Archive for May, 2009
Early Childhood small groups
Posted on 21. May, 2009 by Kenny.
Say what? Early Childhood small groups? Aren’t you supposed to start this once kids get into elementary? That’s been the given assumption. Some churches are starting to break this mold and give this a try. We’re going to start this really soon and we are very excited. So, please keep in mind that everything I write below this paragraph is theory and a vision of what could be.
My staff came back from Orange with all kinds of ideas. On of the ideas my Early Childhood director had concerned alignment of terminology. Basically this is where churches use the same vernacular for positions and programs throughout every ministry. It makes perfect sense. In the Early Childhood area we have three main positions. Lead teacher, room leader and caregiver. The lead teacher travels from room to room and the room leader is in charge of the room. Caregivers are simply caregivers.
So, the thought was that we call our room leaders small group leaders. This helps align terminology. It helps when recruiting as people have a better idea of what a smll gorup leader is than a room leader. Then we started to brainstorm and think outside the bun. One of Gateway’s core strategies is to connect people in small groups. We believe that life change happens best in the context of personal relationships. Although we do have kids in early childhood who have great relationships with their caregivers and room leaders, but it isn’t expressly intentional. It just happens. However, if this is a value of our church, what if we made relational development intentional in early childhood? What if rather than just have the name “small group leader” in early childhood, we actually changed the job description so that it really was a small group leader?
So, it isn’t going to necessarily look like small groups in elementary or adults, but it will be a small group. We’d follow the same strategy we are with elementary. Althouh we may have 15-20 kids in a room, we’ll run reports to see who the regularaly attending kids in that room are. Those kids would be in the small group leader’s small group. Now, that leader wouldn’t gather his/her kids in a small huddle each Sunday (unless they are in one of the 4-kindergarten rooms where they actually do that). However, this small group leader would intentionally plan to have specific one on one time with the 8-10 kids who are in their small group. The other caregivers are there to help take care of the rest of the kids, but the small group leader has a laser focus. Outside of Sunday, this leader would call the families or kids and send postcards. A relationship would be developed. Even though all the kids in this small group wouldn’t necessarily experience a “group-like” experience, they would each have a shared/personal experience with their leader.
The beauty of this plan is that we can essentially start small groups with our babies. That’s right, a four moth old can be in a small group. All they have to do is come on a semi-regular basis and they’ll be assigned to that room’s small group leader.
So, what do you think? Do you think it will work? In about six months, we should be able to let you know. I’d appreciate any ideas you might have.
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The problem with Sunday small groups
Posted on 20. May, 2009 by Kenny.
I’m not being a Negative Nelly. I’m sharing the difficulties that come with these models. Yesterday I shared the difficulty with the Sunday School model. It has big enough difficulties that I’d prefer not to be at a church with Sunday School. However, the small group difficulties I’ve faced can be overcome with a little creativity.
I’ve had great success with small groups on Sunday nights or Wednesday nights. They were discipleship/growth focused. The kids were pretty consistent and all my groups had 8-12 kids. However, once I decided to launch small groups during Sunday services at Gateway, I knew I would have a problem. Kid’s attendance on Sunday is not consistent. I would be creating a small group model around irregular attendance. In addition, every week we have visitors who may or may not come back. I knew that it would only be a matter of time before my small group leaders had 50 kids on their rosters even though they only averaged 10-12 kids in attendance each week.
I’ve seen some churches tackle this in various ways.
The Holding Tank
Some create specific groups with kids assigned to the group each week. New kids get grouped in a special “holding tank.” After kids have attended the “holding tank” three times, they promote to a regular small group. What I’ve noticed many times in this situation is that the holding tank got HUGE and the small groups stayed small. It seemed awkward as many of the groups would have 4-8 kids and the holding tank would have 20-30 with only 1 or two leaders. The experience the new or irregular kids got was different from what the other kids got.
Laissez-faire
I’ve also seen some churches try to solve this problem by taking a more laissez-faire approach by changing the groups each week to ensure that no group got to big. This certainly keeps the size thing under control, but even some of the irregular kids might have a different leader each week. It’s not a bad strategy… better than the holding tank in my opinion.
Our Solution
I’m not going to take credit for it. A consultant at Fellowship One connected me with a church in Oregon that is doing this and it seemed to make the most sense to me. We divide our groups into gender/grade groups. First Grade boys are in their own group as are Third Grade girls. In some services, we might have two Second Grade boys groups because there are so many. Even a first time visitor will attend the same group they would attend if they came every week. We’ll do the best we can to make sure the leader doesn’t have more than 12 kids in his/her group, but there will likely be a mix of new, regularaly attending and irregularaly attending kids in each group. The difference is that the small group leader knows who his/her “actual” small group is. Of all the kids who attend this group, we run a report to show us which kids attend on average three out of 8 weeks. Our small group leaders know who these kids are. During the week (outside of class) these small group leaders will call or send notes to their kids. They’ll build the relationship outside of Sunday. Naturally, they’ll have a greater connection wtih these kids on Sunday, but every part of the small group on Sunday will have a similar experience. The commitment we make to parents is that if they will commit to regular attendance, they’re kids will be part of this small group (meaning the small group leader will reach out to them during the week). So, the Second Grade boys roster may have 50 kids on it, but the small group leader is only focused on 10 of them.
