Tag Archives: Elementary
Question for the CMO tribe
Posted on 20. Dec, 2010 by Kenny.
Late last week I got an email from Skip Coulter. He said he had a question for the CMO tribe. I liked that. I know there’s a decent little crowd of regular readers and the “CMO tribe” has really helped me out in the past when I’ve had questions on illustrations, ideas or other things I was working on. So, here’s Skip’s question:
I really believe that the integrity of a children’s program is in the quality of its material.What recommendations (brand name) would you make as excellent sources of material for pre-school and grade school materials? I’m a lay worker in a small church in Alabama, but we have a wonderful children’s minister and kids that we just enjoy and want to invest their lives glorifying God. Can you give me some advice?
So, could some of you pipe in and give Skip your thoughts. I’ll wait until later to give my thoughts.
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Lee Strobel makes a case for kids
Posted on 09. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.
Last year while visiting North Point, I spent a lot of money in bookstore! One resource I picked up was a series by Lee Strobel for kids linked to his “A Case for Christ/Creator/Faith” books. I picked up the following books:
I’m half-way done reading through “A Case for a Creator”. It would only take an adult 20-30 minutes to read through the whole thing. Each book is only eight chapters long and would make for a great small group study for older elementary kids. I’m looking to launch a prototype small group study for older elementary kids and I might use this as a resource. If I do, I’ll probably write some supplemental curriculum to guide the time we’re meeting together and the kids will have to read the chapters on their own each week. I’ve got a few hurdles to overcome, but I think it might be a good study.
I’m a big believer that kids need some theology/apologetics in addition to Bible stories and virtues. Sometimes this can all be done together, sometimes not. So, we’ll see what happens. Once I move forward on this, I’ll post an update and share any resources I might develop. Regardless, I figured you might be interested in checking out this resource.
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Help with a name!
Posted on 13. Jul, 2009 by Kenny.
Hey, I need a name for a two day event. I could use some of your ideas.
We’re doing a leadership event at our church called Advance. It’s a two day retreat over a Friday and Saturday. In the past we’ve offered childcare, but it’s been kinda lame. This year we’re making it an event geared to events. The strategy is that if the kids want to go, the paretns will be more likely to want to attend. We’ll do movies, pizza, crafts, games, water events, inflatable slides and such.
What can I call it that the name alone is energetic and fun sounding… but doesn’t sound dorky or too little kiddy. This will be geared to 4 year old through 5th graders. We’ll have a “Jr.” version for 3 and 4 year olds and we provide childcare for babies.
So, what do you think?
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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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Should I play spin the bottle?
Posted on 27. Oct, 2008 by Kenny.
We’re in the middle of our Soul Revolution push as a church and so I’m creating a Soul Revolution activity for each Sunday during the 9 weeks. Normally the kids would do 3 separate activities in small groups that go along with the 252 Basics curriculum. However, right now I am writing one of those to be a Soul Revolution activity.
I’ve got one activity that is tripping me up. I want the kids to randomly select another kid in their group to encourage. Then the next kid will randomly select another kid to encourage. I really don’t want to spin a bottle, but what better “random selecting tool” is there. Simple. Cheap. But unfortunately loaded with connotations.
So, the big questions? Would you play spin the bottle? Can this activity redeem the other version or would you not touch this with a ten foot pole? Last of all, what else is a fun, easy and effortless way to randomly select kids to be encouraged?
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Elementary Schedule using 252 Basics
Posted on 10. Sep, 2008 by Kenny.
Three weeks ago we launched small groups on Sunday mornings for 1st-5th graders. This last Sunday we launched 252 Basics. It was phenomenal. I started using 252 a year ago when I was at Cross Timbers. It was not the easiest curriculum I’ve ever purchased, but I liked it more than anything else I’ve ever used. As most Children’s Pastors do, I always tweaked curriculum like crazy. With 252 Basics I got a 30-40 page pack of options. I had two different production/large group lessons and nearly a dozen small group activities. The curriculum was supplied online as word docs, so I would simply cut and paste the items I planned to use. It was beautiful. Probably what I loved the most was the single virtue that was emphasized for an entire month, one memory verse for the month (come on people, do your kids ever remember the memory verse from 3 weeks ago? Giving kids four weeks with one verse at least gives them a chance to get into their minds and hearts.) I also loved all the take home stuff (Refrigerator Door cards and God Time cards). A year ago I was just using the curriculum, now I am using the “Get Real” video packs (high quality video segments you can use in your large group time) as well as the some of their other materials (they’re adding new things all the time). I just found this the other day. At our biggest campus, we have the resources to do a full production, but at our South Campus they aren’t able to pull off an all out production. For the South Campus I can use Studio 252. I can even use it last minute at the big campus if I have an emergency (like if some of our production people call in sick).
So, here is what our service schedule looks like. We have services at 9:30, 11:00 and 12:30, but for this example I’m using our 9:30 schedule.
- 9:30 Service begins with kids in small groups. For 20 minutes kids will review the last week, cover prayer requests, collect offering and introduce the day’s bottom line through a small group activity
- 9:50 Large group time. We do two praise songs, a “Get Real” video segment, drama presentation and teaching segment.
