Childrens Ministry Online

Early Childhood Room Names

Posted on01. Jun, 2009 by Kenny.

Okay, I’ve need a little outside inspiration. I’ve been thinking about changing the names of two rooms in our Early Childhood area. So, here are our existing rooms.

2 & 3 year old classrooms

• Tumbleweed Trail
• Little Lagoon
• Kids Kingdom
• Asteroid Alley

4 year old – kindergarten classrooms

• Beach Boulevard
• Amazon Avenue
• Treehouse Trail
• City Circle

Okay, here’s my dilema. The last four rooms are classrooms we added in January and they’re part of Kids Quest Backyard. They all have street themes. When we opened these rooms, Tumbleweed Trail has been previously retired, but we opened it back up again in February. So, we have two rooms that end with “trail.” Also, Asteroid Alley is a feeder room to Amazon Avenue. People are constantly mixing these up and it sometimes causes confusion. People accidently say Amazon Alley or Asteroid Avenue and so we don’t really know what room a person is talking about.

So, here is where I need help. The Backyard names are new and since they’re tied both to room themes (murals) and the street theme, it’s going to be harder to change them. So, I think that Tumbleweed Trail and Asteroid Alley may be the ones that need new names.

Tumbleweed Trail – It has a wild west theme to it. It has a cactus on the wall with other western type theme elements. In my head I’m even thinking “Cactus Canyon.” But, I’m open to all kinds of ideas.

Asteroid Alley – To be honest, this is my favorite room. It has a spaceship look. The walls are black with stars and planets all around and there is a rocket ship in the corner. So, I need a fun name to replace this as well. Think exciting destination. Oh, and in case you didn’t notice, the first and second letter of the room need to start with the same letter.

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Another Child Dedication under wraps

Posted on01. Jun, 2009 by Kenny.

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know that I’ve re-invented the way we do child dedication. Three months ago we did our first one under the new format. It had a few kinks, but overall the whole process was so beautiful. Just search “child dedication” on this site and you can read about all the changes we’ve made.

Two weeks ago I wrote about the changes we were making for the dedication we held last weekend. We made those changes and they went great. I’d say the dedication was near perfect. Here are some pictures.

I can’t tell you how happy I am about how we do our dedications. However, I’m not finished. There are some components that North Point does in their pre-dedication process that I want to add to ours. You can read about them here. In addition, we’re going to add the dedication book that Ned Gable created at his church. Read about it here. Once we have these things in place, we may sit tight until we get the itch to make it even better. I’m always anxious to hear what others are doing as well. Don’t be shy.

Below are email reviews I got from two parents from our most recent dedication:

Parent One:

Tell me about your Prep for Child Dedication Class experience.
The class was much more than I thought it would be.  Upon signing up, I thought it would be basic info regarding how the actual service would take place.  We were really blown away by the questions and information that was given.  It was a great refresher to open our eyes to becoming better parents for Cole.  We really enjoyed everything we talked about and got a lot out of it.  I honestly wish more churches would do this!  I felt more “in tune” and prepared for the actual dedication.  You all had great advice and great prompting questions for us.  It was also great to meet the staff who would be interacting with our family.  I wouldn’t change anything!

Tell me about the dedication experience.
I liked that it was personal and was all about the child being dedicated.  It was much more meaningful than the dedications they do at other churches that last 5 or less minutes.  I really liked how you found the meaning to Cole’s names and then found such a great verse that went along with it all.  Would you still have that verse?  I’d love to write it in the front of his Bible.  I thought that made it even more special.  Thanks for doing that! 

Tell me about the pre-dedication experience.
I actually found it on Gateway’s front web page.  I had no idea when the times were or that you even did them.  I was happy to see that link!  I got all of the info from the website.  I never saw any info during service or in the bulletin.  Sometimes we miss that part of the service.  It would be cool to have it in the bulletin every week…I always read those and take them home.  So, if I miss the 411, I can still get the info in the bulletin.  The website is great tool as well.  I thought it was very easy to register and sign up.

Parent Two:

Tell me about your Prep for Child Dedication Class experience.
The information was very thorough and asked the right questions to make sure the dedication was right for us.
Yes, the information was very helpful and eye opening for myself as well as the friends that attended.  Many were confused what the difference of a child’s baptism and a dedication were and you explained the difference very well!
Absolutely, my friends that are parents were asking me questions that I felt very happy to answer after taking the class.

Tell me about the dedication experience.
We were very fortunate to have Jonathan pray for us.  He knows Sean, our oldest son, and our family very well and made it that more special!  I would have liked to have more worship songs, but its understandable when you have little kids with you!
The slideshow is a keeper and I thought everything else went very smoothly, don’t change a thing!
Yes, the experience was great! Mainly because Jonathan knows my older son very well and it felt like he really knew us and cared when he prayed for us!
I have never been to anything like this so I have nothing to compare it to, but I thought it was a very inspiring and wonderful experience!  Thank you!

Tell me about the pre-dedication experience.
I found out thru an email
No it was very easy to register!
Thank you so much for all the information you gave us and giving my husband and I the extra support to dedicate our children to God.  It is nice to know such amazing people to come to if we have any questions or need advice!

