Children’s Ministry Online

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?

written by Kenny

Yes, I think I’ve thoroughly covered my experiences (and opinions) on Bible Bucks programs. I sense that this is one of those "touchy" areas where many people have their strong opinions, and it seems that most people have very strong opinions on the matter. I think that’s great! All the more reason to hash stuff out, push the envelope and get some good ideas. As Jonathan said, Sacred Cows make good hamburgers.

There is one place though where I have done an incentive program. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite, I don’t know. Although we didn’t do this at Gateway this year and I don’t know if or when we’ll do one in the future, but I’ve always put incentives in place at our Venture Quest (VBS programs). We did this two ways. We had an offering contest and we gave away prized for kids who brought friends. I certainly had an agenda.

1. We were raising money for the work my friends Joel and Heidi are doing in Burkina Faso, West Africa. What they are doing is literally changing the landscape of a Muslim nation through Children’s Evangelism. As they continue to do their work, Burkina Faso my look completely different when the next generation becomes adults. So I do a boys vs. girls offering contest. I strongly urge the kids not to simply get money from mom and dad (although I’m sure many do). I encourage them to find ways to earn money, do extra chores or set up a lemonade stand, and many do. The last VQ I did this was my biggest yet. The kids raised over $6,000. I think the boys won. Do I give out a prize? No, just bragging rights. No really, I hype it up really big and the fact that the boys brought in more money seems to be enough. Usually I set an overall goal where my head gets shaved. That summer both me and another CP got his head shaved. It was classic.

2. Our VQ program has been evangelistic in nature. I would close off registration at 60-70% capacity. Then when the kids get there I encourage them to bring their friends. We equip them with the opportunity telling them that this is how they can see their friends come to Christ. Again, we highly urge them to bring their friends and neighbors who don’t go to church anywhere else. We then give away tons of prizes to those who bring friends. Every night we do give away tons of prizes randomly, but we usually have the big prize give-away at the pool party the Sunday night after VQ.

So, that is what I do. I have my own agenda. I want to see the unchurched come into our church and find Christ and hopefully find a church home. I also want to enable people doing amazing things around the world. I believe the kids would respond in a positive way regardless, but I do believe the incentives of the prizes and contest puts the kids over the top. The deal is that at my last VQ, we have around 1000 kids come. Only about 70 or so got prizes. Only two people got their head shaved. However, every kid had an amazing experience.

So, that’s what I’ve done. What about you?

written by Kenny

Yesterday I talked about my thoughts on Bible Bucks incentive/award programs. This was all inspired by Sam’s posts here, here and here. Anyway, my experience has been only negative or neutral, so I’ve had the pesky little habit of getting rid of them at the churches where I’ve worked.

So, thinking about getting rid of your Bible Bucks system? It’s easier than you’d think. I’ve done it three times and I’ve had exactly the same experience every time.

First of all, your biggest reaction will not be from the kids, it will be from adults. In all honesty, the most noise I heard from were volunteers, not parents. Usually it’s been the “we’ve been doing this for 7 years” thing or “Why would we get rid of something the kids love so much?” reaction. The solution to this is just clear and honest communication. I’ll communicate to parents and volunteers something like this:

Although we’ve had success with the prize store over the last few years, we’re looking to makes some changes to see if we can provide an even better experience for our kids. Maintaining the prize store costs a large amount of money and requires a lot of our volunteer resources. We’re looking at ways to free up these resources and do something special and different that the kids aren’t expecting and will totally love (maybe give some examples like a big party bash with inflatables and games at the end of every series or an end of the school year lock-in that’s totally free).

Sometimes I’ll even be direct and say, “Did you know that we spent $5,000 on prizes last year? Essentially that was $5,000 on pencils, erasers and yo-yos.  Can you imagine how we could totally blow these kids away if we used $5,000 differently?”

I’ve never had a volunteer or parents argue with the simple truth. Usually when we announce it to the kids we will get some push back. We’ll get some complaints and questions.

