Recently my family made a major ministry move.  We had done a move before but never really felt that where we were at was going to be a forever thing.  We had so many dreams that God had placed in our hearts we just really couldn’t find the perfect place that those dreams and vision could come to pass.

As the years went by, I developed a relationship with David Lyons from Minister Search.  I shared my ministry dreams with him and he began to help me navigate through finding the perfect fit for me.  The great thing about the Minister Search team was that they weren’t interested in just placing me at the first church that came along.  David and his team was insistent on finding the perfect match.  He didn’t just want to find me a job or fill a churches position.  They wanted to help create a ministry connection between myself and a church that would be a long term relationship.

Last January I stepped into my role at Northview Church in Carmel, Indiana.  Everything that I was believing God for in a place to minister and more is there.  Because of the ministry of Minister Search, I am now serving in my dream job.  in the 3 short months I have been there God has moved in ways I could never have imagined.  The ministry I am over has grown over 20% in the last month!  We now have over 1000 kids a weekend and 700 volunteers in our program.  God is working in mighty ways and I feel that I am in the most exciting stage of my personal ministry to date.  None of this would have been possible if the team at Minister Search didn’t do what they do.

I will never do another job search on either side of the search again without working with Minister Search.  I know that they connect the right church with the right candidate.  Thank you Minister Search, your ministry has changed my life and I am forever grateful!

If you are a church or minister looking for a position to fill, check out Minister Search!  Tell them Joe McAlpine sent you!

@davidjlyons
@ministersearch1
www.facebook.com/ministersearch

this post first appeared at joemcalpine.com

I had the honor of meeting a couple of wonderful people from the LEAD UGANDA organization yesterday at Orange 2012.  What an amazing ministry they are doing by offering a safe place for kids in UGANDA.  It literally brought tears to my eyes and warmed my heart to see the love and passion for the people of Uganda that this organization has.  They are at max capacity at their current location though and need more room.  If you are praying about an organization for you and your family to support I would DEFINITELY check them out!  You can also follow them on twitter @leaduganda

I went to an awesome PreCon breakout this morning at OC12.  Meaghan Wall taught on how you can use technology, specifically iPads to better minister to Special Needs Children.  It was a great and informative session.

Essentially her church began using iPads as ministry tools because they found that special needs children were very interested in them.  iPads have many great apps for teaching children with special needs Bible truths.  Among them are:

Granny’s Bible Dojo

Tuneville

Bible Book Scramble

Adventure Bible Memory

ABC Kaleidoscope Bible Stories

Thanks for the great Session Meaghan!  If you want to see my personal notes you can check out my evernote notebook dedicated to OC12 here!

this post first appeared at joemcalpine.com

This post is a part of the blog series”fammin basics”  To read the rest of this series click here!

Invest, Then Wait

Those of us that do ministry to families tend to be very passionate about what we are doing in ministry…so much so that we can often forget about taking the time to let the seeds we have planted germinate.  We tend to “jump the gun” and expect our ministries to go from A-Z without hitting anything in the middle.  Our impatience though, if not handled with care can actually turn people off…particularly parents.

We can’t hit the pinnacle of our family ministry in a short amount of time.  We need to invest in our ministries…and then wait for that investment to pay off.  Be patient, keep investing and you will end up with a very fruitful end!  After you have invested in your ministry, here are some things you can do while you are waiting for those investments to pay off.

1.  PRAY-  Take the time to pray for the families you are investing in.  Pray for their spiritual growth.  Pray for the marriage that is represented in that family.  Continually ask God to give wisdom to the parents of the home.

2.  BE FAITHFUL  This is a simple way to win with parents and help them to actually WANT to hear what you have to say in regards to family.  DO WHAT YOU SAY YOU ARE GOING TO DO!  Family Ministry people would have a lot more weight with parents if they weren’t so flighty!

3.  Have an awesome Children’s Ministry-  While you are waiting on your investment, focus on having an awesome Children’s Ministry.  Build relationships and continually seek to make things better.  This will ALWAYS pay off in the end!

this blog first appeared at joemcalpine.com

I am so excited that Orange 2012 is finally here!  I will be posting live from the conference this year as a guest blogger.  There are also some other great bloggers that will be posting about the conference.  Just be sure to follow the Twitter Hashtag #OC12 to see what is going on!

I am trying something a little different during this conference.  I will be taking notes during sessions that I attend and doing an occasional audio interview and posting them in an evernote notebook that I am sharing with the world!!!  Be sure to check it every day because it will be constantly updated through the end of the conference.  The notes will be handwritten through an app called noteshelf and then shared in evernote.  Don’t worry, no evernote account is necessary to view the notes!

You can access these notes HERE!

I will also have some cool giveaways this week so stay tuned!!!

this post first appeared at joemcalpine.com

To enter to win a copy of the Eric Trap simply tweet “@joemcalpine is giving away a copy of the #erictrap at http://bit.ly/IkUbRP #kidmin #thinkorange”

AND/OR comment on this post!!!

