Children's Day Craft Idea!

Children's Day is on June 10th . . . what do you have planned to celebrate the children in your ministry? I LOVE Children's Day! I LOVE celebrating Children's Day . . . after all, children were, and are, of immense value to Jesus, so celebrating them is an entirely appropriate thing to do! Consider the following ideas for celebrating the children in your ministry -

Be So Very Careful . . . Don't Be A "Sponge"!

When we serve in children's ministry - or any area of the church - it can become very easy for us to accept the kindness of others . . . 

• a kind word to lift our spirits when we are tired - don't you typically   have at least one person who speaks kindly to you each week?
• free babysitting
• invitations for dinner
• gift cards, meals, books, other gifts
• the prayers of the people in the church

Family Pick - The Berenstain Bears - Help the Homeless - I'm Giving One Away!

My mom always gave books to me for birthday and Christmas as I grew up, so reading is something I have valued and enjoyed all my life. I believe if we are intentional about introducing children - from the youngest ages - to good books and hold up reading as something which is a wonderful and fun thing for us to do, we are giving a gift to children which will benefit them all their lives! Plus, when the books have a message which encourages a closer walk with God and living what they are learning about God, then the benefits certainly multiply! 

So . . . What Is Your Real Focus?

When it comes to children's ministry there is often more than one thing to focus on . . . the vision for the ministry, selecting the resources to best help you accomplish your vision, sharing your vision with others, finding, training, supporting volunteers, communicating effectively with parents . . . the list could, and often does, go on and on. but what is your real focus? What is the one thing you really need to keep at the top of your list?

I believe it is spiritual growth. We can not give to others what we do not have for ourselves. If we are not growing spiritually, we will not be equipped to help our volunteers grow spiritually. If they are not growing spiritually, how can we expect the children in our ministries to grow? Sometimes it is easy - too easy - to focus on the "things" we need to do and lose sight of the thing we really need to be focused on . . . knowing and walking with Jesus. 

Full Disclosure!

If you read About the Children's Department, you have likely noticed I tend to review curriculum, books, Bibles, resources, music, DVDs, games, and other things for families at least twice a month. In the interest of full disclosure I want to share the following information with you - The FTC requires people, such as myself, who write blogs and review product to disclose where the product came from and if it was given to them for review purposes. All curriculum, resources, items for my "Family Pick" and items I review for specific posts/articles are given to me by their publisher and/or manufacturer for free for review and/or give-away purposes. I do not work for any publishers - or other companies - and will do my best to give an un-biased review of the items I review. After my review, I give most of the curriculum to churches to use in their ministries and have drawings among the people who have "liked" my blog with the tab in the "find us on facebook" box ON THE BLOG for the "Family Pick" items. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255; "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising" 

I Have a Winner . . .

I'm happy to announce Annette K is the winner in my Second-Chance give-away for the book, Rescue Me! Thank you Annette for reading About the Children's Department - please message me your address so I can have it sent to you. Thank you Bryce Morgan for sending one for me to review and for making another available for me to give away!

Do Not Be Afraid!

What are you afraid of? Well, if you are like me the first thing you think of is spiders! I do not like those hideous creatures at all! In fact, I firmly believe the only good spider is a completely dead spider; so one of my rules when my kids were growing up was, "kill all spiders and then kill them again!" And just so you know, there is no such thing as a "small" spider!


Well, beyond the obvious things, like spiders, what are you afraid of? More specifically, what are you afraid of when it comes to your ministry? Are you afraid you won't be able to find enough volunteers? Are you afraid the children and families won't be reached? Are you afraid of church politics? You may say you aren't "afraid" of these things, but how much time to you spend thinking - or even worrying - about them? These are all legitimate things to be concerned about, but we do not have to be afraid.

Are You Certain Your Children's Ministry Communicates the Message You Think It Does? (re-run)

When you are a children's ministry director or pastor, you practically "live and breathe" children's ministry. It is your focus, your passion. It is what you think about. While you may have designed a children's ministry which is very effective, because you are so "close" to your ministry, there could be things you "miss", or just do not "see". Consider the following ideas for how you could be certain your children's ministry communicates the message you think it does -

Look What I'll Be Talking About in June!

June is almost here and throughout the month of June I will be reviewing curriculum for children's church and mid-week - complete with side-by-side comparison charts! What curriculum do you use for children's church and mid-week?

