RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

You have to be intentional if you want to see first-time guests return.  

Did you know that the average church only sees about 7% of guests return? 

That's a pretty low percentage, but there are some proven ways you can see more guests return. Let's take a look at 5 ways you can see more guests return. 

The first one is a big one. 

If you want to see more guests return, then you must give them a great first experience. 

You only get one opportunity to make a great first impression. If a guest has a bad first experience, I don't care how many times you email them, text them or even visit them, they are not going to return. You must exceed their expectations on their first experience. 

I've shared before about the time I was having lunch with the pastor of one of the fastest growing and largest churches in the country. I asked him how he followed up with first-time guests and he told me he doesn't follow up. Instead, he puts all of his effort into giving guests a great first experience. As they create what he called "irresistible environments" they see guests return for a second time.  

That strategy was new to me, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.  You want to see more first-time guests return? Then raise the quality of your environments. 

Send them a handwritten postcard.  

In the day of digital communication, a handwritten note is golden. A good way to do this is to have your guest service volunteers write the note. They are the people who interact with your guests and this helps the note mean more. Mention something in the note that is specific to that family. An example would be a family who just moved to your area from Pittsburg. Put something in the note that mentions this. 

Offer them a return gift. 

I decided to start offering a t-shirt on their second visit. This has been highly successful in seeing more guests return. We put a note about the return gift on the handwritten postcard. It obviously costs us some money to do this, but we felt it was worth it. When we started offering the t-shirt on the second visit, our return rate went up to 38%. 

Send the parents a text message. 

Did you know that 98% of text messages get read?  94% in the first minute. That's a high, high percentage. On the week after their visit, send your guests a simple text message that thanks them for coming. 

Establish a personal connection. 

I got this idea from another church and it is highly effective.  

Ask a guest parent to meet you for lunch that week.  

Yep. You read that right. Approach a guest parent cold turkey and invite them to meet you for lunch that week. You will be surprised to find out that most will say "yes." Obviously this should be a man meeting a man and a woman meeting a woman. 

Use the lunch to get to know them. Make a good connection and you are almost guaranteed they will be back the next Sunday.  I have seen this work time after time after time. 

Do these five things and I guarantee you that your return rate will go up. 

p.s. Have you gotten a copy of my book "Be Our Church Guest?"  It is full of ideas like this to see more of your guests return. Get your copy today at this link. 

The goal is to see them return for a second time and become a part of your church.  

This is not always an easy task.  Stats show that only 7% of guests return for a second time.

That is where I was at.  We were seeing lots of guests come each week, but we couldn't seem to break that 7% return barrier. 

So I decided to put more effort and resources into our guest return strategy. 

We decided to give every guest a gift when they returned.  The gift was a nice t-shirt with our ministry logo on it.  

Here was the strategy. 

Each guest had a personal volunteer who helped them check in.  As the volunteer checked them in and walked them to their classroom, he or she would ask the guests questions like "how did you hear about the church" or "where did you move from" or "what school are you attending" and other small talk questions.

After the volunteer has helped the family get to their rooms, he or she will write out a personal note to the family.  As they write the note, they will mention something specific that they learned about the family.  An example would be a family who moved from Pittsburgh.  The volunteer will mention that in the note. This helps guest families see that the note is specifically for them and not just a standard letter that is used for everyone.

The handwritten postcard also has a return invite and says if they return the card the next time they attend, the kids will receive the t-shirt. 

Once we did this, our percentage return rate went from 7% to 38%.  The investment we made started paying off as we saw a lot more children and families return and get plugged into the church.  Many of the kids wore their shirt to school which helped spread the word about our ministry. 

This strategy can be used not only for church services but events like fall festival, family events, summer programming, etc. 

I want to encourage you to take a look at what percentage of your guests are returning.  

Put time and effort into implementing a strategy that will increase your percentage. I believe you can double the number of guests who return.