However, usually we’ll explain to the kids that the Prize Store is taking a break. We don’t know when or if we’ll open it up again, so be sure to spend all your money at this last one. We usually amp it up and make sure we’ve got enough prizes as well as some new items that the kids will enjoy. Then we close it. By saying it is taking a break, we’ve left ourselves some space to open it back up if we really need to (like if the kids totally rebel against the idea… although they never have). Then when we do a big Christmas party or end of school year blast, we communicate to parents and volunteers that we’re doing this because we’re not doing the prize store. They’ll see the light.

In the 3 to 6 months after the prize store is closed, you will have a parent come up to you asking if their child can use their bucks as they were gone for the final prize store. I always say yes. If I still have prizes, I’ll put together a little gift bag of prizes their kids will love. If I don’t have any prizes, I’ll give them a $5 or $10 Wal-Mart gift card. In all the places I’ve closed prize stores, I’ve only had to do this with 4 or 5 people… combined. Within a week or two of closing the prize store, kids stop asking about it. Literally, they forget about it. Yeah, you’ll have the one or two kids complain, but 98% of all the other kids won’t mention it again. That’s usually my sign that it was a good move.

So, if you’re looking to close down your prize store because you have or are building an experience that is fun and exciting in the context of connecting kids with leaders, peers and Jesus, then go for it! You’ll be glad you did.

Tomorrow will be my last post in this little series. There is one thing I’ve used incentives for. I did this for nearly 7 years at three different churches. I won’t apologize for it and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Who knows, maybe I am a prize store hypocrite. You be the judge.

written by Kenny

This week my friend Sam Luce wrote about using Bible Bucks in Kids Church to motivate/reward children. Honestly, a lot of churches do it. Many programs actually have rewards built right into the fabric of it’s DNA. I’ve dismantled this type of program at three different churches (including Gateway where I’ve just landed). I’m not at all saying their wrong. For me it’s been a matter of personal preference. I just don’t like them. Not all the kids are inspired by it, it’s expensive, it can be a beast to manage and too often there are kids who feel left out on the day they get to go to the store (I know, that’s the day the leaders give out Bucks to everyone so that everyone has something to spend and those first time visitors can get at least the smallest prize).

Let me tell you , dismantling the Bible Bucks system is a little daunting. There aren’t people out there who “hate” it and are glad to see it go. The only people who’ve ever told me they were glad to see it go were the staff members who had to stock it and price everything. In fact, most of the kids LOVE it… but that doesn’t necessarily mean its the right thing either.

The question I have to ask is, “why are you doing it? Why is it a part of your program?

For many it is the thing kids are most excited about coming to church. It actually motivates them to come every week, learn their memory verse, bring their Bible and sometimes even bring a friend. However, are kids falling in love with Jesus and his word or are they in love with their Bible Bucks? Are they really connecting with their leaders and other peers or are they motivated simply to earn enough for the scooter in the prize store?

Call me an idealist, but I think our programs should be so good that the kids just don’t want to miss out. Maybe they’ve got such a good relationship with their small group leader that they don’t want to miss them. I understand that we want the experience to be fun as “fun” is the language of kids. However, when the main “fun” part isn’t really associated with connecting with kids or helping lead them to spiritual maturity, then you’ve got a problem (regardless whether it’s a prize system, and environment or games). I’ve been at churches that have spent thousands of dollars on a prize store. My question would be, “what could you do with that extra money that would make a big difference immediately?” I’d figure out the answer to that and then do it.

I certainly don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade. There may be people out there who have a fantastic experience with their prize store and it only “adds” to an already exciting and fulfilling program. If that’s the case, then go for it. I can only speak from my own experience and every prize store experience I’ve had has been negative or has added nothing to the overall experience for the amount of work and resources it took.

Tomorrow I’m going to blog about how to dismantle a prize store, just in case you’re thinking about doing it.

written 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.

written 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.

written 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!

written by Kenny

It’s been over a week since my last post and I’m playing catch-up. I realized that I never posted the results to my little contest/request for help on this blog post.

