Tag Archive - ministry

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New Staff Search: A Church in Phoenix is Searching for a Youth Pastor

I’m pleased to announce a new Staff Search. I’m helping Desert Springs Bible Church as they begin the search for their new Student Ministries Pastor. Desert Springs Bible Church was planted in the 1970’s to reach the growing North Phoenix community and grew to as many as 800 in regular attendance. Currently, at 600 in attendance, Desert Springs has gone through a period of renewing their mission, vision, values, and transitioning the worship style to appeal to a new demographic of 30-somethings with kids, which better reflects the personality of the community. Desert Springs has a history of a Student Ministry that “out performs” the national average of 10% of the weekend attendance! Poised to move forward, Desert Springs is looking for the right person to join the team and help lead into the future!

Desert Springs Bible Church is located in Paradise Valley Village, just northeast of Phoenix, Arizona. A middle-upper class community, the area boasts beautiful outdoor living at the Phoenix Mountain Preserve System including biking, hiking, equestrian trails and other outdoor recreational activities. The community is also convenient to shopping, golfing, and resorts. With it’s proximity to Phoenix, Paradise Valley Village provides all the benefits of small town living with the appeal and amenities that come from being close to a major city.

Position Summary:

The Student Ministry Pastor will recruit, build and empower teams of volunteers to develop intentional ministry to teens and their families. He will develop systems and structures in alignment with the church’s mission, vision, values, spiritual maturity pathway, and philosophy. He will be a team player with the rest of the Desert Springs Staff Team. He will develop a ministry that builds environments in which students who don’t know Jesus are reached with the Gospel, help them get connected in small groups and grow in their faith, and develop them to reach their peers. He will be a model of integrity, living out biblical truth and demonstrate the Core Values of Desert Springs Bible Church.

Interested in learning more? Continue reading below:

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Posted in Staffing

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Ministry Trends for 2014

Recently Carey Nieuwof, who serves as the Lead Pastor at Connexus Church north of Toronto, Canada, released this info-graphic about trends he’s seeing in ministry as we head into 2014. With his permission, I’m happy to share this here with you. Carey speaks to leaders and audiences across North American and around the world on leadership, change, parenting and personal renewal. You can follow this link to keep up with Carey at his blog!

Which of these trends have you seen? Which ones do you disagree with? Anything surprising to you? Or is there anything you would add? What trends are you observing as we head into 2014? Leave a comment!

 

 


Posted in Leadership

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Top Posts of 2013 #1: “10 Insider Focused Ministry Names”

This post generated the most traffic on Helping Churches Make Vision Real this year. Mainly because church-people did a Google search for ministry names and stumbled across this post. I sure bet they were surprised.

The language we choose to use is important because it both reflects and builds culture at the same time.  And one of the most obvious ways to tell if a church is insider focused or outsider focused is the language that they choose to use. It either says that the church is “inclusive” or “exclusive.”

In helping churches get unstuck and make vision real I’ve run across a number of insider focused ministry names. In fact here’s a link to a post with a free tool that you can use as you begin to evaluate your own ministry names and language you’re using in your church. Remember it’s always more important to be clear than clever. Here’s a quick list of 10 insider focused ministry names to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

Nation2Nine: A Young Adult Ministry in a church targeting people age 20-29. While it may be clear to people inside the church what this is, it doesn’t say anything to people outside of the church.

Romeo: “Real Old Men Eating Out,” a once a week gathering of old men who eat out together and talk about God’s Word together. Acronyms are the quintessential example of insider language. If your name or brand needs an explanation it’s not clear enough.

Men on Fire: A Men’s Ministry at a church. The only problem is people outside of the church don’t think the same way or have the same filter as people inside the church. While “church people” notoriously talk about being “on fire” for Jesus, that brand may elude to something different in the minds of people outside of the church.

Chicks with Sticks: A Quilting Ministry in a church. Yes this is real. This one came from one of the participants from a recent Leadership Coaching Network that I led. It was too good not to include in this list. Let’s just say people outside of the church aren’t thinking the same things as people inside of the church when they see this ministry name.

Girlfriends Unlimited: A Women’s Ministry in a church. Again while this may be clear to people inside the church any single 20-something young man is going to sign up for this one in a heartbeat. What young man who doesn’t know Jesus doesn’t want to sign up for unlimited girlfriends?

XYZ: “Extra Years of Zest,” a ministry to Senior Adults. This is another example of an acronym that doesn’t mean anything to anyone who isn’t an insider.

Body Builders: A Bible Study at a church. It may seem cute but when an outsider sees that name they’re probably going to be asking you where the gym is.

MOPS: “Mothers of Preschoolers,” a ministry to mothers of preschoolers…or is it a cleaning ministry? Again…acronyms are dangerous.