Details
- What about these irregular attending and new kids? The Children’s Ministry will provide follow-up for them, not the small group leaders. We can easily run the reports and send a postcard to a child on their first and second visit or even send them a card when they stop attending. Again, this can be handled administratively and we’ll empower our small group leaders to focus on the kids who are committed to the small group.
- Sound like an administrative nightmare? I don’t think it has to be. If you use a system that can run reports, just figure out what reports to run. We use Fellowship One and we have a unique way to do this that takes all the difficulty out of it. We have it set up so that regularly attending kids always check into one “room” and the new and irregularly attending kids check into another “room,” but the kids don’t see the difference. The system does it for us, so we don’t have to think about it. It’s automatic. I love automated systems. With this tool, my small group leaders can even log into Fellowship One, check their kids attendance on their own and access all their contact data. This way my small group leaders can have total ownership and they don’t have to wait on me for a report or information. I love it!
Your ideas
I know I haven’t seen everything. What are you doing? Tell me how it’s working or isn’t working. Although I’m happy with what we’ve figured out here at Gateway, it still has it flaws. Maybe you’re doing something that will help us do this better. I look forward to your comments!
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Elementary small groups
Posted on 20. May, 2009 by Kenny.
Yesterday I wrote about how small groups are where it is at in Children’s Ministry. I also wrote a somewhat controversial post about how Sunday School doesn’t work. So, how do you do small group?
It depends on your purpose.
Are you small groups relational based or discipleship based? Or are they both? Is the point that kids connect with a leader who can speak into their lives or is the point that the kids dive deeper into God’s word and a more personal atmosphere?
When I first started small groups, I was following Craig Jutila’s model. Although my small groups were relational (kinda unavoidable) I wanted the focus to be discipleship. I wanted the kids to go deeper. So, I created my small group program on Wednesday nights. Because I was trying to take kids to the next level, I really only wanted the kids who wanted to be there. I even charged $25 or $30 to cover their books and materials. After two years of running small groups this way, we saw more an more kids connected relationally with each other and with their leaders each year. In addition, they were growing in their faith and knowledge of the Bible.
When I moved to Gateway a year ago, it was obvious that one of the very first things I needed to do was to launch small groups in the elementary program. The parents as well as my leadership were begging for it. There were too many things to tweak and fix, so I was not about to start a Wednesday night small group program. Instead I developed a small group program for Sunday services. I don’t know if it was becasue of small groups or not, but our elementary areas grew by 20% to 30% in the last 9 months. Because our Sunday services are primarily seeker friendly, these small groups are mostly relational, not spiritually deep.
If you’re trying out figure out out how to implement a small group ministry, ask yourself these questions:
When’s the optimal time/day (during weekend services or mid-week sometime)?
What’s the purpose (relational or discipleship)?
Who’s the target audience (anyone or kids ready to take next steps)?
Oh, one last thing. This doesn’t have to be your strategy, but I’ve always created small group environments where small group leaders primarily focus on only the relationship. That means for Sunday morning small groups, we provide large group teaching or for discipleship groups there was a primary teacher and kids sat in groups with their small group leader. This means I don’t expect my small group leaders to teach a lesson. They typically just ask discussion questions and maybe lead a little activity. I’d rather have them initiating contact with their kids outside of class than preparing for a lesson. I also recognize that not all my small group leaders will be good teachers, but most of them can be a friend/mentor.
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Family small group vidoes?
Posted on 20. May, 2009 by Kenny.
I had a great conversation with my friend Ally yesterday. We were talking about family small groups. She asked me if I knew of any video based curriculum for family small groups. Essentially the teaching is geared to all ages. I’ve heard of some curriculum for these types of groups, but nothing video related. I thought I’d throw it out to my community here.
Do you know of any family small group curriculum? Any of it video based?
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Have you published your blog at Amazon yet?
Posted on 19. May, 2009 by Kenny.
Do you have a blog? Have you published your blog for Amazon’s Kindle yet? What are you waiting for? Do it right now, it only takes a second. Okay, maybe 3-5 minutes. Click here!
Do you think people are going to pay $2 a month to read your blog? Why not? 
I personally don’t see people paying for blog subscriptions when they can get them for free everywhere else, but if and when they drop the fee, I want my feed available… and if someone want’s to pay for my feed in the meantime, I’m perfectly fine with that.
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The problem with Sunday School
Posted on 19. May, 2009 by Kenny.
I’ve got a bone to pick with Sunday School. I don’t like it and I wont do it. Sunday School was a big reason why I left one of the churches I was at. Before you get mad at me, please hear me out.
