Tag Archives: Child Dedication
Child Dedicaiton: Conclusion
Posted on 18. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
Either I was really thorough or I beat a dead horse. I’ll let you decide, just don’t tell me. 
So, I’ve been very specific on how we’ve morphed our Child Dedication and all of its components. What we did last week was by far the best dedication I’ve been a part of, but there is still room to tweak. So, here are things I’m considering for the dedication we’re doing in May.
- Registration will stay the same. Parents will register online to attend the class and after the class, they’ll need to register the children. To make things easier, I’ll log a computer into Fellowship One and allow families to register their children that night.
- I’m thinking of creating a closer connection with the pastors/leaders and the families they pray for.
Continue Reading
Child Dedication: Feedback
Posted on 17. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
I feel the best way to grow and learn is to ask people their opinion. As much as I can, I like to build in a review process to events, classes and experiences. Since we made so many changes to the Child Dedication this time around, I really craved feedback. Below are the questions I asked:
Tell me about your Prep for Child Dedication Class experience.
What did you like? What didn’t you like?
What do I need to keep the same and what do I need to change?
Was the information in the class helpful?
Did the material inspire further questions following the class?
Tell me about the dedication experience.
What did you like?
What didn’t you like?
What do I need to keep the same and what do I need to change?… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Child Dedication: Dedication service
Posted on 16. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
I thought I’d actually wrap up this series on Child Dedication this week. Last week (Saturday) we held our dedication service and I was more than pleased. To be honest, it was the best dedication I’d ever experienced. Sure, there are some things to tweak, but it won’t take much to make this whole experience stellar.
So, here is what the service looked like:
Since I used Fellowship One for registration, I had a list of kids who I expected to be there. Since I also used Fellowship One to register parents for the Prep for Dedication class, I didn’t publicly display the link for the dedication service. Once a parent attended the class, I emailed them the link to register for the dedication service.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Child Dedication slide shows
Posted on 09. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
Okay, I intended to get these posted on Saturday, but this weekend was CRAZY!
Here are the two slide shows I used. Thanks for the suggestions on the music everyone, I went with two suggestions.
So, my initial plan was to have three different slide shows that would be running as people came in. However, after I finished the first one I totally changed my plan. It was too good to arbitrarily run while people were coming in. So, I planned to begin the service with the first slide show and then end the dedication with the second show. It was amazing. Check them out here (Oh, and I have password protected these videos. The password is “moistcookies”):
This first song you’ll probably recognize, it’s from the movie: Meet the Robinsons.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Child Dedication: Prep for Child Dedication Class
Posted on 05. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
In the past ten day’s I’ve taught this class three times.
I wrote it out on a Saturday afternoon and taught it the next morning at our South Campus. I felt the information was good, but it came off a little flat. I had just one discussion question for people to interact with. After the first class, I added four more discussion questions, one after each of the four “essential parenting skills.” I also added some personal stories to add a little humor and liven things up. The second class was phenomenally better. This is the one I recorded in the video below. The discussion time was fairly active, but not as much as I woudl have liked. I finally taught the class one last time a week later.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Child Dedication: Handouts and teaching notes
Posted on 05. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
Attached are the notes I used to teach and for parents to follow along and take notes.
Child Dedication Teaching Notes
Child Dedication Handout
When holding classes like these, I usually want to provide amble informaiotn for my paretns. My hope is that parents will go home and continue conversations about their child’s spiritual formation. Giving them notes will hopefully help them continue these vital conversations.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Child Dedication: Tweaking what’s working
Posted on 04. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
So, now I had one Child Dedication under my belt doing it a way that was much better than anything I’d ever done. Now it was time to tweak it.
I love the required Prep for Child Dedication Class concept, I just didn’t like the content from my first time. So, I needed to re-write. You do know that there is nothing new under the sun, right? I used some statistics that were already in the class. I took some additional statistics from a video my friend Sam posted a long time ago on his site. I then watched a video of a child dedication class Gina did and she totally gave me the idea of what I wanted to do for the meat of my class.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Child Dedication: A New Plan
Posted on 04. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
Just before arriving at Gateway I decided I wanted to figure out a new way to do Child Dedication, a very Orangy way. I wanted to engage the parents. At previous churches, parents signed up for Child Dedication and then just showed up on that day. I knew I wanted to have a pre-dedication meeting or class. Fortunately when I got to Gateway, I discovered that this class already existed. It was required. In addition, the dedication was held an hour before our once a month Sunday evening service. So, we had a special service for dedication where each family received individual attention as one of five or six pastors prayed over them. Then at the 180 service, the families/babies were recognized and the whole church prayed over them.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Child Dedication: Idealistic thoughts
Posted on 03. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
Nope, I’m not telling you what we’re actually doing… yet. That will come tomorrow. Before we arrived with the idea of what we’re doing right now, I had many thought of what I would like it to me.
Primary thought: Do child dedication exclusively in small groups. Want to eliminate the dog and pony show aspect of child dedication? Take away the audience. So, if child dedication is really about parents making a commitment in front of people they are doing life with, why not do child dedication exclusively within small groups. Group leaders can be equipped to do this or someone from the kids team can help lead the occasion. If we’re a church that really believes that small groups are the way people are going to grow, then why not let his happen exclusively in small groups.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Why I hate Child Dedication
Posted on 02. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
This week I’m going to be writing about Child Dedication. Most Children’s Pastors are responsible to hold these 2-4 times a year. Most I’ve talked to hate them. Maybe that’s too strong of a word. Most really don’t like them.
Let me tell you why I don’t like them and what I’m doing about it.
I’ve been responsible to host 2-4 of these suckers a year for the last 8-9 years of ministry. To some degree, they’re an administrative nightmare. All year long people are either asking about them or signing up for them. Then when the day comes, you call and email to see who is coming. Then you call and email to double check. You print out certificates and write in Bibles.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
