Derek Carter Email & Phone Number

Plano, Tx

This large (2000 average attendance) suburban church gave me the task of completely redesigning a rapidly declining children’s ministry and rebuilding the children’s ministry team. Children’s ministry participation was down 25% year-over-year when I took over. I pinpointed major areas contributing to the decline and developed and implemented a plan to address these issues. Implementation (June-July 2014--months 7-8 of my tenure) immediately and completely halted the decline. Since full implementation (August 2014), Sunday kids’ ministry participation has seen over 2.6% growth year-over-year (compared to 6% decline in worship attendance for the same period), with a 36% increase in Sunday school volunteer participation. Growth of kids’ ministry relative to worship attendance was 8% in this period. The church has seen a significant increase in new young families joining the church during this time.-Led staff and volunteers to shift to “Orange” strategy, which included a change not only to the curriculum, but also to volunteer roles and commitments, and overall priorities for ministry programming.-Rebuilt a defeated kids’ ministry staff that was near burnout. They are reengaged and have a more hopeful vision.-Developed vision for, planned, and led a complete renovation to children’s wing, creating a fun, engaging physical environment for our pre-school and elementary ministries that reinforces major themes of the church and supports our ministry strategy. (Pictures: http://www.worldsofwow.com/journey-childrens-ministry-design/)-Recruited and organized a Kids’ Ministry Leadership Team and worked to rebuild the kids’ ministry volunteer system and culture. -Coordinated with staff of our new campus to scale and implement new ministry model before and after launch.-Started and led new “Married People” ministry that has helped build dozens of marriages before they’re in crisis by getting couples engaged with helpful content and life-giving relationships.

Dallas/Fort Worth Area

River Point was a provisional Strategic Partner of North Point Ministries (Alpharetta, GA). This partnership included personal coaching, twice-a-month conference calls, annual on-site training, networking with North Point pastors, online community, quarterly North Point staff meetings, and access to North Point resources. Agreed to benchmarks of $20k in monthly giving, with 70-80 adults in small groups prior to launch.-Grew from two families in September 2010 to around 55 with $13k monthly revenues, with 35 in small groups.-Developed a strong core team and mentored several young leaders, including paid and volunteer part-time staff.-Created an outsider-focused church culture by cultivating a passion for the unchurched.-Organized church’s strategy around our mission, defined clear wins for each of our environments and led teams in pursuit of those wins, and cultivated habits of evaluation and innovation towards greater effectiveness.-Cultivated generosity among Core Team with over 90% giving regularly and many increasing giving over time.

Dallas/Fort Worth Area

Rosen Heights was a once mega-church in a transitioned inner city community whose attendance had steadily declined from over 2,000 in the early 1960’s to around 200 when I came in 2007, consisting mostly of elderly long-time Anglo church members and a substantial number of children and youth who came without their families as part of our bus ministry. We led effective transitions in music, discipleship, and outreach that increased number of young adults (age 18-35) from 15 to around 50, halting a long-term trend of 20%-25% decline every three years. Attendance plateaued, then rose, as we reached more young families in our community for Christ.-Cared for a diverse congregation, counseling many and conducting dozens of funerals and even more baptisms.-Developed a culture of trust, accountability, and buy-in with ministry staff.-Designed an effective discipleship process, and helped leaders to align programs with the strategy.-Managed large, aging facility (70,000 square feet, five buildings, including 1,000+ seat sanctuary) and around a dozen staff on a shoestring budget, trimming nearly $40,000 of waste from church’s budget through creative reevaluation and renegotiation with vendors, enabling an increase in ministry funding.

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

This was an intentional mentoring experience with the Senior Pastor, Don Gordon.-Grew in areas of preaching, pastoral care, outreach, vision-casting, and leadership. (Center & Yates)-Led young adults ministry through a new period of great growth, from 12 to around 30 regular attenders.

Master Of Divinity (M.Div.), Theology/Theological Studies

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), Communication, General

Activities and Societies: Beta Upsilon Chi