Orange 09 Wrap-Up

I’m looking for others in CM who’ll be at The Orange Conference in Atlanta,GA this week.

I’d love to compile their thoughts for a post-conference wrap up series.

If you are one, or know one, leave their contact info in the comments section

 

So, You Want A New Playground (3 of 3): Making it Happen without Killing Yourself

Our church’s new playground project will be completed within the next month.
This last weekend, we completed phase 2 of the project.

We’re learning a ton about the playground business and what it takes to re-imagine a play space and I thought I’d share my insights.

The final post in this series will offer a couple suggestions to keep in mind before you launch into a project of this scope and magnitude.
Adding a space to your church that is designed with your kids in mind can be one of the most exciting things you’ll be a part of in CM.  Just don’t kill yourself, your ministry, or your family in the process.
Three ways you can get through a project like this with your sanity in tact can be found below:

God’s Timing, Not Yours.
If you try to tackle a project too fast, you may find yourself spinning your wheels until you’ve collapsed.
Take a deep breath when you start this process and remember to pray.  It’s not unheard of for a project like this to take over a year.  Pace yourself.
God may move in ways during this process that will grow your faith exponentially.  Keep a journal so that you can remember how faithful God is.
Matt McKee, a fellow CM, has some thoughts on the importance of remembering.  Check them out here.

Value before Vision.
Your church won’t rally behind the vision you have for your area unless they value the things you value.
As I wrote here, great ideas don’t sell themselves.  Your church has to first understand the importance and value of reaching young families in your community.  Creating a space for them to feel comfortable on campus won’t matter if your church doesn’t see that as something that will add value to the church.
Phase 1 of any large project is a process of rallying people behind your vision and raising the means to accomplish it.  Don’t try to do those things at the same time or in reverse order.  You’ll burn yourself out.

Make it Safe. Make it Last.
Save yourself time and energy and plan for this space to last 10-15 years.
This means you’ll need to get the parents of kids in your nursery just as involved in this project as the parents of your pre-teens.
Your space also needs to look and feel safe (for parent buy-in)… while also looking adventurous and exciting (for kid buy-in).  Do not sacrifice one for the other.
By making your space lasting, you’ll save yourself the trouble of redesigning the space in 3-5 years and repeating the process all over again (fundraising the second time will be harder than the first).
By making your space safe, you’ll show parents that the safety of their kids matters inside and outside of your programmed time.

Our hope is that this series has been helpful for you and your church as you think creatively about the space you provide for children in your programs.
As I said before adding a space to your church that is designed with your kids in mind can be one of the most exciting things you’ll be a part of in CM.
(Sam Luce, Children’s Pastor at Mt. Zion Ministries Church in Utica, NY, talks about his experience revamping their space in a series of posts from early 2008.)

So, what kind of project is in your church’s near future?
Have you recently undergone a similar project and have thoughts to share?

The comments section awaits your input!

 

So, You Want A New Playground (2 of 3): $aving Money While Serving Jesus

Our church’s new playground project will be completed within the next month.
Yesterday, we completed phase 2 of the project.

We’re learning a ton about the playground business and what it takes to re-imagine a play space and I thought I’d share my insights.

Today, we’ll be looking at REAL ways you and your church can save money.

Some quick facts about our situation can be found by reading yesterday’s post HERE.

As I wrote yesterday, our first quotes came in at just under $150,000.  By the time we signed the final project, we had knocked that price down to $60,000.
How did we do it?

