Sustainable Children's Ministry - by Mark DeVries & Annette Safstrom (Paperback)

About the Book

Are you a children's ministry leader on the edge of burnout? Sustainable Children's Ministry shows you how to recruit volunteers, partner with parents, navigate politics, and care for your own soul instead of frantically scrambling to do it all yourself. This practical resource will help you build a ministry foundation that will still be standing long after you are gone.

Book Synopsis

Are you a children's ministry leader on the edge of burnout? Do you find yourself working harder and harder to tame the chaos?Mark DeVries and Annette Safstrom know how you feel. Flash and fizz can be effective at attracting young families, but without sustainable systems beneath the unforgettable moments, the impact is almost always short-lived. In this practical resource, you'll learn how to recruit volunteers, partner with parents, navigate politics, and care for your own soul instead of frantically scrambling to do it all yourself. Sustainable Children's Ministry will help you build a ministry foundation that will still be standing long after you are gone.

Review Quotes

"If it is your hope to help children and parents know that the God of the universe loves them and that they can know, love, and serve this God in return, yet you find yourself frantically busy and overwhelmed, then authors Mark DeVries and Annette Safstrom would diagnose you and your church as suffering from chronic volunteer deficiency. Easy-to-implement remedies are available on every page of their new book Sustainable Children's Ministry. After decades of ministry, I cannot agree more that 'Putting functional systems in place will never be urgent, but without them, everything becomes urgent.' This book just may transform your children's ministry and also restore a sense of joy and purpose to your whole church as together you train up a child."

--Kendy Easley, executive pastor, Bethany Community Church, Seattle

"Mark DeVries and Annette Safstrom have created an amazing resource for churches and their children's ministries. Senior pastors, church governing boards, ministry staff, and volunteers will all benefit from reading Sustainable Children's Ministry. It's not just a collection of good ideas, but a whole systematic approach to enabling your ministry to flourish. DeVries and Safstrom really focus on building a culture of shared ministry so that children's ministry workers do not experience frustration and burnout. Sustainable Children's Ministry is encouraging, inspiring, practical, and an essential addition to any ministry library."

--Lyndsay Lee Slocum, senior associate pastor, Roswell Presbyterian Church

"This is the book I wish I had had twenty years ago when I first started in children's ministry. I knew I wanted to do things differently but was not quite sure how. This is also the book I need to remind me to tend to the systems and not to get bogged down putting out fires. This is a resource that I will not only recommend to those in children's ministry, but will also use myself since so much of it transfers across ministry areas. The work of the church should continue well beyond any one person or leader, and Sustainable Children's Ministry helps the people of God, whether paid or not, to live and serve in the ways God has gifted and called them."

--Holly Dittrich, executive pastor, First United Methodist Church, Hurst, TX

"Wow! This book is awesome. I wish it was in my hands thirty years ago! Finally, we have the definitive children's ministry book. A must-read for leaders. With personal experiences that are all too familiar for those of us in ministry, Mark DeVries and Annette Safstrom provide practical ideas for building solid, impactful opportunities for children and their families. Sustainable Children's Ministry has encouraged and excited me about the future of my ministry!"

--Kathy McCarron, director of children and family ministries, NorthPark Presbyterian Church, Dallas

About the Author

Mark DeVries (MDiv, Princeton Theological Seminary) is the founder of Ministry Architects, a consulting team that helps churches and ministry organizations build sustainable ministries for children, youth, young adults, and entire congregations. He served for twenty-eight years as associate pastor for youth and their families at First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He has trained youth workers on five continents and has taught courses or been a guest lecturer at a number of colleges and seminaries. DeVries is the author of Sustainable Youth Ministry and Family-Based Youth Ministry, coauthor of The Most Important Year in a Woman's Life/The Most Important Year in a Man's Life, and he has been a contributing writer for Josh McDowell's Youth Ministry Handbook, Starting Right, and Reaching a Generation for Christ. In addition, his articles and reviews have been published in a variety of journals and magazines. He and his wife, Susan, have four grown children.

Annette Safstrom is a senior consultant, speaker, and trainer with Ministry Architects and has served in children's ministry for over thirty years, including as director of a rapidly growing children's ministry in Texas. She speaks at a variety of children's ministry events, including the Children's Pastors Conference and Group's KidMin Conference. After graduating from Bible college with a certification in children's ministry, Annette earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Texas A&M University and a master's in research psychology from Southern Methodist University. She and her husband, Kevin, have two children.