Well, I ended up going out on my own; however, it was one of Sam’s suggestions that got my brain leaning in that direction. So, although I didn’t really use anyone’s exact idea, I’m treating myself to a Starbucks gift card… I love being in control. Actually, I promised Sam I’d treat him to a meal the next time (which will be our first time) to meet up.

Thank you though for the suggestions. They do help, even if it gets stored away as an idea for another lesson on another day. In case you care to know, I’ve posted that particular activity below.

Memory Match-up

SUPPLIES: Set of 24 responsibility cards

You will have a set of 24 responsibility cards containing 12 pairs of actions that either show responsibility or irresponsibility such as taking out the trash or cheating on a test. The 24 cards should be mixed up and put face down in the center of the group. Kids will take turns turning over two cards at a time looking for matches. If a child does not find a match, the next child will take a turn. If a match is found the leaders will ask the following question: Does this action show responsibility or irresponsibility? (Some are very obvious such as cheating on a test; however, several are a little fuzzy such as playing with friends. For some of these actions, feel free to ask the child or the rest of the group when might playing with friends be a responsible action and when might it be an irresponsible action.) In order to give all the children a chance to play, children who make a match do not get to pick again right away, but the turn passes on to the next child.

Depending on how quickly the first game went, shuffle the cards and play again. This time ask a different question when a match is made. We have been learning that “when you can be trusted, with little, you can be trusted with a lot.” If you acted out what was on this card, would it show that you could be trusted with more or with less? (There are some cards that could go either way depending on the situation. Probe the kids to see if the question could be answered the other way as well. Say: Many of the same actions could show either responsibility or irresponsibility. Part of learning to be trusted with little means deciding to make the right choice depending on the circumstances.

SMALL GROUP LEADER: “At your age in life, you are constantly building trust. You are building trust with your parents, with your teachers and even with friends. When you show that you are responsible with something little, you might be trusted with something bigger. Today you might be trusted with feeding the pet and taking out the trash. When you are older and have proven that you can be trusted with the little things, you may be allowed to drive the care (when you’re old enough of course) Remember, [Impress] when you can be trusted with a little, you can be trusted with a lot.”

[Personalize] Share with your small group about something small that you were trusted with even as an adult and how being responsible with that grew into something much bigger (maybe a small job or task at work that grew into a promotion).

written by Kenny

I thought I’d throw this out there. My team and I racked our brains for 45 minutes coming up with one more small group activity and we came up with nothing. Maybe you can help. I’ll make it interesting… you give me an idea and we use it, I’ll send you your choice of a $5 iTunes card or Starbucks card.

We’re using 252 and the monthly virtue is Responsibility. The bottom line is "When you can be trusted with a little, you can be trusted with a lot." The Memory verse is similar: Luke 16:10 "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much." The Bible story is basically the parable of the talents.

The way we’re doing this is a 30 minute large group activity (worship, drama and teaching) and then 35 minutes in small groups. They’ll spend 15 minutes before large group and 20 minutes after larger group in small groups. I have 2 of the three small group activities.

Activity One: The small group leader will toss out a balloon which the kids will keep hitting it and keep it from hitting the ground. As the do well, the leader will introduce another balloon and another until one hits the ground. They’ll play that game a few times. The leader will then gather the kids together again communicate, as you did well with one balloon, you we’re given two to handle and as you showed you could handle two, you were given three. Responsibility is similar, when you prove yourself as someone who is responsible, you will be given more to be responsible for. This is just a fun way to introduce the topic.

Activity Two: ???

Activity Three: Every child will be given a pen/pencil and an index card. On the card the kids will write down "treasures" they have (things that are valuable to them). Kids will go around the group telling one of their treasures and how they can show responsibility with that treasure.

