RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

This past weekend, I attended Elevation Church in the Charlotte, N.C. area.

Elevation is one of the fastest growing churches in the country.  In the Outreach 100 list from 2018, the church ranked 7th with over 25,000 in attendance. I watched people line up early to make sure they had a seat.
You can see part of the line in the picture above.

The day I was there, they were celebrating their 13th anniversary.  Carl Lentz from Hillsong NYC, was the guest speaker.

Children and family ministry is a high priority at the church.  The staff and volunteers are very strategic in what they do.

I was able to attend their pre-service huddle.  There was a spirit of prayer and expectation that God would move in people's lives.

I also quickly saw that they are reaching Millennials.  In a day when many churches struggle to reach young families, Elevation is reaching thousands of Millennials.

I took some pictures of the kids' area and other parts of the church. I've added them in below if you'd like to see them.

What did I take away from the visit?  What is Elevation Church doing to reach young adults and young couples?  Here is my opinion.

Focus - they have clear core values, strategies and ministry philosophies.

Passion - the lead pastor, Steven Furtick, is a passionate pastor and leader.  The staff and volunteers are as well and they keep the spiritual temperature in a healthy place.

Multi-site - they have established campuses across the region.  This enables them to reach many more people since they are at more than one location.  One of the campuses I visited was downtown and meets in a multi-purpose building.

Relationships - they have great opportunities for people to move from the crowd to a small group that will love them, care about them and help them grow spiritually.

Intentional discipleship - they have clear paths that help people grow in their faith.

Engaging worship - their worship team drew the congregation into the presence of God.  I looked around and it was refreshing to see the majority of men engaged in the worship time.  In most churches, most of the men don't sing.  Not at Elevation.  The men were engaged in worship.

A spirit of hospitality.  Every where you went, there were smiling volunteers to help you and make you feel right at home.

If you are ever in the Charlotte area, stop by and attend their services.  You will be blessed and encouraged as I was.

Here's a list of the 20 largest children's ministries in America for 2017. 

Though size and growth are not the only signs of spiritual health, they are important indicators. 

There is much that can be learned from these children's ministries.  I would encourage you to click on the links and check out their websites.

I've had the honor of working with many of these ministries and personally know many of their leaders.  They are the real deal and care deeply about the kids and families in their cities and communities.  They give everything they have to reach people.  It's not about numbers for them.  It's about the individuals those numbers represent.  They know each number represents a person and each person is someone Jesus died for and longs to redeem.

A few years ago, I started a round table gathering for the children's ministry leaders on this list.  We meet once a year and spend two days sharing ideas, brainstorming, praying and learning from each other.  If you'd like to see the notes from this year's meeting, it is available in this recent post.

Though these churches are reaching tens of thousands of kids and families, they're just scratching the surface.  There are still millions of people across the country who need Jesus.  In fact, there are over 74 million children in America right now with 9,000 babies being born each day.

That's why every church, no matter the size, must go all out to reach kids and families.  As long as there are kids and families who don't know Jesus, we must continue to do our best to reach people with the Gospel and help them become fully devoted followers of Jesus.

1. Highland Kids at Church of the Highlands

2. Waumba Land, Upstreet and Kidstuf at Northpoint
    Community Church

3. Gateway Kids at Gateway Church

4. Crossroads Kids Club at Crossroads Church

5. CCV Kids at Christ Church of the Valley

6. Saddleback Kids at Saddleback Community Church

7. CFKids at Christ Fellowship Church

8. Promiseland at Willow Creek Community Church

9. eKIDZ at Elevation Church

10. Southeast Kids at Southeast Christian Church

11. Kid-O-Deo and Elevate at Eagle Brook Church

12. Second Kids at Second Baptist Church

13. Kingdom Kids at Mt. Zion Baptist Church

14. Summit Kids at Flatirons Community Church

15. Port Mariner's Kids at Mariners Church

16. Bayside Kids at Bayside Church

17. K12 at 12Stone Church

18. kidVenture Island at LCBC Church

19. Family Christian Center Kids at Family Christian
      Center

20. Rock Kids at Rock Church

*This is based on Outreach Magazine's Largest Church Report 2017 and is comprised of churches who reported their attendance to the editors.

