RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

Star Wars is a world-wide phenomenon.  The 11 movies have pulled in over 6.5 billion at the box office.  The most recent, Star Wars...the Force Awakens, has earned over $517 million in it's first two days.

Star Wars has a huge fan base that spans all ages.  Devoted fans waited in line for hours for the recent premiere...some up to 15 hours.  Star Wars has also transcended the screen in the form of t-shirts, action figures and theme parks.  It has significantly impacted our popular culture and has stood the test of time.  People have been fans now for decades.

So...why do so many people connect with Star Wars?  What's the appeal that has made the fantasy franchise such an essential part of our pop culture?  Let's take a look at 10 things we can learn from a story that started in a galaxy far, far away.

Talk about family relationships.  It has been said that everyone either hates or fears their father.  This is portrayed in Luke and his father, Darth Vader.  Darth Vader was originally Anakin, a Jedi prophesied to bring balance to the Force.  But he fell to the dark side of the Force and serves the evil Galactic Empire. 

Luke is separated from his father and he is a danger to Luke because of his departure to the "dark side."  When they finally meet in person, Luke doesn't know Darth Vader is his father.  He thinks Darth Vader killed his father.  They immediately get into a light saber duel.  This leads to the following famous exchange.

Darth Vader -  “Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.”

Luke - “He told me enough!  He told me you killed him.”

Darth Vader - “No.  I am your father.”

In the end, Darth Vader chooses Luke over his status in the evil empire.  Luke forgives him and the relationship is restored.

This important part of the Star Wars drama draws from the well of family relationships.  Family relationships are such a critical part of everyone's life.  The children's ministry that helps people with family relationships will gain an audience.  There are many opportunities to do this through parenting classes, parent-child events, marriage classes and more.

Highlight the battle between good and evil.  Star Wars is an epic battle between good and evil.  It's right in the name, isn't it?  Star WARS.  Good vs. evil is a struggle that touches all of mankind.  It can be traced all the way back to an angel named Lucifer who rebelled against God.

When we share with kids that there's a real struggle between good and evil, they will engage.  When we help them see they can make a difference in this struggle, they will find purpose.  When we help them see they are on the winning side with God, they will find courage. 

Bring humor into the mix.  People love to laugh and the writers of Star Wars knew this.  In the midst of the intensity, they threw in doses of humor.  Here are a few examples:

Captured and dragged to face his enemy, brash pilot Poe Dameron stares into the black mask of Kylo Ren.  After a beat of silence, he cockily ribs the villain with, "Are you talking first?  Or am I?  Who’s supposed to talk first?" 

The moment between two Stormtroopers who are probably at the end of a long day and just don’t need to put up with their supervisor at the moment.  They pause, turn tail, and avoid conflict.

Look for ways to bring humor into your volunteer meetings and children's services.  Kids especially like slapstick humor and it's a great way to engage them in your lessons.

Heroes.  Star Wars is about heroes.  Heroes people can identify with...heroes that people want to be...heroes that people can see themselves as.  

The Bible is full of the stories of great heroes.  Inspire kids to follow God through their challenges, failures, struggles, endurance and triumphs.   

Create a place that people can escape to.  Another reason people connect to Star Wars is because it transcends every day life and helps them enter a special place.  People are looking for a place where they can leave behind the troubles and trials of the world for a few hours.

Church should be a refuge where people can escape to the presence of God.  A place where they can find encouragement and strength to face another week in this broken world.  Church should be a place where kids are excited to come.  A safe place where they can find hope, care and love.  Let's create a place that is the highlight of every kids' week. 

Build community.  For many Star Wars fans, it about much more than the movies.  It's about community.  It's about waiting in line with people who care about the same thing you do...it's about playing light sabers with a friend...it's about connecting with people you share a common interest with.

It's always been about community.  Years ago, people used to gather around fires to share stories....now they gather around a movie theater.  People long for community.  People seek out community.  People gather where they can find community.