Your turn. What strategies do you use to encourage guests to return?  What is your percentage?  Share your thoughts and insights in the comment section below.

It's important to help the children in your ministry build relationships with other children. 

This especially applies to children who are guests.  If you want to see them return, then it's critical that they make some friends and feel known and accepted.  

A great way to do this is to use icebreakers. Icebreakers get kids talking and interacting with the other children.

I recommend doing icebreakers every single week.  Here are 10 great icebreakers you can use to get kids talking and interacting.

#1 - Pack Your Suitcase

• Tell the kids they are going on a trip. 
• They have to pack their suitcases. 
• Each child will get a “suitcase.” (piece of paper with suitcase image) 
• They will draw or write in their suitcase one or more of the following: 
• favorite candy or snack
• favorite video game, toy, movie or ap
• favorite drink
• favorite shirt, shorts or shoes
  

Give them 4-5 minutes to draw or write their items(s) then go around the group and have them share their name and what they are bringing.

#2 - Smiley Face 

Pick one kid in your group and have him or her try to make the other kids smile.

The other kids should make serious faces and do their best not to smile.

The first person who smiles has to be the next person who tries to make everyone else smile.

Play as many rounds as time allows.

#3 - Beat Repeat

First child says his or her name and makes a beat sound. The sound can be a clap, finger snap, table tab, tongue click, etc.

The next child will repeat the first child’s name and sound with him or her and then add his or her name and a new sound.

Keep going until everyone around the group is saying everyone’s name and sound together. 

#4 - Animal Guess

Give each group a set of animal stickers or cut outs.

Put an animal sticker on each child’s forehead. Don’t let the child see which sticker you put on his or her forehead.

The first child will tell everyone his or her name.

Then the child will ask the other kids questions to try to figure out which animal is on his or her forehead.

Examples of questions:

• What color am I?
• What sound do I make? 
• How big am I?

Once the child guesses what animal is on his or her forehead, it will be the next child’s turn.

Keep playing until every child has guessed what his or her animal is.

Have kids take stickers off once the icebreaker is over.

#5 - Baseball Cards

Baseball cards usually have a picture of the player, their name, and some fun facts about them. Then people usually trade cards with their friends! 

I thought it would be a great idea for us to make our very own baseball cards and trade them with someone else in the room.
                                                                                                    Make Your Own Baseball Card Instructions:
• Give every child a piece of paper (baseball card size).
• Have crayons, pens, pencils, markers, etc. available.
• Give kids 5 minutes to make their card. Here’s what it should include:

    name

    picture

    birthday

    grade

    fun or interesting fact

When time is up, give kids a couple of minutes to trade cards with someone else and share with that person what they drew or wrote on the card.

#6 - Jokers

Go around your group and have the kids take turns saying their name and then telling a joke. 

#7 - Time Traveler

Go around your group and have each child say their name and where they would go if they could travel back to any time period.  Ask them to share why they chose that time period?

#8 - ________(your name) Says!

We’re going to play ________ (your name) Says! It’s kinda’ like Simon Says, but since my name is _________ (your name), we’ll call it __________Says. 

When you hear my voice, then obey and do what I say. You’ll have 30 seconds to complete each command.(examples below)
• _______ (your name) says – go to another group and introduce yourself to someone you don’t know.
• _______ (your name) says – find someone wearing blue, green, or red and shake hands with them.
• _______ (your name) says – give your group leader a high-five.

#9 - Heard It Through the Grape Vine

Get out a ball of yarn in your group.

Hand it to a child.

Child will say his or her name and then hold onto the end of the yarn without letting go while tossing the ball of yarn to another child.

The next child will repeat the process.

Keep going until everyone has said their name and is holding onto the yarn.

This will form a “web” where all the kids are connected by the yarn.

Keep the web going by asking more questions.

Kids can answer the following questions for next rounds.     

    Favorite food.   

    Favorite color.

    Favorite Bible story.

    Name of pet or favorite animal.

