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The heat that helps ministry rise comes from people—because they provide the energy needed to make things happen. And as with any recipe, it's not simply a lot of heat that's needed—it's the right amount at the right time. Too much workload on too few people will result in burnout. And just like cooking in the kitchen at home, by the time my smoke detector wails the damage is done. On the other hand, too little work for too many people … will never happen, so don't worry about it!

Before you concern yourself too much with the thermostat, keep this in mind: ministries don't thrive simply because they have a lot of people—they succeed because the right people are in the right places. This idea comes straight from the Bible, most notably the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 12 where Paul describes how a variety of spiritual gifts are given to people at God's discretion, with the intent that they all will work together as a church body.

I believe many children's ministries find it easy to agree with the need for gift-based serving. Quite often the most practical challenge is to figure out how to start. When ministries ask me about this, I suggest they begin by recruiting a group called the "four sets of eyes."

Any leader who tries to shoulder the entire load of their ministry is destined to collapse under the weight, especially in ministries with a new vision to be the best hour of every kid's week. So a good starting point is to establish a very small team of people, each of whom is a leader and owns the responsibility to watch over a different corner of the ministry.

We started with one team of four for the entire ministry. As we grew and became more complex, the need arose to either grow eyes on the back of our heads, develop x-ray vision to see in multiple rooms at once, or develop more groups of four. So we added one for the pre-school area and one for kids in late childhood. Eventually, these teams replicated so that each room within the ministry benefited from its own four sets of eyes.

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