Second Chance Give-Away . . .

I recently reviewed and gave away the book Rescue Me!, but the winner didn't get their address to me, so I'm having a second-chance drawing for this book. (You will find the review at this link) If you would like to be in this second-chance drawing, please comment below and on Monday, May 28th I'll draw another name! 

How Do You Measure the "Success" of Your Children's Ministry?

Is your children's ministry successful? Are you sure? Do you really know for sure how your children's ministry impacts the children and families in your church and community? How do you know?    

If we want our ministries to be genuinely effective and successful, we need to regularly ask questions to help measure where we really are and how effective we truly are. If we do not regularly ask the "hard" questions of everything we do, there isn't a way for us to truly tell how effective we are. Consider the following questions and if you are, or should be, asking them -

Treasure Your Volunteers . . . Plan A Special Event!

I've been writing this week about treasuring your volunteers . . . there are so many ways to show your volunteers you appreciate and treasure them, but one of my favorite things to do for volunteers has always been my Holiday Open House! I've already posted about how to plan a Holiday Open House for your volunteers, so today I'll share a few things to think about if you are planning an open house for your volunteers -

Treasure Your Volunteers . . . What If I Have to "Remove" a Volunteer?

We all want to be people who treasure our volunteers, but what do we do if we need to "remove" a volunteer from the children's ministry? This is a very, very difficult situation to find yourself in. Removing a volunteer may result in the volunteer feeling hurt, rejected and unwanted . . . they will likely leave your church and be "scarred" from the experience. Removing a volunteer should be avoided if at all possible, but if you must, what should you do to cause as little damage as possible? Consider the following -

A Special Treat for Your Volunteers! (re-run)

If you are looking for something special you could make to celebrate your volunteers on their birthdays, for a volunteer of the month gift, or just to brighten a volunteer's day . . . consider making this pie your "signature" volunteer "picker-upper"! (It does have peanut-butter and dairy products in it so be sure peanut and dairy allergies aren't an issue for anyone you give it to.)

Please Check My Post on Kidmin1124 About Missing Children

Do you know according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children more than 2000 children are reported missing each day. Did you just see this number? Two thousand. This number shocks me and grieves my heart. I recently wrote an article for Kidmin1124 where I said, "I’ve served in children’s ministry for 41 years and all this time the kids in the churches where I’ve served have been a mixture of “typical” kids . . . if there is such a thing. Children from homes where their entire family went to church, children from homes where part of their family went to church (most often from homes where their parents were divorced) and children from homes where nobody went to church (community, non-churched kids). But, in spite of all these years of experience with a fairly wide variety of children and families, I have not worked with children who were runaways. I had no idea how many children in this country are runaways. This is until I added a tab to my blog for grandmas where I highlighted missing children so the grandmas (and grandpas, moms and dads) who read my blog could pray for the children and their families. I signed up with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children‘s website so they email me alerts to let me know when and where children are missing. I have to say I am shocked. There are days when my inbox is filled with these alerts. (I’m stunned how many of these children are from the state of Florida)"

Treasure Your Volunteers . . . Do They Really Feel Treasured?

We may think we "treasure our volunteers", but our volunteers may not actually "feel" very treasured. Consider the following situations where a volunteer might not feel "treasured" -

• When a person volunteers to be part of your children's ministry team, does it mean they will have all the resources and tools they need to serve effectively . . . or does it mean they will be on their own to find and purchase these things? If they have to buy the things they need in their "classrooms", they may not feel very treasured.

Treasure Your Volunteers . . . "Notice"!

Do you treasure your volunteers? Volunteers are a gift from the hand of God . . . it is completely appropriate for us to appreciate these "gifts". As we finish the month of May, we'll look at a variety of topics related to how we treat our volunteers. Today I want to focus on some things we might do to "notice" our volunteers so they know - beyond a shadow of a doubt - they are most sincerely appreciated! Consider the following ideas -

Why Should Parents Care About the Children's Ministry?

This seems like a question with an obvious answer . . . because they have children who are in the children's ministry. But, along with the reasons the senior pastor, elders and youth pastor should care about the children's ministry, consider the following reasons as well . . .

Why Should the Youth Pastor Care About the Children's Ministry?

