i love the etch conference. i am grieved i want be able to gather in person with ministry friends that are like family, but i am excited they have creatively worked out an online solution. below i have posted the breakouts i am leading. i sure would love to “see” you there. register here.
Discover what is needed for your team to grow (ministry teams, volunteer teams, and seasonal teams)—from the invitation, to the follow through and care—this one is all about relationships.
Unique times call for creative responses. In this session, we’ll talk about Google Classroom, Google sites, apps, social media, and more as we strive to remotely equip families with the gospel during uncertain times.
we were giving the word that it was time to figure out a way to bring families safely back on campus. what would we do? 40% of our investors (volunteers) are 65 and up, several other teachers weren’t comfortable coming back yet, and we didn’t have enough space or volunteers to social distance kids in classrooms.
researching what other churches were doing and having a heart for family discipleship, our team decided a family life group model was best. what a great way to transition back to church with families seeking God’s truth together.
our family life group takes place in our gym and each family has an eight foot table that is socially distanced six feet from any other table. we take temperatures before families enter, have volunteers to check families in on ipads, and ask all attendees to wear masks. (we provide k95 masks and shields to volunteers.)
before we began we wanted to outline the elements of family life group and use those as a filter to plan each week. while these elements may happen in a different order each week, we make sure they are all included. (see below)
using our Gospel project curriculum, we now have four family worships under our belt and are learning ways to tweak and improve our time each week. below are some ideas/activities we have used for family life group.
early arrival activities – we have three. because the sanctuary has to be cleaned thoroughly between each service, we have families arriving 20-25 minutes before family life group begins. the early, early arrival activities have included making cards for our adult students at the learning center where they are working on completely their GED, writing notes of encouragement to church staff, play-doh creations, and decorating family place mats. for the early arrival time, one of our amazing interns leads the kids in socially distance minute-to-win-it types of games or competitions. we hope this time helps get some energy out before we begin life group. the warm up we begins right at start time (because you know people are still coming in) and it has included stand up/sit down questions for families, a play-doh creation contest, and more.
hear truth – each week we share God’s truth straight from our Gospel project curriculum. my associate and i found out early on it was too much for us to teach every other week and lead all the other activities, so we each teach only once a month. to carry the load with excellence we have enlisted other ministers and church members to teach. this provides various teaching styles, gender diversity, and a chance for families to hear some of the best teachers in the church.
discuss truth – have you ever sat in church and heard the pastor say something and wanted to call a time-out to discuss what they said? that is what this time is for families. we give them two to three questions (with scripture references) to discuss around their table.
experience truth – our goal here is to create activities that help experience something together that will possibly lead to more discussion at home during the week. each week is different as we try to keep in mind all different learning styles. for the lazarus was raised from the dead week – families got to wrap a member in toilet paper and then they busted out as we called out “lazarus come out.” families have studied various scriptures together and picked which one they wanted to remind each other of during the week. kids have also washed their parents feet as we studied the last supper.
memorize truth – we are working with families to memorize the Lord’s prayer. each week, our intern gets up and teachers a phrase of the passage with motions for the families. after we finish the Lord’s prayer we will be on to another passage.
understand truth – using the cornerstones resources from lifeway, our associate minister to children introduces a question and answer and then we upload a video explanation to the padlet page for families to watch together during the week.
pray truth – we are blessed with some amazing leaders for our children’s prayer ministry. we now have groups of children praying before and after the life group. the children are leading the way in prayer.
at this moment we aren’t sure how long our family life group model will last, but it has been a privilege to serve families during this unique time. of all the pictures i have taken over the last month, the one below is still my favorite. there is just something about multigenerational Bible study that will always be a passion of mine. to God be the glory!
recently we reopened life groups for families. to ensure social distancing, we were given the gym. while we were thankful for such a large space, we immediately ran into several production issues: the sound, the harsh lighting from a glass building, and not enough tvs or quality projectors to reach the room.
so how do you lead an hour and a half family life group without screen? enter padlet. (big thanks go to abbie johnson, a coworker, for introducing me to padlet.)
padlet is a free online tool (we paid a subscription for more services) that serves as an online notice board. used mainly in education environments, we knew immediately that this would be needed if we were to successfully use screens in a gym of 200 socially distanced family members.
with so many changes being communicated to families, we kept it simple first. we designed our board (turning off permissions for others to comment and post) and all those that sign up for family life group get a text 15 minutes before we begin with the link to our padlet. once they pull up our page, everything we drop on the main computers padlet shows up on their device. any instructions we give we share on the padlet so they also have the instructions in front of them at their table.
here is what our padlet looks like – dawson kids padlet. i am a sucker for new technology, especially when it is simple and meets an immediate ministry need. check it out.
with so many conferences going virtual, why not join me for my online class? this course contains six weeks of my best kidmin material and is full of intentional conversations centering around best practices for children’s ministry leaders. not only do we sharpen one another as we grow in knowledge together, we also leave with a new network of ministry friends to encourage each other during these difficult times.
read below for a full description of my course and click here to be taken to the registration site.
This will be an examination of the role of the educator in supporting the faith development of children and families in the congregation. We’ll cover pedagogies, models of ministry, and administrational tasks. Not only will we discover how to intentionally plan and lead long term, but we will examine best solutions to the in-the-trenches children’s ministry elements.
This course will equip you with techniques for the following:
Creating and Maintaining a Gospel-Centered Ministry
Different Models of Ministry (what’s best for your ministerial context?)
Partnering with Parents
Strategic Planning, Budgeting, Outreach, Service and Follow-Up
Building, Leading & Maintaining Volunteer Teams
Consistent & Creative Communication
Serving Families with Special Needs
The Preteen Bubble
Family Worship
Using Your Facility to set your teaching/worship up for success
Students are required to have the following books for this class:
Gospel Centered Kids Ministry, by Brian Dembowczyk
Sustainable Children’s Ministry, by Mark DeVries and Annette Safstrom
What About Kids Ministry, edited by Bill Emeott
NOTE: IFD Certification learners may complete either IFDC140 or IFDC150 as part of their Children’s Ministry certification.
What happens when you have a crew of kiddos and families wanting to take the Gospel Class, but you are aren’t meeting with kids on campus yet? Well you get creative and take the interactive class online.
First of all I share all three parts of the outline for this class here, here, and here. I also had the privilege of writing the resource for a longer class like this for your church setting. You can find out more about that here. It comes with leader guides that we make sure to put in the hands of our families to help continue to conversations. You can find those here.
The main objectives I have for this class that kids attend with adults are: – See truth in God’s Word. – Experience truth in a hands-on way. – Discuss truth as families.
This gets really tricky when the class gets moved to video. After registration, I made sure parents had a list of supplies then I recorded two videos for them to experiences as families. Each child also got a packet with a Gospel God’s Plan for Me workbook, this storybook, and I gave parents a guide to leading their kids to Christ.
Here is a peak at the first video. You will have to use the password: Gospelclass to be able to see the video. I would love to hear what you are doing to reach families with the Gospel during this unique season.
