Blog – Motion Worship – Video Loops, Countdowns, & Moving Backgrounds for the Christian Church

Talking About the Theology of Worship Lyrics

As worship pastors, we know that leading our congregations in worship is not just about playing music and singing songs. It’s about creating a space for people to connect with God, and one way we do that is through the songs we choose to sing. However, from time to time, people can and will take issue with the lyrics of worship songs and claim they have bad or harmful theology. Some of these can...

How To Schedule Your Week as a Senior Pastor

As a senior pastor, your work schedule is unlike most. While you might enjoy more flexibility in your calendar and diversity in your to-do’s than a typical 9-5 gig, you also face unique challenges and uncharacteristic demands. Creating a schedule that allows for deep productivity, meaningful pastoring, and sufficient rest is a puzzle that takes trial and error to figure out. While everyone is di...

How To Handle Criticism as a Lead Pastor

As a senior pastor or someone in any leadership position, criticism is inevitable. That, of course, doesn’t mean it stings any less. For most of us, our first reaction to complaints and critiques is defensiveness. Especially when the criticism feels harsh, personal, or unfair, it can be tempting to take a “haters gonna hate” mentality and harden ourselves to it. And while it’s true that so...

How to Jumpstart a Sermon-Based Small Group Curriculum

As a teaching pastor, creating sermon series that will serve your congregations is an important part of your job description. From finding the right scripture, narrowing in on salient themes, and constructing messages that will build meaningfully week after week, the time and intention that goes into crafting these series shouldn’t have to end after everyone leaves the sanctuary for Sunday brunc...

designing-your-youth-ministry-room-to-support-your-series

Designing Your Youth Ministry Room to Match Your Series

The visual impact of the space your youth ministry meets in can make a subtle, but significant difference in the way your sermon series are received. The lighting, color, and arrangement of your room can be a big piece that influences whether your messages feel introspective or community-minded, energetic or subdued. We want to create atmospheres that are inviting and engaging, and the design of t...

Creating Sermon Series for a Multi-Generational Audience

As a pastor, one of your primary goals is to engage with your congregation and make sure everyone feels like they are gaining something valuable from attending services. But creating sermon series that appeal to a wide range of ages can be a daunting task. It's easy to slip into creating messages tailored toward the adults in attendance, but how do you create something that engages your youngest m...

Give Helpful Feedback in Rehearsals

Everyone who leads rehearsals has a slightly different style, from how the whole rehearsal is organized to how he or she communicates musical changes. One of the trickiest things as a band leader is attempting to give feedback to band members about their playing. If you don’t play the instrument they’re playing, you may run into an added layer of “imposter syndrome” as you try to commu...

Why Young Adults Are Leaving Your Church

Many churches are struggling to attract and retain young adults in their congregations. Many of these young adults— college-aged through mid-twenties— grew up in youth groups and fell away from the church and potentially their faith during college or shortly after. This mass exodus has been felt in churches across the country, leading pastors to strategize how they can better reach this slippi...

How Do You Talk About Pastor Appreciation Month?

I’m uncomfortable, you’re uncomfortable, everyone’s uncomfortable. October is almost here, and if you’re a pastor, you know what that means – it’s pastor appreciation month. Which, if we’re being honest, feels delicate. When I served as a pastor, I was always the first to say that I didn’t need any special recognition. And while I didn’t NEED the extra recognition, I think ...

Why You Should Talk About Labor Day At Your Church

If you lead a church, you’re used to making time in your services to speak into various national and cultural holidays. Beyond the major Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter, many of us in the United States recognize and celebrate holidays like Memorial Day, MLK day, or the 4th of July. One holiday that seems to fly under the radar in most churches is Labor Day. Frequently this is tr...

Facilitate Tough Conversations with Your Youth Group

Youth ministry, at its best, has long been a space where teenagers and adults can speak candidly about difficult topics. However, today, those topics extend beyond sexuality and our existential place in the world — racism, politics, and national tragedies all deserve a seat at the table. These days, students expect the adults in their lives to address difficult topics and big events as they ...

Keeping the Church’s Post-Easter Momentum Alive

One of the best church weekends of the year - Easter - is immediately followed by one of the most difficult weekends of the year. For several weeks (or months), you and your team spend hours planning, organization, and executing tasks for Easter services, only for all the momentum to come to a screeching halt when it’s all over. We get it - Easter takes all your focus and energy, and by the t...

Children’s Pastor Preparation 101

Preparation is key when it comes to children’s ministry. There’s a drastic difference in the quality of your Sunday school experience between a prepared and well-structured hour vs. a chaotic attempt to simply keep kids from hurting each other or breaking things (although that will probably always be a concern...) But the difference between those two outcomes relies on the baby-steps you ta...

How to Measure Success in Kid’s Ministry

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was an easy button we could press or formula we could use to determine whether or not our Kid’s ministry is thriving and seeing success? Unfortunately, measuring success in ministry simply doesn’t work that way. I actually think many pastors and children’s directors feel a little out of touch with whether their children’s ministry is thriving or not. ...

Ring In a Meaningful New Year’s with Your Kid’s Ministry

It’s the new year and there is much to celebrate, reflect upon, and look forward to in your kid’s ministry. While New Year’s can sometimes feel like a more adult holiday, it can be a fun and poignant opportunity for you and your kids to remember and celebrate God’s faithfulness over the year. Plus, with perhaps a few new faces in your attendance since Christmas, New Year’s is a great tim...

When and Why (or Why Not) to Split Up Your Middle and High School Ministries

Middle school and high school might be generally categorized as “youth” but anyone who works with students knows that there’s a big difference between an 11-year-old sixth grader and an 18-year-old high school senior. For youth pastors, one of the most pressing questions you face is whether or not to split up your youth ministry between middle and high school students or whether to keep them...

5 Tips for Incorporating Worship into Your Children’s Ministry

I first fell in love with worship when I was a kid. My children’s ministry didn’t have a wild budget, smoke machines, or loads of niche volunteers, but they did what they could to build an environment for active, engaging worship. They found little ways that were meaningful and transformative to invite us kids into the process. Music is an important tool for not only teaching kids about God...

4 Reasons Your Congregation is Disengaged from the Sermon

People in your congregation don’t think you can see them, but you know as well as anyone that you see everything they’re doing… all the time. And when eyes begin to wander about the room, thumbs twiddle, and for a few shameless congregants, phones light up their faces, what do you do? Call them out publicly from the stage. Kidding. Please don’t do that… But it’s so tough as a ...

Children’s Ministry Directors: Getting Young Kids Excited About Church

Being a children’s pastor can be an incredibly enriching job (if you’re the right kind of person that is!) Kids are full of energy, and it’s such an important time of their life developmentally. Being a part of their journey means a lot to them and can be very fulfilling to watch them develop as they grow up. But anyone who works with kids knows there are pros and cons to the job. While k...

Getting Young People to Volunteer in the Youth Ministry

Properly balancing your volunteer-to-student ratio can be difficult. For smaller churches, it can be difficult to keep volunteers committed over the years to maintain a healthy leadership culture in your youth ministry, and for growing churches, it can be difficult to properly staff all youth events with enough leaders. This is especially the case as various different types of events come up: yout...