I've been posting about the reasons people should care about children's ministry. So far I've written about why the senior pastor and elders should care . . . today I'm sharing some reasons for the Youth Pastor to care about the children's ministry. Again, the reasons I've shared in my previous posts apply to the Youth Pastor, too, but in addition, the youth pastor should care very much about the children's ministry for the following reasons -

Why Should the Elders Care About the Children's Ministry?

Last week I posted four reasons the Senior Pastor should care about the children's ministry . . . today I want to think about why a church's elders should care about the children's ministry. Obviously, the reasons I gave for the senior pastor are also reasons for the elders, but in addition, elders should care about the children's ministry for the following reasons -

Sneak Peek for VBS 2013 . . . Yes, 2013!!! Gospel Light's SonWest Roundup!

Yes, believe it or not, this post is about VBS 2013! Gospel Light has released the theme for their 2013 VBS today, so here is a quick look and for more info you can follow this link to the Gospel Light site!


For 2013 Gospel Light is going with a Western theme as children to go SonWest Roundup where they will study the life of Moses - you will be able to see their scope and sequence below . . . and of course you'll be able to find a complete review in January 2013 right here on About the Children's Department with my 2013 VBS reviews!

Dreaming of More For the Next Generation - I'm Giving One Away!

I have had the opportunity to review a new book by Michelle Anthony - Dreaming of More For the Next Generation, and I have to say it is a book I can enthusiastically recommend for everyone involved in children's ministry! In this book, Michelle, takes a serious, and much needed look at how to have a ministry which encourages lifetime faith which is, "ignited by Family Ministry"! Please allow me the opportunity to give you a "sampling" of the wealth of information and wisdom you'll find in the pages of Dreaming for More!

I Have a Winner . . .

I'm happy to announce Marilyn Heavener is the winner in my Second-Chance Berenstain Bears book give-away! Thank you Marilyn for reading About the Children's Department - please message me your address so I can have it sent to you. Thank you Zonderkidz for sending one book for me to review and for making another available for me to give away!

I'm Giving Away One, I Couldn't Love You More Book!

Don't forget, in two days I'm giving away one, I Couldn't Love You More book by Matt Hammitt on my other blog, grandma's cookie jar! This is a very sweet book and would make a wonderful Children's Day gift for the children in your life! You will find my original review at this link, but I have a couple more things to say about it . . . 

• I love this book because it not only communicates how much you love your grandchildren/children, but it points them to the most important One Who loves them . . . Jesus!
• as I said in my first review, the illustrations are wonderful!
• it makes the perfect book to close out a day or begin a new one with your youngest grandchildren/children - would be a great book to begin a new family tradition!

Second-Chance Give-Away . . .

When I have a drawing for something I give the winner two weeks to get their address to me - I post on About the Children's Department who the winner is and I message them on FB. If, after the two weeks, I do not hear from them, I have a second-chance drawing. So, I am having a second-chance drawing on May 21st for The Berenstain Bears: God Bless Our Home - you will find my original review at this link. 


If you would like to be included in my second-chance drawing, please take a moment to "share" or "comment" on this post. If you "share" please comment as well to let me know so I can give you your entry. And, by the way, if you haven't already "liked" About the Children's Department by using the "tab" in the "find us on facebook" box ON THE BLOG, please take a moment to do so and you will be entered in all my drawings! Thank you for reading About the Children's Department and for sharing it with the people you know!

Why Should the Senior Pastor Care About the Children's Ministry?

Is your senior pastor the biggest "cheer leader" of your children's ministry? Does he know what is happening in your children's ministry and is he able to share the vision/purpose of the children's ministry with others? Or is he very "hands off" when it comes to the children's ministry? Happily, at my church, the Senior Pastor cares very much about the children's ministry, but I've worked with a lot of churches over the years and sadly in most instances the senior pastor not only didn't know what was happening in the children's ministry, he didn't want to be "bothered" with it. In far too many cases the senior pastor's view of the children's ministry was, "This is why we have a children's pastor/director".

Safe Nurseries + Safe Equipment = Welcoming & Effective Ministry - Nursery Curriculum Review - Baby Beginnings from Gospel Light!

Over the years I have found one Baby/Nursery resource which had everything I looked for - Gospel Light's Baby Beginnings Nursery Kit! It is so easy to use and includes everything you need to begin, and keep going, a great baby/parent ministry!

Safe Nurseries + Safe Equipment = Welcoming & Effective Ministry - Nursery Curriculum Review - Lil' Sprouts Club from Regular Baptist Press!

