No matter how great an individual player you are, a team can make you or break you. I’ve always loved being a part of a team. I love team sports. I love playing in bands. As a children’s pastor I have worked hard assembling and developing my teams. My least favorite times in ministry have been being on staffs at churches that were all doing their own thing and not functioning as a team.

My favorite definition of a team is Together Everyone Achieves More!
It’s plain that a team can accomplish more than an individual. Yet children’s ministers still insist on doing things themselves rather than build a strong team. I believe every children’s pastor or children’s ministry coordinator should see himself or herself as a coach and desire to build a super team. Here are four things a successful coach should instill in his team and expect from each player. #1-BE OWN THE BALL. A team player must be alert of what’s going on and able to assess the situation for themselves and the team. A team player puts the goals, needs and good of the team first, rather than individual goals, wants, and needs. Each member of the team must value the team. Don’t ever think about quitting the team in hard times. Don’t let setbacks stop you. See problems as challenges and situations for your team to excel. Get after it-work it with all your might to make your team Be it’s best. #2- GIVE A LOT! Let your teammates slam-dunk while you take an assist. Rejoice in the abilities and accomplishments of those around you. An excellent team player chooses to prefer others to excel. Their motto is: “It doesn’t matter who gets the credit.” Never complain, but seek opportunities to motivate others. Don’t be negative. You cannot maintain a winning attitude and be negative. Being positive is a choice! A team player complements others and hand out praise. In ministry we can’t control every event, but we can control our response to it Do your best even if you go unnoticed. Always ask, “What’s best for the team?” Never be too busy to help others. The team that gives a lot accomplishes a lot. #3-OVER COMMUNICATE! Let those above you know what’s going on. No surprises ever. Surprises hurt the team. Let those around you know what’s happening and what they should be doing. The military calls this the need to know. Talk with the team; build a relationship with your teammates. Don’t take things personal. A good communicator is a good listener. Determined to learn from everybody, not just your coaches. This includes learning from your own mistakes. #4-DO YOUR JOB! Do what you know to do. A team player understands their role and does it with all their might. A valuable team player must possess knowledge of the game. They are always a student. It’s imperative to know and follow the game plan. Know your job or position. Always be loyal to your coaches.

The best teams in the world review and evaluate constantly. Not just the accomplishments but also the mistakes. Take blame but never assign any. Never talk bad about teammates at anytime. Never talk bad about the coaches or the front office anytime. Desire to share any victories together. Value your team and you’ll enjoy the value of teamwork first hand.

I’m not a fan of VBS. I’ve never seen one that brought tons of new families into a church. One of the problems is when you have them, the first week out of school to me it’s just bad timing. In many communities it seems like churches all have them at the same time. I have seen better success moving my VBS alternitive event to a date in late July when nothing is going on. To keep from doing a traditional VBS, I’ve done Kids Crusades, Day Camps, Music or Art Camps.Kid’s Day Out every Tuesday in the Summer, and many others. One goal of mine is to provide a school of rock for kids in the near future (I’ll be Jack Black) I’m really excited about a new product from Kidzblitz called “Fitness Camp” I ordered it at CPC and can’t wait to use it. I think another factor that makes me not a fan of traditional VBS is it’s hard to get workers in the daytime because of families needing multiple incomes. If I was going to do VBS I would do it at night and no matter what I wouldn’t call it VBS. I had great success getting families to and in our church by doing a Summer Sizzling Film Festival the 4 or 5 Sundays in July, We did special stuff the kids weren’t use to, adding huge visitor contests will great prizes for weekends and Wednesdays that month and saw great results. I’ve also done a different special guests every weekend plus the other stuff I mentioned. I also added more chances and points for kids bringing their parents to church. I think it’s time to give VBS a makeover and do something different to get better results than what most churches see from the same ole VBS. I know not everyone’s going to love this post but I for one am willing to take a punch or two to make people re-think new and creative ways to reach today’s kids in a more unique way. Sorry VBS lovers, that’s the way the old guy sees it.

