4. Ministry Leadership
As I mentioned in #3, you’ve been placed in your role for a reason. I trust & assume you feel called to it and that your church leaders believe you are called to it. If this is the case, then you certainly have a responsibility to LEAD your ministry. Yes, it must be managed well, but leading means things like:
- you have a vision for for your ministry (that’s aligned with the overall vision of the church)
- you are committed to equipping & developing leaders, not just recruiting followers
- you are willing to make the hard decisions & solve problems when they arise
While I deeply want my senior leadership to be involved and passionate about reaching children & families, I also want them to have confidence that I’ve got it covered, that I am capable of leading the area that they’ve placed me over. Not just manage it, fill holes and keep kids safe, but LEAD it well!
5. Self Management
My heart breaks when I (often) come across young leaders who are passionate about their calling and sincerely invested in their work, but haven’t yet learned how to manage themselves. I’ve been in those shoes! It’s no wonder most seminary graduates are out of ministry within 5 years. As Ed Young says, ministry is “brutiful”, and when we don’t manage ourselves well, it leans heavily toward “brutal” rather than “beautiful.
Your church leaders can structure your work environment to help in this area, but ultimately you have to claim responsibility for managing yourself. In honor to God, yourself, your family and, yes, your leaders, this is critical.
Here are a few things to pay attention to, in no particular order:
- Time & money: I’ve told the story before how I learned from my former leader, John Maxwell, that you can pretty easily determine a person’s priorities by looking at their check book & their calendar. How do you spend your time & money? If it’s a challenge, get a mentor to help you figure it out.
- Family: if you’ve been in children’s ministry for very long then you’ve no doubt heard our friend Jim Wideman say that we cannot “sacrifice our families on the altar of our ministries.” I don’t really need to add anything to that to make the point…yet it amazes me how often I see families being sacrificed. Check out this post for additional ideas in this area.
- Personal development: what’s your plan to grow? If you don’t have a plan, you won’t grow, period. Here are a few posts to help in this area- Becoming A Leader; Just Do SOMETHING; The Most Important Person In Your Ministry Is…YOU.
- Spiritual growth: are you reading your Bible? Are you actually worshiping (not just attending church as your job)? How’s your prayer life? If the Holy Spirit were removed from your life & ministry, how long would it take to notice?
- Health: the Bible says that physical exercise profits little..but there IS profit to it. The Bible says our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit…are you treating it as such? This is an area of real challenge for me – sweet tooth + dislike of exercise + type A focus on ministry = neglected health! But the older I get the more I realize it’s importance. For the sake of yourself, your family and your ministry, don’t neglect your health – you have permission to take care of yourself!
________________
These are just a few ideas about what your church leadership should expect from you or I as a children’s & family ministry leader.
