• Meet with the level of leadership closest to you:

Meet with your first level of leadership closest to you to help them understand their new role. I say new because, you’ve most likely make appropriate changes… right? Remember the job descriptions? Now is the time to help implement those job descriptions into action.

• Provide Training and Empowerment to that level of leadership:

I really cannot take the time to meet with every leadership position that falls under that first layer of leadership. So I must give that layer the power to take the new structure to that next level of leadership. They will essentially do what I have just done with them. They will help implement the new job descriptions into action with that next layer.

• Tweak as you go:

Yep… you’ve not now, nor will you ever arrive at a place when you’ve finished structuring your ministry. If you ever get to that point… quit. Seriously, complacency ministry is akin to death (perhaps someone somewhere will quote that one day). Our CM Leadership manuals are not bound in a book or even spiral bound – they are in three-ring binders because that manual will be progressive. It will change and be added to.

I’ll have more next time – keep looking up!

There are a lot of little details that need to be done in order to do this right. I am so blessed to have my wife as my administrative assistant to help handle all of these details. Let’s remember an important principle: Anything that’s worth anything will take time and hard work.

You won’t get all of this done in a day – or even a week. If you do, please call me and I might hire you. This will take time… a lot of time… a lot of YOUR time. So, b impatient enough that you want to get it done – but have patients enough to know that you have to take each step separately and in some cases delicately.

Re-structuring won’t just happen (come to think of it, no ministry administration ever “just happens”). Be deliberate about having a plan to get the process started. Be deliberate in communicating to your people that you are doing this whole thing. Be deliberate in working your plan. Be deliberate about pushing the process and keeping it going. Can I be any more deliberate about being deliberate?

OK – back to work… you can do this!

As I have been speaking with friends in the ministry about the fun and challenges faced at a new church opportunity, I have made the mistake of mentioning that my wife and I are working to add structure to a ministry that has none. The mistake is in the phrase ‘this ministry has none’. Really when it comes down to it – Every Children’s Ministry has structure. Even when everything looks like it doesn’t work or is falling apart – it’s not due to a “no structure ministry”… it’s due to a flaw in the structure or a poor structure. Your ministry has a structure – and you either know what it is and it’s intentional… or you continue to build it and it’s unintentional… or, it’s unknown.

Here a are a few steps for you and your ministry team to take to help you re-structure your ministry.

• Define your current structure:

Create a flowchart of all of your departments or sub-ministries that report to you. BE HONEST about how things really flow. Have you ever wondered why everyone in your ministry from the guy running sound, to the registration worker to the preschool teacher comes running to you… every Sunday morning… all at the same time… so you can solve their problems. It’s a flaw in your structure. You should be able to see this in your flow chart.

• Define what you want your structure to look like:

Re-work your flowchart. I mean dream about what leaders you would need to restructure your current ministry alongside of those who already serve. Decide who should really report to who – and who should report to you.

• Start to create job descriptions for each box on your flowchart – including your own:

You are going to need to get with the current leadership that already fill some of those boxes and get from them, their understanding of the role they play on your leadership team. Take this information and begin to design the job description for this position based on what needs to get done and the purpose of the position.

In the next post, I will share the next steps. Now… GO… and begin on your journey towards better structure in your Children’s Ministry!