Make your church a place where kids and parents can experience community and they'll gravitate toward you.  Provide opportunities for them to connect through small groups, serving and other avenues. 

Use key phrases to embed truth into kids' long term memory.  Star Wars has several phrases that they've successfully embedded in the long term memory of pop culture.  Here are a few examples.

A long time in a galaxy, far, far away...

May the force be with you. 

The dark side...

If you want kids to remember what you teach them long-term, then use key truth phrases.  First, make the phrases short.  Notice how short the phrases above are.  Secondly, repeat them over and over and over.  The reason you remember the phrases above is because you have heard them multiple times. 

Use music and sound effects.  The music and sound effects are a big part of why people love Star Wars.  Remember the opening song?  The notes probably just popped in your head, didn't they?  Remember the whirring sound of the light sabers?  The sound of lasers firing?  The sound of Darth Vader's voice? 

Music and sound effects are a huge part of making something memorable.  Background music can greatly enhance your children's worship services and set the mood for different elements.  An example is having fast, upbeat music during game time.

Sound effects can greatly enhance Bible lessons.  It can be as simple as having the kids make sound effects while you're telling the Bible story to playing pre-recorded sound effects during a skit.

Captivate people with a story.  Star Wars is a story...a modern fairy tale that incorporates all the elements of a well told story.

Jesus knew how much people love stories.  He used stories as His primary teaching tool, didn't He?  He was the master storyteller.

We have the greatest story of all times, don't we?  The  story line that runs throughout Scripture reveals the glory of God and His plan to redeem fallen mankind.  Tell the story well and you will captivate kids.

Excellence brings influence.  Star Wars has earned the right to be heard.  Each movie has used the latest in technology and advanced techniques to create cinematic excellence.  The Star Wars movies have set new standards, which everyone that followed has copied and built upon.

Children's ministries that want to influence kids and families must be committed to excellence.  A great example of this is found in Daniel 6.  It says "Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him.  And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom" 

Look what Proverbs 22:29 says.  "Do you see a man skillful in his work?  He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men."

Sure...you may not have the budget the makers of Star Wars had...but you can be committed to excellence with what God has placed in your hands.  And when you do that...look what the Bible says in Luke 10.

“If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones.  But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities."

Excellence leads to more influence.  Do your very best with God has placed in your hands and He will place more in your hands.

Conclusion...
Whether you are a Star Wars fan or not, there is much we can learn from their success in connecting with kids and families.  Your turn.  The floor is yours.  Why do you think kids and parents connect so well with Star Wars?  If you're a fan, why do you like it?  What are some other things children's ministry can learn from Star Wars about reaching kids and families?  Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

Were the kids in your ministry fidgeting this past weekend?

If they were, it's not because they're irreverent or rebellious.  They were fidgeting because they're wired to move and you weren't giving them enough opportunities to do so.

You can go with kids' natural wiring to help them learn and engage or you can force them to sit still and be quiet.  Force them into a prolonged sedentary state and they'll feel like they're in "time out" and will soon dread coming to church.

Am I saying that kids should never sit and listen quietly?  No.  I believe they should...but in small doses.  If you want kids to experience times of "being still and quiet" before the Lord, then balance it will lots of time for them to "dance" before the Lord.

Honor kids time to move and they will honor the time you ask them to be still and quiet.

Active learning has been proven to be more effective than quiescent learning.  Make sure your programming reflects this.  Here are five expectations we go over with the kids at the beginning of every service.

Talk when it's time to talk.
We give kids lots of opportunities to talk, discuss and interact with each other and their leaders.

Sing when its time to sing. 
We encourage kids to engage during the worship songs.  2 of the songs are upbeat and very active.  1 is a slower, more reflective worship song.

Listen when it's time to listen. 
When someone else is talking up front or in their group, show respect by listening.

Play when it's time to play.
There are lots of interactive learning activities and games.  We encourage kids to get involved.