I will announce the winners this Friday!!!

Blessings!!!

This is a post that is part of a blog series called “Fammin Basics”  To check out the other posts click here!

Being Trans-Parent

I taught a parenting class with my wife recently and we thought it went really well.  I was surprised by the comment we heard most from people that took the class.  I often heard the words “you guys were so real!”  I have to be honest, that statement kind of shocked me…it was almost like the people that took the class were expecting me to be fake…ok maybe not fake, but definitely not as forthcoming about the way our home works…

Then it hit me, so many of us want to be viewed as a solid leader to our church that we fail to show the people our own humanity.  Here is a news flash folks…you don’t have to be perfect…your church shouldn’t expect you to be perfect (if they do then RUN in the other direction…)  When we are real with the people we serve and show our struggles and humanity it does many things, here are a few…

1.  It allows people to connect with you.  When people you are ministering to know that you are a human too complete with struggles and flaws it actually will draw them closer to you.  People today aren’t looking for a role model so much as they are looking for someone who understands.  If you paint yourself as “struggle-less” then people don’t think you would understand.

2.  Makes you less intimidating to others.  Lets be honest, being a ministry leader (especially a pastor) can be intimidating to some people that are newer to church.  If you want to be approachable, show your humanity to people.  One more thing…intimidation does not equal conviction…you will never be holy enough to convict people so stop trying.

3.  Being open about yourself will reduce stress in your life.  When you show that you are a real person you will feel better.  We weren’t designed to hide things about our life.  Less stress also means less room for failure in our ministry.

Overall, be real with the people you minister to.  From a Family Ministry perspective parents will be really interested in what you have to say when they know that you understand their spot in life.

-JM

this post first appeared at joemcalpine.com

This is part one of a blog series entitled “fammin basics“  If you would like to read the rest of the posts you can click here.

LOVE KIDS FIRST

I am often shocked at how many Children’s Pastors out there don’t want to spend time with kids.  Instead they want to spend all of their time with volunteers and parents.  Its boggling to me that those people think that they can build a strong childrens ministry by putting the actual children on the back burner.

I have said this many times but I will say it again.  If you love kids first, parents will want to hear what you have to say, volunteers will follow you.  It’s really that simple.  Simply love kids.

With that…don’t be an idiot…  I believe there are two different types of Children’s Pastor.  The first (more historical) is the guy or gal that is basically a clown with “pastor” in front of his name.  This is the guy that you see dumping slime all over himself, doing gross or dangerous things on video, makes everything a game and can’t dress in a matching color scheme for the life of them.  It is usually apparent to parents that kids come to church to meet that person and Jesus may or may not be a byproduct.  I have been this person before.  The kids thought I was the coolest person on the planet…but parents and volunteers thought I was a joke.  No one wanted to follow me so I found myself oftentimes working alone late hours to get a project done.

The next type of Children’s Pastor (the more modern) is more leadership oriented.  This person is more interested in effective ministry to kids than they are in being a celebrity.  Because they love the kids so much, they know there is no way they can “do it all” and have the quality of ministry stay high.  Therefore, this person empowers others to teach, lead and invest in children.  Kids still love to go to church, but they love it because they are going to meet Jesus instead of a person.  Parents want to learn from this type of children’s pastor because they can tell that their kids have been put first.  Volunteers want to follow them because this person actually seems to have a plan and an attainable vision.

Which one of these types is about loving kids?  I believe the answer is the second option.  If you love kids so much that you are willing to set your “celebrity children’s pastor” status aside and be effective in what you do then the quality of ministry will be so much higher.

Bottom line, love kids first.  When you do that and make decisions that always put the kids first then people will want to follow you because they see your investment.

-JM

this post first appeared at joemcalpine.com

Hey everyone! Sorry for the late announcement.  The winner of the Yancy combo pack is Crissy!

Congratulations!  Send me your address and I will ship it out to you right away!

Blessings!

We all have high hopes for our ministries…or at least we should.  When I got into kidmin it wasn’t just because I loved kids…it was because I wanted to be a part of impacting the whole family.  I wanted to be a person that inspired parents to be the number 1 influencer of all things Jesus in their home.  I wanted to be the one that partnered with parents, giving them the tools and confidence necessary to fulfill their destiny.

Because of this passion, I found myself jumping into “family ministry”.  I ran full force towards the family ministry concept, putting all of my time and energy into speaking into parents lives.  I made the Children’s Ministry run simple so I had more time to invest in families…funny thing was, the parents seemed very uninterested.

That’s when it hit me.  I skipped some of the basic building blocks needed to have a strong family ministry.  I learned that family ministry isn’t complete when it’s just the children’s ministry.  What I needed was a stellar children’s ministry with a strong family influence.  Over the next few posts, I will be talking about how I achieved that in my ministry.  We will cover:

- Love Kids First

- Being trans-parent

- Invest, then wait

- Building a follow up system

- Inspiring other ministries

I am excited to share these topics with you!  Stay posted!

-JM

this post first appeared at joemcalpine.com