We all know we need to identify and utilize effective curriculum with the children in our ministries . . . but usually we begin actual "classes" for children when they are two or three years old. In most instances, our nursery is really "child care" - after all, the nursery is for babies and how can we "teach" them? Granted, "teaching" in the nursery doesn't look the same as it does when we teach older children - even preschoolers, but we certainly are able to teach our littlest ones about Jesus and I'm happy to say there are some excellent nursery resources available for you to use!

Summer Ministry - Family Fun and Growth Night!

Each year as we work to develop genuinely effective ministry to the children in our ministries we look at ideas, programs and possibilities for ways to grow and strengthen our ministry. There are many options to choose from, but as you look at the choices you have available to you, keep the following tips in mind.

Two FREE Curriculum Resources for You . . .

Last month I reviewed curriculum, so when I noticed two of the companies are now offering some of their curriculum for FREE, I thought I'd share this info with you!


First of all, Gospel Light is offering eight of their Kids Time lessons for FREE! I really like what they did with this curriculum and encourage you to take them up on this offer! (Follow this link for the specifics.) You'll find eight of Gospel Light's Kids Time books and links for downloading one complete free lesson from each book! These lessons are wonderful resources for Sunday School, children's church, mid-week or any time you need a resource with lots of options!


The second publisher offering FREE curriculum is DiscipleTown, but if you are going to take advantage of this FREE offer, you have to do it today, May 17th! If you follow the link you will be able to download the complete, four-lesson resource; How to Use My Bible. As they say, "How to Use My Bible includes everything you need to teach four Kids Church lessons. This downloadable unit includes Leader Guides, Microsoft PowerPoint™ Templates, and object lesson videos, plus much more! Get ready to experience Kids Church like never before!"


Check both of these FREE offers out today!

Free For You . . . One Illustrate My Own Bible Heroes Book!

I LOVE story books for children! I really LOVE Bible story books which introduce children to people from the Bible, so when those people are some of the "unknown" heroes . . . well, I especially LOVE those stories! So, a few years ago I sat down and wrote several Unknown Bible Hero books, but since I'm not really an illustrator, I thought it would be fun to write the books so children could be their own illustrator and illustrate their own book!

Start Now and Plan a Volunteer Holiday Open House!

As you have noticed, I am a strong supporter of making volunteer support and encouragement a big part of your children's ministry. Volunteers give of themselves and their time to serve in our children's ministries . . . they could choose to do something else with their time, yet there they are . . . week after week . . . serving in our children's ministries. We could not do what we do without them, so it is entirely appropriate and right to take time to show our appreciation to them!


Last week I wrote about planning a Volunteer Holiday Open House, so today I want to talk a little more about this. If you decide to do this, you will likely find it is one of the biggest things you could do to show appreciation to your volunteers! It is not difficult to do, but it does take some time and planning to pull it off. I'll outline the basic plan and encourage you to get a team together now to start working on your volunteer holiday open house!

Take the Blinders Off!

Okay - today I'm writing about something I care so very much about . . . children's ministry. Some of you who read this need to know, what I'm writing doesn't really apply to your children's ministry . . . but before you read a bit further and decide your ministry isn't the ministry I'm talking about, read the whole post and ask God to remove your "blinders" and help you honestly evaluate to see if there might be at least some of what I say which applies to your ministry.


I don't have horses . . . the one time I rode a horse the entire camp laughed about it all summer long (I was a counselor at a camp and they thought it would be nice for the counselors to have an opportunity to ride the horses . . . I just couldn't get my horse to go straight and we kept getting "stuck" in the bushes - it was an experience!) However, even though my personal horse experience is limited - and not highly successful - I do know about "blinders". They are put on some horses to help keep them from being distracted by the things around them. Blinders can be good, but I think in children's ministry they can also keep us from being effective.


Far too often we don't know what we don't know. We think we know what we are doing and we move forward, but when we look back for results - children and families with changed lives - we see our youth ministries still ended up being a "salvage ministry" because we really missed the mark in our children's ministry. So, what can we do to keep from "missing the mark"? Consider the following -

So . . . How Can I Tell if My Church Understands the Importance of Children's Ministry?

Yesterday I shared some "clues" you might notice if your children's ministry is not strong and healthy. Today I'm going to give you a few more things to look for. 

