Five ways to Get, "Out of the Box" in Your Children's Ministry - #2 - Connect with Your Pastor

I've been writing about whether your Children's Ministry is, "in the box" or, "out of the box" when it comes to interacting with other areas of your church, and we have looked at some specific ways you can do exactly this . . . get out of the box, and stop being "compartmentalized" in your ministry by connecting with the Youth Ministry and ministry to/with parents and grandparents. Today I want to look at getting out of the box by engaging your pastor. 

When you need volunteers in your ministry, the people in your church expect you to ask them to get involved. They expect to see notices/fliers in the bulletin. They are not surprised if they receive a phone call or email from the Children's Department about opportunities to serve. They are not shocked if you personally talk with them about helping. They are used to these things and have likely become fairly accomplished at not noticing, tuning out or even saying, "no". But, there is one thing you can do which will get their attention and when you, "get out of the box" and connect with this person, the impact on your Children's Ministry will be significant.

Who is this person and how might you get, "out of the box" and engage the them in your Children's Ministry? The person is your Senior Pastor and when he is engaged, people sit up and pay attention. Consider the following . . . 

• You could involve your Senior Pastor by having him, personally make requests for people to volunteer in the Children's Ministry. When the Senior Pastor says serving in the Children's Ministry is a great place to be involved, people pay attention . . . and respond!
• You could involve your Senior Pastor as an occasional helper with the children. This is great on several levels . . . he gets to personally see and experience what happens in the Children's Ministry, parents see him personally involved and children have an opportunity to see and get to know him on their "turf"!
• You could involve him by asking him to preach about the value of serving in the Children's Ministry.
• You could put together a list of the children's prayer requests each week, so the Senior Pastor can be personally praying for the concerns of the youngest members of his congregation.

These are just a few ways you could get, "out of the box" and engage your Senior Pastor in your Children's Ministry. How do you do this in your ministry?