How Successful Children's Ministry Leaders Spend Their Time

Time is such a precious commodity. We all have the same amount of time each week. How we use the time we've been given determines how successful we will be. There's a lot of things you can spend your time on when you're in children's ministry. There's plenty of people and projects vying for your time. As I've studied successful children's ministry leaders over the years, it has become apparent that they all have something in common. It's what they spend their time on. Let's examine what's on their to-do-list. Successful children's ministry leaders spend their time BUILDING TEAMS. I have often said this...

The success of your ministry rises and falls on the strength of the volunteer team you build.

Successful children's ministry leaders know this and spend a big part of their time each week bringing new people on their team. Look at their phone call record and you'll see they logged many hours calling potential volunteers. Check their schedule and you'll see they had coffee with potential volunteers. Look at their email history and you'll see many of the emails were invites to a volunteer orientation. How much of your time this past week was spent on building your volunteer team? Think about how you can increase the amount of time you spend each week on this. And if you haven't gotten a copy of my book "The Formula for Building Great Volunteer Teams," you can get it at this link. In this book, I share how we built a volunteer team of over 2,600 in a local church setting. Successful children's ministry leaders spend their time BUILDING PEOPLE. This flows out of the first point. When they get a new volunteer, they don't shove them in a classroom and forget about them. Instead, they spend time helping the volunteer grow in their faith and ministry skills. They live by this mantra.

Rather than using volunteers to build the ministry, use the ministry to build volunteers.

Through coaching, feedback and training sessions, they pour time into equipping volunteers for the work of the ministry. If you look at their calendar, you will see they spend more time equipping than doing. This falls right in line with Ephesians 4, which says ministry leaders should "equip people for the work of the ministry." The best way to build your ministry is by building the people who serve in your ministry. Finally, successful children's ministry leaders spend their time BUILDING MOMENTUM. They have a specific vision for the ministry and rally people to that vision. They get people excited about the ministry. They share stories of how the ministry is changing people's lives. Check their social media posts and you'll see lots of posts about the ministry. Check their meeting schedule and you'll see time spent building bridges to the other ministries in the church. They are a squeaky wheel for children's ministry. Here's a challenge for you. Keep track of your time for a week and see what percentage of it is doing the three things above. Look for things on your calendar that you can delegate or drop, so you can spend more time building people, building the ministry and building momentum. If you are spending the majority of your time doing, the ministry you are leading will remain stuck where it is now. The best way to see your ministry begin growing, is to do the 3 things listed above. That means you may need to say "no" to some things you are currently doing so you can say "yes" to the 3 things above. If you'd like to increase your leadership skills and focus, there's still time to register for the "Advance Children's Ministry Leadership Coaching" program. Advance is a 6 month coaching program that will help you lead your ministry with intentionality and focus. Space is limited, so register now at this link. Every year, every month, every day, every hour, every minute and every second matters. Focus your time and you will see the positive results.