It’s not that I think small groups is better than Sunday School, it’s bigger than that. It’s not about what you call it. It’s about what it is. I believe that you have the greatest impact when you have an adult leader who is responsible for no more than 10-12 kids. That’s a small group. From my experience at more than one church, Sunday School looks a lot more like a school setting with 15-25 kids per teacher. That’s not a small group and it’s too hard for a leader to effectively shepherd that many kids. Call it what you want, small groups or Sunday school, if you’re giving your leaders more than 10-12 kids, you’re not going to have the impact you need to have.
Can Sunday School be successful? Absolutely. Again, who cares what you call it. If you can get the kids into groups of 10-12 with a qualified leader over each age group, then you can amazing success! You may just have less kids in each classroom or let a classroom be made up of two or three small groups.
See, it’s not about small groups (as a program) being better than Sunday School (as a program) but it’s more the way it is implemented. If you can create groups of 10-12 kids, you can call it God’s Glorious Bible Hour and you’ll see success. Well, maybe not with a name like that.
However, I do have a bone to pick with Sunday School but it doesn’t have anything to do with the kids. Churches who have Sunday School almost always include Sunday School for adults. This is the reason most kid’s Sunday Schools have 25 kids with one teacher. All the other people who should be working with the kids are sitting in a Sunday School class of their own. The Children’s Ministry is in direct competition with adult Sunday School. This is a no-win situation for the adults or the kids. In order to get a leader, they have to be willing to give up their service or give up their community. Seriously a church shouldn’t put people in that kind of position, but so many do.
So, that’s my rant. This is why I’m a big believer in small groups. If you’re at a church that does Sunday School, do everything you can to get those classes smaller. It will take creativity and a lot more work, but to have the impact, it’s what you’ll have to do.
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Small Groups in childrens ministry
Posted on 19. May, 2009 by Kenny.
I’ve been doing small group ministry with kids for the last three and a half years. Before that I was in churches that did Sunday School, but it wasn’t working (I’m going to write a post later about Sunday School). I must say that small groups have changed everything. Too often the Children’s Pastor wears the mantle of spiritual shepherd over the congregation under 11 years of age, but the only way they can do this effectively is through small groups… unless you only have 12 kids in your church. Then the Children’s Pastor can do it.
I’ve got a few thoughts on small groups that I want to share this week. I’m going to throw out a little philosophy, a little practical application and perhaps some of you will comment with your thoughts and ideas that will benifit everyone (including me and what we’re doing here at Gateway).
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Churches who give it back
Posted on 19. May, 2009 by Kenny.
I follow several people I used to work with at Cross Timbers in DFW and it seems my previous church is getting some media attention. Don’t worry, its a good thing. They’ve been giving money back to the community both inside the church and out. This action has caught the eye of the media and they’re getting some national news coverage. Check out the article on CNN.
I know some good things are happening at Cross Timbers. A good friend described it as revival. Last fall they held a baptism service at all their services and a gajillion people were baptized. Looks like they did another baptism service recently and another gajillion were baptized as well. Yes, there are enough people in DFW to sustain these types of baptisms.
So, it’s good to see God is moving and this is a good thing for the Church. If people can run to the church when in need, who are they going to turn to? If all we have to offer is a message, then are we really representing the life of Christ?
Toby, senior pastor summed this up really well. When asked if they were concerned about people taking advange of this generosity, he replied, “I told my church a couple weeks ago, if I’m not being taken advantage of, I’m not being like Jesus.”
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Brainstorming vs. Improv
Posted on 18. May, 2009 by Kenny.
I was at a birthday party last night and met a guy. He’s a very successful business man responsible for many start-ups. He was recently at a conference where an executive from Google was being interviewed or spoke (I don’t remember the details). Supposedly, Google decision makers take part in improv classes.
Why?
The brainstorming process says, “that’s a good idea, but…”
Improvisation says, “that’s a good idea, and…”
So, I don’t know exactly what that means yet, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot. Here’s what I’m thinking. Many ideas in the brainstorming process only make it to the white board. Although it’s an incredibly collaborative process where ideas birth new ideas, usually only a few make it into reality. What I see in my head and what gets written on the board aren’t always the same thing. However, in improvisational action, ideas take shape, ideas are alive and moving and other decision makers jump in, add their parts and help the idea evolve.
Intriguing concept for sure? What does this look like in reality? I have no idea?
Any thoughts on how this might be applied in a practical sense?
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Let me re-feed you
Posted on 18. May, 2009 by Kenny.
Okay, in my transformation from www.childrensministryonline.com/blog to www.childrensministryonline.com, I lost some of my reader. Not too many, but some. I think I know what happened. I started blogging in April of 2007, but I didn’t start using feedburner to manage my feed until two or three months later. Some of my friends who said they haven’t been getting my feed since I made the move this weekend had my original feed address (pre-feedburner). So, if you haven’t gotten any of my posts since last week, let me re-feed you. Click on the RSS button to subscribe.
There are some of you who are wondering what the heck I’m talking about. RSS, feeds and burning stuff, huh? You may have thought that this post was an invite to my place for dinner. Let me make this simple. If you want to get my blog posts sent directly to your email, click here.
If you want to learn what this RSS and Feed stuff is about, click here.
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