Saving Money While Serving Jesus

1. We were honest.
   Companies knew, up front, who their competition was and that we were going to go with the lowest bid. Period.
   Our testimony to these companies was twofold: 1) We were a church that handles business in an open forum and 2) We value the gifts and offerings that our parishioners have given… we will not spend more of the church’s money than we have to.
   Just in the bidding period, we were able to see the $150k reduced to $120k.
2. We designed our own product.
   Not from scratch, of course.
   We assembled a team of parents and kids who looked at each bid’s structure and chose their favorite play areas.
   We took everyone’s favorites and had each company do a mock up of the same structures using their lowest priced manufacturer.
   By replicating a name brand structure and using a local manufacturer to do the work, our $120k bid was reduced to $95k.
3. We made phone calls.
   You’ll want to see the last 3 finished projects each company submitting a bid has done… but you also want to ask those churches or schools what deals they were given.
   If you followed the “rule of 3” and are asking 3 companies to give you a list of their last 3 projects, then you’ll come up with at least 9 places to call to see what ways they were able to save money.
   Did you know that some companies will offer to absorb the cost of taxes?  Some can offer discounts on products already in their warehouses.  Others will have grants that you can apply for.
   The options vary from company to company and state to state, so you’ll need to make those phone calls.
   At the end of the day, we were able to get a final bid of $75,000 because we knew what cards the company we were dealing with had in their hands and what they could offer.
   That’s right, networking saved us $20k.
4. We used our own sweat.
   Remember when I said that your overall cost will be about 1/3 Play Equipment and 2/3 Demo, Install, Surfacing and Labor?
   We were able to cut the Play Equipment cost down with the first 3 tips… and you can nearly zero out Demo and Labor costs by rallying members of your church and community to do the work themselves.
   Make sure that you ask for a line item bid from your possible playground rep.  You can then go through that list at this stage and zero out any work that your congregation can do on its own.
   The work that we finished yesterday (tearing out old equipment, removing sand and concrete from the area, and preparing the site for install) saved our church another $15,000.
   Our final bid came in just under $60,000.
5. We prayed.
   Before every phone call.
   Before every meeting.
   Before every e-mail.
   Before every work/demo-day.
   We continually welcomed God into the work we were doing and asked that the work we would be a part of on that day, at that moment, would reflect the Kingdom of God.
   Did I mention that we saved $90,000?

Tomorrow, I’ll finish up this series with some simple ways you can take on a project like this without burning yourself out in the process.
For our church, this process has taken just over a year and a half from start to finish
Had I not taken the steps that we’ll discuss tomorrow, there’s a good chance my marriage, family and ministry could have been negatively impacted by some of the hurdles and frustrations we faced.
If you’re ever going to take on a project of this scale, you need to read tomorrow’s post.
Monday (part 3 of 3): Making it Happen without Killing Yourself

 

So, you want a new playground… (1 of 3): The Law of 3’s

Our church’s new playground project will be completed within the next month.
Today, we completed phase 2 of the project.

We’re learning a ton about the playground business and what it takes to re-imagine a play space and I thought I’d share my insights here.

Today, we’ll be looking at budgeting and planning tips for your playground renovation.

Some quick facts about our situation:

Our current playground is over 15 years old.
In California, that means that many safety precautions now in place were never considered when our current structures were installed.
In church culture, that means that the playground was built in the early 90’s… a time when Children and Family ministries did not hold the weight they do today in budgeting conversations.
The amount a church is willing to spend today is dramatically higher than the amount a church would have spent on a children’s play area 20 years ago.

Our space is limited.
When our church was built, children were intentionally hidden from view and the area available to us is limited because of it.
Overall, the space our project will fill could be split into approx a 35′ x15′ area and a 60′ x 30′ area.

Disneyland is half an hour away.
Being located in Los Angeles, you cannot even begin to compete with the options that families have for entertainment.
Instead, we focused on creating a safe place where families could spend time together and children could expend large amounts of energy.
For us, this meant we valued active space and circuit play over excitement value.

With those things in mind, we assembled a planning team to create a proposal for our church’s Session (board of Elders).

Here are the Top 3 things we wish we could have known at this stage of the project:

The Law of 3’s

1. Think of an amount you’d like to spend on the project.
   Triple that number… the first quotes you receive will come close to that amount.
   We originally wanted to replace our current playground for around $45k.
   Our first bid came in just under $150k.
2. Triple every number you find in a playground equipment catalog.
   Keep in mind that your overall cost will be about 1/3 Play Equipment and 2/3 Demo, Install, Surfacing and Labor.
   There’s plenty of room to cut $ from a project like this and I’ll share tips on how to save money later in this series.
3. Get, at minimum, 3 bids on the project.
   Different companies can offer different savings.  Write all of these savings options down… you’ll want these later.
   Be up front about who you’re getting bids from.  Companies know who their competitors are and will work harder for you if they know the face of their competition.