Twice a year, I take our children's ministry staff on a retreat.  One is held in January as we prepare for a new year of ministry and one is held in the summer as we prepare for the fall season of ministry.

We just finished up our 2016 summer staff retreat last week.  The word God had given me for this retreat was "Thirsty" from Isaiah 44:3 that says, "I will pour water on him who is thirsty."
We talked about staying thirsty for God to move in our personal lives and in our ministry.

The retreat featured 5 sessions plus a fun team building activity in the afternoon.  Today I'll share the notes from the first 3 sessions and share the final two tomorrow.  

Session 1 - Thirsty for Personal Growth

James & Lisa Duvall
(James is the the Executive Director of Ministries at our church and Lisa is the Director of Women's Programs)

• Take care of yourself physically.  Your physical body is connected to your spiritual body.  If we are not physically strong, we will be emotionally and spiritually weak.
• Read - leaders are readers.
• Stay curious.  Ask why.
• Just like Jesus kept growing, we need to keep growing. (Luke 2:52) 
• Spend more time on your character than on your gifts and talents. 
• Be the best version of yourself instead of trying to become someone else.
• Nothing changes if nothing changes
• Grow in your favor with others. 
• Be a note taker.
• Growth is painful but always worth it.
• If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  Not planning is a plan itself. 
• Don't become complacent in your comfort zone. 
• Stay teachable. 
• Make peace with people right away. 
• Expect pain.  It's part of growth. 
• Work on being likeable.
• Strive to be a peacemaker. 
• Become good at being a conversation starter.
• Grow in favor with God through reading His Word and prayer.
• Work on your spiritual disciplines. 
• Challenge yourself daily.
• Commit to excercise. 
• Don't take offense at every little comment. 
• Learn to be still. 

Session 2 - Thirsty for Volunteers

Frank Bealer
(Director of Ministries at Elevation Church)

• Follow up with volunteers when they miss and let them know you missed them.  This includes when you know they are going to be gone (example - vacation).
• High retention of volunteers is centered on making it personal.
• Have your coordinators take snacks to the volunteers in the room.
• Take good care of staff and volunteers' kids. 
• Contact at least 3 volunteers a week.
• Communicate the ministries' values to volunteers and have them memorize them. 
• When the lines between staff and volunteers is blurred, you have become effective. 
• Identify leaders you can call up to lead other volunteers. 
• Provide every volunteer with a clear job description.
• Encourage volunteers individually.
• Schedule random times to thank volunteers.
• Give your volunteers a voice.  Provide them with ways to give you feedback.
• Embrace your limitations.
• Your core values should guide your decision making.
• Thank your volunteers when you don't have to.
• Get to know your volunteers personally.
• People want to be known and loved. 
• Meet with your volunteers when you don't need anything from them. 
• Help your volunteers see why they are doing what they are doing. 
• Send your volunteers a text message to let them know you are thinking about them and don't ask for anything. 

Session 3 - Thirsty for Outreach

Allyson Evans
Next Gen Director at Life Church

• Make sure you are personally reaching out to people and inviting them to church. 
• Keep a commitment to excellence.
• Tell stories.  Develop a story-telling culture.
• Keep your relationship with God fresh.
• Treat every weekend, every service, like it's your first. 
• Don't seclude yourself.
• Stay refreshed in Jesus.
• Put people over tasks by giving the tasks to people.
• Every weekend is your Super Bowl.
• Remember why and when God called you into ministry.
• Our role is to put people before ourselves.
• No matter how large your church is...it's just a micro percentage of the number of people who are still lost.  Be a micro church with a mega vision.
• Keep your eyes open to people's needs. 
• Write down what God is teaching you and reflect on it. 
• Pay attention and listen to what God is doing around you.
• Replace yourself.
• Walk slowly through the crowd and connect with kids and families.
• Be intentional about finding and telling stories. 
• Identify what you can give away.

