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?
Did you feel that the experience was personable?
How did it meet or fail to meet or exceed expectations?

Tell me about the pre-dedication experience.
How did you find out that we had a dedication coming up? Was it from one of my emails or the church program/slide?
What it difficult/inconvenient to register for the class and/or dedication?

Here are some of the answers we got back:

Tell me about your Prep for Child Dedication Class experience.

What did you like? What didn’t you like?

  • I loved the table communication.
  • It was all great, I especially liked the discussion questions – I realized that my situation or upbringing is not that different. I liked the fact you had childcare as well.
  • We liked everything except the time frame.  It cut into little one’s bed times so that made it a bit hectic and antsy toward the end.
  • I really enjoyed talking to the other couples so the group discussion was really great. It’s always nice to hear other christian couples opinion on child rearing. Maybe the time of night? 5:30 or 6:00 would have been a little easier with the baby situation.

What do I need to keep the same and what do I need to change?

  • Everything was great!  Maybe next time you could assign seats at the tables based on age of the child being dedicated. That would help conversation flow more easily.
  • Like I mentioned before, we found the class to be very motivating, inspiring, and it really filled us with the Spirit.
  • I thought the message was really great. Enjoyed learning the statistics about leading children to to Christ. Very enlightening.

Was the information in the class helpful?

  • Yes. I liked the statistics and the breakdown of the bible verse.
  • Yes, I think that it’s always good to hear different points of view as far as the table topics went.

Did the material inspire further questions following the class?

  • Yes…my husband and I talked a lot about how to bring God into our home with our children throughout the day rather than just before bedtime.
  • It was just what we needed.  I’m trying to make this short for you, so I’ll leave it at that.
  • It challenged me to do more for my family and give them the information they need by exposing them to the bible. And I can be educated too just by reading a kids bible!
  • Yes! A statement that was so simple yet so profound was “it takes a village to raise a child” and we really agreed with that. It prompted us to invite not only our family but some of our closest friends because they too will be influences in our children’s lives and it’s a great way to let them know how we are choosing to raise our child.

Tell me about the dedication experience.
What did you like? What didn’t you like?

  • I liked the fact that  the dedication was not on a Sunday evening because that meant more family  could make it. (theoretically, anyway) I didn’t really like how individual it  was – I like the feeling of doing the dedication as a part of the  church body.
  • I loved the slideshow!  The whole experience was very special for my family.
  • I liked the fact that you included the entire family and friends in the actual prayer/dedication of the child.  I also liked the slideshow – that made it even more personal for the family to see the children
  • I THOUGHT THE DEDICATION FORMAT WAS GREAT.  I’M SURE IT’S HARD TO PERSONALIZE THE EXPERIENCE WHEN THERE ARE A LOT OF CHILDREN.  I KNOW THE LEADER ASKED EVERYONE TO RETURN TO THEIR SEATS BUT BECAUSE KIDS GET ANTSY AFTER A FEW MINUTES, IT WAS HARD TO KEEP THEM SEATED AND STILL FOR AN HOUR.  NOT SURE IF YOU WOULD WANT TO LIMIT THE # OF KIDS SO IT DOESN’T GO THE FULL HOUR…
    THE AC DEFINITELY NEEDED TO BE TURNED ON SOONER.  IT WAS PRETTY WARM IN THERE WHICH MADE OUR CREW A LITTLE HOT (AND FUSSY!)
  • I loved the message, and the video was awesome! Great touch. Thought the message at the end was a little lengthy strictly because our little guy became very restless after we had our family prayer.
  • I liked the group prayer that my family and kids got to share with John, our group leader.
  • I liked that he was interested in our next steps to help guide our children down the right path.
  • I enjoyed the initial music, but with kids present, I would limit it to one song.  Kids get antsy, quick.

What do I need to keep the same and what do I need to change?

  • Totally think that each family should still  be prayed for individually. Maybe you can somehow incorporate a little ‘be the  body’ action at church the next morning?
  • We weren’t sure if we were supposed to leave after our children were dedicated or if we were supposed to wait until everyone had gone. Everything else was wonderful!
  • It was nice having it on a Saturday as well, that allowed my out of town family to participate. I would maybe make it at 10am, instead of 11am. That is usually the time young kids eat and get down for naps – atleast mine do.
  • I LIKED THE FORMAT.  WE LOVED THE PICTURES UP ON THE SCREEN.
  • If there is any way possible I would try to keep it at 45 minutes?? Just due to the amount of babies etc. But overall we really enjoyed it!

Did you feel that the experience was personable?

  • It was very personable.  Cathy made us feel very comfortable while the children were being dedicated. I especially liked that she prayed for purity and the future spouses of my children.
  • No, the class was small and intimate but the actual dedication, not so much.  Maybe the folks that were appointed to pray with each family should be their “family mentor”, and check up on them every few months or so?
  • I did feel it was personable once we made it to the stage for the personal prayer.

How did it meet or fail to meet or exceed expectations?

  • It greatly exceeded my expectations!  I attended a child dedication a few years ago for one of my friends, and this one was much more personal. You did a great job!!
  • I wasn’t sure what to expect. Having the 4 groups up at the same time kept the time there to a minimum but made it personal as well. We all know kids have a very short attention span and it worked well.

Tell me about the pre-dedication experience.

How did you find out that we had a dedication coming up? Was it from one of my emails or the church program/slide?

  • Email
  • My husband inquired about it and then we were sent notices via email.
  • I inquired about it before a date was actually set, because I had heard about the previous one.
  • church program

What it difficult/inconvenient to register for the class and/or dedication?

  • No
  • My husband had registered via email for the class and when I arrived I was not on the list – not sure if he received the info to register for the class online or if he assumed he was registered since he told someone we would be there.
  • It was very convenient.
  • ALL GOOD HERE.
  • No problem at all. The follow up email was nice to because it let us know our information was received.