Have fun.
We encourage a culture of fun.  We want their experience to be engaging, relevant and enjoyable.

Notice the percentages of the expectations listed above.

• Moving, interacting and talking - 80%
• Sitting still, being quiet and listening - 20%  

The 80% enables the 20% to be effective.  Take a look at your percentage.  If the kids are fidgeting, it's probably because the sitting still and being quiet percentage is too high.

Here's 10 staples you'll find in a great children's ministry.

Exceptional guest services.  New families are made to feel welcome, comfortable and cared for.  You can read more about how to create this here.

Solid volunteer team.  Behind every great children's ministry is a solid volunteer team.  Without them, there is no children's ministry.  You can read more about how to build a solid volunteer team here.

Focus.  They are focused on their mission and everything they do has been strategically placed to help them accomplish it.  More about this here.

Strong leadership.  Everything rises and falls on leadership.  Behind great children's ministry is great leadership.  Here's how to improve your leadership.

Commitment to God's Word.  The curriculum they use is Bible-centered and grounds kids in God's Word.  More about this here.                                                     

Parent partnerships.  They actively engage parents and equip them to lead their children spiritually.  Here's tips on how to do this.

Engaging programs.  Kids enjoy the programs because they are designed with kids in mind.  The environments are exciting, the lessons capture their attention and the atmosphere is fun.  More tips on this here. 

Solid safety and security processes.  Parents feel safe leaving their children.  Check-in and check-out systems are in place and followed rigorously.  Here's how to meet parent's expectations in this area.

Clear spiritual growth steps.  Spiritual growth steps have been thought through and are in place.  Kids are moved toward spiritual maturity.  More on this here.                                                                  
Prayer.  Everything is under girded with prayer.  There is a humble dependance on God that says, "nothing of eternal value will be accomplished without God."  More about teaching kids about prayer and fasting here.

The floor is yours.  What are some other staples of a great children's ministry?  Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

When Walt Disney was designing Disneyland, he had the engineers get down on their knees to ensure they built Main Street on the eye level of a child.  He wanted to make sure Disneyland was built with kids in mind.

One of the keys to growing a children's ministry is the ability to think like a child.  But how do you think like a child when you're an adult?  Here's five ways to think like a child and grow your children's ministry.

Think like a child when you decorate.  Think about what colors kids like.  Consider what themes are popular with kids.  Take cues from companies like Disney and Nickelodeon who are leaders in decorating for kids.  Ask kids for their input when you are planning your children's ministry areas.

Think like a child when you plan lessons.  What are their learning styles?  How long is their attention span?  What do they find engaging? 

Think like a child when you pick music.  What style of music they like?  What's coming through their ear buds during the week? 

Think like a child when you talk.  Keep your words simple.  Justification, regeneration, atonement and other words are not in a child's vocabulary.  When you use illustrations, use illustrations that kids can relate to.  And when you are talking to kids individually, think about their interests.  Talk to them about video games, movies, sports, school, etc.

Think like a child when you advertise.  This goes along with the first point.  Use kid-friendly colors, images and wording on your flyers, posters, invite cards, etc. 

One final tip.  Want to know if you're thinking like a child?  Ask them.  A kids' focus group is a great way to evaluate how well you're connecting and get new ideas for thinking like a child.  You can read more about how to host a kids' focus group here. 

Did you know the average child that attends church only comes once a month?

One of the major reasons for this is parents teaching their children to worship the sports gods on Sunday instead of being at church worshiping God.

They probably wouldn't agree with this assessment, but actions speak louder than words.  What you put first in your life is what you worship.  And what you put first in your life is what your kids will put first in their lives.

I'm not anti-sports.  I played Little League as a kid and other sports all the way through school...but not during church.  My parents taught me that sports were beneficial, but not something to put before my commitment to God's house.

