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Wednesday
Nov182009

a prayer for fresh hope & a new road

isaiah 43:16-21 (the message)

this is what god says,
the god who builds a road right through the ocean,
who carves a path through pounding waves,
the god who summons horses and chariots and armies—
they lie down and then can't get up;
they're snuffed out like so many candles:

"forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history.

be alert, be present. i'm about to do something brand-new.
it's bursting out! don't you see it? there it is!

i'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands."

today, i'll be in an all day planning & strategy meeting with a church who is going through an incredible amount of change. i'll be praying isaiah 43 all day as i lead and encourage this exceptional group through the transition.

i'm praying and believing that god will help us to be alert and present as we wait and hope for him to do something brand-new.  may his fresh love and grace bless you today.
Monday
Nov162009

the small things really really matter

i'm convinced that when it comes to caring for volunteers, the small things really really matter.

usually when we think about celebrating or shepherding volunteers we consider big things: a year end party, a meaningful gift, words in a card or praise on stage in front of the whole church. while all of these things are great i think we make more of a positive impact on a volunteer when we are consistent with the small things. and the same is true when we are inconsistent in the small things - a volunteer who is consistently frustrated by the small things is not going to have a change of heart when a big celebration comes along and the leader is ready to publicly sing his praise.

consider these ideas for stepping up your "smaller" game.

1. spell volunteers' names correctly (i'm not joking) - this is especially important when printing a volunteer's name badge that he/she will have to wear every sunday. i experienced this with a volunteer recently and you should have seen the look of disappointment on her face when she saw her name tag. i offered to fix it and she said, "no, that's ok, i'll make do with this." it broke my heart. this is worth taking the time to get right.

2. pronounce volunteers' names correctly (again, not a joke) - i get it, some names are really hard to pronounce. my maiden name is wulbecker (wool-becker) but it is so meaningful when someone says your name correctly. and there's no shame in asking someone how to say her name.

3. follow through on previously made arrangements - for example: if a volunteer is leaving work early to pick up materials at church to help out with the program, make sure the materials are there on time and in the correct location! a volunteer will only offer to help a few times before realizing that it's more trouble than it's worth.

4. email and return calls immediately - i believe volunteers should always be treated as vips. when you see a volunteer's email in your inbox, move it up to high priority and reply as soon as possible. the same goes for phone calls.

so here is the basic equation:

small ways of valuing volunteers + consistency = happy volunteers who feel honored!
Friday
Nov132009

friday (the 13th) reflections

don't be scared..even thought it's friday the 13th, it's been a great week.

today's reflections: i'm content at work due to a new schedule and projects more aligned with my strengths, and social media for children's leaders - embrace it!

and a big thank you to ALL of the children's leaders who responded to the blog post about being added to the participant list for phil vischer's new project. thank you for your fantastic response - looking forward to your hearing thoughts!

happy friday!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onKrtgyg_sg]
Wednesday
Nov112009

add your name to the list!

are you good at complaining? criticizing? giving honest feedback?

then we need you!

as you may know, we are working with phil vischer to develop newchildren's ministry resources for his latest and wildly innovative project "what's in the bible." to hear more about the project straight from phil's mouthcheck out this video.

this week, we are finishing up our testing participant list for the project.

we are specifically looking for medium size churches (average weekend attendance 51-300 people) and large size churches (average weekend attendance 301-2000 people) who implement a sunday morning program for children, and would be willing to give honest feedback about the children's ministry resources we are developing for 2010.

it's easy. we ask you questions. you give answers. and hopefully you like what we've come up with!

if you have already contacted me - thank you! you'll be hearing from me soon.

if you are interested and haven't yet contacted me, you have until the end of this week.

you can email me: amy@lemonlimekids.com | tweet me: @adolan | or leave a comment on the blog

we need your church name, location, email info and church size

thanks!

amy
Monday
Nov092009

the disappearance of childhood in our churches?

i'm a big fan of  neal postman's idea that we've shrunk the season of childhood for our children. he suggests that most of what we offer kids in our culture is actually mini-adult type activities, instead of being purely childlike activities reserved only for the special season of childhood.

i find that i'm on the lookout for evidence of this all around me. and my latest victim: the church!

maybe, just maybe there are some traditions that we have in our churches that contribute less to childlike acts of faith formation and instead actually contribute to introducing our children to an adult faith perspective far too soon.

maybe traditions like:

1. children's choir i'm going to get in big trouble for this one.

sometimes the children's choir appears to me as mini-training for future adult choir members. not always, but sometimes i wonder what the unique childlike faith experience is for kids that can be experienced in their choirs. how are we contributing to childlike faith when we encourage kids to stand up in front of adults and sing songs, hopefully to be followed by thunderous applause from the adults?  but i'm open. convince me otherwise.

2. exposing children to inappropriate scripture

and i'm not talking about the book of song of solomon. i'm talking about stories in the bible that expose children to violence or confusing symbolic metaphors. i love how intolerant we are towards violence in video games or movies for children, but we often don't apply the same logic to the loads of stories in the bible which include similar types of violence.  what if we saved some stories for adults only, and passed them on to our children only when their season of childhood was officially over?

3. children's games and play time: postman says, "children's games, in a phrase, are an endangered species. little league baseball and pee wee football, for example, not only are supervised by adults but are modeled in every possible way on big league sports" (p. 4).  even in our churches, we create games with complicated rules and fierce competition instead of encouraging our children to play and participate for their own childlike enjoyment and learning.

while we have made great progress in creating child specific areas in the church, with kid friendly decor and child specific curriculum and activities, i think there is still further work to be done. and i'm anxious for the church to take the lead in re-establishing the season of childhood in our culture.

i love benjamin franklin's famous saying, "our whole life is but a greater and longer childhood."