Stay tuned for sessions 4 & 5 tomorrow.  Have a great day. 

Our goal when we teach kids should not just be about dishing out content, but about making sure the truth we share transfers into their long-term memory.  Simply put, we want God's Word to get stuck in their head for life. 

One of the most powerful tools you can use to accomplish this is music.  Research shows that when kids are involved with music, more areas of their brains are engaged.  The result is better focus and better memory.

Most of the kids sitting in your room on Sunday have a natural response to music, so when you tap into that response, it makes learning much more effective.  Here's 5 ways you can use music to enhance your lesson, engage kids and help them remember what you teach long-term.

Use music to help kids worship.
This is an obvious one.  Use music to help kids engage in worshipping God.  Worship ushers kids into God's presence and prepares their hearts to receive the truth you will share with them.  Here are some of the music resources I recommend with links.

Yancy
Hillsong Kids
Go Kids - We've Come Alive
Elevation Church eKidz - One in a Million
Gateway Next - Look Up
Amber Sky Records

Use music to help kids memorize scripture.  
Scripture set to music is a great way to help kids memorize God's Word.  Here's an example of how we recently did this in our ministry to help kids memorize Jeremiah 29:11. 



A great resource that sets Scripture to music is JumpStart3.  JumpStart3 creates modern music that hides God’s Word in kids' hearts.  Every song is word-for-word Scripture.  They've created a fun system of memorization that combines visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles to make Scripture stick.  Be sure to check them out. 

Use music to help kids remember lesson truths and Bible stories.  
You can do this by having kids make up songs based on key truths or Bible stories.  Studies show that when kids make up a song using facts they are given, it cements the facts into their long-term memory.  Want a flashback example?  Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he...

Use music to help set the tempo of the lesson.
Music is a great way to adjust the tempo of your lesson.  Fast background music can bring energy and excitement to games.  Medium speed background music can help discussion times be more engaging.  Slow, prayer background music can bring a spirit of reverence during prayer time. 

Use music to give kids opportunities to express their creativity.
Kids long for opportunities to use their natural creative energy.  When you give them the opportunity to participate in singing, express God's Word through songs and create lyrics based on the truth you've given them, they will respond with engagement.

Okay.  The floor is yours.  How do you use music to enhance your lessons?  What are some other resources you recommend for kids' worship music?  Share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comment section below.

Here's a list of the 20 largest children's ministries in America for 2015.

Though size and growth are not the only signs of spiritual health, they are important indicators.  Anything that has life grows.  God tells us to go out and compel people to come so His house will be full.  You can't reach empty seats.

There is much that can be learned from these children's ministries.  I would encourage you to click on their links and check out their websites.

Though these churches are reaching tens of thousands of kids and families, they're just scratching the surface.  There are still millions of people across the country who need Jesus.  That's why every church, no matter the size, must go all out to reach kids and families.

1. Waumba Land, Upstreet and Kidstuff at Northpoint Community Church
2. Highland Kids at Church of the Highlands
3. KidSpring at NewSpring Church
4. Amazing Kids at Gateway Church
5. Promiseland at Willow Creek Community Church
6. Saddleback Kids at Saddleback Community Church
7. Southeast Kids at Southeast Christian Church
8. CCV Kids at Christ Church of the Valley
9. Crossroads Kids Club at Crossroads Church
10. CFKids at Christ Fellowship Church
11. Kid-O-Deo and Elevate at Eagle Brook Church
12. Second Kids at Second Baptist Church
13. Planet Kids, Gravity, The Edge and The Ride at Woodlands Church
14. Summit Kids Ministry at Flatirons Community Church
15. eKIDZ at Elevation Church
16. Kids' Ministry at 12 Stone Church
17. Port Mariner's Kids at Mariners Church
18. Kingdom Kids at Mt. Zion Baptist Church
19. Family Christian Center Kids at Family Christian Center
20. Rock Kids at Rock Church

*This list is based on the 2015 Largest Churches in America report by Outreach magazine.