tips for $aving money

my brother-in-law john works as the operations director for a large for-profit company. part of his job is to always be on the lookout for ways in which the company could be saving additional money. this year, he spent time researching and looking at the budget from a fresh perspective until he stumbled upon an area, that after a strategic restructure, will wind up saving the company close to a million dollars.

so, i asked him to share some of his money saving tips with us - in hopes that we might stumble upon a fresh idea for saving our churches near a million dollars!

ten ways for children's ministry leaders to $ave money:

1. raid the closets, storage sheds, rooms and pastors offices for long lost supplies you can use.

2. locate the local dollar store.  it is amazing how far $25 will go in that store.

3. buy in bulk when you actually have plans to use everything.

4. do not buy in bulk when it is just a "good deal."  most likely you will never use it and you just wasted money.

5. let nothing gather dust...if you see something with dust find a way to use it before you buy anything new.

6. go digital whenever possible, if not print on both sides of the paper

7. ask parents to supply items for their own kids.

8. church events do not need to equal food.  plan events before or after meal times 9am-11am, 2pm-5pm or 7pm-9pm.

9. buy off-season.  christmas and easter come every year.  this category is allowed to gather dust until the next year.  you can often get things 75%+ off if you buy after the holiday is over.

10. consider giving your freed up money to other ministries or help those in need.

#8 is my particular favorite. i always assume that a full meal is required for a meeting.

what are your tips?

ridiculous recruiting

i looked up the word "ridiculous" in the dictionary. it comes from the latin ridiculosus, which literally means "laughable."

last night i led a brainstorm time with the children's ministry team at my church. we were all growing a bit tired of struggling with the same issue  - too many children and not enough volunteers.

at the last meeting i suggested we try a new approach in order to solve our problem. how about a big-huge-out-of-the-box-never-before-seen-brainstorm in which we spend a focused amount of time trying to think of ridiculous-even laughable volunteer recruiting ideas. my hope was that in that crazy time of focused ridiculousness, the mother of all recruiting ideas would emerge!

so that's what we did.

first, i explained the 5 simple rules:

1. have fun!

2. no planning

3. celebrate each other's ideas

4. no idea is a bad idea

5. be ridiculous

then we needed an activity to get our minds thinking ridiculously. i handed out various toys, and each person came up with a crazy recruiting idea that included their object. oh! it was hilarious! my favorite was the person who had a pair of silly scissors suggesting that we cut out masks to look like our pastor and then walk around with the masks on our faces asking people to volunteer. now that's ridiculous.

the energy continued to rise as the excitement continued to grow. if there was energy around a particular category, i encouraged the group to continue thinking in that direction. if i hadn't heard from one person in a while, i called them by name and told them i could see something good going on in their brains.

it's amazing to watch people's eyes light up, and brains start turning when given the opportunity to be creative and completely free from careful planning. i almost wonder if we did this more often, if we would more fully enjoy our times of planning.

last night, we needed to feel safe and freed up to explore new ideas. something that usually only happens when you are given permission to be ridiculous.

next month, we'll have our work cut out for us as we try to execute all of the ideas. but today, we are resting in the satisfaction that we pushed ourselves to think ridiculously creative, and we trusted each other, and we came up with some really dang good ideas.

my reflections on christianity 21

originally uploaded by christianity21

i think i might be forever changed from spending last week with a very special group of people at the christianity 21 event. the experience was so different from other christian conferences that i have been to in the past, and it might have been because of that - that my mind and heart were stretched and shaped in new ways.

these are my personal reflections that i hope will continue to shape me as i return to normal life:

1. "the church must listen to the neighborhood." someone said this during a video and it has yet to stop swirling around in my mind. what if we really listened to the adults and children in our neighborhoods and created church missions and strategies based on what we heard, instead of assuming that the church is exactly what the neighborhood needs.

2. there is a desperate need for women pastors and leaders in the church of the 21st century, and we've done too much in the past to simply talk about women in church leadership. it's time to give women the stage to lead and influence us with new forms of ministry.

3. the glbt (gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender) conversation is not going away anytime soon and i'm grateful for that. it was refreshing and wonderful and quite beautiful to learn from speakers representing the gay christian community, and to be in small group discussions with gay church leaders. something is stirring in my soul as i learn, and discuss, and interact. i hope the same is true for our churches.

4. there is a deep need for people to be safe and loved in our churches. we must continue to reinvent our churches so that people don't need to be right before they can fully belong.



originally uploaded by christianity21

additional christianity 21 resources: flickr photo stream, sparkhouse video, and a fantastic summary from intervarsity press.

c21: faith in the 21st century

this weekend, i'm in chilly minnesota (they say it's going to snow tomorrow, what?!) enjoying the christianity 21 conference. my husband's company helped shape this event and i'm enjoying experiencing it with him. the basic idea of the event, led by doug pagitt and tony jones, is that 21 speakers (who all happen to be women) present their thoughts on christianity in the 21st century in 21 minutes or less.

there are many things about this event that are interesting to me: such as 21 emerging women with something valuable to say all at one event (and yet many conferences that i've attended recently seem to be hesitant to put just one emerging women on the stage), and the casual, laid back nature of the entire event is refreshing, and the best part - doug and tony invited a whole group of very well known christian speakers to serve at the event, but not actually speak (some will actually man the registration tables). their names aren't even listed on the website - people like: shane claiborne, and jay bakker, and spencer burke.

but, of course i'm most interested to hear what all of the different voices have to say about what christianity looks like to them in the 21st century. you know, it's all a little confusing to me right now about how to live with a strong faith that trusts, and has peace, and is dependent. i'm looking forward to a bit of inspiration and a breathe of fresh faith in my life this weekend.

you can follow the tweets at #c21

day 8 blog tour: shift by brian haynes

i'm thrilled to be posting my review on day 8 of the shift blog tour organized by henry zonio and the lovely folks at group publishing.

shift: what it takes to finally reach families today is the newest book from group and author brian haynes. in the book, the author outlines a detailed plan for connecting families to 7 spiritual milestones in the lives of their children, students and young adults. this plan, based on the shema found in deuteronomy 6 is the model in which spiritual formation at kingsland baptist church in texas is shaped around.

the milestones are carefully mapped out in the first few chapters of the book based on children and students' ages. they include:

• the birth of a baby


• faith commitment


• preparing for adolescence


• commitment to purity


• passage to adulthood


• high school graduation


• life in christ

while i liked the logically mapped out approach, and it was written in a way easy enough to understand, i didn't necessarily think the book lived up to the title "what it takes to finally reach families today." to me, it seemed like a great approach for traditional christian families eager to elevate the faith in their own homes, which of course, is desperately needed. there are so many christian parents who feel ill-equipped and insecure about raising spiritually minded children. this model provides a great encouragement and spiritual map for parents who are already connected to a church and ready to become fully invested in the spiritual responsibility and leadership in their children's lives.

but, to me, the majority of families today do not fit into this category. today's family is complicated, and while most would probably say they desire to raise spiritually minded and highly moral children, it seems as if very few are able or willing to do the work it requires to accomplish this.

today's family looks radically different than it ever has - with gay and lesbian parents raising children, single parents raising children completely on their own, emotionally absent parents where children are raising themselves, and grandparents raising grandchildren they never intended to be responsible for. as i read the book, i wondered how all of these families would fit into the milestone model. i'm not sure the model would be completely applicable.

i'm grateful for the contribution this book makes in the ever important conversation about how to practically reach families in the church - but i dream about the day when we'll have additional voices sharing models and opinions around what it takes to reach all families.