Interview with a Pro: Hannah Tiell, Children and Family Ministries Coordinator

This week, I had the opportunity to interview Hannah Tiell from Lithopolis United Methodist Church. Hannah works as the Children and Family Ministries Coordinator, a position she acquired last year and she’s been doing a stellar job since! This was the second podcast interview that I have conducted with an industry professional, and Hannah was a great choice to go with. Her experience working with a church and as a coordinator was something new for me to learn about! Before our interview, I had only researched marketing or PR-related jobs. A coordinator position, let alone one within a church, was one I hadn’t thought of until I began thinking more about Hannah’s position and I felt it would be perfect for my podcast, Interview with a Pro. 

As a coordinator at the church, Hannah’s responsibilities vary. Weekly, Hannah finds herself having to schedule teachers and interns for Sunday School, update the website for the children’s ministry with photos and information, plan monthly and weekly events such as Kids Night Out, plan lessons for the children, make sure everything is running smoothly for the ministries she is in charge of and communicate with the congregation and other staff members. Hannah may also have other responsibilities that aren’t monthly. For example, currently, she is planning VBS for the church, which entails so many details and planning steps! 

With her experience, Hannah has learned how to delegate, communicate, budget, schedule events and workers, maintain paperwork, use digital media skills, and more. Hannah has also had a lot of communication and PR experience from her previous job in the office of advancement for Cedarville College. There she was able to help organize and promote events, travel for her office, and meet important guests. 

My conversation with Hannah opened up my mind to other possibilities for my career and gave insight into some aspects of her job I wouldn’t have thought about. She has enjoyed the aspects of her job that have allowed her to network with others and take on responsibilities she hasn’t had before. We also talked about if there was anything she didn’t expect she had to do for the job that she has. She stressed that even though she was warned that you have to communicate with your audience and others like crazy, she wasn’t prepared for how long it would take some people to follow directions. Hannah stated that she would promote events like VBS on all social media platforms, give handouts, make announcements and flyers, and send reminders consistently months before the deadline for signups and the event, and people wouldn’t talk to her about it until the week before, past deadlines and other things. While this part of the job can be frustrating, she remembers the warning she was given, when you are about done sharing about something, it’s going to be someone's first time hearing about it. 

I thought this was helpful advice and something to think of in my future career! To finish up our conversation, we talked about how Hannah has loved being able to network with those she never had before in the position of Children and Family Ministries Coordinator. She has loved being able to work with people who were excited to help out and get to know others interested in working for the department. 

Overall, I found my interview with Hannah to be helpful and entertaining! She is a wonderful person to talk to, very kind, and always has great knowledge and advice! I think doing a part two with Hannah if needed in the future would be beneficial and excellent, but until then, feel free to tune into the interview with the link below.

That’s all I have for now,

Abby

Interview with a Pro: Hannah Tiell