You want to reach the families in the community God has called you to.
You want new families walking in your doors every week.
You want your rooms full.
You want to outgrow your current facility and build a larger one or start more services.
How can you see that happen?
Lots of big events? A bigger budget? More staff? More volunteers? Billboards all over town? Television commercials? Direct mail to every family in your city?
All of these are helpful...but they are not the best way to grow your children's ministry.
The best way...WORD OF MOUTH.
86% of people come to church because of a personal invitation. If you want your children's ministry to grow...get the kids and families in your ministry to start talking.
Make your ministry worth talking about. When a family has a great experience, they will tell other families about it. Raise the excellence of your ministry and the natural result will be families talking about it. And the natural result of families talking will be new families.
Create a culture of invest and invite. Every week at the end of the kid's service, we have an empty chair on stage. We take time to share that the empty chair represents our friends who do not attend church. We ask the kids to pray for and invite one friend to come with them the next week.
Teach families to invest in relationships with unchurched families. This will give them an open door to invite these families to church. Remember...you get what you emphasize.
Provide invite tools. Create simple invite cards that kids and families can use to invite their friends. Make them available every week.
Let kids and families know about special "invite opportunities." Events like fall festivals, Christmas services, family events, etc. are great opportunities for kids and families to invite others. Highlight these opportunities.
Word of mouth...it's the best way to grow your children's ministry. Get people talking and you will grow.