Ministry Monday: The 4 Minute Rule

Do you know the 4 Minute Rule? If you don't you should. Fairly or unfairly you, your ministry, your events, and even your success is judged, measured, and defined by the 4 Minute Rule. Am I talking about the amount of time that you teach a point and move on to something else? No. Am I talking about the amount of time you can spend on Facebook before being invited to another application or group? No, that would be the 2 minute rule. So, what is the is the 4 Minute Rule and why is it so important?

The 4 Minute Rule is simple and if used effectively will increase your ministry leaps and bounds. If the 4 Minute Rule is used poorly then it will create headaches of migraine proportions. The 4 Minute Rule says that you have 4 Minutes with each set of parents or guardians of each kid. The 2 Minutes that they drop them off and the 2 Minutes that they pick them up and that is it. Most parents don't know anything more about you, your ministry, or your responsibility than those crucial 4 Minutes. I mean think about it. Parents really don't know what happens while they are gone. Sometimes that is a good thing but most of the time that is not the goal but it remains to be the truth. Seriously though, how would they know what happened? They ask their child and the child mutters something about candy, not winning, and that someone was smelling really bad. Parents look at the parent page long enough to see that you taught their child something and are happy that they didn't have to teach that lesson. Parents though in those 4 Minutes judge everything by all 5 senses. How does your space smell? How does your ministry look? How friendly are your volunteers? How much do you care about my child? Can I trust you with my child? Does it look like you know what you are doing? How does your space and ministry make them feel?

Now you see how important the 4 Minute Rule is to you and your ministry. You really only have a brief amount of time to impress and communicate to families. This is why environment is so important. This is why smiling faces at the room is so important. This is why the check in process is one of the most important things that you will do in the eyes of the family. Remember you only have the 2 minutes that parents drop off and the 2 minutes that parents pick up. If it takes more than those 2 minutes then families are not going to be happy and if it takes a lot less time than that then they don't feel like you care about their child. Nobody likes to wait in line to drop off their kids. Nobody likes it when you can't find their kid's bag or toy when they come pick up their child. Believe me when I say that I know that your ministry, job, livelihood is so much more than those 4 Minutes but I don't know when it comes to ministering to the family if you can find a more crucial 4 Minutes.

If you don't believe that these 4 Minutes are crucial then let them go by the wayside and see what happens. You will get more complaints and families leaving because they remember the first and last things that they experience and that experience was not good.

Live by the 4 Minute rule or spend the rest of your time making up for those 4 bad Minutes.