Equally Yoked: A Marriage Ministry at a church…or an egg ministry. Outsiders have no idea what the scriptures say so be careful about using Biblical names like this.

JAM: “Jesus and Me,” the name of a Student Ministry at a church…cute…just not clear.


Posted in Leadership

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6 Children’s Ministry Trends

I was recently at a Vision Arizona Network meeting where two very successful Children’s Ministry Directors were interviewed about recent trends in Children’s Ministry. Brett Humprhey from Sun Valley Community Church and Michell Loyd who serves at Harvest Community Church shared some great thoughts that I wanted to pass along to you. And for those of you who were wondering, Vision Arizona is Church Planting Network that I’m a part of. Thinking about planting a church in Arizona? You should check these guys out!

#1 Partnering with Parents: What happens in the home is more important that what happens at church. Children’s Ministries are doing a better job of partnering with parents and providing resources like family dinner time talk sheets, family devotions, and video tips to help parents continue the conversation from the weekend throughout the week.

#2 Department Integration: Churches are beginning to break down department silos and think more holistically about birth through graduation. This includes everything from curriculum, events, the way ministries approach volunteering, and more.

#3 Handoffs: In life transition points have a high potential to be make or break moments. Children’s Ministries are catching onto this and becoming more intentional with settings up children and their families for success as they transition from Children’s to Student Ministries.

#4 Security: Safety is becoming a major issue in Children’s Ministries. Once a rarity things like secure check-in and check-out processes, background checks for volunteers, security teams and secure Children’s facilities are becoming the norm.

#5 Volunteers: There is always a need when you are trying to care for and minister to children. But many Children’s Ministries are beginning to approach volunteering differently. They’re beginning to realize that “join me” is always better than “you should.” They’re building sub lists just like the local school system. They’re realizing that people want to be a part of fun winning teams. They’re spending more time setting volunteers up to succeed. And they know that (just like in the workplace) people are more likely to stay engaged over the long haul if they have a friend they’re volunteering with. Need help with volunteers? Don’t miss this FREE online seminar featuring nationally leading pastors that will help get more volunteers!

#6 Lead Pastor: Winning Children’s Ministries have Lead Pastors who don’t treat the Children’s as a “separate ministry” but rather ensures that the same mission, vision, and values are in place in the Children’s Ministry as they are in the rest of the church. These Pastors provide clarity for direction, honest feedback and coaching, they lean into their Children’s Ministry Staff as a resource and advocate publicly for the ministry.


Posted in Leadership

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How do You Know if You’re Called to Ministry?

Working with young leaders, one of the most common questions I find myself fielding is, “How do I know if I’m called to ministry?” And while there are some good biblical verses we could point to or theological answers that could be given I’d like to get very practical with you for a moment. If you take the time to ask, and listen, to the stories of people who have been called into full time Christian Ministry you’re likely to hear some very similar responses that generally include the following four components.

#1 Deep Sense of Burden or Passion

A calling to ministry typically begins with a deep sense of burden or passion. It’s this idea that something is wrong, someone needs to do something about it, and maybe that someone is me. I can remember my own calling to ministry beginning this way as a young teenager. I felt a deep sense of responsibility and burden for the spiritual wellbeing of my friends (even though my lifestyle was ironically in no condition to do much about it). I can remember praying at night before sleep, in tears begging God to use me to influence thousands of people for Him. I also felt compelled through those prayer times that God didn’t just want my “heart”, or even my career, but my life.

#2 Ministry Experimentation

The typical next step that a calling to ministry takes is actually experimenting with ministry through volunteering and discovering your gifting and place in the Body of Christ. I was 17 years old and scared to death when my Pastor asked me to lead a Jr. High Sunday School Class. What would I teach, would they listen to me, could I do it, could I keep those unruly Jr. Highers under control?

#3 Affirmation by the Church

Who knew that Jr. High Sunday School Class would actually go well? I know, shocking right? But it did go well and people began to believe in me, and that God could use me. And I began to believe it too. Other leaders in the Church, particularly my Pastor recognized and affirmed God’s call to ministry in my life.

#4 Preparation and Training

The final component that you’ll regularly hear from those who have been called to ministry is that they experience a period of training and development that prepares them for full time Christian work. For me this would mean going to college (that is after a short 2 year stop at Jr. College to get my grades up and my Associates Degree…I thought I had better things to do in High School than go to High School) getting a Christian education, formal biblical training, mentoring and internships.

Even though I didn’t list them here I’m interested in some verses or biblical suggestions that you’d recommend young leaders consider when trying discover if they’re called to ministry? I’d love your input so leave a comment!


Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation
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