And it seemed that the leagues I played in agreed as well.  Games were not scheduled on Sundays.  Fast forward to today and that's often not the case.  Sunday is just another day to fill with games.  And parents, who want to make sure their kids don't miss out on anything, make the choice to skip church and head to the sport's field.

For many it becomes a slippery slope, enrolling their kids in 2 to 3 sports at a time.  Before they know it, sports has taken over their entire life and they are spending every Saturday and Sunday at the field.

Each year, parents are spending an average of $671 per child on youth sports with 20% spending $1000 or more.

I grew up in Small Town, U.S.A.  We had 2,500 people in our town.  I have a special place in my heart for small towns.

The church I serve in now is a multi-site church.  One of our campuses is in the largest city in America...New York City.  Our campus there meets right across the street from Central Park and is surrounded by millions of people.

Another one of our campuses meets in a small town that is the opposite of New York.  Instead of being surrounded by skyscrapers, it is surrounded by farms, mom and pop stores and cow pastures.  It may not be in a hugely populated area, but there's no reason why we can't build a thriving children's ministry there.

If you are ministering in Small Town, U.S.A., you might be tempted to look at mega-churches that are located in heavily populated areas and feel like you're not as successful as they are.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Some of the best children's ministries in America are found in small towns.  And many of them, based on population, are reaching a larger percentage of people than mega churches in huge cities.

I am really excited about what God is doing at our campus in this small town.  Let's go on a tour and I'll share some keys to building a thriving children's ministry in a small town.

Make children's ministry a top priority in the church.  These are pictures of the adult auditorium.  We make sure we talk about children's ministry in the adult service.  The kids also come in and sing sometimes during the service.  Emphasize the importance of children's ministry to the entire church.


Invest your time in building a solid volunteer team.  One huge key to a thriving children's ministry is a thriving volunteer team.  The success of your children's ministry hinges on this.  Invest heavily in your volunteers.  Here is a picture of some of our volunteers praying together before the service.


Make sure every child is loved and personally known.  One benefit of a children's ministry in a small town is you have a better opportunity to know each child personally and help them grow in their faith.

Make your children's areas kid-friendly.   Even if you don't have a huge budget, you can make your children's areas appealing to kids.  Below are some examples.

USE KID-FRIENDLY COLORS

WE USE CURTAINS IN SHARED SPACE

Make safety and security a priority.  Even though the atmosphere in a small town may be more laid back, safety and security is still a must.  Parents want to know their kids are safe when they are at church.  Have a check-in name tag system.  If you can't do this electronically, then use hand-written security tags.

Get out into the community and serve.  Look for ways to support community events and get involved.  We make lots of great connections with families by doing this.  Because the community is smaller, you can really impact families personally.

Host events that families in the community can attend.  One example is hosting a Fall Festival.  We did this last fall and had lots of new families attend.
  
Take what you have and make it excellent.  What has God placed in your hand?  Give it your best.  It's not what you have, it's what you do with what you have.

Give first-time families a great first-time experience.   Just as in a big city, the biggest key to getting new families to return is giving them a great experience on their first visit.  Below is a first-time family check-in area we created.


Make your lessons fun, interactive and engaging.  No matter what size town they live in, kids want lessons that capture their attention and give them an opportunity to interact.


Have clearly marked signage.  Make it easy for people to navigate your campus.

Are you serving in Small Town, U.S.A.?  We'd love to hear about your church and what you are doing to reach the people in your town.  Share with us in the comment section below.

Do you ever wonder why so many kids in your ministry can't seem to sit still?

The underlying cause is lack of opportunities to move.  It is rare these days to find children running, climbing trees, or jumping and spinning just for fun.

Merry-go-rounds and teeter totters have disappeared from playgrounds.  Recess times have been shortened.  Children rarely play outside due to parent's fears.

It all adds up to this...children are not moving enough.

Children are made to move...a lot.  Their bodies are wired this way.  And this includes when they are at church.  But what do we do?  We see them fidgeting and we tell them to, "Sit still and be quiet!"

