Archive for March, 2011

An important letter from Kevin Bowman, Apex Kids Director:

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Simplify and Serve in 2010!

Please take the time to read this detailed and helpful plan for ministry in Apex Kids for 2010. “Simplify and Serve” will be our guiding theme for next year. It is explained in this post in 6 parts, and we ask that you fill out the provided form after reading!

Simplifying Volunteer Scheduling: Currently we need 86 people to fully staff our weekend Gatherings. The weekly effort to schedule those 86 volunteers has been exceptional and unnecessarily difficult. Changes in the way we will schedule our volunteers reflect our desire to serve in a manner that is more consistently staffed, better prepared and very intentional in the building of relationships between children, their families and those who serve them.

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Part 1: Trimesters
Our plan will be framed within three trimesters:

First: January – April
Second: May – August
Third: September – December

It is our goal to coordinate the ministry of our workers with events and life schedules common to most, if not everyone, within the Apex family.

This approach also represents a realistic view of the unique transitions, choices and priorities that all families and churches encounter throughout the year, and especially during the summer months of May to August.

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Part 2: Accommodation

Our plan must be able to accommodate at least 400 children each weekend during the 3 Gatherings. All three of our Gatherings are equally important, but the greater number of children at our 9:30 service make its staffing a priority.

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Part 3: Stewardship

Although we will always need to recruit additional workers, it is just as important that we are good stewards of the volunteers that already serve.

Apex has a unique demographic of young families, college students, busy professionals and military personnel. That blend of people within the context of a thriving House Church vision presents both opportunities and challenges when trying to build and maintain a level of excellence in our ministry.

Our intent is to provide opportunities for service that work with our church demographic rather than working around it. That said, we will be asking that our people “adjust,” to meet the needs of our children.

We realize that many of you who faithfully serve do not have margin in your schedules to do more or alter how you serve. We are asking those of you who do have margin in your schedule to reconsider “how” you serve.

For example: if you now serve 12 weeks throughout the year, we would ask to consider serving 8 weeks in 2 one month blocks. In this case LESS is MORE. These scheduling options will be explained more in the next part.

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Part 4: Priorities & Options

One more time… Every person presently serving within Apex Kids is important!

Under our current system, even if we retain 100% of our volunteers on our database, we would still need to add an additional 50 to 60 people to properly and effectively staff Apex Kids. Given that scenario, please examine our planning priorities and serving options to which you’d like to commit:

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***Apex Kids Planning Priorities for 2010:

a) 9:30 Gathering: Greatest number of Children

b) Sept-Dec & Jan-April trimesters: Most consistent attendance pattern

c) May-July trimester: Most inconsistent attendance pattern

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***Apex Kids Serving Options for 2010:

a) Those who wish to serve every week for the entire year

b) Those who wish to serve every week for an entire trimester

c) Those who wish to serve for an entire month at a time (something that many of our volunteers already do.) Many serve a month on and a month off. Serving one month per trimester would also be very beneficial to our scheduling as well as our mission. (Especially during May – August.)

d) Those who wish to serve two weeks every month

e) Those who wish to serve an entire weekend

f) Those who wish to serve as part of a House Church project

g) Those who wish to serve in a manner not listed above

Encouraging note: If we simply add 4 or 5 “every week” volunteers or “entire trimester” volunteers we stretch our existing volunteer database by more than 80 people. If you don’t understand how that works, please contact me! I would be happy to explain that to you, and help you sign up.

Let me restate: Please understand why it is important for Apex Kids to prioritize our scheduling of volunteers by those that will serve the most often. It helps everyone serve less often!

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Part 5: For ALL Parents

For the purpose of being qualified to serve in a classroom if need be, we need to create a true sub list. As a sub, you will not be asked to serve more than 4 times per year. That is a promise.

We are asking ALL parents whose children attend Apex Kids ministries during our weekend Gatherings to go to our website and do the following:

1. Download a Volunteer Screening Form
2. Fill it out and turn it in at the Apex Kids Lobby Desk (Check-In Center)

These forms can be downloaded at:

http://apexcommunity.org/how-to-connect/kids/

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Part 6: Final Thoughts

Final thoughts on why we are changing the serving schedule

1. To build better relationships between our workers and the families they serve: we want to put forth a more consistent face on our teaching staff. Most would agree that having the same teacher(s) as much as possible, is better for the kids, especially with our youngest children.

2. To improve the impact of our teaching: most of our curriculum is set up as an 8 week unit and teaching for a four week period of time allows a teacher to refer back to previous weeks material and link it with lessons that will follow. (And yes… we believe that is important, even for a two year old!)

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Now, if you are a parent and do not volunteer, please follow the instructions in Part 5.

If you are a volunteer, or wish to begin regular service with Apex Kids, please use our 2010 Scheduling Feedback Form to let us know how you’d prefer to serve. You can either pick-up and return a printed form at the Apex Kids Lobby Desk, or you can fill out the form online by visiting this link:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGJSWHdGVVVkVnNYNVNFZGtZbExwVnc6MA

Thanks again, for all your service… and you’re willingness to read all of these planning thoughts! Feel free to contact me with questions.

Kevin Bowman, Apex Kids Director
kevin.bowman@apexcommunity.org or 432-9022 x208