We’re going to start with Horton Hears a Who. We’re going to use quotes to make our points.

1. Children matter, just like adults.
“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

OK, I know I’m kind of preaching to the choir on this one, but it’s something important to never forget. Every child from the youngest baby to the oldest preteen are just as important as the “grownups”. While we can’t use the same approaches with kids as we do adults, they have an amazing ability to understand God and who he is. Remember that they aren’t stupid!

2. Faithfulness to commitments are important. Kids never forget!
“I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful one hundred percent.”

So, you’re not an elephant. However, kids never forget anything you say. ANYTHING. EVER. You could be saying something totally innocent and joking, but those kids will cling to it. Never promise anything to a kid that you don’t intend to follow up. Don’t just tell them, “I’ll talk to you next week,” with the intention of hoping they’ll forget, unless you actually intend to talk to them. They’ll always remember what you say, so don’t go and say anything goofy!

3. Children have VERY active imaginations!
“In my world everyone is a pony, and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies.”

Throughout the Horton movie, you see Kangaroo constantly trying to quash children’s imaginations and ability to think freely in the name of “protecting them”. You’re not protecting any child by not allowing them to imagine. That’s what makes a kid a kid: a innocent imagination. Give them opportunities to imagine and think. It’s a talent God gave them, so it would only stand to reason that we should allow them to use it, no?

4. God is bigger than us and exists, despite the fact that we can’t sense Him.
“If you can’t see it, feel it, or hear it, it doesn’t exist.”

Sometimes it can be hard for humans to grasp the concept of God because our five senses can’t sense him. However, we need to let our kids know that there are things we can’t sense, but are still there.

Isn’t it amazing how something as simple as a Dr. Seuss story can have so much truth? We’ll see more from him later. In the mean time, here’s my favorite quote from the Horton movie:

“Morton: Horton, the kangaroo has sent Vlad!
Horton: Vlad? Vlad, Vlad… I know two Vlads. There’s the bad Vlad… And then there’s bunny Vlad, the one that makes cookies!
Morton: …Yeah, Horton, she’s sending you a bunny with cookies. I think it’s safe to say it’s the bad Vlad.
Horton: Yeah, good call. ”

What Starbucks has figured out #3: Follow them home.

Part of the Starbucks experience we mentioned last time is something very important: follow-up.  Starbucks doesn’t want your experience to end at the door, they want you to take it home with you.

Think about the last time you visited Starbucks.  You probably left with a refreshed, warm mood.  Just a pretty happy place to visit, right?  Their stores are designed to give you a feeling of being welcome.  Partners are trained to help make you feel like you belong.  When you have a bad experience, you get a card good for a free drink next time you visit.  When they make a decision that may not have been best, apologies abound and they insure that they make it right.  Good customers get recognized, and when you walk in they start making “the usual”.  All of it is done to give you an experience that you take home, and they follow up when they do something.

So what do you do for follow-up?  What do people have that “follows them home”?  When you do something wrong, do you apologize and fix it, or do you deny it and try to avoid it?  Follow-up is so extremely important.  Letting people know that you care and wanting to know if they have any questions after an event is important.  In it’s most basic form, it’s a postcard or letter saying, “We’ve been thinking about you.  Are you interested in any of these things we offer?”  You could go up to having a team of visitors who go to visit those who attend to check up on them.

I know, follow-up has been pounded into your head as a children’s ministry worker time after time after time.  That’s because it’s so important!  Following up on the experience someone had allows you to stay connected to them and share the love of God with them continually.

So as we wrap up our series on Starbucks, just remember these things: training, experience, and follow-up.  Make sure you do those three things, and you’ll be well on your way to improving your ministry.  They’re not everything though, so insure that you continue to improve in every area.  Make your ministry so remarkable, people can’t help but talk about it.  And while you’re at it, go grab a Grande Nonfat No Whip Peppermint Mocha. (Evan’s favorite!)

Think about the last time you walked into a Starbucks.  The aroma of the coffee, the feel of the store, the laid-back atmosphere.  What you walked into was more than a restaurant: it was an experience.