This is Jonah. He was critiquing this dedication for me. He let me know later that we did a good job.

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Early Childhood small groups

Posted on21. May, 2009 by Kenny.

Say what? Early Childhood small groups? Aren’t you supposed to start this once kids get into elementary? That’s been the given assumption. Some churches are starting to break this mold and give this a try. We’re going to start this really soon and we are very excited. So, please keep in mind that everything I write below this paragraph is theory and a vision of what could be.

My staff came back from Orange with all kinds of ideas. On of the ideas my Early Childhood director had concerned alignment of terminology. Basically this is where churches use the same vernacular for positions and programs throughout every ministry. It makes perfect sense. In the Early Childhood area we have three main positions. Lead teacher, room leader and caregiver. The lead teacher travels from room to room and the room leader is in charge of the room. Caregivers are simply caregivers.

So, the thought was that we call our room leaders small group leaders. This helps align terminology. It helps when recruiting as people have a better idea of what a smll gorup leader is than a room leader. Then we started to brainstorm and think outside the bun. One of Gateway’s core strategies is to connect people in small groups. We believe that life change happens best in the context of personal relationships. Although we do have kids in early childhood who have great relationships with their caregivers and room leaders, but it isn’t expressly intentional. It just happens. However, if this is a value of our church, what if we made relational development intentional in early childhood? What if rather than just have the name “small group leader” in early childhood, we actually changed the job description so that it really was a small group leader?

So, it isn’t going to necessarily look like small groups in elementary or adults, but it will be a small group. We’d follow the same strategy we are with elementary. Althouh we may have 15-20 kids in a room, we’ll run reports to see who the regularaly attending kids in that room are. Those kids would be in the small group leader’s small group. Now, that leader wouldn’t gather his/her kids in a small huddle each Sunday (unless they are in one of the 4-kindergarten rooms where they actually do that). However, this small group leader would intentionally plan to have specific one on one time with the 8-10 kids who are in their small group. The other caregivers are there to help take care of the rest of the kids, but the small group leader has a laser focus. Outside of Sunday, this leader would call the families or kids and send postcards. A relationship would be developed. Even though all the kids in this small group wouldn’t necessarily experience a “group-like” experience, they would each have a shared/personal experience with their leader.

The beauty of this plan is that we can essentially start small groups with our babies. That’s right, a four moth old can be in a small group. All they have to do is come on a semi-regular basis and they’ll be assigned to that room’s small group leader.

So, what do you think? Do you think it will work? In about six months, we should be able to let you know. I’d appreciate any ideas you might have.

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Child Dedicaiton: Conclusion

Posted on18. 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. I’m thinking of having them come to the child dedication class and be a table leader and guide the discussion. Then at the dedication, they’ll pray over the families making the dedication much more personal. Last of all, I’d like this pastor/leader to follow-up in some way with the family 2-3 times in the months following dedication (or at least hand them off to a small group leader).
• Since I do preregister for the Prep for Child Dedication class, I’ll assign seats and put families with similar aged kids or families who live in closer proximity to each other at the same tables.
• For the dedication we’ll double the number of pastors/leaders to pray over their children so that the prayer time will last 15-20 minutes max instead of 30-40.
• Rather than have all the families hang around after the prayer time, we’ll let the families go out to the lobby to have their pictures taken by one of our photographers and receive their certificate and Bible.
• Currently we give out a cheap gift Bible and I’m not really impressed with it at all. I’d love to find a nicer Bible that the family will treasure over the years.

Oh, I’ve got one more big thing to share. Two days ago my new blogging friend Ned posted about the way they do Dedications. I love it and he does several elements that I’m going to incorporate, especially their dedication book. WOW. Check out his post here.

So, thanks or taking this Child Dedication journey with me. I’ve learned a lot both from this experience as well as the feedback you’ve posted. Don’t be afraid to change, mix it up. For many churches, any change would be a move in the right direction. Above all, avoid the “Dog and Pony Show!” Capture the hearts of your parents now and give them the tools to start spiritually leading their kids NOW!

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Child Dedication: Dedication service

Posted on16. 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. I had a volunteer check families in as they arrived. We dedicated 28 kids and probably had a crowd of 250 at the actual dedication.

We started promptly at 11:00 AM with the slide show I posted here. Cathy Harwick, my new elementary director welcomed everyone to the dedication and opened with a word of prayer. I had a praise and worship leader then lead us in two songs of worship. It wasn’t too long, but just right. Following the music, Cathy got up again and spoke for about 10 minutes on why we practice child dedication and what it means. Afterward, she introduced the three other pastors/leaders who would be praying over families. She would call up four families at a time. The families and friends would come to the front and meet the pastor/leader who would dedicate them. The pastor/leader would ask the parents, “What is your motivation for having your child dedicated today?” After the parents shared their thoughts, the pastor/leader would pray over the child, family and friends. It was a sweet and personable time, probably 6-7 minutes up at the front.