- 10:10 Closing Small Groups. For 25 minutes the groups will do two more activities that drive home the bottom line. They close by distributing the Refrigerator Door card and God Time cards and ending with prayer.
- 10:35 Parents arrive to pick up kids.
We’ll probably tweak thing in the coming weeks as we see what works best.
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Gateway’s “new” elementary program
Posted on 09. Sep, 2008 by Kenny.
It’s been a very busy summer. The week I got here I shared with my elementary production director (my only staff member in the elementary area) my vision for what elementary ministry would look like in the fall. It would look almost completely different from anything I had ever done as well. So we’ve been working very hard all summer to build new teams to launch our new program. Essentially we doubled our volunteer force already (it had gotten pretty skimpy) and I’d say we still have about 20 more people to fill out our teams. So this is what it looks like now.
Elementary Production
We have four production teams. Each team consists of a leader, two actors, two worship leaders and two tech/A/V volunteers.Each team works one Sunday a month. The team that is serving that weekend will meet one day that week for a two hour rehearsal and then they will serve all three services on Sunday. Then they have the rest of the month off.
Elementary Small Groups
We divide our kids into grade and gender groups and place a leader in each of those groups. Some grade/gender groups are big enough for two groups.These small group leaders serve during just one of our services, but they server every week.
Subs and General Help
We’ve got several other people who can’t commit to serve every week or all services in one weekend or they may not meet our qualifications to be a leader. The General help volunteer help greet at the doors, make sure small group leaders have what they need and help out where ever else they are needed. Subs just jump in and sub where a small group leader is absent.
These are our roles right now. We have pretty much doubled our volunteer force in the last three months; however, we are still short close to 20 volunteers. Here our our current needs:
Top needs
- 4th grade girls small group leader at 9:30
- 5th grade boys small group leader at 11:00
- 2nd grade boys co-small group leader at 11:00
- 4th grade girls co-small group leader at 11:00
Secondary needs
During our 9:00 service, I have two groups where I am missing a leader but subs who work every other week are co-owning a group. Here is where I need a permanent leaders.
- 1st grade boys at 9:30
- 5th grade girls at 9:30
Last but not least
I essentially need 4-5 more small group leaders at our 12:30 service. Getting leaders for this service is like pulling teeth. I have enough general help that we can break out into groups (they aren’t as small as I’d like) but the environment is still really good. I’ve chosen not to really focus on this service as much because it is a small service, it’s really relaxed and not having enough small group leaders isn’t stressing anyone out. However, there is a stress level associated with the holes during the 9:30 and 11:00 service. If I don’t fill them soon, it will created frustration for my other leaders.
So, say a little prayer for us as we continue to find people to step into these roles. I’m using subs to fill these spots, but when I have a leader out because their sick, then I’ll be hurting. I don’t have many leads right now, so we’re going to have to roll up our sleeves, get creative and really depend on the Holy Spirit to show us who is next.
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A huge day for our elementary program
Posted on 08. Sep, 2008 by Kenny.
Yesterday was a big day for us at Kids Quest. I posted here a few days ago about how we moved to small groups on Sunday’s. That was a big day and something we had been planning for all summer. But it was on September 7th that we were launching 252 Basics as our curriculum that we could combine a powerful small group element with an energetic large group production. I’ll just say it. Today was the best elementary service I’ve experienced under my leadership in years. It was awesome! Let me clarify.
I’ll admit it. I feel like one of the things I do very well is create small group experiences. I can get small group leaders, equip them with materials and create the relational experience pretty easily. However, the production side of a service is not my strength. Musically I am not in my element and it would be much better to have someone else. At most of the churches I’ve been, I haven’t had very many people who were comfortable or well suited to lead a large group from the stage. So usually either I was up there on the stage or someone else was and the quality wasn’t the best. Again, I feel like I’m a very strong communicator to kids, but the music part I’m just not equipped to lead well.
Coming to Gateway I found that we actually had quite a few people who were very comfortable on the stage and quite good. Unfortunately the program wasn’t always suited to take advantage of these people’s strengths. But yesterday was probably the best service I’ve seen in years. It started with small groups. Kids came in and connected immediately with their leaders. After 15 minutes or so, they all combined or the large group time. It was a 20 minute program that was fast paced and with solid transitions. Everyone was glued to what was happening on the stage. Before we knew it, it was already over and kids were dismissed back to their small groups. Leaders then led their kids in a few small group activities for the next 30 minutes. The pacing was very good. Kids were highly involved, they were engaged and they had fun. How exciting!
We’re not done though. There were still several things to tweak. We’re still short several small group leaders. There were also a few things to change in the production/large group (not much though). I also need to invest some money into our equipment. Everything went really well, but it was very difficult to pull off on the audio/visual side.
