This past January, I went to Orlando for the annual Children's Pastor's Conference created and organized by the International Network of Children's Ministry (INCM). In one particular workshop, Communicate with Families, I was comforted by the words of Jonathan Cliff when he said, "Stop getting your feelings hurt!" Weird, right? To find comfort in these words? He went on to explain himself.
The efforts you put towards communication as a teacher, or in children's ministry, or even youth ministry, to keep families informed or provide them with helpful at-home resources, aren't for the uninterested, they're for the interested. Yes, we invest a lot of time in communicating with families: creating newsletters, piecing together informative publicity pieces, researching useful articles, coming up with creative ways to get the word out on whatever happens to be going on, and yes, it is frustrating when there still seems to be a disconnect between us and the families of the kids that we teach. But we keep doing what we're doing, maybe coming up with a few new ideas every now and then, for those who are interested and motivated enough to utilize what we're offering.
So, here's my new idea for communication.
This bulletin board is in the hallway that leads down to our Children's Ministry department. It displays the mission of our ministry, the birthdays of our kids, a calendar of upcoming events, plus folders on either side containing ministry details, invite tools for upcoming events, parent resources, volunteer resources, activities for kids, and tools to work on spiritual growth at home with the whole family.
Yes, I hope this will be a helpful tool for parents and volunteers to be informed of ministry details, and I hope they find useful tools for at-home spiritual growth opportunities. However, no, I will not get my feelings hurt if I find that not every parent and volunteer is utilizing it. I'll just keep up with my brainstorming and hope to find that with every effort, I'm able to reach more people. :)