The fact is...we should be doing the opposite.  We should give kids plenty of opportunities to move at church.  When we do, we will see kids engaging and learning.  For more tips on this, check out this article.

The TED talks are about Technology, Entertainment, and Design.  Only the most engaging, thought provoking talks make it to the TED stage.

Carmine Gallo, author of Talk Like TED, has watched over 150 hours of TED talks.  He recently shared the top 3 things the most engaging presentations have in common.

#1 - USE STORIES TO EVOKE EMOTION
The TED talk that has received the longest standing ovation was given by Bryan Stevenson.  He is a civil rights attorney that won the Supreme Court case Miller vs. Alabama.  He knows how to persuade people.

If you examine the talk you will find the following:

• 10% was establishing credibility for the speaker
• 25% was giving data and statistics
• 65% was evoking emotion by telling stories

Most children's teachers tend to do the opposite.  65% of their lesson is giving data and statistics.

Bryan started off by telling a story about his grandmother.  When asked why, he said, "Because everyone has a grandmother."  It gave him an immediate connection to the audience.

If you want to capture kids' attention, then tell stories that kids can connect with and fill the story with emotion.

P.S. This sounds like how the greatest teacher of all times (Jesus) taught.

#2 - BE NOVEL
Another highly rated TED talk was given by Bill Gates.  In his talk about the impact of malaria, he shocked the audience by opening a jar of mosquitoes in the middle of his talk.  The novel illustration obviously grabbed the audience's attention.

Kid's brains are wired to look for something new and exciting.  When they hear it...their attention is immediately drawn in.

When you are preparing a lesson, look for ways you can make it novel, new, and exciting.

Several years ago, I did a talk about Daniel and the Lion's Den.  I decided to go outside the box.  When the kids came in the room, there was a cage that was covered by a tarp.  When we got to the part of the story where Daniel is thrown in the lion's den, we pulled the tarp off the cage.

Yep... you guessed it.  We had a full-grown, real lion in the cage.  We had hired a local zoo to bring him in.  He let out a roar and the kids were immediately engaged to say the least.  The kids will never forget that lesson.

#3 - EMPHASIZE THE VISUAL
Robert Ballard's 2008 TED talk about the discovery of the Titanic is another one of the top rated talks of all time.

What made it so engaging?  It contained 57 visual slides...and none of the slides had text in them.

When asked why he didn't use any text, he responded, "Because I'm storytelling; not lecturing."

Research overwhelmingly shows that kids (and adults) learn better when information is delivered using words and pictures.  When ideas are only presented verbally, they only remember about 10% of what they hear.  But add pictures to the talk and retention soars to 65%.

Add more pictures, animations, and images to your lesson and kids will remember it. 

When parents pick their child up after church, there's one question you will hear them ask more than any other.

Visual information has increased.

• 4000% in literature since 1990
• 9900% on the internet since 2007
• 142% in newspapers

Kids are visually wired.

• 50% of their brain is involved in visual processing
• 70% of all their sensory receptors are in their eyes
• they get the sense of a visual scene in 1/10th of a second

It only takes 150ms for an image to be processed and 100ms to attach a meaning to it.

Kids suffer from information overload.

• kids today receive 5x more information than kids in 1986 did
• they consume 34 gigabytes or 100,500 words outside of school each day
• they only read 28% of the words when visiting a website

Visual communication is more engaging.

• color visuals increase the willingness to read by 80%

Visual communication increases comprehension.

• text only is 70%
• text with pictures is 95%

Kids follow directions with text and visuals 323% better than directions with just text.

67% of kids are persuaded by speakers who use words and visuals vs. 50% who only use words.

Visual communication is easier to recall.

• kids remember 10% of what they hear.
• kids remember 20% of what they read.
• kids remember 80% of what they see and do.

Visual communication is fun for kids.