Inside this episode: Benefits of Milestone Events: Parents are prepared. Parents are open. Opportunity to communicate your strategy. Opportunity to communicate your WHY. Listen to parents. Build relationships. Hear stories. Create new stories. Family Ministry Milestone Opportunities: Parent & child dedication. Water baptism. Kindergarten move up. 5th Grade move up. 8th Grade move up. Seniors & Graduation SUBSCRIBE | SHARE | RATE | COMMENT To make sure you never miss a post, s

Inside this episode: Four primary purposes of a weekly family ministry meeting: Celebrate. Accountability. Learn. Collaborate. Our Meeting Code = 3 + 1 Honor the task at hand. Listen as an ally. Silence means agreement. +1 = Being on time means being early. SUBSCRIBE | SHARE | RATE | COMMENT To make sure you never miss a post, subscribe to the blog! Keep your friends and co-workers up-to-date as well by sharing this post with them via email or social media. #Family #Ministry

Inside this episode: The Secret to Leading a Growing Family Ministry: Build learning into your existing schedule. Get around other leaders. Ask a lot of questions. Action Step: Look at your schedule. Determine a weekly learning time slot. Tell someone to keep you accountable. SUBSCRIBE | SHARE | RATE | COMMENT To make sure you never miss a post, subscribe to the blog! Keep your friends and co-workers up-to-date as well by sharing this post with them via email or social media.

WHAT IS LEAD SMALL? Lead Small is a phrased coined by Orange that promotes the idea that every child, student and adult needs to be surrounded by a strategic group of mentors and peers to connect with as they grow in their faith. So why do I think it is important? WHAT WE’RE LEARNING ABOUT THE TEENAGE BRAIN Dr. Daniel Siegel wrote the book Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain where he shares how the teenage brain is re-wiring itself. Now, that’s not new info

Family Ministry is a newer phrase used in church world to represent how a local church serves families. In the local church (in America at least), that has taken on a variety of looks over the years, but can mostly be broken up into 2 categories. THE MODEL I GREW UP IN I’ve attended church regularly since birth. In fact, I'm the daughter of ministers. And the model I grew up in looked like this: Churches had (and still have) ministries for children, students, college-age or y

As everyone who works in ministry knows, it’s hard. And crazy. And hard. You never get it all done and every week there is a struggle to balance the urgent things with the important things. Consequently, it’s easy to fall into the trap of shifting into cruise and managing what we have going, rather than innovating and growing – both personally and in your ministry. I don’t know a single family minister who doesn’t want to lead growing children, student, and family ministries.

Let's start this week with a little bit of fun! Gum maker Wrigley’s Extra surveyed 1,000 parents of kids ages 11 and under to find out what makes children smile. The top 10 happiness triggers included (in no particular order): Watching a favorite TV show Telling jokes Spending time with grandparents Playing with the family pet Playing outside Watching YouTube videos Having a bedtime story Playing computer games Reading or making up silly stories Singing/dancing games. Any ide

I began my ministry years with the common mentality that kids ministry was an issue we programmed for. It’s a perspective many senior leader

ˈmīlˌstōn/ noun 1. a stone set up beside a road to mark the distance in miles to a particular place. 2. an action or event marking a significant change or stage in development. Historically, we used this term to refer to a literal stone marking the distance along a road. In today's culture, the language of milestones is used in a variety of ways, from personal fitness to workflow to child development. We think of them as goals or markers along the way toward a destination. We

As a Christian parent, I want to make sure that I am raising children who aren’t afraid to live differently in our culture. I want to raise