Conspiring with Johnny Rogers and Tammy Melchien

Conspire Blogger: Matt Guevara

http://corycenter.org

http://twitter.com/mattguevara

Amy Dolan introduced Conspire’s final session with Johnny Rogers and Tammy Melchien as a gift for those in attendance.  For seventy-five minutes, Johnny and Tammy would address personal faith and its affect on ministry. 

Johnny Rogers started with the moving story of Charles Houston and his journey to conquer K2.

This journey of survival required more than just skill, character, and unrelenting commitment to each other.  With the summit in sight one of the men suffered a blood clot, the climb was over.  The months of effort and the weeks of effort were gone.  In an instant, everything had changed but the choice was clear: no one would be left behind.  The journey back down to base camp was brutal.  Pete Schoening, the youngest member of the crew, had to hold the weight of six men at one point for five whole minutes.  The rope stretched, muscles grew tired, but the anchor held. 

Many times children’s and family ministry leaders have to bear the weight of the ministry they lead.  There is great tension because we really do not know how the lives of the kids in our context will turn out.  Paul encourages us, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”  In other words, “Clip on to my rope, the anchor will hold.” 

Tammy Melchien continued the talk with encouragement for climbing ministry mountains.  We know the mountains.  So many times on Sunday morning, moments before service is about to begin, the cell phone rings and we know it’s not a person calling to volunteer.  Other times ministry can be tiring.  How do we keep climbing?  What enables us to go further up the mountain? 

The most important ministry factor is your personal connection to God.  This connection is vital because it is what your kids, volunteers, and parents need most from you and it is far more important than your budget, knowledge, ability, or creativity and without it you and the ministry you lead will never reach your full potential.  In John 15:5 Jesus said, “I am the vine you are the branches.  Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit.” 

There is a reality in ministry that it will always be difficult.  Volunteers will always be in high demand.  The sound system will always crash right before large group.  Three year olds will always have a hard time sitting still.  Ministry will not get easy.  But what can draw us into God in such a way that the burden can become light and easy as Jesus promises in Matthew 11?

Spiritual disciplines are the key to connecting with God. 

Reading , experiencing nature, fasting, prayer, worship, service – these are the disciplines that we need to develop to the point where if we miss a day, we feel like we have missed God.  Self-care is a critical part of our spiritual journey.  We need to make time for relationships that let us breathe. 

The journey of ministry is one that will require every one of us to stay connected to God in such a way that our hearts are close to Him and our energy is pursuing His majesty and our mind is fixed on His glory. 

Who is “clipped in” to your line?  How can you encourage kids to clip in to your line and follow you as you follow Christ?

What does your connection to God look like right now? 

Are you taking care of yourself? 

Do you have spaces where you can enjoy life?

What are the key connectors between you and God?

How will you ask these kinds of questions to your staff and volunteers, to insure that they are pursuing a deep connectedness with God?

Resources Mentioned:

Charles Houston and Robert Bates – K2, The Savage Mountain

Your Faith and How It Effects Your Ministry

 
Johnny Rogers

 
Tammy Melchien

Worship

Jesus Paid It All
Oh Praise The One

 

How Great Is Our God

Henry Zonio

http://www.elementalcm.com

Churches are becoming more aware that the family is where children's faith is influenced the most. For the fourth general session at Cosnpire 2009, Mark Holmen and David Teixeira from Missionary Church in Ventura, CA shared their passion for helping families build faith in their children.

Mark Holmen is the author of Faith Begins At Home and Building Faith At Home as well as serving as the senior pastor of Missionary Church since 2002. Dave Teixeira has been ministering to families through the local church for over eleven years and is currently serving at the Children, Youth & Family Pastor at Missionary Church.

Mark began the session by sharing his experience of growing up in the camping ministry. He saw churches come and get fired up. Then, when he and his family would visit these churches throughout the year, he'd notice that they lost their passion. When he entered ministry, he thought the best way to keep that passion was to make church like camping ministry and take the responsibility of the spiritual development of kids. He had a wake-up call when he was part of a survey of what were the greatest faith influences in the life of kids. The survey results came back to show that mom and dad were THE greatest influences in the faith development of children.

