5. We provide men with strong leadership.
A capable leader-whether male or female-is very likely to have
male volunteers who want to follow. But a poor leader scares men
away. Women who serve under weak leaders will often step forward
and help the leader be successful. But when a man is asked to
follow a poor leader, he often chooses to avoid inevitable conflict
by leaving the ministry. To attract and keep men, we must guarantee
them an efficient ministry experience.
6. We give men ownership.
Once we get a man involved in ministry, we must keep him
involved. For a man to remain, the ministry must become his. To do
this, we show trust and respect by including him in the
goal-setting process and ministry evaluation.
Gordon and Becki West are co-founders of KidZ KaN Make a
Difference and KidZ at Heart International
(kidzatheart.org).
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Take-Out Training for Teachers
Make your training goals a reality without scheduling a
single meeting-and with minimal prep-time. 52
engaging training sessions draw the most out of your teachers with
principles they can apply immediately. With
these 15-minute (or less) training
sessions, you will help your volunteers to:
- Prepare their hearts and minds to be effective teachers,
- Stay composed when things don't go as planned,
- Use creativity in the classroom, and
- Build relationships with children-and help them grow closer to
Jesus.
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GENDER BIAS QUIZ
Take this quiz to see if your recruiting invites or repels
men.
- Do you ask men to perform roles traditionally filled by
women?
- Do you appeal to the conqueror in men by communicating that
children's ministry is a mission worthy of their time and
efforts?
- Do men recruit other men to join your children's ministry?
- Does your printed correspondence have bright colors and bold
images rather than pastels and feminine images?
- From the pulpit, do you refer to teachers as "he" as often as
you refer to them as "she"?
- Do you encourage couples to minister together?
- Do you provide female teachers in classrooms with all male
teachers?
- Is your ministry well-organized to impress and captivate busy
men?
- In your training, do you carefully weed out demeaning jokes or
references to men's weaknesses?
- Do you give men decision-making power in their ministries?
If you answered yes to most of these questions, you're on your
way to a more balanced volunteer staff. If not, remedy areas where
you answered no so men will want to be part of your team.
Excerpted from Children's Ministry Magazine. Subscribe
today!