This is where you come in:

I need an activity for "activity two." This will be just as they are coming back from large group. The kids will be a little wired, so it really does need to be a little hands on or more active than activity three. I really want to push this idea of when you are responsible over something, you’ll become responsible over more. We have thrown out all kinds of ideas of giving kids something earlier in the day and then see how well they’ve taken care of it and then give them a reward… but I’m really trying to avoid the "reward." I don’t want to make it a competition and I don’t want some kids to feel like they got left out somehow, but I really do want kids to understand "responsibility" and how rewarding it can be.

Last of all, I don’t want something that takes too much time to prepare or anything complicated. We have about 250 elementary aged kids going through this and what we need is high impact with little prep.

Just post your ideas in the comments. I need to have this figured out by Tuesday at noon(ish). Anyone got any ideas?

written by Kenny

This last Sunday was the infamous "Promotion Sunday." Of all the "Promotion Sundays" I’ve had in the past, this one actually saw the least promotions. We’re in the process of getting portable space added to our facility (like how I termed that… it was a really sophisticated way of saying we’re getting trailers… ha!) Last year the Kindergartners were a part of elementary and this year they’ll stay with preschool… so kindergarten didn’t actually promote.

The only two things I really had my eye on was the implementation of small groups in elementary and the promotion of our 5th graders into middle school. We had two big wins!

First of all I’ll talk about the small groups. One of the first things on my plate from the moments I began at Gateway ( We even talked about it extensively during my interviews) was to launch small groups in elementary. We’ve been working very hard all summer to plug small group leaders in. The goal is about 31 small groups. We’re still not quite there; however, most of our leaders were in place during the 9:30 and 11:00 services. There was a great energy in the room and kids were connecting with their leaders and other kids in their groups. We still have a lot of work ahead of us… but it was beautiful to see.

Second was the promotion of our 5th graders. This was a little big of a double whammy. Chad Swanzy, our student pastor has been working really hard on making this a success. He came on staff just a month before I did and one of the first things on his list was to fix the middle school program. Gateway only had one middle school service and it was at the worst attended time. So, in this church of 4000, we had about 30-35 attend. Before I was even on the scene, Chad was already hard at work to get services added to the 9:30 and 11:00 time slots. By the time I arrived, we only had to work out where to put the Middle School. The main reason middle school only met at 12:30 was because there wasn’t any space at our facility except for at 12:30. Since I knew the portables would be available to us, I gave up our oldest preschool room which was located on the same floor as elementary aged kids and would accommodate the middle school kids. Once all this was set, Chad and his team began working on getting middle school kids who just sat in the service during 9:30 and 11:00 to come to these new service times. Chad had already talked to the previous elementary director about getting in to talk to the 5th graders a few times over the summer. I also was already on this wavelength. The family pastor at a church in interviewed with explained that for them, promotion wasn’t a date on a calendar, but a process. My hope was that we could connect Chad and his team with these 5th graders as many times as possible over the summer. So, we launched about 4 preview services throughout the summer. Unfortunately we ran anywhere from 15-20 5th graders those Sundays. Yeah, that meant only 5-7 per service on our preview Sundays. During our higher attended Sunday’s we would average 30-35 5th graders… but in the summer our numbers were way down. However, this Sunday was totally different. We had at least 35 5th graders (now 6th graders) attend. In addition, 7th and 8th graders showed up for the 9:30 and 11:00 services as well. In all, Middle School had about 95 kids.

I’m really proud of Chad and his team… they pulled it off BIG TIME! We talked at the beginning of the summer of how he could very easily triple the middle school program… and they did! The cool part is that they just got started, I’m absolutely convinced that they’re going to grow. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they hit 150 before Christmas. How did they do it? Well, first of all they just made space available (If you build it, they will come). Second of all, I know that Chad and his team worked hard to get them there. They were making phone calls and sending out post cards. Last of all, they really upgraded the quality of the program. Seriously, it looks so much more polished than it did 3 months ago. It’s a great service and the kids who attend are having fun and getting a lot out of it!

Read about it from Chad’s blog here!

written by Kenny