for traveling.
3. I can use Internet, Email and Facebook, just like my computer!
4. There are literally thousands of Apps now, many free!
• Connecting the Dots
Connecting the Dots… Maybe, some of you remember the paint by number sets that kids could use to learn how to paint. Well, that is kind of the idea behind connecting the dots.
I was rehearsing kind of an overview of my experience with India with my Missions Pastor. I was weaving a connection between isolated events over the last two years and how God has been leading me to be involved there. The more I shared, the more I was tying things together to illustrate my story. Now, having made three trips to India, the picture is becoming clear as to what God was really doing with me. But frankly, I am not sure it is all done yet, but I do have a better focus. After a while of listening, Mrs. Coats said, “Barney, I really like the way God is helping you to connect the dots in your ministry to India.”
• Pacing the Race
Pacing Your Race: A Lesson from the Energizer Bunny?
Children’s Ministry is not a sprint, it’s a marathon race. There are those “all or nothing” types, that impress you with their quickness and gigantic plans, only to run out of gas in short order. Those that enter into this profession, must be prepared for the long haul and pace themselves for the distance to be traveled…that is a life long commitment to following Jesus to reach the lost lambs. If you have not seen one of these jackrabbits, you will recognize them because when difficulty comes they disappear off the scene or move on to something else. For them children’s ministry is a mere “stepping stone” to something else.