Being realistic in the early stages of your project will save you immeasurable amounts of time and stress.
Keeping the Law of 3’s in mind, you’ll go into Budgeting and Planning (Phase 1) for your project more prepared than the majority of people in your shoes… which will set you up nicely for what we’ll be talking about tomorrow.

Tomorrow (part 2 of 3): $aving Money while Serving Jesus

 

Throw your kids in the pool

California is in its third year of a serious drought and, in order to cut back on water usage, many cities have set up various guidelines for homeowners.
Los Angeles suggests that its residents do the following:

• Check your toilet for leaks. Put a few drops of food coloring in your toilet tank. If the coloring begins to appear in the toilet bowl without flushing, you have a wasteful leak that should be repaired at once. Even a small leak can waste thousands of gallons of water each month. When replacing the toilet flapper valve, make sure to select a model designed for your toilet.
• Replace all non-water saving toilets with new ultra-low-flush toilets.
• Turn off the water while brushing your teeth and save up to 3 gallons each time.
• Turn off the water while you’re shaving. Just fill the sink with a little water and rinse your razor. You can save up to 3 gallons.
• Check faucets and pipes for leaks. Even a small drip can waste hundreds of gallons per month.
• Use your dishwasher for full loads only. Every load uses about 15 gallons.
• Use your clothes washer for full loads only. It uses up to 60 gallons per load.
• Don’t let the faucet run while you clean vegetables. Instead rinse them in a sinkful of clean water.
• Keep a bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator, so you won’t have to run the tap to cool it.
• If you wash dishes by hand, don’t leave the water running for rinsing.
• Water your lawn deeply and less frequently.Avoid over watering and runoff. Adjust sprinklers to water the lawn, not the pavement.
• Water early in the morning or late in the evening.
• Change watering schedule seasonally.
• Repair leaks immediately.
• Use a broom instead of the hose.
• Do not allow the hose to run as you wash your car. Use a self-closing hose nozzle, or turn off the water, between rinses.

How do I know this?
This afternoon, I found tips printed from this page taped to my front door.  The line about not over watering was highlighted.  My neighbors are comedians.

All trespassing, littering, and kidding aside, this note got my mind thinking about the way we treat the Gospel in our homes, schools and churches.

John 4:13-14 (New International Version)

¹³Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 7:37-38 (New International Version)

³⁷On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸Whoever believes in me, as^[a] the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

Jesus likes talking about water… and he seems to say that the water he offers leads to everlasting life.

So, my friends, why are we only giving our children a taste of this living water?

Let’s say that the average child in many West Coast churches attends weekend church programming 2-3 times per month.  If the typical weekend church program lasts 80 minutes, then approximately 2% of a churchgoing child’s month is spent being exposed to the life giving water that Jesus speaks of.  Even if a child attends midweek programming and doubles the amount of time they spend in church programs, 96% of their lives are spent outside of the grasp of Children’s Ministry Directors and Pastors.

The parent who thinks that church programming alone can provide a faith foundation for their child is acting as though the water Jesus offers is in short supply.

As parents, we are called to teach our children the way of Jesus.  In a sense, we need to immerse our children in the life giving water that brings everlasting life.  We need to throw our kids in the pool.**

As church workers, we are called to equip the parents of our children to do just that.
Parents need to see the value in praying with their children.
They need to be taught the value scripture can have in their child’s life.
Children need to see their parents living out their faith by serving and caring for others.

What are some ways you’re equipping the parents in your ministry to share the Good News of Christ with their children?
What values are you instilling in your church’s parents so that they can begin to do the work God has called them to do?
What are you doing to make sure parents aren’t overwhelmed by this role God has called them to?

Share your thoughts in the comments section.

