The following is a guest post from Cassi LeTourneau, a mom and author of Treasure the Rain.

If I could visit every single church around the country (maybe even the world) I would. I’d bring a stack of books with dog-eared pages, highlighted paragraphs and notes scribbled in margins. I’d sit across a little table from you, coffee in hand, and we’d walk through the needs of your church and how you might begin to address them. We’d share whatever knowledge we have of special needs, ministry, and God’s call in our lives (please know that my knowledge is fairly limited…but my God is definitely not!). I’d probably remember at the very last second that I wanted to pass along a couple of resources—and I’d quickly write them on the back of a napkin before praying for you, your church, and your community. And then we’d go our separate ways…friends for life because that’s kind of how I work.

That is my heart. To reach families in my own church as well as individuals and families thousands of miles away. I want to see these precious children, their families, church staff, and volunteers as well as entire communities blessed in ways they never would have imagined. If special needs ministry is on your heart—and my guess is that it very much is—start praying. Ask God to open doors.

Here are a few resources, in addition to Free CM Stuff, that you might look into:

Joni and Friends

The Inclusive Church

Ministry to Children

Keep in mind inclusion will look different for each and every congregation. I don’t believe there is a one-size-fits-all plan for special needs ministry. There are definitely “best practices” that can be gleaned from churches with existing special needs ministries and from resources such as those listed above. For now I will offer the following thoughts to help get you started.

• Communicate Your Ideas. Present your ideas to church leadership in a clear, concise way. Your Pastors, Elders and Children’s Ministry Directors have a lot on their plates. A lot. That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t love to see a special needs ministry in place—it just means they may not have the means to see it through personally.

• Research. Provide them with a summary from the research you’ve done. Statistics along with success stories might be a great place to start. Just the Facts! Compile statistics along with examples of what other churches are doing. Remember that where you are headed, others have gone before. And many of those people are committed to seeing special needs ministry impact individuals and families far beyond the walls of their own churches. Check out these special needs statistics from the Inclusive Church Blog to give you a boost.

• Share a story. Don’t have a success story to share? They are out there—I promise—but if you’re like me, I didn’t know where to look and what I had at the time were stories of heartbreak. Stories of families being turned away…church after church informing them their children weren’t welcome. Stories of people being isolated from the one place they should feel most loved and accepted. So those are the stories I shared.

• Be consistent. Become familiar with your Children’s Ministry policies and procedures. If there is not currently a “Safe Kids” policy in place I highly recommend that you work with your Children’s Ministry Director to implement one. It is my opinion that this should be mandatory for all churches/Children’s Ministries (with or without a special needs ministry). Applications, criminal background checks, references and training…these basic safe guards should be non-negotiable when working with children.

• Step out in faith. Don’t think you have to have everything in order before sharing your heart. You may not have all the answers—or know exactly what special needs ministry will look like for your church—but what you can share is your heart! And when you boldly share your vision for inclusion you just might come across someone with a God sized vision of their own; waiting for someone like you to step out in faith and give voice to a need that is all too often overlooked.

• Cast the wider vision. With the blessing of church leadership, share your vision with the entire church body! This can be done in a number of ways. We chose to reserve ten minutes during each of our three weekend service times. We shared a brief video, were interviewed by one of our Pastors and encouraged everyone to visit us at a table in the foyer after service. For a sample on how to do this, check out this post, especially the document at the bottom.

• Recruit. Survey your church members. Look for needs that can potentially be met as well as people who might be experienced in a particular area (i.e. medical professional, special needs educator or someone with ministry/event planning experience). Don’t be afraid to recruit support from the secular world as well. Pediatricians, special education teachers, etc… These dedicated professionals have a heart for children even if they don’t necessarily share your faith. And what an amazing opportunity to model the love of Jesus!

• Manage volunteers and families. Provide a basic intake form for anyone interested in volunteering and for families of special needs children. Here are a few examples to get you going.

• Train. Offer an Orientation/Training day. For us that consisted of:

1. A (free) CPR class offered by a church member who responded to our announcement in service.
2. A brief video introduction to special needs ministry. One great option is “The Father’s House” by Joni and Friends.
3. The opportunity for everyone to introduce themselves and share their heart.
4. The option to attend our mandatory Safe Kids Training that evening (other training dates were available).

If I could leave you with just one thought it would be to remind you that special needs ministry is about relationship. Get to know your volunteers. Get to know your families—I would urge you to spend whatever time you can getting to know these parents and their sweet children.

Remember – parents are your best resource when it comes to caring for their individual child. Be sure to provide them with a thorough intake form where they can share vital information about their child. Listen to their questions and concerns and be completely upfront about what you can and cannot offer.

If you run into bumps in the road—ask someone who’s been there. If they can’t help you—ask someone else. Ask until you find someone who can. Just please—don’t give up!

About the Author: Cassi a wife deeply in love with her husband, a mom incredibly proud of her boys, and a girl forever indebted to Jesus. She started her blog, Treasure the Rain, as a place to share her heart and hopefully a little encouragement “through the rain.”