From the beginning, that’s what Starbucks was about: the experience.  Everything they did focused on what it did to the experience.  Why the craziness over experience?  Because Howard Schultz, once again serving as CEO of Starbucks, feels that their stores should be the third place.  The third place is the place that isn’t home (first place) and isn’t work (second place) that you can go to hang out, enjoy a good coffee or two, and just unwind.  They desire that their stores feel accessible, fun, and a place where you could sit down and have a meeting.  When you walk in, Starbucks wants you to feel as comfortable there as you would at your own home.

But even as CEO Howard Schultz himself will admit, somewhere along the line the experience got lost in the business.  They moved to flavor-lock packaging, destroying the full coffee smell that they had when coffee arrived in large bins.  A tendency towards a “cookie cutter” store design led to what some called “sterility”.  And perhaps most famously, they introduced breakfast sandwiches.  Longtime patrons hated that the toasting sandwiched ruined the coffee smell so much, that one of Howard Schultz’ first acts when he returned as CEO a few months ago was to begin the demise of the breakfast sandwich at Starbucks.

Think about your ministry: do the parents at your church feel welcome and accepted when they bring their kids in, or do they feel guilty until proven innocent by a full cavity search and metal detector?  OK, maybe that’s a bit extreme, but you know what I mean.  Security is important, but you do have to strike a balance between security and welcoming both current and new parents to your ministry.

How do your kids feel in services?  Do they feel like they’re taking part, or like they’re watching a show?  Are they comfortable, feeling like they’re at home?  That experience is key to getting kids to feel like they fit in.  You know you’ve all had this kind of kid at one point or another: the first-timer who’s extremely attached to his parents.  Won’t let go of his mother’s leg.  Absolutely resists coming.  That sort of child is the child you should focus on that day.  Have a special worker sit right by him and comfort him and involve him.  Include him in games or prize giveaways.  The experience you create is critical.

Experience is hard to keep up.  It’ll take work.  It is so worth it, though.  Experiences that people have as children at church will continue to shape their image of the church into their adult and teen years.  You may think that that Sunday School teacher that teaches an OK class is fine to leave in place.  That’s dangerous thinking.  That class is, whether you or the child realize it or not, shaping their image of the church and will impact whether they or their future children will come to church in the future.  You can’t settle for mediocrity.  Ministry needs to be best.   Remarkable, you might say.  Go above and beyond.  Now that’s the way I see it.

What they’ve figured out #1: Train, train, train.  Then keep training.  Train until you’re blue in the face.

Starbucks obsesses over employee training.  Partners (not employees, it’s a way they make employees feel more dedicated to the company) learn intricate details about coffee, equipment, experience, customer service, product quality, and company history.   Massive regional training centers ingrain the “Starbucks gospel” into their managers.  Periodical checkups are done on every corporate shop.    They’re even closing their stores on February 26 from 5:30 to 8:30 PM to do product quality re-training.  Training is so key, they sometimes spend up to $3000 per employee just on training.

Starbucks is willing to lose potentially millions of dollars just to retrain their employees for quality.  Spending massive amounts of money just to ensure that their employees are the best they can be is no big deal for them.  Would you want to visit at a Starbucks where none of the employees had been trained?  I think not.  However, most ministries don’t even take the time to spend five minutes training their teachers for a class.

Think about it: We’re not willing to eat at a restaurant with untrained employees, but we’re willing to entrust kids’ spiritual well-being with untrained leaders.  That seems a little broken, does it not?  Why can’t we seem to figure it out?

Train your teachers.  Train yourself by learning from those more experienced.  You’re dealing with the spiritual life of a child.  There’s nothing more important than that.  Learn as much as you can, whenever you can.  You’re not perfect, and neither is anyone else.  And remember to practice this:

Train, train, train.  Then keep training.  Train until you’re blue in the face.

Yes, every single blogger here uses a Mac.  We’re totally sold.  Why has Apple been able to gain such rabidly fanatical users?  The answer comes in a quote from H.J. Heinz (the ketchup guy) many years ago: “To do a common thing uncommonly well brings success.“  That’s why.  Computers and MP3 players weren’t anything new when Apple released their versions of them, but they did them radically well.  They did something so well, that the users that stuck with them were fanatics.

In the past 25 years, personal computers have gone from a few thousand users to over 1 billion users.  There are almost as many computer users as Christians in the world.  Christians took 2000 years, PCs took 25.  Why the difference?  Because PCs were so revolutionary, they spread like wildfire.

