Free Children’s Ministry Handbook: . https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/zqfpdn222xfgv03hko4n4/Church-handbook.docx?rlkey=gsx6js8iwn9336gvwq9hopmdk&st=yd4vngls&dl=0

Building Foundations Curriculum. https://revivalfire4kids.com/shop/building-foundations-curriculum/

http://revivalfire4kids.com

So we are finally getting to the planning stage, the final episode of Spirit-led leadership. When you are saturated with the Holy Spirit, inquire of the Lord, and abide in Him, then you will be able to hear clearly from the Lord. Planning is an important aspect of being a leader, but it must be Spirit-lead. Remember, without Him, you can accomplish nothing.

Don’t ever plan first, and then ask God to bless what you have planned.

Once God has spoken and you have planned, it is in God’s hands to bring about the results. They may not look like what we expected. The apostles probably didn’t expect the church would grow through persecution and martyrdom. What we can do is initiate His plan, then trust Him to bring Glory to His Name.

Take time each week to plan. Most people who want to become organized never take the time they need to plan because they think they don’t have time. You don’t have time not to plan. Decide what things you need to get done this week, and make a to do list. Then go through and decide which are important and which can be delegated. Remember when you make this list to make time for the important, not only the urgent.

Schedule your time. Plan chunks of time to do certain things. For instance, morning might be your most productive time. Don’t plan meetings or take phone calls in the morning. Use that time to plan your day and tackle your to do list. If emergencies come up, and they will, that take you away from your schedule, get back to it as soon as you can. Remember that if you schedule your time, you’ll get more done, even if emergencies happen. If you don’t schedule your time, you’ll waste a lot of it.

Learn organizational and project management skills. Schedule time in your week to work on these skills and to read leadership and organizational books or listen to podcasts about organization.

Learn to multitask. Multitasking is not doing a bunch of different things at the same time. Multitasking is learning to have different projects to work on in the same time period. For instance, as a children’s pastor, you may be in the beginning stages of planning a Christmas program. At the same time, you’ve just finished up a back to school activity and are in full swing for your Harvest party. Then there’s VBS on the back burning. You’re starting to look at VBS materials for next summer. If you schedule correctly, you can plan times to work on each of these projects throughout the week. Of course, the Harvest party and Christmas program will take most of your time, but by devoting time to upcoming projects, you won’t feel under the gun when that event gets closer.

Project Management 101: The first tool in project management is to make a timeline for each event you have planned. Decide what you need to do or delegate and when. Then move everything back at least three weeks to avoid unexpected surprises. You’ll be amazed how organized you’ll become by doing this.

Work with your pastor. Let him or her know what you’re working on. If he asks you to do another task and you don’t have time to do it right away, let him know, and ask him when he needs it done. It may be that you were dropping everything to do what your pastor wanted when there are some things he is willing to wait for.

Remember that people are more important than what you have to do. You’ve planned an entire day to work on an important project when a parent comes in concerned about her child. The work can wait. The parent can’t. This is real ministry.

Pray before you start you’re day. God knows what we need to do, and He will give us the wisdom and direction if we start by giving Him our day.

That’s it for Spirit-led leadership. Check out past episode in case you’ve missed a week in this series. Join us next week for another kidmin podcast. Also subscribe and click notifications so you won’t miss a single episode of Ignite Kidmin. God bless.