• In this day and age nearly everyone has a computer - or two! Take a moment and look at your church's website. If you were a visitor, what image of your children's ministry and family ministry does your church's website project? Will they have to search to find any information on your children's ministry? Once they find it, does it give them an idea of the vision, passion and plan you have intentionally put in place to reach children and then help them grow in their walk with Jesus? Does it tell them how you intentionally come alongside them as parents to equip them as the primary teachers of their children? Are there opportunities for families to learn and grow and have fun at your church? Take a look at your church's website and this will give you a pretty good idea of the health of your children's ministry.

Summer Ministry - Children and Families Reaching Out in Tangible Ways . . . and More!

All this month I've been talking about Summer ministry - re-focusing ministries you are already committed to so they are more effective in reaching out to the children and families in your church and community in the Summer; such as Sunday school, VBS and mid-week ministries as well as planning special outreach events. These types of Summer ministry primarily function as opportunities planned and implemented by the church. Today I want to consider Summer ministry with the goal of giving the children and families of your church the vision and opportunity for them to reach out to others in your church, community and world.

So How Can You Tell if Your Church Has a Vision, Passion and Plan For Your Children's Ministry . . . or Not?

We all would like to think, and believe, the leaders in our churches understand how vital Children's Ministry is to the overall health of the church; but sadly in far too many churches this is not the case. You can clearly see this when churches add music staff while their children's ministries flounder without vision, passion and a plan. Don't get me wrong; I believe music ministry can be a very effective way for people to use the gifts God has given them and certainly has a role to fill in leading people in praising God, but when 43% of people get saved before the age of 13 and less than 23% get saved after the age of 21 it is obvious how much it matters if our children's ministries are one of the primary focuses of the church.

Why Does Children's Ministry Matter? (re-run)

Children's ministry does matter, but why does it matter? Obviously it matters because children matter to Jesus . . . in Matthew 19:13-15 it says, "One day children were brought to Jesus in the hope that he would lay hands on them and pray over them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus intervened: "Let the children alone, don't prevent them from coming to me. God's kingdom is made up of people like these." (the Msg) If children mattered to Jesus, and they did, then they should matter to us!

Take the Time to Support and Appreciate Your Vacation Bible School Volunteers!

Churches will be holding their VBS in a month or so and while there are so many things to think about and do when it comes to getting ready for your Vacation Bible School, I want to add one more thing to your list. Don't worry . . . this thing is so much fun! Plan now to implement a complete volunteer support and appreciation ministry! In this day and age we are all so busy . . . and yet, in spite of being busy you have people who have volunteered to serve on your VBS team! We do not need any other reason to support and appreciate our volunteers!

Summer Outreach! Family Events . . . and more!

For the past few days I've been talking about Summer outreach and looked at re-focusing ministries you are already doing such as Sunday School, Vacation Bible School and Mid-week Ministry so they have vision, passion, a plan and are effective at reaching out to the families in your church and community. Today I'm going to talk about planning family events as special Summer outreach opportunities to the families in your church and community. I'm not going to talk about children's ministry vs. family ministry because I was invited to write a guest post forMinistry-to-Children and I do so in there; (Feel free to check that post out by following this link) other than to say, we need to "come alongside" parents as they teach their children by being intentional in our ministries and building on and reinforcing what the parents are teaching their children. This is where a vision statement comes in. What is it we want to accomplish in our children’s ministries? What is our plan to get there? When we join up with the parents by equipping and coming alongside them, we will experience real and measurable results.

So . . . A Few Thoughts About Why We Should Dream a Little!

I've been writing about dreaming a little . . . encouraged you to think about what you'd do if you weren't limited by money, time, space and staffing, gave you some affordable . . . and in some cases free . . . ideas of ways to see some of your "dreams" come true in your ministry and encouraged you to involve others in your church and larger community in seeing those dreams come true. I'd like to give you a couple additional things to think about when it comes to dreams . . .

Encourage Your Volunteers by Planning a Christmas Open House!

We have been talking about how to plan a ministry of support and encouragement to our volunteers, so today I want to look at another way to tell our volunteers "thank-you"!