The following is a guest post by Jared Massey from Small Town Kidmin.

Love it or hate it, we all have to do a little budgeting now and then. From the largest church to the smallest church, we all have “limited resources.” Some are just more limited than others. In order to be good stewards of the resources God has given us (and hopefully to prove ourselves faithful of managing more), a budget in some form is necessary.

Budgets in some churches are a beautiful spreadsheet of various calculations stemming from years of giving and spending research plus forecasted growth minus increased expenses taking into account current economic inflation rates and various other factors. God bless those churches. I’m not in one of them. Our budget is much more simplistic and pragmatic, and I think that is healthier in a church our size (averaging about 55 people on a Sunday morning).

Anytime I need to make a large purchase, I need to get board approval. One of the board members always asks two questions. Do we need it? Can we afford it? Those two questions should be at the root of any budget of any church.

When budgeting for the year, or month, first ask “What do we need?” In order to effectively do ministry, there are certain staples that need to be had, curriculum for example. Budget those things first. Then dream, if I had more money, how could we be more effective? During a workshop I sat in about building large group environments on a small budget, the speaker said, “Fit your budget to your dream, don’t just dream to your budget.” I think this is good, albeit not always practical, advice. Based on your God-given dreams, what budget is necessary? That’s the budget you need to ask for. I have been told no, I have been told not now, and I have been told go for it. While I prefer a yes, a no or not now helps to sharpen the vision for my ministry. Sometimes, the best way to figure out what is important is by learning what isn’t.

Budgeting is tough and serious business. We are called to be good stewards of God’s money and that means using it wisely. Purchases that serve to inflate our egos or make me as the leader look better are never wise purchases. Spending money on things that show God’s love to the world around you is always wise.

About the author: Jared is the Associate Pastor of Warsaw Assembly of God, a church in a populous town of 1,700. Even though he narrowly beat me in the Blog Madness tournament earlier this year, I still count him a friend. He works full time at a bank and is a good dad too. I’m thankful he was nice enough to take some time out of his schedule to send a few words of advice to the Free CM Stuff community.

My Charity Box is a no cost way for your church or ministry to collect tithes, payments, or donations. It offers the following features:

• Debit Card only solution
• Multiple funds and causes within your account
• Direct deposit to your banking account
• Web site integration
• Built in social marketing
• Detailed reporting
• Graphic customization

Seems like a pretty unique tool. How do you think you would use My Charity Box?

I just came across this one the other day. If you have a lot of expenses you need to keep track of (taking volunteers out to lunch, purchases for events, mileage, etc.), then you may want to try out Xpenser. It is an application that works through your mobile phone (if you get email on your phone). You can track expenses by sending an email, SMS, or placing a call to Xpenser. It then organizes them in the Xpenser online database which easily allows you to organize and download all of your expenses.

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.

• Want to keep track of a church project?
• Need an organized time sheet for ministry staff?
• Is your check request or invoice system sloppy?
• Do a lot of reimbursements?
• Need free printable calendars or planners?
• You get the drift I think!

Recently, I found out about a very nifty tool for the technological generation of parents that we serve. It’s called “Zefty” and is an online way for parents to help their children manage their allowance. They say they may add premium features down the road, but for now, everything is free. Here’s how the site describes its service:

1. Parents set up virtual accounts for their kids
2. Allowances can be automatically deposited
3. Parents manage withdrawals and deposits
4. Kids can print out ZeftyChecks to take to their parents
5. Kids can use ZeftyCalc to see how long they will have to save for purchases
6. Parents can use ZeftyCalc to find a reasonable amount for their allowance

Essentially, the parent is the bank branch with the actual money and Zefty operates as the online banking system. Obviously, the service will only work in a setting with older kids who can read and proficiently operate a computer. My daughters are preschoolers so we are resigned to giving them 4 quarters a week with one going to “Jesus.” Hopefully as they get older we’ll be able to use this site to teach them about Christ-centered financial management.

So your budget’s tight right? Well, Yahoo! has a nice little way to earn some extra bucks for your ministry. It is called GoodSearch. First, you have to register your ministry (non-profit) with them. Then they send you an email telling you if it was approved or not. Next, you start searching! Basically, you use GoodSearch to do your internet searching and each time you make a search, you earn $.01 for your ministry. Here’s an excerpt from their about page:

“GoodSearch is a search engine which donates 50-percent of its revenue to the charities and schools designated by its users. It’s a simple and compelling concept. You use GoodSearch exactly as you would any other search engine. Because it’s powered by Yahoo!, you get proven search results. The money GoodSearch donates to your cause comes from its advertisers — the users and the organizations do not spend a dime!”

I promoted it in several of my newsletters and asked the parents in my ministry to make it their main search page. If you can get 200 people to do this by making an average of one search per day, you can make $730/year for your ministry! They cut checks once per year in the Fall, just in time when you need end of the year money!

I have found that their searches are not quite as accurate as Google, so it is not the best site for specific internet research. It also is not as comprehensive as Google at image and video searches. Nevertheless, it can be a quick and easy source for extra revenue!