Updated GPS

A few years ago, my sweet husband gave me the best gift ever--a Garmin GPS. I'd just gotten to the point in my life that I was tired of getting lost. So he got me a GPS for Christmas. And I never got lost again--but I did hear a lot of "make a U-turn...whenever possible make a U-turn!" (We affectionately named my GPS Rhoda, since we were on the road-a quite a bit!)

Anyway, Rhoda needs an update. A few weekends ago we were in Denver, plugged in a restaurant and drove across town, only to discover that the restaurant had closed down. Plugged in another one, same story. The same thing happened in California this last week when we plugged in a Barnes and Noble. That building is now a fitness club.

So Rhoda needs an update. Things are quite different now from what they were several years ago. And, frankly, I'm tired of getting lost, feeling frustrated, and wasting time and gas!

Could the same be said for our ministries? What worked years ago was great--it got us to our destination. But are we sure that it really is the best thing today? Do our ministries need an update? Yeah, it might cost us something in time and resources to download the latest version of ministry, but just think of the time and money we'll save by having the most current ministry methods, strategies, and ideas as our navigation tool.

I'll tell you that a couple books we've published lately do that for me--realign my way of looking at ministry--both children's ministry and family ministry. I highly recommend them for realignment. Check out Shift: What it takes to finally reach families today  by Brian Haynes (http://tinyurl.com/l38sda) and Turbocharged: 100 simple secrets to successful children's ministry by Dale Hudson and Scott Werner (http://tinyurl.com/l3f8y3)

You may be making some U-turns after reading these books, but I can guarantee you're going to like the ride and where these amazing authors take you on the journey.

Comments

[Belinda]

Our church is definitely going through this right now! I was hired as the children's director at the church I grew up in and alot of the ministries were being done the same way when I was in it. With a lot of prayer, time and energy, I'm hoping that starting this fall we can update alot of things!

[Chris Yount Jones]

Belinda,
Keep me posted on how it goes!