We all know about New Year’s Resolutions and what a bad rap they have. And while I still fall guilty of making a few myself-and failing with few as well-this time of year does set the tone for reflection and reevaluating. 
So, in the context of new accomplishments and fresh goals, let’s talk about a few ideas to kick-off 2024. 
There are many different methods of setting goals, monitoring milestones, and tracking progress. Today take a look at a few options that we’ve tried and some of the pros and cons associated. This certainly won’t be a comprehensive list, but we’ll get into some specific apps and methods and talk a little about the concept of goal setting and tracking. 

A few things we try to cover:
Why goals are important.
The big picture.
A few paper and digital planner options.

Today I'm joined by Evangelist, Bryan Critcher.

We talk about championing your Pastor's vision.

Many of us are Sunday school leaders and we control the direction of the Sunday school department or team etc. Here at our Sunday school, we’re given a lot of freedom to be creative and move the ministry forward. I believe that it is our responsibility as leaders of any, quote; “ministry” to not only self-evaluate, but to seek our Pastor’s guidance. While I think it’s great if we can run a ministry so that our Pastor doesn’t have to “worry” about it, we should still check that we’re on track with his vision. It’s much easier to get excited and proclaim your own vision and goals, but we have the responsibility to champion our Pastor’s vision and use our influence to help spread his goals and mission for the church. 

A few of the things we try to cover:

Building a relationship with your Pastor.
Cultivating a relationship and trust with your team.
Making your Pastor's vision your own.

Today Bro. Brent & I create a new Sunday school character!

Character is what drives story. In our Sunday school we’re heavy on stories, characters and themes. What a lot of the kids remember is our quote; famous, characters. Bro. Keech & I did a podcast recently talking about some of our iconic characters, characters that transcend themes. Characters like, Captain John, Sammy, Ruth Less, and the Doctors. Most of these characters kind of came about through improve and then we developed them and gave them a little backstory etc. But today we thought we’d start off with creating a character that we plan to have around for a while.

Here's a few things we try to cover in 'character development'

• Personality
• Who
• What
• Where
• Primary Motivation

We have a lot of great staff in our Sunday school. When various people see pictures from our Sunday school. I’m often asked, “How do you have so many guys in your Sunday school?” 
On any given Sunday we have 10 staff, but our total staff is around 30 people. We rotate the staff, and the driver is often the characters of our theme storyline or, if we’re doing a series in the Bible story, we try to keep the Bible story characters the same. 

So today we want to talk about some of the things we do to recruit and develop a team. 

Some of the things we try to cover:

• Why do you need a team?
• How to recruit.
• Training & development.

The making of a Bad Guy!

Today I'm joined by Bro. Keech; our resident "Bad Guy".

We use stories throughout our Sunday School. We have themes and our themes typically have an ongoing storyline. We run roughly 16 weeks in a theme and through that theme we have several characters that are “staples” in the story or the foundation upon which the story is built. Every story needs a protagonist-the leading character, and the story would be pretty boring if there was no opposition. So, every story needs an antagonist-the one who opposes our main character. Today we want to discuss some of our iconic characters and the role of the antagonist in Sunday School. 

A few of the things we try to cover:
Typical characters to build a theme around.
Iconic characters from our Sunday school.
Being the "Bad Guy"

Do Sunday School the RIGHT way!

There are many different ways to do Sunday school. And while there may be wrong ways to do it, there’s no single right way. We have a certain style and way we run Sunday school and we’ve experimented with a few other ideas, but what we do is what seems to be working for us. On this podcast we don’t proclaim to have it all figured out or to be the, quote “best”-we’ll leave that slot for someone else. But that being said, maybe we can offer some insight into what we do and even offer some ideas based on our experiences.

A few of the things we try to cover:

1. A brief overview of our Sunday school
2. Sunday school structure
3. Ideas of ways to structure Sunday school

Navy Seals don't dip their toe in the water!

Have you ever gone swimming and you want to know how the water feels before you dive in? Or maybe you’re one of those that slowly wades in an inch at a time. When it comes to Sunday school, we like to encourage our staff to take the plunge, to jump in with both feet. We want to be as “perfect” as we can in our Sunday school, but it’s far better for us to move forward and do ministry than it is for us to get everything just right and then fail due to inaction. Instead we need to come from the direction that we’re going to push the limits and do even more than what’s expected for our role.

A few things we try to cover in today's episode:

• What holds you back? We have a responsibility to minister.
• Ideas are a dime-a-dozen if you don't back it up with WORK.
• Be like the rubber band.

Getting kids to connect with God.

Today I'm joined by Bro. Aaron and we talk about engaging kids in worship.

We have a lot of fun in our Sunday school. And by, “we”, I mean the staff. But even with the kids, we have fully costumed characters, bigger than life sets and interactive stories. And then there’s a whole lot of comedy and just plain silliness that goes on. The kids absolutely love and so do the staff – what’s not to love?

But, in the midst of all the comedy and drama we have a mission; we are trying to evangelize and disciple kids. We do everything we do to get the kids to actually engage in a relationship with God. This is the most important thing we do in Sunday school. A Sunday school leader from another church recently asked my about getting kids involved in prayer and altar service, so that’s what we’re going to talk about today-engaging kids in worship. 

A few things we try to cover:
Shouldn't we be more spiritual? - Using themes and stories "softens" the defenses.
Keep your content 'bite-sized' and focused.
Have a strong, clear focus for your script.

You have to be attractive to work in kids ministry!

Not really-if that were the case, many of us would be disqualified.
We borrowed the U.G.L.Y. acronym from Christian comedian, Jonathan Slocumb; he says, U.G.L.Y. stands for, U Gotta Love Yo'self!

Today we're talking about teamwork.

A few of the things we try to cover:

Why have a team in the first place?
How big is your vision?
Having a team mindset.
Different team members are at different levels.

Check out other Apostolic podcasts!
Our friend, Bro. Phillip Booker put together a single place to find Apostolic podcasts.
https://linktr.ee/apostolicpodcastnetwork

GETTING THINGS DONE!

Many of us in Sunday schools across the nation have original thoughts, but because we don’t execute no one knows about them. The failure to execute stifles the production of Apostolic materials. Apostolics should be leading the charge in Sunday school content. We often feel that we’re not good enough or we think we’re being-quote-humble and we don’t take the initiative. 
Today’s podcast is for me as much as it is anyone. While we hope to offer some insights and motivation, we don’t claim to have it all together, we’re struggling like everyone else. Hopefully we-and someone else- can find some inspiration to get that project started – and finished. 

Here are some of the things we try to cover:

• Setting S.M.A.R.T. goals.
• Perfection is overrated.
• Gaining momentum.
• Embrace the critics.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” _Theodore Roosevelt