100 Best Ideas to Turbocharged your Preschool Ministry (27 page)

During the 17 years I’ve been in preschool ministry, I’ve had great years and not-so-great years, but I’ve learned the key to staying fresh and tapping into God’s unending resources.
For me it begins with the simple idea that I’ve got to have it before I can give it.
When I get to my wits’ end, when I feel tired, weary, and maybe even angry, I have to go back and ask myself this simple question:
How’s my time with God going?

I confess that there were years when I lost my time with God.
I excused myself because I had so much to do
for
God.
These were important things, but I was doing them with an empty soul.
It didn’t take long until I came to the end of my rope.
I was exhausted, empty, angry, and burned out.
At this pivotal time in my life, I made a commitment to spend time daily with God.
As a servant of Christ in his local church, I had to understand that this discipline was a nonnegotiable.

If this describes you, I pray you’ll make a commitment to begin again.
We were never meant to bear this burden alone.
The yoke we put on ourselves is never easy to bear, never light.
Taking this burden off is a daily discipline.
Each morning God waits for us to enter his presence; he anticipates our worship and longs to ease our burdens for the day.
Why would any of us pass this up?

We have the opportunity to touch many lives each week.
We can fake it for only so long, and then our cup empties.
We dry up and are no longer able to pour our lives into the lives of others.
This is tragic and all too common in ministry life.
I don’t know about you, but I want to be so full of Jesus that when I bump into people throughout the day, I spill Jesus all over them.

Our cups can remain full.
We can be ready to pour the very life Jesus has given us into others at any given moment.
That’s living the Christian life to its fullest.
Determine for yourself today that this one discipline, the habit of spending time alone in the presence of God, will be a nonnegotiable for you.

—Gina

A compelling vision communicates that kingdom impact is happening in the lives of preschoolers and that you’re laying the biblical foundation for their spiritual growth.
Establishing a vision for your preschool ministry is essential to knowing where you’re going and getting everyone on the same page to get there.

Vision determines direction.
It’s nearly impossible to get where you’re going without the ability to see where you’re going.
Not knowing where you’re going is like navigating your way through a room with a blindfold on.
A vision for your preschool ministry helps you clarify what you want and how to get there.
It opens your eyes to the possibilities.

Vision facilitates decision making.
If you know where you’re headed, you can say no to things that won’t help you get there and yes to those things that will.
Vision gives you the focus to see the end goal and avoid the obstacles that will keep you from reaching it.

Vision creates alignment.
Not long ago, I was driving down the road and noticed that my car was pulling to the left.
Every time I took my hands off the wheel, my car veered toward the centerline.
I took my car to the mechanic and he told me that the front end was “out of alignment.”
He told me that misalignment could cause major problems if I didn’t get it fixed.
Well, I got it fixed and now my car is running smoothly.

The same thing is true of our ministries.
If we’re out of alignment, it can cause major problems.
In preschool ministry, vision creates alignment.
It becomes a rallying point and puts everyone on the same page, working together to accomplish the same goals.

Vision communicates a clear message.
A compelling vision presents a clear message to your church, your volunteers, and your preschoolers’ parents about what you want to see happen in the lives of the children and families.
When people understand the vision of your ministry, it becomes a shared vision that enables everyone to work together to make it happen.

One final note about vision: Only
you
can determine the vision of your preschool ministry.
Please don’t misunderstand that statement.
You’ll need to work with your senior pastor and your church staff to make sure your vision is synchronized with the overall vision of the church.
But you have to determine what you want to see happen in the lives of preschoolers and then design a plan to make it happen.

—Eric

Your preschool ministry is a barometer of the health of your church because a healthy church reaches young families.
I’m thankful for our church’s seniors, and I look to them for wisdom, insight, and encouragement—our churches should be ministering to them as well.
A healthy church will reach all generations.
But if your church is primarily gray, then the barometer indicates things aren’t healthy.

In Florida we have a lot of seniors, especially in the winter months.
When snowbirds migrate down at the beginning of winter, semis full of snowbirds’ cars start arriving.
Soon afterward you begin to see “silver alerts” on electronic highway signs.
A silver alert means a senior driver who has dementia or Alzheimer’s disease has been reported missing and may cause major safety issues on the road.
Information about the make and model of the car flashes on the sign.

Look around your church—is there a silver alert, or is there a good percentage of young families with preschoolers?
If gray hair is all you see, how do you increase your church’s health?

Church members must be willing to change.
All across our country there are small churches made up of older families who are unwilling to change.
These churches aren’t reaching young families because church members are determined to keep a church culture from the 1960s.
I’ve served in contemporary churches that were full of young families.
I’ve had conversations with some of the older members.
How did they adjust to the loud music?
How did they handle the change over the years?
I’ve always received the same response: “It’s not about us.
It’s about reaching the next generation of families.”
Wow!
No wonder their churches are healthy and full of preschool families.

The senior pastor and leadership must be committed to reaching young families.
Everything rises and falls on leadership.
Leaders must be willing to appeal to young families.
The top two questions people ask when they pick a
church are (1) How friendly are you?
and (2) What do you have to offer my kids?

The church must make preschool ministry a top priority.
Finances, resources, and staffing must walk this talk.

Church greeters and ushers should include preschool parents.
When preschool parents walk in the doors of your church, who greets them?
Are any of them people their own age?

Sit down with your team and rate the health of your church based on the percentage of preschool families that attend.
What does the barometer say?
Do you need to formulate an action plan to increase your church’s health?

—Dale

The tasks required to make preschool ministry happen can be daunting.
Over the years I’ve been blessed with opportunities to watch, listen, and learn from great leaders who amazed me with what they were able to accomplish.
Here’s what’s helped me most along the way.

Plan your work and work your plan.
This one concept has helped me more than anything else in the area of organization and productivity.
Every Sunday, I take a half-hour to go over my workweek and write down what I’d like to accomplish.
Then I break it into daily bite-size tasks.
I plan my time with God, workouts, lunches with leaders, writing thank you notes—everything.
When you do this, you’ll be amazed at what you can get done.

Daily and weekly tasks can be all-consuming, yet even harder are those ministry projects and programs that take months to plan and carry out.
Stop and ask yourself these two questions:
What’s best for the ministry? What will help us fulfill our mission statement?
At the end of the day, you must be able to say that your programs, projects, and plans fit into God’s ultimate plan for your ministry.
When I have several options in front of me, I take heed of Christian author Elisabeth Elliot’s advice and ask God, “What’s next?”
Then I quiet myself and listen.
Amazingly, God shows me what to do.

Know what to give and what to keep.
A good leader delegates; an insecure leader keeps everything for her- or himself.
Have you ever known people who won’t give things away?
They’re usually stressed and overworked, with little time for family and life outside of ministry.
It’s important to have a team that helps you carry the burden of ministry.
It’s equally important that you play to their strengths and give them the right tasks.

Also, recognize and honor those things that you need to hold on to, things that you and you alone can do.
Define this for yourself, and give everything else to team leaders who share your vision, passion, and desire to see ministry move forward.

—Gina

My dad was a contractor, so I’ve been around construction sites my entire life.
One thing my dad always taught me was that the success of the building was determined by its foundation.
A strong foundation equals a strong building; a weak foundation equals a weak building.