    Favorite day of the week.

#10 -  Meet My Friend

Divide the kids in your group into pairs.

Have the kids ask each other these questions in their pairs.
    Name     

    Age

    Favorite video game or movie

    Favorite super hero         

    Next have the kids share what they learned about the other person with the group.

p.s. Looking for curriculum that gets kids involved in the lesson with icebreakers, activities and engaging lesson strategies?  Check out my curriculum at this link. It will help you capture kids' attention and they will learn key truths and verses. Sample lessons available.

Growth in our children's ministry.  It's something we all want to see happen.

And we know Jesus wants it to happen as well.  He tells us this in Luke 14.

Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.

The bottom line is this - you can't reach and disciple empty seats.

Over the years, I have seen God double many of the children's ministries that I have led. 

Here are 5 tips that you can use to double your children's ministry. 

Emphasize inviting.  Every single week talk about inviting your friends to church.  Have an empty chair up front and ask the kids who they know that should be in that chair. 

Have invite cards that kids can use to invite their friends.  Pass them out to everyone.  But there is another approach you can do at least once a month.  Instead of giving everyone an invite card, ask the kids to raise their hand if they have the name of a specific person they can invite.  

Pick out 5 kids who have their hand raised.  Bring them up front.  Hand them a single invite card and then have everyone pray with them for the person they are going to invite.  Each time I did this, at least one of the five kids would bring a guest with them to church the next weekend. 

I remember one Easter, we had a lady show up for church for the first time.  When asked who invited her, she told us she was a crossing guard for a local elementary school.  While waiting to cross, one of the children handed her an Easter invite card and asked her to come.

Kids can reach people if we will give them the tools and motivation to do so.  

Give guest families a great first experience.  If a family has a subpar experience on their first visit, the chances of them returning is slim to none.  Work hard to give them an experience that exceeds their expectations.  This includes providing them with great parking, a friendly welcome, an easy check-in experience and a great service. 

One thing you can do to enhance guests' first visit is to have a guest reception for guest kids and their families.  Invite them to a reception when they are checking in before service.  Then after service, have a private room where they can go to meet 2 to 3 of the key families in your ministry.  Spend a few minutes talking with the new families and getting to know them. Make it all about them. Then share with them how the ministry has helped your family and thank them for coming.  Provide snacks and drinks for them. 

Double your return rate.  The national average for seeing guest families return is about 7%.  A ministry that can do better than 7% will grow.   I was able to see our return rate climb to over 30%.  How did we accomplish this?  As stated above, it started by giving guests a great first experience.  But then we took one more step that helped us go way beyond just 7%.  

We offered a free-shirt for every guest who came back for a second visit.  It was a financial investment, but it was well worth it.  Each week, we saw guests come back and get a t-shirt.  The cool part was also this - many of them wore the t-shirts to school which was great publicity for the ministry. 

Intentional follow-up.  As I mentioned above, seeing guests return starts by giving them a great experience on their first visit.  But there are some things you can do to encourage guests to return. 

A handwritten postcard to the parents and to the child says a lot.  In a time of everything being digital, a handwritten postcard really stands out. And to take the impact of the postcard to a new level - mention something specific that you found out about the guest family.  An example would be a new family that just moved into your area from Oregon. In the handwritten note, mention their coming from Oregon - this lets the family know that you know something about them specifically and they are not just another number that you sent a quick email template to.

Ratios. If your ministry doubled in the next 6 months, would you have enough volunteers in place to accommodate the growth?  Growth cannot be sustained without a proper ratio of volunteers to children. It is crucial that you build your volunteer team if you want to see your ministry grow.   

Focus on these 5 areas and I believe you will see your ministry grow.  

One last thing.  The most important thing.  Take these 5 tips and make them matters of prayer.  God is the one who makes things grow.  Work like everything depends on you and pray like everything depends on God....because it does.  

It takes work and prayer to see a ministry grow. 

Praying with you for a great harvest.