RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

KidSay is a company that tracks kids' trends and provides insight for companies such as Disney, Nickelodeon, Mattel and more.

One of the trends they track is kids' favorite movies.  Here's one of their movie lists that provides key insight that the children's ministry world should take note of.

Favorite Movies of 8-to-15 year old Boys:
Spiderman
Lego
Godzilla
Fast and Furious
Transformers
Ride Along
Despicable me
Grown Ups

Favorite Movies of 8-to-15 year old Girls:
Frozen
Divergent
Hunger Games
Despicable Me
Ride Along
Grown Ups

The common themes for boys are defeating enemies and overcoming challenges with tools and teamwork.  You'll see these themes reflected in the list of boys' movies.

The common themes for girls are overcoming challenges by bridging relationships and relying on those relationship to build connections with others.  You'll see these themes reflected in the list of girls' movies.

Movies that are able to provide both boys' and girls' themes become mega-hits with all kids.

Another important thing to note is comedy.  Comedy helps you connect with both boys and girls.  You can see this reflected by the movie Grown Ups, Despicable Me and Ride Along being ranked closely on both lists.  This is also why Adam Sandler has been ranked as one of kids' favorite actors. 

Children's ministries that use these themes, glued together with comedy, to communicate God's Word will capture the attention of kids and see them engaged with the content they are presenting.