Childrens Ministry Online

Jim Wideman’s Good Friday sale

Posted on30. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.

Last week I got this email from Jim Wideman. I thought I’d pass it along to you. Yesterday I shared how everyone needs a coach. Jim’s my coach and he could be your coach as well.

On Friday, April 2nd JWM is going to put on a sale like you have never seen before. I know that budgets have been cut and many of you have been hurt by the economic crisis in our country so I want to help. Back last year I cut the price of theClub in half for people over 30 and started giving it away free for those under 30.

For 1 day I’m going to cut the price of most of my resources including my 1 day Coaching/Seminars called “Day Trips”. I’m also going to give away a free 6 months of infuse to someone who registers for a “Day Trip” on Good Friday! There are 4 different topics so if you register for all 4 you’ll have 4 chances to win a free 6 months of infuse. It’s the desire of my heart to make a difference in the next generation of Children’s Ministry leaders. I hope you will take advantage of these savings on opportunities to grow as I attempt to make Good Friday a really good Friday for Children’s Pastors everywhere!

Thanks for all that you do for kids!

So, head on over to Jim Wideman’s site and at the very least, sign up for a Day Trip. If you can, check out a semester of Infuse.

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Everyone does better with a coach

Posted on29. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.

This is a simple truth I’ve learned over the past year. Everyone does do better with a coach. I’ve learned this through personal experience. I’ve just entered my second year of Infuse with Jim Wideman and he’s helping me be a better version of myself. There’s little debate over what Jim’s accomplished over the 30 years of ministry to kids. His track record is nothing short of amazing. However, I’ve picked up very few tips and tricks from him that I can apply in Children’s Ministry (although he’s been a great source of wisdom there). What I’ve picked up from Jim this last year is how to be a better leader, how to better redeem the time I have each day, and I can better serve my church. I’ve grown in many ways and it’s becasue I’ve had a coach speaking into my life week after week through Infuse.

If you want to go to the next level in personal leadership, take a good look at having Jim coach you through Infuse. It’s probably best way you can spend any “personal development” funds this year. Click here to read more about what Infuse is all about.

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Things I’ve learned from Jim Wideman (part 2)

Posted on04. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.

I’ve written a handful of posts this week about the influence Jim Wideman has had on my life. I got to spend a lot of time with him this year in Infuse and I’ve been sharing some of the big things I’ve learned. So here’s number two:

There’s plenty of time to do just about everything I want to do.

It sounds like a dream come true, doesn’t it. One thing I’ve said often (and something I hear people say all the time) is, “I wish there were just a few more hours in the day.” It just seems like we can’t get it all done. There are a lot of things I’d like to do, I just don’t have time for all of it.

Brother Jim is a master at time management. His new book will help anyone who wants to be a better manager of their time. I’m absolutely amazed at everything Jim can get done. He’s the Next Generation Pastor at a HUGE and rapidly growing church, he’s been putting out his “theClub” audio lessons out every month for years, he’s got probably 30-40 people he’s mentoring in infuse right now, he writes a feature article for K Magazine every issue, there’s no telling how many boards he sits on, he just cranked out two new books with others int he works (so I hear), he’s particular about spending quantity time with his wife and daughters and he makes time for working out and his hobbies. That’s down right ridiculous. We just thought we were busy. You’d think that someone with that kind of schedule would be running ragged, but every time I see Jim, he seems cool as a cucumber and happy as can be. What’s the secret? He’s the master of his calendar.

One thing he says over and over and over is to journal the things we are doing and identify time wasters and learn to eliminate them. He’s a huge advocate of using a calendar and schedule out your day. Plan out your day before it happens and at the end, review how it went.

I can honestly say that I’m not the master of time management to any degree, but I’ve come a long way. In addition to the great wisdom Jim has taught me, I also had this message reinforced from a different source and perspective. In a small group I was in, I did an exercise that helped me identify some of the deepest desires of my heart, the things that truly bring me life. The biggest take-away was that four of the six great desires of my hear were not being done. Why? No time for them. Sad. So, I’ve been trying to actually schedule time in my day/week/month for the things that are most important to me. I don’t believe burnout is because we work too hard, it’s that we’re working too hard on things that we’re not passionate about.

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Things I’ve learned from Jim Wideman (part 1)

Posted on03. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.

This week you’ve seen I’ve been writing a lot about Brother Jim. A year ago he asked me to join Infuse, his year long mentoring program. I joined and it’s been a great year. There have been a lot of factors in my life that have caused growth, but Infuse has certainly been one of them. I’ve recently decided to do a second year of Infuse. I’ve enjoyed the connections I made with the others in my group who will be doing a second year and I look forward to spending another year growing from Jim in an even small group.

Let me share with you a few things I’ve learned from Brother Jim that have impacted me greatly. These aren’t necessarily things you’d only learn from Infuse as most of these concepts you’ll read in his books or hear him speak about. Most of these concepts I’m going to share with you I’ve heard him say at other times, it’s just that they really sunk in over this past year.

My number one responsibility is to serve my pastor’s vision.

For years I’ve heard Brother Jim talk about this. A session he’s taught many times is tittles, “Serving another man’s vision.” The first time I heard the title of that talk, I thought to myself, “no thanks, God’s given me my own vision.” I never really “heard” this principle until this year and it has challenged me to the core. One thing that helped me significantly was a senior pastor who pulled me and the youth pastor aside many years ago and stressed priorities with us, almost like we were in trouble. He communicated that our first priority was the church as a whole and the ministries we oversaw were secondary. That helped provide a lot of perspective over the years as many youth and children’s pastors have a tendency in building their own programs that don’t always represent or support the rest of the church. I think many of us are territorial by nature.

