100 Best Ideas to Turbocharged your Preschool Ministry (19 page)

The church is a place where the weary, downtrodden, broken, and bruised can find comfort, hope, and healing.
Many families who enter the doors of your church each week are seeking just that.
They’re often dealing with strained marriages, uncertain job situations, and stress from everyday life.
Some of the moms have been wrestling with their preschoolers all week.
They’re frustrated, tired, and ready for a breather.
All they want is a pleasant drop-off for their children, a quick escape to the Sunday morning worship service, and a cheerful pick-up.

Nothing’s more frustrating to parents than to drop off or pick up their children and have to interact with a volunteer who’s decided to vent his or her own frustrations about life.
Unfortunately, I’ve sometimes overheard remarks such as these...

Drop-off:

“I don’t have any help this morning.
I guess it’s just me.”

“Is he going to cry the entire time?”

“Wish I were going to the service with you.”

“You had a bad week?
That makes two of us.”

Or maybe the volunteer doesn’t say anything at all.
That’s the worst.

Pick-up:

“He cried the entire time.”

“He didn’t participate in any of our activities today.”

“Caleb?
We didn’t have a Caleb here today.
Oh, that boy.
He was so quiet we hardly even noticed him.”

“I am so ready to get out of here.”

“I think your child has a developmental problem; you may want to get that checked out.”

Words are powerful.
They have the ability to heal or hurt, uplift or tear down, bring blessing or bring burden.
As leaders it’s imperative that we teach our volunteers the power of the spoken word.
We’re called to be salt
and light.
A single wrong word could possibly turn a family away from the church forever.
As scary as that sounds, it’s true.
Think about what you say.
Help your volunteers understand that every word they speak will either bless or burden a family.
Here are some examples of how to speak words of love and affirmation to parents and children.

Drop-off:

“How’s Caleb today?
I’m so glad you’re here.”

“We’re going to have so much fun today.
Are you ready to play?”

“Enjoy the service.
We’ll take good care of Caleb while you’re gone.”

Pick-up:

“Caleb was such a blessing.
You have a precious little boy.”

“Caleb learned about Noah today.
Ask him to tell you all about it.”

“Thank you for sharing your little boy with us today.”

I believe you can find something positive to say about every child.
The spoken word is powerful.
Make sure the words coming from your volunteer staff bring blessing and not burdens to the hearts of young families.

—Gina

I hate to say it, but many of our preschool ministries are like a bad country song, “Where Have All the Good Men Gone”?
A shortage of men working with little children has been a cultural trend that dates back to the time of Jesus: “One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them.
But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him.
When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples.
He said to them, ‘Let the children come to me.
Don’t stop them!
For the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children’ ” (Mark 10:13-14).

While this trend has been happening for a very long time, we’ve set out to change the cultural climate and recruit men to serve in our preschool ministry.
I’d like to unpack our strategy for attracting, engaging, and developing men.

Attract
—The first thing we do to attract men is to lead with vision.
We cast a vision for what could happen if men invested their kingdom effort in preschoolers.
Leading with a need is just the opposite.
When preschool ministries lead with a need (“We don’t have enough volunteers!”), their recruiting efforts focus on closing gaps in the schedule.
Not only is this unattractive, but it also makes your preschool ministry come across as needy.

But when you recruit people to a vision, it creates buy-in.
Vision shows men the value of volunteering with preschoolers.
It paints a picture of the significance of men having an influence on young children’s lives.

Another way we attract men to work with preschoolers is by actively targeting them.
We do this by highlighting men who are already serving in our preschool ministry.
We share stories with our senior pastor about men making a difference in the lives of preschoolers, and our senior pastor shares those stories with our church members through sermon illustrations.

Finally, we attract men by incorporating masculinity into our preschool ministry.
We use masculine fonts, such as Arial Black, Impact, or other bold sans-serif fonts, in our promotional pieces and take-home sheets.
A lot of our
worship music has a masculine feel to it.
Even our games and crafts have a male bent to them—we play high-energy games such as tag and relay races, and we do fun crafts such as making slime or mixing soda and Mentos candies to create explosions that illustrate God’s power.

Engage
—Once we’ve attracted men to our preschool ministry, we set out to engage them.
We give men clear direction.
We let men know where we’re going as a ministry and how we’re going to get there.
Strong leadership also engages the men who are on our team.
Some of the strongest male leaders in our church serve in our preschool ministry and continue to do so because we place a high value on leadership.
We also engage our male volunteers, as we do our female volunteers, by helping them find their best possible fit on the team.