Mark went on to describe two approaches to ministry: a church with segmented departments that oversee different age groups and are "silo-ed" and a church where the different silos each work towards common goals together. Mark advocated the second approach when it come to helping families be the primary faith influence in their children. Each department needs to be focused on how they are helping parents take faith home.

Mark compared this to the small groups movement. Churches with successful small group ministries went from being a church WITH small groups to being a church OF small groups. Churches that will be successful at helping families, Mark says, need to become churches that are "Faith @ Home" churches.

What does this look like?

In the nursery ministry, child dedication becomes more than just a church event. It becomes the beginning of a partnership with parents and church. Dedication becomes a commitment between parents and the church community to raise their children to know Christ and the church community with parents to support them. Families at Mark's church are given a chest of resources to help them as they begin their faith journey as a family.

For what this looks like in children's ministry, Dave Teixeira came up to share. Each year, their children's ministry helps families incoroporate ONE faith practice like prayer or blessing or worship or service. They do it by doing what they call "Take It Home" events. These events happen once a year during Sunday School where parents are required to attend with their children.

There are 4 components to these Take It Home events.

1. Motivate
We need to remind parents of the impact they have on their children. We need to remind them that kids with faith are less likely to engage in risky behaviors and are more likely to be "successful" in life.

2. Model

We need to show families EXACTLY what we're asking them to do. There are many families that didn't do any of the things we are asking them to do like prayer and devotions and blessing... even those who did grow up in church.

3. Practice

Let families practice these things immediately after you teach them. The first time is always intimidating. By allowing parents to practice, it makes it easier for them to continue doing what we are asking them to do at home.

4. Provide

We need to provide take home resources for families that they can use at home. When we do that, we show that what we are teaching is important. It also shows parents that we have an expectation of them to continue doing these things with their families at home.

Mark concluded by addressing communicating this vision with senior pastors. He said that most senior pastors would love to see this happen but don't know what it looks like or how it would work.

Mark suggests that we show senior pastors that this approach doesn't just work with Faith @ Home. It also works with Evangelism, with becoming more rooted in church commitment and reaching out to the world around us. All departments can work towards a set of common goals... one of them being Faith @ Home.

Some of the resources that Mark and Dave have put together are Take It Home (CD resources of their take it home events), Building Faith at Home, and Faith Begins at Home.

As you think about partnering with parents, what are you doing right at your church? What are you doing that needs work?

What do you think of this approach to ministry? What do you think about a church becoming or being known as a Faith @ Home church?

How is your church set up? Is it as separate silos? Do your silos work together? What are some things you can do to work together towards the same goals?

How do you connect with parents in a way  that encourages them? How do you connect with your senior pastor to inspire the entire church to help guild families?

 
Brandon Grissom and Band

Dancing Generation
Brighter
Hosanna

 
"Behind Closed Doors"


Connecting the Church and Home

 
Mark Holmen

 
Dave Teixeira

Henry Zonio

Matt began the workshop session by telling a story of his calling to ministry. When he went to Bible College and looked at the course requirements for children's ministry, he was struck that there were two whole classes dedicated solely to puppetry; he realized there was a disconnect in what was being taught for those studying children's ministry and where kids were. He then shared about how he started to experiment with using different forms of media to engage kids. This included having kids take pictures and put together digital comics of Bible stories, having kids do videos, and even having kids figure out ways to help teach the lessons.

Matt shared seven characteristics of digital learners:

1. They are no longer littler versions of us

2. They are digital natives... not digital immigrants (these are terms coined by Marc Prensky at marcprensky.com)

3. They are collaborators. They want to be involved in shaping the teaching environment and how things are taught. We need to kids "be a part of the action."

4. They are teachers. Matt shared a story of how grade 7 and 8 kids taught him how to do all the lighting and sound tech at his current church when he started.

5. They are connected. We need to realize that kids have a multitude of ways to connect digitally.

6. They are relational. One thing we have to remember with this is that there is no distinction with kids between online and offline relationships; they are all the same to them.