Brother Jim was taking this concept to the next level. My number one priority is to see my pastor be successful. I’m on staff to serve him. Not only do I need to be willing to do anything he asks of me, but I should seek out ways to serve his vision without waiting for him to ask. This concept is very different from they way so many student and kids pastors operate. Too often we’re knocking on our pastor’s door asking how he can better serve us.

Some of you may be asking the same question I asked myself when this concept started sinking in. “If my first priority is to serve my pastor, then how am I going to lead a thriving ministry that God’s given me a ministry for?” Well, hopefully if we’re living out this concept of serving our pastor first, we’ve developed staff and volunteers who are living out the every same concept for our ministries. My staff needs to know my vision and and and passion for the ministry and their first priority needs to be to serve that vision. Their staff or leaders need to know their vision and passion for the ministry they’re assigned to and make that their first priority. Most of the time, this gets turned around. We get so focused on what we need to do, we miss out on our priorities.

I’m growing in this area and I’ve got a LONG way to go. However, I’ve seen Jim live this out in two different churches. He lives by this value. I’ve never met a children’s pastor (or next gen pastor) who loves and serves his pastor they way Jim Wideman does his. He’s constantly talking about how he’s serving him. I think there are areas where he may not agree or areas where he might do things differently, but that doesn’t change his stance on serving him. I also know Jim doesn’t mindlessly follow either. He offers suggestions or makes requests, but in the end he submits.

I think the most important thing here though is that you have to work for a pastor that you can serve and submit to. If you don’t like your pastor or don’t feel that you can fully submit to his vision, then you’re in the wrong church.

So, that’s enough of that. Like I said, this is one key thing I learned this year and I’m growing tremendously in this area.

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Accountability from a skinny man works

Posted on26. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.

Okay, so I almost forgot to post this. Before I left for my road trip I asked Sam Luce to hold me accountable. I’m in the middle of my biggest loser competition with my staff and being on the road where I’m eating out for almost every meal would be tough. It’s during these occasions that I tend to over-indulge. So I asked Sam Luce to hold me to my commitment. In the end, my goal was to weigh less than I did when I began.

So, Sam was a gracious accountability partner. Maybe it was a dumb thing for me to ask him to do it, but he didn’t make a big deal out of it. Every now and again, he’d give me the evil eye when I was reaching for an extra cookie after dinner. There were a few meals that did not fare well for my plan, but I just tried to eat as much as Sam ate. I figured that if I ate what a skinny man eats, I’d probably lose some weight.

So, I’ve got some bad news and some good news. I came home late Monday night and my biggest loser weigh in was the following day. For my official weigh in I was one pound heavier than the week before. I was actually quite pleased as I expected worse. I had a bit of a cold all week and just didn’t feel up to running on the treadmill once. The good news, by Tuesday I weighed in a pound lower than the previous day and on Wednesday morning, I was another pound lower. I’m on track to have lost 4 pounds this week, taking me to a record low for this competition.

I know there are probably very few people who care, but since I brought it up before I left, I figured I’d be true to my word and share how I did.

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Help from a skinny man

Posted on16. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.

As I’ve shared in an earlier post, I’m three weeks in to a “Biggest Loser” competition with my staff. So far so good. Three weeks in and I’m officially 8 pounds lighter. We’ve got 9-10 weeks left to go, which is good as I still have 18 pounds to lose… minimum. I’ve been really disciplined with this competition. I’m very goal driven and have been known to get a little competitive from time to time. Regardless of the outcome, I’ll be a winner as I shed the pounds I’ve carelessly added over the years. As I wrote in a post a week ago, I’ve been using the iPhone App “Lose it!” It tracks the calories I consume as well as the calories I burn through exercise. My caloric diet to lose two pounds a week is about 2100 calories a day. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but remember, I’m a big dude. Whether by consuming less or burning extra calories through exercise, I try to net only 1500 calories a day. It’s taken a lot of forethought and discipline.

However, I’m a little nervous. This week I’m on a road trip with Sam Luce culminating in an Infuse retreat with Jim Wideman. We’ll be in the car a lot, staying in a hotel and eating out almost every meal. That’s really bad for someone in my situation. I’m going to need some help. My natural tendency is to really enjoy my self when it come to food. I’m hitting several of my favor restaurants in the area and I’m inclined to big out, you know, really enjoy myself. I can’t do that.

So, I’ve done what any really smart man would do in my situation. I asked for help from a skinny man. Sam Luce wrote the book on being a skinny man. No really, he did – or at least he’s writing several chapters. For the next six days, Sam’s going to be a constant companion. I’m sure he’s got good genes, but a skinny man is skinny for a reason, he’s smart about what he eats. So, I’ve asked Sam to be my accountability during this week. I’ll continue to use Lose It to track how I’m doing and if the hotel has a treadmill, I’ll try to burn some calories at least two times. But ultimately I’m defaulting to him in this area. I’m giving him permission to trump my food decisions. We’ll see how that goes. I think there are probably only a few people in our lives that we can give that kind of power. If it’s not the right person, you might murder them. Good luck Sam.

So my goal? To weigh less by Monday. So far I’ve lost weight every week since I started three weeks ago. Monday Morning will reveal how I did. I’d even be satisfied if I stayed even… but we’ll go for loss.

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