Encourage by planning a Christmas open house and invite all your volunteers and spouses (maybe even the kids?!!). Keep it simple, but fun!  Provide cookies, chips. dips, crackers and cheese, deli meats, cheeses and rolls, punch, cocoa, coffee and ??? !!!   Ask crafty people from your church to make ornaments for each teacher. If you talk to area restaurant managers, florists and small business owners as most of them will donate gift certificates for a meal, flowers or item from their store - get one for each volunteer and distribute them at the open house as well! Make it a game and place each gift certificate in an envelope. Draw names and then as you do the person may choose if they want to open their certificate or take an opened certificate from someone else - and give them their unopened certificate which they would then open. Play Christmas music and be ready to enjoy an evening of fun! I always held my open houses over two evenings – by doing this my volunteers were able to choose which date worked best for them and nearly all my volunteers were able to attend! My volunteers loved the Christmas Open Houses, but be aware, it takes a considerable amount of planning to pull this off. Over the coming months we will touch bases from time to time to remind you of the things you need to be doing if you want to plan an open house for your volunteers.

I Have a Winner . . .

I'm happy to announce Dianne Cunha Audette is the winner in my Resuce Me! book give-away! (You'll find the review at this link) Thank you Dianne for reading About the Children's Department, (please message me your address by May 25th so I can have it sent to you) and thank you Bryce Morgan for sending one for me to review and for making another available for me to give away!

Summer Outreach! Mid-Week Ministry!

I've been talking about the opportunities you currently provide . . . such as Sunday school and VBS . . . and how they relate to your Summer ministry. Today we will consider another thing you are probably already doing and some questions to help you "re-focus" it to be a truly effective Summer outreach . . . mid-week ministry.

Most churches have a mid-week ministry, but many of them experience limited "success" with this outreach. Let's take a moment to consider this and then look at mid-week ministry as well as what it could look like in the Summer. Again, the first thing you need to do in regards to your mid-week ministry is determine what your goals and vision are for this ministry - think about these questions . . . 

Dream a Little - Part Two - Get Others In On the Dreaming!

In my earlier post, Dream a Little!, I encouraged you to dream about what you'd like to do in and with your ministry if money, time, space and volunteers were not an issue. I'd like to take this thought a little farther and encourage you to dream, but when you do, let others in on the "dreaming" with you!

Let's Plan a Volunteer Appreciation Dinner!

We've looked at supporting your volunteers with prayer and encouraging them by remembering birthdays, sending emails and notes and "adopting" your volunteers. All of these are fairly easy to put in place; just takes a bit of organizing. Today we will talk about how to encourage your volunteers by planning an appreciation dinner. This takes some planning and preparation to pull off, but is well worth it! Since our "year" of ministry tends to run from September to June or August, the spring is the ideal time to have your dinner, but you could also have a dinner in the Summer or to kick off the Fall ministry year. Today I'll give an overview with several ideas for unique dinners you might want to try with your volunteers! Consider the following . . . 

Anything - Love = Nothing (re-run)

Do you ever listen to sermons from pastors at churches you do not attend? I like to listen to sermons from the pastors at Calvary Church, Grand Rapids, MI . . . especially when the weather gets cold and I'm stuck at home on Sundays. Recently, I listened to a sermon by Dr. Jim Samra on I Corinthians 13 - Think. Love. Live. Love Never Ends. Take 33 minutes and seven seconds to listen to this sermon . . . you will be so glad you did!

Summer Ministry - Let's Take Another Look at VBS!

Okay, so after we consider refocusing our Sunday school to focus on being "Summer outreach ready" what else might already be a part of our children's ministry? Well, in many, if not most, churches in this country Vacation Bible School is the main, if not only, outreach on the church calendar year. This past month of January I've focused on VBS with curriculum reviews, side-by-side comparison charts, how to plan your VBS, train your volunteers and so much more; so it only seems appropriate to consider how VBS can be an effective part of your Summer outreach.

Dream a Little!

It can be easy to get so involved with all we have to do with children's ministry . . . recruiting, training, teaching, etc . . . we find ourselves focusing on those things and don't ever take a moment to dream. Certainly we want to be sure we are taking care of the things we need to do, but we also need to make time to think about what we might like to see happen in our ministries as well. If money, time, space and staffing were not an issue, what would you like to be able to do in and with your children's ministry?  

Remember Birthdays, Send E-Mails and "Adopt" Those Volunteers!

Last week we looked at how to begin a ministry of support and encouragement for your volunteers and considered how a prayer ministry is the first place to start. Today we are going to look at two simple ways to kick off encouraging volunteers and one idea which has the potential to invigorate your volunteers and church like nothing else!