Have you heard of Prezi yet? If not, you need to go check it out and see if it could be beneficial to any presentations you give. Unlike cues or slides, Prezi utilizes a “canvas” concept where you zoom in on various aspects of your presentation. It’s quite unique.
The free account from Prezi is a little limited, but still offers you a great deal of flexibility as well as allows you to add pizazz to your presentations. While the free account allows only online presentation development, you still get offline presentation capabilities. This means you can download your custom presentation and present it without a web connection.
One of the biggest blunders that we make in ministry is offending the masses with a poorly implemented change. I’ve learned through personal experience and the study of a few good books (the business sector calls change “innovation”), that change can be done in ministry in an effective way. Since almost quitting 4 years ago because my volunteers rejected our background check mandate, I have sought out how to initiate effective change and I think I have a good resource for those of you on the same journey.
The link below will lead you to a worksheet that will help guide you through effective change in your ministry. Before you speak a word of change to someone in your ministry, work through this guide first. I think it can be a big help to making your “innovation” a success!
Want to start using some online scrapbooking to maintain your ministry memories? You might want to check out Smilebox. Like many online service start-ups, the basic service is free, but they want you to pay for more premium features. You may use this for archiving camp or retreat photos or giving families a slideshow to check out after an event.
Another one like this that my wife uses is One True Media. You can check out one of her creations here (and see my two sweet, adorable girls!).
One of the priorities in my prayer and planning day earlier this month was to develop a communication time line. I started thinking that I not only need to communicate about events that happen from year to year, but I need to communicate other pertinent reminders throughout the year. I thought this time line might be helpful for you. It is in an editable format so you can adjust to fit your ministry needs.
What would you add to it? Send me some comments to make it better!
Vertex42 is a unique site full of Microsoft Excel templates. These things are very high quality. They are free to use, they just ask that you don’t edit their format and you can always purchase a more full version if you like. However, for ministry needs, I think that would be a rare occasion.
This month’s Wednesday Give Away (WGA) is generously provided by the Kidologist, Karl Bastian. I had not met Karl until a few weeks ago at CPC. He is an awesome leader in CM and continues to do great things for our field of ministry.
Karl has made several arrangements for Free CM Stuff readers. Here they are, take advantage of them all!
1. One free copy of the Kidology Handbook. Find out more info on the hand book from the video below. After watching the video, submit this comment: “Gimme tha’ Handbook!” and I’ll put your name in a drawing. The more times you comment, the more times I will enter your name in the drawing. The winner will be announced next Wednesday January 27th.
2: For the many unlucky enough to not win it here, you can still get a $5 off discount for the handbook. Just put in the code: FRCMHND at checkout. This offer is valid from 1/20-2/20/2010.
3. Karl is offering one final deal. Join or renew your Kidology membership, place the code: FRCMKDY in the promo box and get two free months added to your membership. Again this offer is valid only from 1/20-2/20/2010.
Several years ago, I realized that my design skills just weren’t cutting it. In a nutshell, the stuff I produced as newsletters and promotional material was junk. I decided to learn from others who know what they are doing (a generally good rule of thumb in any circumstances!). I’m no pro, but most of my stuff looks decent. One of the tools I use to inspire myself and get free fonts and logos is dzineblog. It is a great tool that I peruse on a weekly basis.
And if you want to read some great articles on the basics of design, check out Kenny Conley’s series on the topic. Just go to his site and search for design, there are about 8 posts on the series.
Church budgets always seem to be tight no matter what the state of the economy. However, if you can prove to those in your church that you are budget-minded and tenacious at being frugal with church resources, they may just crown you as the King or Queen of Savings! Here are a few tips across the various areas of your ministry that can save you money:
Events
Get several quotes from equipment providers (buses, inflatables, t-shirts, entertainment). Getting a few quotes takes a couple of extra minutes and you can often save hundreds of dollars. When I came to Grey Stone, I did this and cut the VBS t-shirt budget in half!
Partner with other ministry areas to slice the costs in half. We did this for a volunteer banquet. The education ministry and children’s ministry did a somewhat joint thank you banquet for our volunteers. We got a better deal on the food (b/c of volume) and we split the entertainer fee.
For camps or events that require parents to pay for their kids, many of us build a portion of this into our budget to subsidize the one’s who can’t afford it. I have found that a simple announcement in the bulletin explaining the need for scholarships draws a good bit of money. I explain exactly what it would cost to send one kid to that event so they have a concrete figure. I also have several “givers” in my contact list who have been very gracious in the past that I can call on for assistance. Try this one for extra camp spending money for needy children too!
Large Projects
Sit down for 20 minutes and brainstorm about volunteers who can help you get the project done. We did a $10,000+ renovation project for our elementary worship room for around $5000 b/c of volunteers in our church who did things for free or at cost.
Do the work yourself. Plan on spending 60-70 hours a week at church over those 2-3 weeks and show the church some hard work ethic!
Schedule volunteer “work days” to help get the grunt work of large projects done. Schedule them at key times in the project plan and on days and times which working people are easily available.
Curriculum
Use free curriculum, especially for short run programs, like Wednesday nights in the summer, or for Christmas/Easter lessons. Go here to find out about links to many of these free curriculum resources. Another great resource for this is Open from LifeChurch.
Partner with a local sister church to alternate the sharing of curriculum. This would cut your budget in half. Even with dated curriculum, a few tweaks would make this very doable.
Have teachers meet weekly to discuss their resource needs. They may find that someone else has what they were going to ask you to buy the next day!
Consumable Resources
Three times a year, make a wish list known of items needed for your nursery or resource room. Put this list in your bulletin or newsletter. Want to make it even more successful, have some adult Sunday school classes adopt a particular area of “resource needs” and do a two week drive toward the end of the summer to get ready for the new school year.
Steal them. Just kidding…I wanted to see if you read this far!
Cut out the amount you feed children at church and have a rotation of families provide that snack or breakfast.
Buy wholesale. Get a Costco, BJ’s, or Sam’s membership. You really do save a ton on things like cookies, cups, napkins, and plates there.
This month, I’m giving away 1 hour of ministry phone consultation. We can do one of several things over this conversation (or a mixture of any listed):
Discuss ministry strategies
Talk through points of conflict in your ministry
Work on philosophy and vision development
Go through a training or two that you could conduct with your volunteers
Conference call with your key volunteers to discuss ministry purpose and direction
Work through some administrative issues such as volunteer recruiting or safety and security policies
**Or click the logo above to see other consulting training services I offer in order to best suit your situation
If you are interested in this process, please leave a comment below simply stating the word “Help” with your name. Be sure to put your email address in the info box. You have until next Wednesday to put your name in the hat! Good luck!
Free CM Stuff highlights top notch no cost resources for Children's Ministry leaders and offers a site for CM leaders to share resources they have developed themselves.