While the dedication was happening, the worship leader continued to play and sing while the slide show continued to play on the big screen. This prayer time lasted for about 25-30 minutes. After this was finished, Cathy closed the service in prayer and the families were dismissed. In the lobby, parents picked up certificates and dedication Bibles before they left.

I got to experience this dedication as a father and participant. I thoroughly enjoyed the expereince as a participant. I also really like the environment. I felt like we were really getting it right. So, like I said before, I was more than pleased.

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Child Dedication slide shows

Posted on09. 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.

Dedication Video 1 from Kenny Conley on Vimeo.

The second song is from Aaron Roughton, a very talented musician who attends our church. If you’re interested in Aaron’s music, you can listen to all of his music here and pick up his album at iTunes. I used his song, “This Very Moment.” Seriously, his whole album is great, but at the very least you should pick up this song.

Dedication Video 2 from Kenny Conley on Vimeo.

Amazing, huh? It was by far the best slide show I’ve ever made and one the best I’ve seen. Creating it was easy. I used Animoto. Click here to sign up for your account.

I paid $25 for a one year account where I could make full lenght shows (the free default is 30 seconds). Because I was showing these on the big screen, I pain an additional $5 per video to get a DVD quality file. Let me tell you, it looked spectacular. Some people sent me low resolution images, but they all turned out great.

I wrote about Animoto a long time ago, but I’m serious, if you dont’ have it or aren’t using it, you really should. Click here to sign up!

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Child Dedication: Prep for Child Dedication Class

Posted on05. 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. There were 21 parents present and the energy in the room was amazing. I was much more comfortable with the material and I had to cut the discussions short to keep us on track. It was by far the best child dedication class I’ve ever experienced. I’m looking forward to doing it again.

The video below is password protected. I told the parents in the video that I wouldn’t freely push this video all over You Tube. So, it’s locked down. however, if you’re reading it on this site, the password is: moistcookies

Prep for Child Dedication Class from Kenny Conley on Vimeo.

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Child Dedication: Handouts and teaching notes

Posted on05. 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.

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Child Dedication: Tweaking what’s working

Posted on04. 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. Oh, and I totally stole two of her main points. With all this new material, I felt I had a solid class that parents would certainly value.

Second, I needed to tweak the dedication. Now we have a permanent Sunday afternoon service, so the auditorium wasn’t really available for the dedication on Sunday afternoons. After talking with several parents, I decided that Child Dedications would now take place on Saturday mornings (11:00 AM). This way family could still come in from out of town and it’s just before lunch, so families can go out afterward. Doing this on Saturday morning also assured me that this would be anything but a dog and pony show now that it was no where near a Sunday service (I really don’t mean to offend anyone by calling it that, it’s just what it had become at every church I’d been a part of. I know some churches that do individual dedications for families each week making it very special for that family. Unfortunately, that just doesn’t fit with our church and our time frame, so we have to do something different).

So, here is the plan from hear on out:

• Prep for Dedication Classes will be posted on the website. A parent can register for one of these classes at any time. The class is mandatory for your child to be dedicated.
• You can choose how and when you want your child dedicated. A) In your small group B) In a private setting C) At a church Child Dedication

In your small group

The children’s ministry will provide materials for small group leaders to conduct a child dedication. Basically it would be some notes and a video to watch. This is a great setting for a child dedication as it allows the child to be dedicated by those who are doing life with the parents. For the couple who doesn’t have any family in town and has close connections with their small group, this is an ideal solution.

In a private setting

In the last few months, I’ve done two dedication in people’s homes. Because we had not scheduled a dedication yet, I had two families request me to come to their house to dedicate their child. Both families held a big party for family and friends to celebrate. I arrived, hung out for a little while, did the dedication and then went home. Although it isn’t very convenient, it’s a great place to have a dedication, among family and friends inside the home. Both times I got a nice little $50 tip. I wasn’t expecting this, but it was a nice gift. I’ll probably make this as a suggestion to families going this route since it would pull me or my staff away on their day off. However, I know some of my staff would love to do this.

At a church Child Dedication

This is the standard Child Dedication we do right now. We’ll offer these three times a year on Saturday mornings. This provides that nice environment at the church in the comfortable setting where you can bring a few friends or an entire crowd.

So, this is what we’re going to do here at Gateway. There’s a required class to engage parents and make sure they understand what Child Dedication is and that they understand the role scriptures call them to as parents. We would also love to see this Prep for Child Dedication class be an opportunity to spawn new small groups. The class is discussion heavy, so if there are some connections, we can possibly spin off a new class. Tomorrow I’ll wrap up this Child Dedication series and share my notes and a video of a recent Prep for Child Dedication Class.

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Child Dedication: A New Plan

Posted on04. 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. I really liked this compared to anything I’ve done in the past.

I held my first class in September. It was okay. I primarily used the notes and material from the guy who was there before me. It wasn’t that his stuff wasn’t good, it just wasn’t me. The class was really informative. A few weeks later we held the dedication and it went pretty good too. There were a few hitches, but nothing I couldn’t fix by the next dedication. Again, it was my first one at Gateway. However, I was now positioned to take what Gateway already had to the next level. Stay tuned… more on this later today.

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