Here was my take away though… the big win in my book. About 2 months after getting here I killed the “Bible Bucks” program. Actually I’ve killed it at almost every church I’ve come to, usually because I didn’t see how it actually enhanced the experience. Usually it was more of a crutch. The program wasn’t great, but what motivated kids to be involved and active was so they could buy crap at the store. On my first visit to Gateway I noticed that leaders were bribing kids with Bible Bucks to be quite and pay attention. My only comment on this situation is this. If the content we are presenting is actually engaging and worth paying attention to, will we need to bribe the kids to stop talking? Kids don’t talk at the movies. Why? Because the content is good and engaging. Well, today I noticed something profound. I noticed… silence. During the production/large group time the kids were not talking to each other. They were laser focused on that stage. Woo Hoo! How awesome is that?
So, we still have a lot of work to do, but what a great start for the Fall!
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Taking small group leaders through the pipeline
Posted on 20. Aug, 2008 by Kenny.
I wrote a few weeks ago about Gateway’s leadership process. Coming into this new role at a new church, I had to get my hands around who were leaders and who wasn’t. I had people who had been through the leadership process and were considered leaders… but they weren’t technically leading anyone. On the other side, I had some people who were leading people but had not been through the leadership process and were not considered leaders. Confusing, hug? Essentially, I’ve had to start over and evaluate my “leaders” one person at a time, find out what they are or are not leading and set them on the right track.
The largest amount of my energy though has been focused on raising up small group leaders for the fall. The elementary program at Gateway has not been “relational” in practice. So we’re launching about 31 small groups. This will link every 10-12 kids with on adult each weekend. I’m expecting big things this fall as a result to moving to this paradigm. However, the process has been eating my lunch.
- So, first of all I have to recruit. I’ve been getting the word out in about a hundred different ways. Our efforts have paid off as I have recruited more small group leaders than I need (oh, but I’m not done).
- Second we send them the paperwork to fill out which includes a criminal background check, a Kids Quest volunteer application and a leadership info form (Since my small group leaders are essentially shepherding a group of kids, I’m requiring them to go through the leadership process). The background check and the application can be filled out in a few minutes, but the leadership form takes most people anywhere from 20 minutes to 90 minutes to fill out (it probably took me two hours).
- Third I interview them. This is typically a 45 to 60 minute interview where I walk through their answers to the leadership info form as well as an interview form that I use (remember, this is a standardized process that all leaders go through here at Gateway, so I document the interview and it goes in their file. If they move out of kids and plug in somewhere else, the leadership process doesn’t necessarily have to be repeated). The leadership process is pretty intense. We ask questions like:
How long have you been a Christ follower? Define in your own words salvation by grace. Explain what spiritual practices you have in your life in order to grow as a Christian. What does your marriage look like (is it strong an growing)? If single, are you pursuing sexual abstinence and purity until marriage? Are you able to make this kind of commitment? Are there any issues in your life that would reflect poorly on you or Gateway if they came to light?
This is only part A of our leadership info form. Part B goes into leadership experience and issues. At this time, I’m just taking all my candidates through Part A and establishing them as “emerging leaders.” As they continue to grow, I’ll continue the process with them by leading them through part B of the application and interview as well as have them fill out our ministry covenant.
So, throughout this process I’ve actually had to turn some small group leaders away. We’ve plugged them into other areas of service where they would not be directly shepherding kids. It’s been a long and complicated process, but I’ve gotten to know my new small group leaders so much better and I trust that they are solid. Today I’m scheduled to be conducting phone interviews for about 5 hours. I spent 4 hours on the phone on Monday and have another 4-5 hours scheduled for Thursday.
Does your ministry have a pipeline? Does it look the same for every volunteer role, or are some more rigorous?
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The elementary attrition
Posted on 30. Jul, 2008 by Kenny.
I’m curious as to how this is for others out there. Since coming to Gateway, one of my priorities has been to help transition 5th graders into the middle school. We promote on August 24th. Over the summer we’ve had 4 5th grade preview services where our 5th graders were taken to the middle school program for a sneak peak. This has been very successful as both the kids and parents of the kids have given us great feedback. However, over the past three preview services, we’ve seen 15-20 5th graders each week on the average… and I’m probably being a little optimistic with the numbers. Yeah, I said 15-20!
There’s nothing wrong with having 15-20 5th graders on any given weekend (for three services). Many churches don’t even have that many. However, I have about 80 five year olds each Sunday. Yes, 80. What we have here is called elementary attrition. It is where we slowly lose kids as they get older. If I were to guess, this happens at most churches because ministry becomes less and less relevant as the kids get older. We’re using Veggie Tales and puppets to reach our older elementary age kids. Typically, our middle school ministries hit the mark in reaching these kids in a relevant way, but they often have to start from scratch because many of the 5th graders stopped coming long ago.
So, the task before me at Gateway is to restructure our program for 4th and 5th graders. We’ll do anything necessary to be relevant to these kids. We’re also adding small groups on the weekends to add the relational component, this way they’ll at least be connected. I plan to run the numbers for the other grades as well to see the grade that the attrition really starts.
What about you guys? Have you recognized any attrition patterns with your elementary age kids? Do you have more older elementary kids or less? What do you attribute to this?
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