Develop
—At one point, we found that men were leaving our preschool ministry team because we weren’t providing them with the tools they needed to be successful.
That’s why we now focus on equipping men with the core competencies they need to thrive.
For example, we teach men how to manage a classroom of preschoolers by establishing routines, developing a discipline plan, and keeping kids active during worship.
We also teach our men to look for teachable moments so preschoolers can apply the lessons they’re learning.
We provide lots of feedback and encouragement because men want to know that they’re making a difference.
They want straight talk about how they’re doing.
They want to know where they’re succeeding and what areas they need to work on.

I’m confident that as you apply these principles to attract, engage, and develop men in your preschool ministry, you’ll begin singing a new tune...
“It’s Raining Men”!

—Eric

“
We need 10 people
to teach our preschoolers!”

“
Please serve
so our children can learn about God!”

“
Come help us
teach the next generation about Jesus!”

Sound familiar?
The problem with these statements is that they focus on what people can do for your ministry instead of what your ministry can do to help people grow in their faith.
We’re called to make disciples.
This means we’re called to help people grow toward full devotion to Christ.
When our focus shifts from filling holes to making disciples, we’ll see our preschool team grow numerically and spiritually.

Here’s how to make the shift...

• Enlist people one-on-one. There’s no substitute for asking God to lead you to people, one at a time, whom you can invest in and help grow spiritually. Every Christian is created to serve; every Christian has a role to fulfill. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” We have the awesome privilege of helping people discover the work God has prepared for them to do. This happens one person at a time.
  
• Help people realize their gifts and talents. First Corinthians 12 tells us that all Christians have been given one or more spiritual gifts. God has also given people talents and abilities—as we help people discover and use these gifts and talents, they’re able to grow in their faith.
  
• Find out people’s passions. I ask people what gets them excited. What dreams has God placed in their hearts?
  
• Place people in their sweet spot. When people are placed in their sweet spot based on their gifts and talents, they’ll thrive and feel energized instead of drained after preschool ministry each week. We all have days when we’re tired and want to stay home, but when we’re in our sweet spot, we love what we’re doing!
  
• Give them permission to move if they’re not in their sweet spot. There are people who’ve served for years in the wrong position. They keep on serving in that spot because they’re afraid they’ll be called quitters or they’ll let someone down if they stop. They dread serving. What a travesty! Encourage people before they join your preschool team to let you know right away if they end up in a position that’s not their sweet spot. If they don’t have that freedom, then one of two things will happen: They’ll burn out and quit, or they’ll endure years of drudgery and miss what God has wired them to do.
  
• Check back with them in a month. Four weeks after volunteers start serving, follow up with them and find out if they’re serving in their sweet spot. This moves the previous point to the next level. Take the initiative and find out if they need to move to a new position.
  
• Help them grow spiritually. Invest in the spiritual lives of the people on your team. Make sure they’re serving from the overflow of what God is doing in their lives. Serving on your preschool ministry team is a source of spiritual growth for all your volunteers.
  
• Care more about them than just what they
  do.
  People can sense when they’re being used to do a job. If someone on your team looked tired, would you encourage him or her to take a few weeks off? Do you ever call the people on your team just to see how they’re doing? Do they know they can come to you with personal prayer requests? Show you care first and foremost about each of them as a person.
  

Recently I interviewed a man who’d been asked to join our preschool team by another volunteer.
He was ready and willing to join, but as I talked with him, it became clear that God had gifted him to work with teenagers.
Sure enough, when I asked him what his dream job at church would be, he responded, “To help teenagers grow closer to God...but I’m willing to help with preschoolers if there’s a need.”
I could’ve placed him in a preschool position, but I wouldn’t have been helping him find his sweet spot.
And I doubt he would’ve lasted.
His discipleship was more important than filling a role.
I asked if he’d rather serve where God had called and gifted him.
He smiled and said, “Yes.”
I walked with him over to our student ministry and connected him with our student pastor.

I know Sunday’s coming.
And you have spots you need filled immediately, but take the long view.
Shift your focus from just filling those spots to making disciples.
God has people who’ll thrive as disciples by serving in your preschool ministry.
Be committed to discipleship, and God will bring you disciples!

—Dale

How well do you know your volunteers?
Do you know the names of their children and their spouses, where they work, their hobbies, their stories?
Here’s what
I
know for sure: When you take the time to get to know your leaders on a deeper level, they’ll go the distance with you.