** Disclaimer: Please don’t ACTUALLY throw your kids into an actual pool without proper water safety gear ie. water wings, life jacket, etc.

 

Never. Drive. Alone.

Many of us have learned the hard way that the words never and always are two of the most dangerous words in the English language.
With that said, you should never drive alone.

Keith Ferrazzi would have you believe that you should never eat alone.  Every meal, the argument goes, is an opportunity to build a relationship and strengthen your network.
Sam Luce, a fellow blogger and CM friend, will be applying this principal at Orange ’09.

I’ll be trying something else… and I welcome you to try it out with me.

The Freakonomics Blog over at the NY Times did an interesting series of posts on Los Angeles traffic facts and fiction.  You should check out what is being said about one of the major urban areas here on the Left Coast. 

Reading these posts made me think about the way that many of us travel.  If we were able to spend as much time networking and building relationships with others as we do sitting in gridlocked freeway traffic or in transit from one local to another, think about the potential strength of our networks!

So, I’m going to give this idea my full effort when I’m in Atlanta for the Orange conference.  My goal is to spend more time in cars with others than I spend in cars by myself.  Sounds simple, right?  Well, if sharing meals can be an important brick in the wall of success, then maybe carpooling isn’t just for those who want to be green… maybe there are hints of orange there as well.

 

The Space Between

Room to breathe can, at times, be just as important as the life-giving air itself.  We do not choke because there is no air around us… rather, we choke when we do not have access to that air.
So, how does this principal relate to Children’s Ministry?

It’s simple, really.

An effective Children’s Ministry program values and utilizes the time and space before and after an event as much as the event itself is valued.

Some children need time to acclimate to a setting.  Others need the chance to say a long goodbye to mom, dad, grandma or grandpa. Volunteer teams need time to settle into their role.  They need time to pray.  Effective programs have enough of a rolling start to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that every team member feels comfortable about their role during the event.
On the back end, families should never feel rushed out of a space.  Children should have the time and freedom to linger and build relationships with one another.  Parents need time to connect with others after their programs have ended without feeling rushed to pick-up their kids.  Check-out processes should never feel rushed; therefore compromising the safety of the children in our care.

Does your Senior Pastor, or those in charge of setting times for worship services, value the time and space they give you between programs?

In a scenario where a church has multiple Sunday services, you may want to take a look at the time you’re giving your ministry between programs.  If your ministry’s team members are required to arrive 15 minutes before their shifts begin… are you giving them enough time to engage other members of your church if they attended the previous service?  Or, are they leaving the service early in order to be on time to their commitment to you and the church’s children?  Do they have space to catch their breath?
If you expect your leaders to attend church after they serve in children’s ministry, are you allowing enough time for them to linger in your children’s ministry area in order to engage families and make personal connections with parents?  Or, do they have to rush to the next service because they’ve already missed the opening worship song?

These are a few of the questions churches should consider when evaluating their service times… assuming churches take the time to evaluate their service times.

The space between programs allows the team members involved in the event a chance to breathe.

Space between programmed events creates opportunities for relationships to be formed.

Intentionally allowing you and your ministry teams enough time to catch their breath could be the one thing keeping your program and your leaders from thriving.

 

If there is no value…

When good ideas go unheard

As a children’s director/pastor/worker, you’re fighting a war in the arena known as value.
The funny thing is, it’s not the children you’re battling – it’s their parents.

And, the less funny thing is, everyone else has a head start.
The church has operated, for the last quarter century, in a world where there is an assumed value on church.  The only problem is – that world no longer exists.

Here’s a short list of some basic West Coast family values:

• Health
• Scholastic achievement
• Safety
• Comfort
• Stability
• Happiness

The athletics/recreation industry has tapped into what parents value and, accordingly, parents often choose sports over church activities.
(You’re not the first person to have a child not attend a church camp to pitch in a softball game… and you won’t be the last.)
Why is this the case?
Parents have been told that getting their kids involved in sports will help develop attributes they value in their children.

• Example 1
• Example 2
• Example 3

You will have a thousand great ideas during your ministry career (paid or otherwise) but, unless the parents in your church place value on the vision you’re casting, many of those ideas and dreams will never find life.