I am so excited about being a part of this year’s Orange Conference! And now that I know Ryan will be there I’m even more excited. Orange is different from most children’s ministry conferences because it’s not another children’s ministry conference. It’s a place to rethink the same ways to do ministry to children and to include the entire family. Orange is an event to celebrate a movement! A movement that includes every single person on staff to be part of a movement to touch the next generation. I loved the worship, evey main speaker understood the purpose and essence of orange. Another thing that makes it different from other conferences is that the workshops are not done by exibitors, or curriculum company employees they are done by people who actually not only do ministry but who are knocking it out of the park in some of America’s most effective churches and ministries. Last year I took one of my youth pastors with me. It was wonderful to be able to go to an event that both children’s and youth ministers can attend together. Many churches had their whole staff there even their senior pastors. There where so many people there and so many folks where wanting to spend time as a team it was a little hard to network. It’s something I will plan ahead to be able to connect with others better. There are not tons of vendors everything I purchased I think I got from the Orange Store. This year I’m bringing more of my team and looking for opportunities for them to connect with others who do the same thing as them in other big churches in smaller towns. I love Reggie and the rethink folks, I appreciate their heart for the family and how they are able to rally and assemble the children, youth, college, and family ministers of forward thinking churches all in one place. Last year I came away with not only new ideas but with a new heart to do more to work together with the family and the other ministries within my church. Yancy has spoken at Orange more times than me! She has been at all three, not all sure what all she’s doing this year but hope to attend one of her sessions. Should you attend Orange? Only if you want your eyes opened to what’s next. I’m going to learn, I’m also going to hear from God. I’m going to listen with an open heart and mind of what I need to rethink. I can’t wait to see what God does in me and in my team. I’ve have attended a ton of conferences in my lifetime. Orange is not predictable it’s not this year’s edition of last years conference, it’s brand new thinking for a brand new way to do church to a new generation. It’s not just yellow and red hanging out in the same space it’s about the two coming together to do something different, something new, something Orange. I hope to see you there!

Phil Vischer (creator of Veggie Tales) and the crew at Jellyfish Labs have created JellyTelly – a cool new place for kids to go and watch fun, clean, Christian videos and play cool games. Be sure to watch the video from Phil so you can learn exactly what JellyTelly is all about for yourself. This has potential of being a great tool for parents and those in children’s ministry.

Yesterday my pastor started a series which he is calling, “The Hymnal of Hope.” It’s a series on several of his favorite Psalms. Did you know that the book of Psalms was a Hebrew hymn book?

God gave us some beautiful words in those songs. Have you ever wondered why He didn’t give us the notes? After all, he could have. He could have told us how to sing the songs. I have a thought why God gave us the words and not the notes. Perhaps He wants each generation to have a new song.

Don’t get in a rut singing yesterday’s songs today. I believe God has new songs for today. Maybe it’s time to find some new ones to sing this weekend. A new song for every generation – that’s the way I see it.

This week I had the opportunity to speak at Camp Patmos to a group of two hundred 4th-6th graders. Camp Patmos is located on the beautiful Kelleys Island on Lake Eerie. My schedule doesn’t allow me to do much camp speaking (although I love it) but I accepted this invitation from one of my best childhood friends.

The theme of camp this summer was Pursuit. I decided to speak on Jonah each night (a guy who made one bad choice after another and was pursued by God) and Corrie Ten Boom each morning (a lady who made one good choice after another and pursued God). The story of Jonah is always a hit with kids. I wasn’t sure how Corrie Ten Boom would go but really felt compelled to share her story. These tweens loved Corrie’s story.

Question: How much time do you give to sharing the stories of great Christian heroes of the faith? As children’s pastors, we are the first one to shake our heads at Miley Cyrus and other famous people that kids choose as heroes.

