Here is a flyer that is the size of a ticket for our upcoming Shipwrecked series.

My wife took our oldest boy into Lowes with her to get some supplies for our sunroom renovation. The store was about to close so they basicly had the store to themselves. A few minutes in and this became aparent to my oldest boy who then wispered to my wife. “Mom, where are all the strangers?”

That is why I love kids. They have the best perspective!

You need to start with the end in mind. What is the goal of a successful children’s ministry?

I have had a few conversations with children’s pastors who seemed happy that kids don’t want to leave their ministry. To me that is very self serving and unnatural. I believe a successful children’s ministry works hand in hand with the youth ministry.

What success looks like to me.

1. How well do kids transition to the youth ministry
2. Are we preaching the same values the youth department is.
3. What is my relationship with youth pastor like?
4. Am I genuinely happy when the youth ministry is successful?
5. Are there places where young people can be involved in ministry?
6. Am I helping the Youth Pastor develop leaders through their ministry involvement.

I know, I know I am starting to sound like a Hillsong groupie. I saw this video last week and was blown away. It is a fantastic, fun, out of the box camp promo. It is a great take on how guys view camp vs. how girls view camp. I would say that I am drinking Hillsongs’ cool-aid but that analogy hits to close to home for religious institutions. Needles to say I am a huge Hillsong fan, I love that they successfully think outside the box and realize that if doing things different is what it takes to reach seekers than so be it. Definitely have to visit some time and look up Dave and his crew.

We are hosting our first ever Youth Worker/Children’s Worker conference. Very excited.

What is this conference all about?

Context is everything. As youth and children’s workers we need understand the proper way embrace culture and use things from culture to communicate the lifechanging truth of God’s word. Jesus did this all the time. He understood the power of proper context. He used what his audience knows and understands, fishing, farming, ect to communicate the unchanging truths of the kingdom.

It doesn’t matter if you come from a church of 100 or 10,000 we all need life giving realationships Pipleline started from a philosophy that Youth and Children’s ministries are inseparable. We need each other. This conference will be more than just some great ideas but our hope is that it will birth strategic alliances between Youth pastors, and Children’s pastors.

Who is speaking?

Aaron Reynolds
Bill Wilson
Jude Fouquier

When is it?

November 14th and 15th, 2008

Who should attend?

1. Senior Pastors
2. Youth workers
3. Children’s workers

It will be cheap enough that whole ministry teams can afford to come.

Went to this store called “Rice to Riches”. First off I hate rice pudding, but went into the store because I love great design. I went in was impressed by the design tried the pudding and was surprised how good it was. What I liked most was in this day and age of we are green, we are low-fat, no animals were harmed, they were non-PC. Loved it look at this sign.

We are pounding it out at our yearly staff meeting, in the heart of NYC. Good stuff

Here is the highlight reel from my latest wedding. Michelle yours is next!

What are most churches looking for in a children’s pastor.

1. Education
2. Experience
3. Passionate about God
4. Passionate about kids
5. Organizational skills
6. Vision
7. Works well with volunteers

I think that church should look for:

1. Passion for God
2. Education
3. Passion for kids and families
4. Chemistry with staff especially with the youth pastor
5. Ability reproduce themselves in others
6. Vision to attract leaders
7. Ability to sell vision to leaders.
8. Able to recognize gifts and abilities of others. Know how to place who where.
9. Creativity
10. Ability to fail well.

Trying to keep this post short this time but head over to Children’s Ministry online Kenny has a much better list than me check it out.

I want to attempt to answer my own question, Why do most young people going into the ministry want to be youth pastors? But first a couple of your responses.

From jonathancliff.com He had lots of other great thoughts check out his whole post here.

Why most Children’s Pastors wanted to be youth pastors?
Because it’s when we’re teenagers or college students that we really start trying to live out our Christian walk; and the first ‘church’ relationship we ever had was with our Youth pastor. Therefore, making the youth pastor role the coolest one we’ve ever known! On a side note… it could also be that children’s ministry leaves a bad memory for many…

Sarah Thompson had the following to say on her blog.

Did I see that excitement and passion in Sunday School? Nope! Did I see it at Youth Group? Absolutely! Youth Group is where the action happened. It’s where I saw God turn up.

Reasons why do most young people want to be youth pastors and not children’s pastors

1. Teens are more social and youth groups have become more small group socially connected in and out of church.
2. Teens are thinking more about the future and what they want to be is by in large decided more in High School than elementary school.
3. More churches value youth ministry and more time and energy are put into that age demographic
4. College’s and Seminaries have many ministry tracts focused on Teen ministry and very few focusing on ministry to kids.
5. Most kids have a negative or neutral children’s church experience.
6. Youth pastors are just to cool. They are our youth pastor is no exception up on culture, fashion and are typically great communicators.
7. Teens think to be a youth pastor you have to be a retired female teacher or ex-christian school male principle.

What can we do solve this problem.

1. Start off by doing what we can do.
2. Focus on the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of relationships with others.
3. Have small group leaders that take ownership beyond sunday morning.
4. Make every sunday powerful, exciting, different, and FUN.
5. Push the value of kids in every forum God give you.
6. Recognize the gifts and callings God has given kids in your ministry and help the parents develop those gifts at home and in the context of church.
7. Take fashion and culture advise from your local youth pastor. Just kidding sort of.

I would like to add that for me one way I know I am doing my job is when kids that grew up in my ministry that thrive in the youth ministry. I rejoice because I know I had a small part in seeing that kid become whoever God has for them. I truly believe that youth and children’s ministry are inseparable.