Take, for example, the idea of a “Family Mission Project.”

If you’re in the field of children’s ministry, there’s a good chance that you know that the current trend is to label as many things as possible “Family” events.  Maybe you’re church’s service without full children’s programming is now your “Family” service.  Maybe your midweek events this summer will be “Family Fun” nights.  Or, maybe, you’ll try to get families engaged in creating a piece of God’s Kingdom here on Earth by partnering children and their parents in some good-old-fashioned-get-your-hands-dirty mission work… a “Family” mission project.

For discussion sake, we’ll take that last rabbit trail.

Mission work as a family looks great on paper.  In fact, you probably have a part of your community that needs some TLC.  Or, you may have a district in your city that is highly trafficked by a homeless population.  If you’re in California, then only a simple line drawn on a map separates your privileged life from the lives of the many citizens of Mexico who struggle each day to have enough food for themselves and their families.  Getting the families of your church involved in making those places look like a piece of Heaven on Earth could, for many churches looking to identify with the Missional church movement, be the slam dunk you’ve been waiting for.

Unfortunately, many of us in Children’s Ministry assume that ideas like this sell themselves.

We fail to recognize that, though we’re inundated with material pushing a shift to a family-oriented ministry, parents don’t receive that same bulk mail every day in their office mail box.  Many of us don’t understand why great ideas like this fail.

Quite simply put: the parents of our children do not desire to [insert your great idea here] because they have not been taught to value it.

So, you want to take families to Mexico to run a Vacation Bible School and/or build houses?  You’ll first have to teach your parents (in Sunday school classes, small groups, from the pulpit, at school board meetings, at baseball games, and everywhere else they are) that followers of Jesus are called to think of others first… and those others are not always only their children.  They will have to be taught to value the lives of those around them than they do their own lives.  They will have to value the idea of service before they throw their family into a project.  And, chances are, the bigger the impact the project will have… the more you’ll have to market the value of the idea first.

So… what did you do today to help parents begin to value the things God wants them to value?
How will your programs this week teach parents what things they should be desiring for their children?

If there is no value… your vision will die.

 

CM Edge Podcast

Just finished up contributing to the recording of the CM Edge podcast (cmedge.org) for the month of April…

On board for this discussion:

• Sam Luce (samluce.com) Children’s Pastor at Mt. Zion Ministries Churchin Utica, NY.
• Kenny Conley (childrensministryonline.com) Next Generation Pastor at Gateway Community Church in Austin, Texas.
• Henry Zonio (elementalcm.com) On staff at Redwood Park Church in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and serves as the Children’s Ministry Network Facilitator for the Central Canadian District of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada.
• Anthony Prince (westcoastcm.wordpress.com) Director of Children’s Ministry at Glenkirk Church in Glendora, CA.

Topics discussed:

• In the News: This woman from Britain’s Got Talent and what your ministry can learn from her.
• Easter Recap!: What do the Easter services of churches in Canada, New York, Texas and California have in common…? Find out!
• Mother’s Day Preview: Is this Hallmark holiday just for moms?  Also, Kenny gets REAL honest about his ministry’s plans!
• Resource of the Month: Find out our thoughts on what resources YOU need to be checking out this month!

Check back later for the link to this podcast!

-Ap

 

West Coast CM

The West Coast of the United States is the global epicenter for popular culture and media; in many ways, setting the pulse for the world in which we live.

Yet, when it comes to faith movements and the pulse of the global Church-at-Large, the West Coast is a sleeping giant.
With its greatest cities separated by thousands of miles of coastline, churches in the West have struggled to find traction in the realm of networking and collaboration.  Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles are cultural hot spots for fashion, music, social justice and media trends… yet many of the largest churches in those cities have no clear plan or vision for a collaborative approach to impacting their communities for Christ.

This blog will serve as a beacon for those churches.

It will be a place for those ministering to the church’s shortest, but most powerful, members to be heard.
It will give a voice to children’s ministers on the Left Coast.