Grow Virtual’s Impact on My Ministry –

I attended the Children’s Ministry LEAD Conference for the first time in 2018, one year after becoming the Children’s Ministry Director of my church. I loved having a time to learn and grow in my knowledge of God and to learn how He can use me in ministry to the children and families in my church. I also loved being around other Children’s Ministry Directors who understand the blessings and stresses of children’s ministry. At the time, I had very little ministry experience so the time at the LEAD Conference was extremely beneficial to me.

On the way home from the conference, I was talking with the pastor of my church and I told him that I needed to attend this conference every year in order to continue doing my job, but I knew there were barriers to going to the conference. The conference is far away. I have to leave my family and job for a few days. It’s too expensive to take any of my Children’s Ministry Team members or volunteers.

A few years later I did have the opportunity to attend the LEAD Conference again when the Grow Virtual conference was announced. I didn’t know how I would be able to use the content in the context of my medium-sized church, but  Jimmy Brock, who was on the CDM Children’s Ministry Team and also pastors a church near mine,  suggested meeting with other leaders from our area and hosting a Grow Virtual one-day conference for children’s ministry leaders and volunteers in our area. I loved the idea! It sounded like a more accessible way to experience the benefits of the LEAD Conference for my team, volunteers, and ministry friends.

Later that year, and I, along with other leaders in our area, gathered together for a one-day Grow Virtual Conference. We were not participating live, so we watched the three main sessions together as well as offered four onsite workshops. Several children’s ministry directors attended, and some also brought volunteers from their churches. We had lunch catered by a local sandwich shop, and many of us went to dinner together at the end of the day.

The one-day conference was a special time of connecting with other ministry leaders and volunteers. Just like the LEAD Conference, the main sessions and workshops of the GROW Conference offered biblical teaching and reminded us how God wants to use us in our ministries. In this setting, it was not only children’s ministry directors who could hear this rich teaching but also volunteers from our churches. The team member from my church was excited to share the vision of children’s ministry with other members of our church with her better understanding about the role of all congregants in raising the children in our church body. She now felt as I did when I left the LEAD Conference a few years earlier. In addition, the leaders and volunteers who attended were able to talk about resources our churches were using, ask one another questions about things that were happening in our own contexts, and begin to build relationships with one another. The Grow Virtual Conference, in a context more accessible to more people, gave us an opportunity to be together and refocus on why we do what we do in children’s ministry.

In Hebrews 10:24-25, we are instructed to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another…” The Grow Virtual Conference offers churches a wonderful opportunity to do exactly this. Smaller churches can invite leaders together in their area in the same way that Jimmy and I have done. Two churches could partner together for a training event for their teams or volunteers. Larger churches may want to pair the Grow Conference’s main sessions with a volunteer appreciation night by serving a catered dinner to everyone. The Grow Virtual Conference has content for leaders who are new to children’s ministry and for seasoned leaders who have been in ministry for years. There is training and teaching for every level. A bonus of the virtual conference is that the helpful content can be accessed and reviewed for several months.

I have been blessed to be able to attend LEAD several more times since that first year, but I have also loved having the opportunity to create a local event for my volunteers and other leaders to be encouraged and inspired in the same way that I was after that first year of the LEAD Conference. The Grow Virtual Conference takes away the barriers of a distant, one-time conference and allows a variety of people to access the content. It has been a blessing to the members of my church as well as to me.