Hey Kidmin! Are You Ready to Reboot and Recalibrate?
After reading this post, if you’re serious about rebooting your kidmin, we encourage you to pre-order a copy of Relational Children’s Ministry: Turning Kid-Influencers into Lifelong Disciple Makers by Dan Lovaglia. Get a copy for yourself, your leadership team, and your Senior Pastor. Use the chapter discussion questions to work through the materials together. Click here to learn more and to order your copy today!
According to Pew Research, 90% of American adults own a cell phone. They might not have the latest technology, but nearly everyone is carrying a calling device. Are you in this demographic? If so, you’ve probably experienced dropped coverage at some point.
While using my cell phone a few years ago, I remember discovering a dead zone in my commute between work and home. It was frustrating to get to the same location only to experience a bad connection during an important conversation. It was the definition of insanity. I kept trying the same thing and getting the same poor results. This reality challenged my character regularly. It tried my patience and tested my resolve. Eventually I gave up, I stopped making calls while driving home from work, at least for a short season.
How Do You Deal with Disconnects?
When something that should work stops functioning as anticipated, what do you do? How do you deal with disconnects that impact you? Your answer to this question may spill over into several areas of life and leadership.
- When disconnects between expectations and experiences happen, what’s your response?
- How do you deal with personal physical, emotional, or spiritual health matters only get harder the harder you try?
- What’s your response when relationships in your family and friendships hit a rough patch?
- How do you react to challenges at work or in the world feel like a cell phone dead zone?
- When disconnects impact your church and children’s ministry do you press on or pull out?
My guess is that as a leader, you probably press on whether you’re fully satisfied with your level of connection and results or not. And, even if it irritates you, you remain faithful to your calling – especially in your ministry reaching and discipling children and families. Pressing on is biblical and beneficial (cf. Philippians 3:14). Yet, it’s also biblical and beneficial to renew, to reboot and recalibrate, in order to align with God’s personhood, purposes, and plans (cf. Romans 12:1-2).
Reconnecting Often Requires Rebooting
Remember my cell phone situation? I kept hitting a dead zone on the way home from work. With a bit of troubleshooting I discovered that my device was stuck trying to switch between cell towers. Someone wisely asked me, “When’s the last time you powered down and back up again?” As it turns out, I didn’t need to give up making calls so easily. I just needed to turn my phone off and on to recalibrate its ability to connect.
The importance of rebooting works for more than technology. I love what author Anne Lamott says, “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” Just like your cell phone needs a soft reset from time to time, you need a way to recalibrate so your connection with God, yourself, and other people remains clear. The same is true for the way your church serves kids and families. If you desire lifelong discipleship to be the result of your children’s ministry, taking time to recalibrate toward this end is invaluable.
Answer these kidmin diagnostic questions to see if your children’s ministry might need a reboot to reconnect with why it exists:
- Is the disciple-making mission of your church and children’s ministry crystal clear?
- Are you 100% certain a foundation for lifelong discipleship is being laid in children’s lives?
- How strong is the bridge between church and home in your ministry context?
- Have you established a core leadership team to multiply your kidmin impact?
- Are the pastors and leaders in the church advocates for intergenerational disciple making?
- How well are kids and families knowing, loving, and serving Jesus Christ?
- Is relational discipleship valued more highly than keeping programs running?
Are You Ready to Reboot?
You can, in step with Christ as part His church, reboot your children’s ministry by taking three steps to recalibrate. Enacting these on a regular basis will help you reconnect with what matters most in kidmin – disciple making. Your kids, families, and leaders deserve and desire for their relational discipleship connection to remain unbroken.
Step 1: Rise Above Status Quo in Today’s Children’s Ministry
It’s easy to get accustomed to what’s familiar – for better or worse. When you started out serving kids and families, you probably dreamed of making an eternal difference in their lives. You prayed and prepared for this to happen. You planned and put programming in place for this to happen. But, over time, you’ve found your heart disconnected from what matters most because your hands are so busy keeping the ministry running. You hope it’s moving forward, but when you lay your head down on Sunday night, you’re not completely sure.
Honestly, you’re not alone in this. In 2015, Awana researched roughly 1000 children’s ministry leaders across the U.S. and discovered a common issue: there’s a discipleship disconnect in today’s children’s ministry. The Gospel Truth About Children’s Ministry: 10 Fresh KidMin Research Findings by Matt Markins and Dan Lovaglia with Mark McPeak described the children’s ministry state of the union as revealed by those who love Christ, kids, and families deeply. This research highlights the value of getting a bigger picture perspective in order to make strategic changes in ministry. If you are willing to face the facts about your work with kids and families, you can recalibrate your approach in a way that will result in lifelong discipleship.
Step 2: Relate Intentionally to Kids and Families
Who was the most spiritually influential person in your life? Who did God use to point you to Jesus, to share the Gospel with you, and to model what it means to know, love, and serve Christ for life? The person’s face is probably at the forefront of your mind and his or her first name is probably on the tip of your tongue right now. When’s the last time you thought of this individual or series of individuals that led you to trust and follow the Lord? If you’ve never taken time to thank them, I encourage you to drop them a line in the mail, email, Tweet, smoke signal, or whatever it takes to let them know how much you appreciate the way God used them in your discipleship journey.
Just as God used someone to impact you, relationships are the most promising way children will come face to face with Christ in your ministry. (Read my past post about five life-giving invitations that can help this happen.) The Bible is a key factor as well, but how does God’s Word come to life most relevantly for people? It’s through life-on-life relationship. We watch other people to see how they make sense of truth and apply it. The leaders in your ministry need you to be intentional about your interactions with them. This in turn will spill over into the way they influence the kids and families in their span of care. Try this out: spend time in the back of every room where children’s ministry is happening in your church. Watch for how strong or weak heart-to-heart connections are. Then, recalibrate. Take the necessary steps to increase relational intentionality so that kids and families will be impacted more deeply.
Step 3: Realign Your Children’s Ministry for a New Trajectory
Once you’ve elevated your perspective and implemented ways to increase relational connections, it’s time to do the hard strategic work of making sure the heart of your children’s ministry is aligned with the heart of Christ and His church. That means if the heart of your church and your children’s ministry isn’t in alignment, then some significant discussions need to happen at a leadership level. You want to be certain that making disciples is what matters most across the board. And, you want to clarify that your children’s ministry is supporting the rest of the church so everyone matures toward lifelong discipleship. You’re not responsible for all the areas of ministry, but you are called to press toward unity. Kidmin has the potential to influence everyone toward disciple making that lasts.
In as much as Christ-centered discipleship is central to your own life and leadership, you’ll naturally steer others in this direction. The same is true for your church as a community. The more Christ is at the center, the more likely people will become His fully devoted followers. Recalibration doesn’t always mean pulling the plug and rebooting, but that might be required if disciple making is an after thought in your ministry philosophy and programming. True discipleship is truly relational. Whatever you can do to strengthen relational connections with God and other people the better. Your kidmin can be the epicenter for this way of walking in step with Jesus together. Set the right course and pace; the trajectory will take care of itself.
Relational Children’s Ministry: Turning Kid-Influencers into Lifelong Disciple Makers by Dan Lovaglia hits shelves April 5th! It’s full of ways to reboot and recalibrate your children’s ministry so lifelong discipleship becomes the norm not the exception. Join the relational kidmin revolution. Pre-order your copy today: CLICK HERE. If an idea stirs something in you, be sure to Tweet it out @Awana with the hashtag #relationalkidmin.