What if you could get the kids and parents in your ministry to be just that fanatical?  Aim for it.  Tell your kids that their faith is nothing to be ashamed of, but is to be shared with everyone how absolutely amazing it is.   Push your kids to that level.  You might be surprised to see a sudden explosion of growth.  Kids are the church of today, and can spread God’s love now.  But childhood is so vitally important in faith formation, you may, as a childrens’ pastor, reach more people than you could ever imagine through one small child.

Keep pushing.  Keep proclaiming.  Keep praying.

So that was the good story. Now, I’d like to tell you another story. A much, much scarier story. A story that gives small children nightmares, and is not for the weak of heart. The kind of story you tell around the campfire and then go “boo!” and everyone jumps. Here goes:

Once upon a time, Ryan Frank played the guitar. And sang. The end.

So do I have you thoroughly scared yet? Yes, that’s right, Ryan went through a phase when he played the guitar and sang. Live worship was a big fad in children’s churches, and not having anyone else to play for us, he took up the guitar. God has blessed some people greatly with vocal and instrumental talent. Ryan, on the other hand, lacks the, um, musical adeptness of some.  His guitar playing was actually pretty good.  However, as even Ryan will admit, the singing was a little scary.  It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t any Michael W. Smith either.

So why do I tell you these two totally random and seemingly unconnected stories? If you’ve read my posts before, you know the answer already: to make a point.

Here’s the connection: One person (Martha) is doing what she is really good at to bless others, whether she’s using one of the latest and greatest things or not. The other person (Ryan) was doing what was latest and greatest at the time, despite the fact that he wasn’t very good at it.

Children’s pastor’s tend to suffer from “Fad-itis” a lot. Just think back over the fads from the last few years of children’s ministry that you remember. Many of the ideas you probably thought of are still in use today. Many of them can still be useful today. Some of them are still very popular, and for good reason. They’re great ideas.

I love fads, don’t get me wrong. They can be great tools. Where the problem comes in is when you try to use one of these fads and you’re not very good at it. Like Ryan, you may try to do something really hard and try to do it well, but you are simply not gifted in that way. That’s part of life. If you are not good at something, don’t force yourself to do it! If you can find someone in your church to do it for you, great! Go right ahead and do it. But don’t force yourself to follow one of the “fads” if it will do more harm than good.

So, after all of that, here’s the quick, two second summary:
Don’t force yourself to do something you’re bad at if you can do something you’re good at and be just as effective.

P.S. Ryan, please don’t hate me (puppy dog face). I was just picking on you because I knew your feelings wouldn’t be too hurt, and you know that you don’t sing very well already. So, still friends ?

We’re interested in seeing who among you uses these services.  So let’s take a little poll (if you use more than one, let us know in the comments):

Many within the church today have chosen to totally shun social networking all together because it is “unsafe”.  While that is a real possiblity (see this recent story), the truth is that culture is adopting these sites and bringing a new level of openness to the world.  And while we as the church are sitting back, the world is moving on and the kids in our ministries don’t know how to use these sites safely.

First and foremost, we need to teach our kids how to use these sites safely.  This page has some wise words from MySpace on safety that you can use.  Second, we need to teach parents what they can do to monitor their child’s activity without making their children feel like watched criminals.

Third, it would be a great idea to adopt these sites as part of your ministry.  You can form relationships with other children’s ministers, as well as connecting with kids in your ministry.  You can keep up with your kids throughout the week simply by adding them to your “friends list” and communicating with them.  Now obviously, probably 90% of parents want some adult communicating with their children via MySpace or the like, so make sure and tell the parents first.  Let them know that you’d like to add their child as a friend as part of ministry to keep up with them throughout the week.  Keep the parents in the know as to what communications you are sending to their children, just so they know what you’re doing.

These sites are not inherently bad.  In fact, I am a happy Facebook user. Yes, there may be some bad content, and yes, there may be some bad people out there, but you can’t shield yourself or the kids in your ministry from it entirely.  It’s part of life today.  Christianity can’t simply operate inside this little tiny bubble and say, “We’re happy here, now you stay out and just let us do what we want.”  We need to be in culture, influencing it for good.  So what do you think?  Let me know in the comments below! 