7. They are open. Kids are open to learning new things and open to hearing from lots of different sources. This also means they are open to spiritual things.

Matt, then, went on to share some areas he believes need to be rewired or "in need of digital renewal:"

1. Curriculum

We need curriculum to speak to kids right now where they are and to the issues they are facing today. Curriculum needs to engage children at a level that calls them to action. We can give them all the information in the world and miss connecting with them. Sometimes that means "teaching less" in order to give kids real life applications to what they are learning.

2. Media Paradigm

We need to stop fighting about what is and what isn't right about using media. We need to "test drive" different media, see how it works, and use what works.

3. Relationships

We need to build relationships with kids and families that extend beyond the 1-2 hours in the church building.

Matt concluded the session with some strategies for large group areas, small group areas and interactions with families.

Large Group Strategies

1. Learn from video games

Video games provide immersive environments where you take part in the action. Also, the story unfolds as you play so there are elements of surprise. We need to incorporate some of that into large group teaching.

2. Use new resources

There are LOTS of resources out there, and we need to take advantage of them. Some of the resources mentioned were The Lads (music group), KidzMatter.com, Digital Juice (animated backgrounds), Pint Size Parables (online video), and Worship House (online).

Small Group Strategies

1. Prayer

At Matt's church, the win for small groups is if they can spend at least 3 minutes in prayer each week. Kids need to be encouraged to pray with and for each other. Prayer is creative and it promotes community strenght.

2. Relationships

We need to build real relationships that last outside the walls of the church.

3. Variation

Vary the activities of the small group. Vary the environment.

Home Strategies

1. Web Presence

Create a web presence where parents can go to to receive resources and encouragement.

2. Real Resources

No one has this one figured out. Find what works for the families at your church and use it. Also keep tweaking to find the right mix between the resources and the vehicle in which the resources are delivered.

3. Create Social Networks

Take advantage of social networking like Ning.com, Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo Groups, etc. so that parents can network with each other on their time and outside of the church walls.

As you think through the implications of Digital Learners or the Net Generation, here are some questions to interact with:

• What are you doing to make sure you understand Digital Learners?
• Are you overwhelmed with all the media and technology that is out there? What do you do with that?
• Do you agree with what Matt notes are things that need to be changed in how we interact with digital learners? Why or why not?
• What are you doing in your ministries to more effectively meet digital learners where they are?
• What is working for you? What have you tried that doesn't work for you?

Matt Guevara
http://corycenter.org
http://twitter.com/mattguevara

I happened to be hanging out in the green room just before the third session at Conspire when the room became filled with kids who were going to be involved in drama midway through the session.  It was so awesome because I got to hear comments from 4th and 5th graders like, “I get front row seats to hear Sarah.”  “Who’s Sarah?”  “Hello, she’s a famous singer.”  Needless to say, the concert was amazing and I’m convinced Sara could sing the phonebook and it would still sound magical. 

The session took a turn to Jennifer Fox and a look at child strengths.  The question was asked, “Do you see potential?”  She started identifying her strengths one of which is self-love (not fashion or humor), which Jennifer sees as a part of a Scriptural command to love one another.  Loving one another must begin with self-love.  It’s crucial for a child to discover self-love.  So at its heart, the strengths movement is a commandment. 

Strengths are a paradox of perspective.  Often strengths are overlooked as weaknesses.  Fox outlined three different types of strengths:
Activity Strengths: Things you do that give you energy. 
Relationship Strengths: Things you do for other people
Learning Strengths: Optimal ways you learn

Jennifer evaluated the way education looks at learners.  Often, educational institutions force one learning style on kids.  If a child cannot learn the dominant way (passive listening and getting tested on comprehension) they are labeled. 

So, do you see potential?
What kind of educational paradigm defines your church and ministry?  Are kids being marginalized because they do not learn the same way as the rest of the group?
What would adopting a strengths philosophy look like in your context?

 
Sara Groves

Add To The Beauty
When It Was Over
A Lot Like Me
Bronson
You Cannot Lose My Love

Song For My Love
Why It Matters
Kingdom

 
"The Power of a Paperclip"

 
Jenifer Fox