Thursday, October 29, 2009

fall festival

Here is some video from our fall festival!

An Uncle Again

Just found out that I am officially Uncle Scott for the 5th time now. Joey Bland was born about an hour ago now. 6 lbs 14 oz and 20 inches long. Currently mommy and baby are both doing well. I am so proud of my little sister and her husband Kevin! Love them and wish I could be there to give my new nephew a hug!! (Times like these remind me how much I miss my Family)

The Volunteer Director

What is the single greatest resource we have as Children's Pastors? I have read a lot lately on twitter and other CP's blogs about the top ten resources and the "toys every Kid's Pastor should have", but there is one resource that I can never live without-PEOPLE.
It would be impossible for me to have a successful ministry for the boys and girls of Hope Fellowship if I did not have the passionate, God-honoring team that I have. I am blessed to have a team that is truly committed to serving the families of Hope.
The question for me has always been, "How do I continually grow and develop this team to it's full potential?" If you are a kid's pastor long enough, you know that there are about a million things to do each week, so where do I find the time to 1) Recruit 2) Train 3) Encourage or 4) Communicate with more than 180 volunteers. There is no way 1 person can do all of this. That is why I have developed a brand new position for Adventure Kidz, the Volunteer Director. The Volunteer Director is responsible for anything and everything that happens with Volunteers. She (I only say she because right now the individual filling this position is a woman) assists me with every interview we have for new volunteers, she runs our New Staff Orientation Meeting, and she helps out with the recruiting process for all areas of Kids Ministry.
I have been blown away with the success of this position, and I will continue to post updates on the progress we are making.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

I have been a kids pastor for more than 9 years now, and I've been here at Hope Fellowship for almost 3 years. I feel like I finally have landed on a system for placing volunteers in classes. Here are the steps we take:
1. Potential Volunteer fills out a Ministry Application and turns it in.
2. My Assistant runs the background check and passes the application on to our Volunteer Director (more on this position in my next post).
3. Our Volunteer Director checks the references of the individual and makes the initial contact from us to them.
4. An interview is set with the Potential Volunteer and Me (I personally interview every volunteer who works with kids at Hope Fellowship, more on this in a future post).
5. The interview takes place and the New Volunteer is assigned a ministry position (they are then introduced to their direct supervisor in that new position).
6. The New Volunteer attends an Orientation meeting (we hold one of these the first Wednesday night of every month).
7. The New Volunteer begins their ministry assignment and the Volunteer director checks up with them (usually via email/phone) the following week to find out how they like it.
8. After 3 months, the New Volunteer is reinterviewed by the Children's Pastor to confirm their desire to stay in that class or to find out if another role might bette suit their giftings/interests.

This system is not perfect, we are still looking to develop it further, but so far it is working great!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Taking Care of Volunteers

One of the coolest things I get to do as a Kids Pastor is work with volunteers! I have a few ideas for kids pastors out there who are struggling with ways to keep your team motivated:
1. Birthdays and Anniversaries- I had my assistant place the birthdays and the anniversaries of my entire kids church team on my calendar. This allows me to send each of them a quick note of encouragement on their special days.
2. Thank You cards- Saying thank you is the most effective thing you can do in my opinion for a volunteer. So often, we take volunteers for granted, but a simple note of thanks for a job well done goes a long way!
3. New Volunteer Process- We have a step by step process for every volunteer to go through to make sure they understand and they are ready for the commitment they are making. (I will talk more about this in my next post.)
4. Talk to them- I interview every volunteer in our ministry once a year. It takes forever, but it is one of the most beneficial things I can do with my time. It gives people a chance to let me know what they like and don't like about volunteering, and it lets them know that I value them and their contribution to achieving our goal.
5. Pray for them....I have a stack of Volunteer pictures that sits on my desk and I try to pull it out weekly and pray for each of the people who are serving our kids (bonus: this also helps me remember names!!!).

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Been a While

Wow, seems like a long time since I sat down to post anything...maybe because it has been. I have had a lot going on the last few months. Here are some of the things that I feel like God is teaching me:
1. Everything rises and falls on Relationships...heard my Pastor say this to a group of students just the other day at a Church Planting session he was doing. Wow, hit me right between the eyes. I feel like I have some pretty deep relationships with my team here at Hope. I know though that in order to go farther and go stronger, I am going to need to pour even more energy into those relationships.
2. There is a lot in a name...I have finally picked a name for my son (he is due in about a month and a half. His name will be Mason Scott Berkey. It only took me like 7 1/2 months to come up with it, but I really like it. I had it narrowed down to 3 names for about a month, I was so worried about picking his name. It is something that he is going to have with him forever and I want him to love it (a side note here would be that my dad said, "well you didn't name him sue, so he can't hate you to much if he doesn't like it." I thought that was pretty funny).
3. Teams are awesome!!! If you have ever read this blog, you know that I love teams...over the last few weekends we have had our Mpact and Champs sleepovers and it has been an awesome thing to watch those teams of leaders come together. Things are really headed in the right direction.
4. I love Hope Fellowship...I guess I always have, but lately I can really feel it. I love almost everything about it, especially my Pastor. The last few weeks I have been encouraged every time I have been around him. It is so awesome to serve a man of God that truly loves People.
5. Friendship is pretty stinking important to me...I know that is probably not the most grammatically correct phrase, but after some things happening I have realized that my friends hold a pretty important spot in my heart/life. There are few things that will get me angry faster than when someone is trying to mess with my family and my friends.

That is enough for now. I should probably try to start doing this a bit more often. Not sure why I haven't. Good night!