Think about the lives of great people like Corrie Ten Boom, Jim Elliot, Amy Carmichael, Fanny Crosby, Martin Luther, Joni Eareckson Tada, and others. How will the kids in our churches learn about them if we don’t tell them? Are we justified in “preaching” to them about bad role models and heroes if we don’t tell them the stories of the good ones?

I think there needs to be a return to telling some hero stories – intentionally. That’s the way I see it.

Same action brings same results… I’ve found out these past 53 years on the earth you can’t keep doing things the same way you have always done them and get different results. For the last 12+ years I have been teaching a monthly audio leadership lesson that I call the children’s ministers leadership club or theClub for short. Every workshop, book chapter, magazine article and blog post I do has come from a club lesson. TheClub has been a blessing to me and the lifeblood of income and support for JWM. They have also blessed a lot of leaders. In January I made the Young Guns Program available to CM Leaders under 30 so they could get theClub lessons free. I’ve had a great response. But I feel led to do something crazy over the next 3 months I’m going to give my June, July, and August club lessons away free to anyone of any age who signs up for my newsletter on jimwideman.com. Call me crazy, call me generous, call me a nice middle age gentleman who looks a little like the guy on the chicken bucket. Hurry and sign up before June 15th so you won’t miss a single lesson. I’m excited to see the growth that will happen when you dare to expand how you think about leadership.

Now…”that’s the way I see it!”

I’ve always believed that getting new things now and then is the best way to breathe some fresh air into your ministry. Tonight during church I was thinking about some of the new things we’ve done between last Sunday and today.

1) Ladder Ball Golf – I was walking through WalMart doing my weekly candy / supply run for Sunday and picked up 2 sets of Ladder Ball Golf. What caught my eye was the fact that they were big and they require more than one person to play. I set them in the back of the kids church room for kids to play as a pre-service activity with their friends. The kids love it and the cost of each set was less than $20.

2) While at WalMart (that same day) I bought 2 boxes of Sock’em Boppers. These aren’t new to the toy department but I thought they would make a great game since my lesson last week was on bullies. We made a masking tape line on the floor and two kids took turns slugging each other with the inflatable boxing gloves. Don’t worry, they had to keep it from the head down and I managed to keep my job in the process.
Continue reading ‘A breath of fresh air’

I am writing this post from a hotel room in Castle Rock, CO. I have been in Castle Rock since Wednesday at an INCM board meeting. Today we spent the day as a board with some of the INCM staff doing strategic planning for the upcoming year. Let me tell you, there are some cool things on the horizon for those like you who do children’s ministry! I left the meeting exhausted and energized at the same time.

Here’s the thought for today. Do you prefer brainstorming or blamestorming? There is power in brainstorming. Blamestorming is the fastest road to nowhere. Why do we throw blame instead of putting our minds together to come up with a powerful solution?

Today I received an email from my office about a big mess up that happened last night at my church (in my absence). Instead of throwing blame, I emailed this individual and we agreed to work through a solution so it might not happen again.

Here are three things to take home with you: 1) Create an environment where brainstorming is welcomed. 2) Purposefully establish times for brainstorming. 3) Create a leadership lifestyle of brainstorming. Be known as the guy or gal who is always asking for ideas, getting feedback, and wanting to make things better.

Last week, I went and saw “Horton Hears a Who!” in the theatre. I was reminded how much Dr. Seuss reminds me of Biblical themes. So, over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing about the Seuss series and some of the things we can learn from it.

We’re going to start with Horton Hears a Who. We’re going to use quotes to make our points.

1. Children matter, just like adults.
“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

OK, I know I’m kind of preaching to the choir on this one, but it’s something important to never forget. Every child from the youngest baby to the oldest preteen are just as important as the “grownups”. While we can’t use the same approaches with kids as we do adults, they have an amazing ability to understand God and who he is. Remember that they aren’t stupid! Continue reading ‘Seuss and the Bible: Horton Hears a Who!’