Communication—good or bad—affects the atmosphere and environment of your ministry. It can determine your ability to keep a great team together. In church work, where a leader is more dependent on volunteers than in most organizations, the need for great communication is even more critical.

When leading volunteers, there are some things I believe will help build volunteers into a ministry team: be personal, be flexible, be someone volunteers will follow, be a good communicator.

In the excitement of preparing the best lesson ever, we can become guilty of forgetting to leave room for the Holy Spirit to guide us and direct us in our lesson to the kids. But when you allow the Holy Spirit to lead your service, you will find that God can and will do great things in the lives of your kids. Be committed to giving the Holy Spirit the position He deserves as the leader. Step back and stand in amazement at what He will do!

Obviously, not everyone in ministry has a lifetime companion, but those who are married and who are both called into children’s ministry have the benefit of a team effort. This article by Thor Johnson reflects his angle on the benefits of a husband-wife ministry team.

Brain Dollar (the children’s pastor, who has served as a kids’ pastor since 1992), and Rod Loy (the lead pastor) share about their years of working together and explore ways of building a strong relationship with the one God has called you to work beside.

Framework Leadership by Kent Ingle gives us the building blocks that any leader needs to have. Ingle has taken a mountain of leadership theory from multiple sources and boiled it down to quick, easy-to-read, and understandable bites.