Creating a healthy student and kids ministry never happens by accident. Health is birthed from a healthy team with a vision that honors God. In 2010 I had the opportunity to blog from the Orange Conference for the first time and I had the chance to hear Perry Noble talk about their next generation ministries. I wanted to re-post this because it is one of my favorite talks over the years at Orange. I hope this helps you process what a healthy student and kids ministry looks like…
Healthy student and kid ministry does not happen by accident…it doesn’t happen by just hiring a staff person to fill a position, building a new area for kids, painting the youth room black, our making a new logo. Healthy family ministry happens by being intentional. This morning at The Orange Conference Perry Noble, lead pastor at NewSpring Church in South Carolina, talked about seven principles that guide their church when it comes to creating healthy family ministry. Trust me I have connected with their staff, been to one of their student services, seen their volunteers in action and they are a healthy team. Check out these 7 principles from Perry…
- Family ministry has more potential than any other ministry in the church.
- Healthy FAMILY MINISTRY must be supported by the senior pastor // cast the vision, be the cheerleader, fund the process
- Senior pastors need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. // get used to working outside the box, let your team dream how to reach kids today! Some senior pastors don’t want a move of God they can’t take credit for. UNLEASH YOUR TEAM! Learn from you generation behind.
- Environments matter // make sure you fund and create relevant environments for your kid and student ministry. Make their space as much a priority as the adult service. Environments can help a kid go next level with discovering the love of Jesus.
- Keep it simple // you have to make sure your family ministry is laser focused. We can’t do EVERYTHING if we want to be effective.
- Tension and conflict must be addressed // people in kid/teen ministry compete way to much, we have create the practice of serving and loving each other as a team
- We have to have the right people in the right places // make sure people are serving in the right ROLES