It was just a few months back when Children’s Ministry Magazine listed our blog among the top 5 children’s ministry websites. (Jan/Feb 2010).
I didn’t see that coming. In fact, I first found out about it on a someone’s blog. Then I double checked my own copy of the magazine and it was there in print.
It was good surprise.
The big news yesterday was not a surprise, since they emailed me for a picture. But I did feel just as honored to read the Nov/Dec 2010 issue of their magazine. In it they they listed some of the young kidmin leaders who they are calling “20 to Watch.” Click here to read that article on their website.
And I made the list.
It’s nice when others notice and commend what you’re doing in ministry. Especially when they put you in the company of amazing people. This was an impressive list. They name some people I’ve met in person. These include Kenny Conley, Sam Luce, and Gina McClain. There are many others that I’ve known online. Names like Jonathan Cliff, Matt Guevara, Anthony Prince, Dan Scott, Justyn Smith, David Wakerley, Kendra Fleming, Allyson Evans, Nick Diliberto and Spencer Click.
That’s not the whole list, but you’ll notice how many of these are using blogs to share their ideas. You can find most of them on our top 100 kidmin blogger list. Blogging has made the connection between leadership, influence and good ideas nearly a straight line.
Now the truth about me.
My offline ministry doesn’t really compare with all the amazing work these other leaders are doing. God has called me to a smaller church and I’m not sure I could handle all the pressure the others deal with. Just doing my ordinary ministry stuff reminds me that I am no expert. On many days God reminds me how weak I really am. It’s almost comical that He lets me have a popular blog. I am the least among these leaders, even though this website is helping many. It’s a strange contradiction, but I think God’s glory is shinning out of it.
Now the truth about the website.
I’m not the only one writing all this stuff. Nearly half of our content is from our contributing authors. The blog now has over 10 writers and my main role is to support their work. So, it’s really a team effort on the content side. As for traffic, that has grown as readers recommend us to their friends. Without our strong community of readers, nobody outside of my town would care what I’m writing.
Since this sounds like an acceptance speech, I’ll continue…
I want to thank my awesome wife who has endured and encouraged me to serve God with this website. She trusted me when it was still an expense on the family budget. I greatly appreciate my church that has been so patient with my learn-by-failure style of leadership. Most of all, I’m more than a little surprised that God would trust me with kids ministry in the first place!
Who’s missing from this list?
This list was a sequel to the Sept/Oct 2010 article that named the 20 most influential leaders in children’s ministry today. I have great respect for Christine Yount Jones and her team at Group Publishing. Just putting together such a list is a risky job and it’s easy to leave out well deserving people. I’d say they did a really good job despite the challenge.
If you’d like to respond, just click here to leave a comment. The article is not yet online, but I’ll add a link once they post it on their website.