The church that I attend and at which Ryan is a pastor had the Children of the World Choir in for this morning’s service. They are known as the musical ambassadors for World Help. Made up of children from all around the world singing songs of praise, they are nothing short of amazing. The choir also helps to raise awareness for AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

While I was listening to them and their program, I noticed three main things:

1. Jesus is the same in every language. The basic message is the same. The presentation changes.
Many of the songs sang by the choir were sung in many foreign languages. One thing common among all of them was the name “Jesus”. In nearly every language, it was the same. In every case, they were all singing the exact same words. The only difference? The presentation (language). When you are presenting your message to kids, remember this. Your presentation of Jesus shouldn’t change, your basic message shouldn’t change. What you should change is your presentation. Keep up with the times.

2. God is never, never, ever, ever, ever too busy to listen to a child.
The Lord could care less about age, sex, location, or race. He is never too busy for us, especially children. God loves hearing the honest, humble cries of a child. I have been so convicted about this for the last few weeks. Just take time to talk to and listen to the kids in your ministry. I’ve been amazed what I’ve learned about them by slowing down and listening.

3. The American church is too complacent about the AIDS pandemic in Africa.
While I won’t deny that America has its fair share of problems, I believe it is the call of the church to reach out to the world at large. In a promo video today, World Help quoted a Barna Research study that stated that only 3% of Evangelical Christians would help a Christian organization help AIDS orphans. World Help is not only trying to help children with AIDS, but also educate those without AIDS to promote abstinence and eliminate AIDS in the future. The church needs to reach out, stand up, and do what we are called by Scripture to do! This goes beyond AIDS, but AIDS is a great place to start.

So, those are my thoughts. If you’ve ever seen the Children of the World, let us know what you thought in the comments. If you’ve never seen them, check out their CD or schedule them to come to your church! But that’s the way I see it.

On the internet, there is a forum thread known as “Thread 500″. It is on MacRumors.com. Initially, people ridiculed it. Some of the comments made were:
“I still can’t believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player? I want something new! I want them to think differently! Why oh why would they do this?! It’s so wrong! It’s so stupid!”

“Sure the iPod is cool, and yeah I’d love to have one, but only for half the asking price of $399.”

“The iPod requires me to change my lifestyle to meet it’s needs… I need round holes, not square holes. For $99 I might buy the toy, for $399? Why?”

Consider that the iPod sold 110 million units internationally as of September. All of this gloom and doom from those looking at the situation in 2001, but it turned out to be the most successful MP3 player on the market. And in the opinion of some, it became the best MP3 player.

You’re probably wondering at this point, “Evan, what in the world does this have to do with ministry?” Here’s what this has to do with ministry: this happens all the time in ministry. Someone comes up with an idea that sounds crazy, sounds like it has already been done, or that sounds impossible. For most people, that is where they would stop. They would decide it was too crazy, too redundant, or too hard. Others have convinced them to give up.

And sometimes, giving up was the best decision. And then there are the times when they pursue their ideas, continue to do what they know is right, what they know is God’s will. If they were really in God’s will, their idea will flourish, and God will bless.

So what can we learn? If you have an idea that you are convinced is God’s will, and not just your desires speaking, go for it! If it is what is right, it will be blessed. The results may not be immediate, but they will come. Just go for it. And you may find that you have the next iPod on your hands.

So here’s her suggestion: take some chalkboard paint, and paint an entire wall.  There are a ton of things you could do with this. You could do, as she suggests, make a wall calendar and keep all of your ministry events for the month up on it. You could also do birthdays in the church.

Another option is just leaving it blank, and allowing the kids to simply draw whatever they want. Establishing rules would be a great thing (only things that build others up or glorify God). This allows kids to express themselves, while keeping them entertained before class and after class while waiting for their parents.

Don’t think painting your walls would go over so hot with your senior pastor? Just beg! OK, so there is a better solution. You can buy some foam-core board, paint it, and fasten it to your walls. If you just want a small area, just use one piece. If you want to cover your whole wall, use lots of pieces of the board. It’s an easy way to get around having to paint your walls, and still use the same idea.

It’ll take some work, but it could just be the one thing that sets your Children’s Ministry apart. You may even catch yourself doodling on occasion. Just give it a try. You might be surprised to find the talents some of your kids have!

P.S. Need some chalkboard paint? Check out ArtCity.com (I haven’t used them, just who I found first on Google!) for some spray paint. You can also check your local home improvement store.