RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

After a very hot summer, fall is finally here.  With the fall season comes opportunities to reach families through family events.

Many, if not most churches do a fall festival.  This is a great way to get unchurched families on your church property.

Other churches equip their families to be a light and witness in their neighborhood.

Both of these are great ways to connect with families.

This past week, I was in the Charlotte, North Carolina area and had another idea about connecting with families.  I took this picture of a pumpkin patch for families.  Notice they also had bounce houses as well to add more fun to the experience.

What if?  What if your church created a pumpkin patch for families?  A pumpkin patch where families could come and have the experience of picking out a pumpkin together.  Even better, what if you could offer this as a free event?  I believe you would have the potential to have hundreds of contacts with families who would stop by for a pumpkin.

The purpose of the bounce houses?  This would engage the children and give you time to talk with the parents as they waited.

How would you get the pumpkins?  It might be having a fundraiser?  Or budgeting for it in your operating or events budget?  Or taking the money you were going to spend on the fall festival and using it toward a pumpkin patch instead?

What if you had staff and volunteers at the pumpkin patch?  Ready to make connections and engage the families who stopped by.

What if you had the pumpkin patch on your church property?  Would it be a great way to make a first impression on families?  Could you invite the people who stop by to your church?

Today's families are looking for experiences to have together.  It would about more than just stopping by to grab a pumpkin.  It was be an interactive experience that they could use to make a memory together.

Your turn.  What do you think about having a pumpkin patch?  Has anyone tried this?  How did it go?  What are some other ideas to reach families this fall?  Share your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below.

As I shared yesterday, I recently did volunteer training and consulting at two great children's ministries in the Dallas area.

Yesterday, we shared an inside look at the children's ministry of Fielder's Church.  If you missed seeing it, you can access it at this link.

Today let's look inside the second church - Cottonwood Creek Church.

Cottonwood Creek is in the city of Allen, which is a fast growing part of the Dallas metro area.  The church is surrounded by new houses and businesses that are being constructed.  The number of kids and families who live near the church is supposed to increase by over 30% in the next few years.

The children's ministry is currently reaching hundreds of kids and families each week while gearing up to reach the new kids and families that are moving in.  I enjoyed spending the day on Monday with David Marsh, who is the children's pastor, and the staff team.  They are a fun group to be with and are doing an amazing job leading the ministry.  They were in the midst of preparing for their Fall Festival where they host thousands of people on the church property.

Below are some pictures of their children's ministry.  One thing I love about their ministry is how they open the church to host community events throughout the year.  This includes things like hosting events in their auditorium and opening their outdoor volleyball courts to the community.  They also have fields where local soccer teams can play games.

They also have a fantastic follow-up process for first-time guests.  They hand deliver a gift to the homes of guests on Sunday afternoon.  The gift is usually a snack like caramel popcorn, cookies, a cake, etc.  A personal hand-written note is included with the gift as well as a coupon the child can bring back for an additional gift at church.

If you're ever in the Allen area, be sure to check out this ministry.  They are poised for explosive growth as they continue reaching out to the kids and families moving into their community.

Church Campus

Children's Pastor David Marsh and team

Welcome Center

Nursery hallway

Preschool hallway

Preschool hallway

Indoor playground

Preschool chapel room

Creative board for birth announcements

Elementary chapel

Worship center

Churches across the country are hosting fall festivals this time of year.  In most churches, one of the goals of the event is to reach unchurched families in the community.

Fall festival is definitely a great time to connect with unchurched families.  With the right advertising (which includes print, social media, invite cards for your regular attendees, community papers, etc.) you can see lots of families walk on your church property for the first time.

But the big question is always - HOW DO WE SEE GUESTS RETURN FOR A CHURCH SERVICE AND EVENTUALLY BECOME A PART OF OUR CHURCH FAMILY?

Let's look at 5 effective ways to follow up with fall festival guests.

1. Get their contact information.  It's hard to follow up with guests if you don't have their information.  Here are some ways to do this.

• Have people register for a free gift that they receive right on the spot.  It might be something as simple as a full-size candy bar for their kids.  With all the mini-candy bars being passed out, you'd be surprised how many people will give you their contact info. just to get a large candy bar for their child.

• Have a drawing for one or more nice gifts that evening.  Things like a TV,  family movie tickets, gift certificate for a restaurant, tickets to a local family entertainment place like mini-golf, an amusement park, etc.  Set it up so families can enter their information online with their smart phone or a standard paper form or both.

2. Start an engaging weekend series in close proximity to your Fall Festival.  Use a relevant topic like a marriage series, parenting series, how to survive the stresses of life, big questions people ask about God series, etc.

You can also start a fun, relevant engaging series for kids.  Here are some series ideas at this link.  If you get the kids excited about coming back, you'll be able to get their parents to come as well.  Kids don't drive themselves to church.

Get information into guest families' hands about the upcoming series.  You can do this by email, text, a letter, postcard mailing, etc.  You can also include a coupon the guests can bring back for a free gift they can receive at the weekend service.

3. Have your Fall Festival as part of your weekend services.  Many churches engage guests in their weekend services right up front by having the event as part of their weekend services.  This can be very effective.  I know several churches that do this and their fall festival weekend services end up being their most attended of the entire year.

One way to do this is by having the event right after your weekend service.  I know one church that makes one of the doors coming out of their auditorium the entrance door into their fall festival.  Families first attend a short, relevant, engaging service and then enter the fall festival through that auditorium exit door.

4. Add them to your mailing list for big events.  While the goal is to see families come back immediately and attend a weekend service, the reality is that will not be the case for some families.  But don't give up on them.  Add them to your mailing list for future big events.  The more times you can get them to return, even if it's just for another big event, the more opportunities you have to see them come to a weekend service.

5. Take a family photo for them.  There's several ways you can approach this.  It starts with having family photo spots set up at clearly marked, key locations.

You can have a backdrop at the photo spot that has your church's name, website or a hashtag on it.

You can also provide props that families can hold for their picture such as an empty picture frame, pumpkins, funny hats, etc.  These props are another great place to put your church's name, web address, a hashtag, etc. 

One approach is to have someone there to take the family's photo with their own phone.  The good part about this is the family will then put the picture on social media and people will see the information about your church on the backdrop or props they are holding.  This has the potential to go to hundreds or even thousands of people as families tweet, Facebook, Instagram, etc. their pictures out.

Another approach is to have a professional photographer there to take their picture.  Offer to print out and frame a 8" x 10" picture of the family that they can pick up at a weekend service.

If you really want to leverage this, you could do both - let them take their own photo and offer them a professional printed and framed photo.

Be intentional about following up with families and a year from now you'll have stories to tell about people who were reached and are now part of your church family.

Your turn.  The floor is yours.  What are some other ideas for fall festival follow-up?  Share your insight and thoughts with us in the comment section below.

Summer is quickly passing and the fall ministry season is just around the corner.  School will be starting in a few weeks.  Once school begins and the fall ministry season arrives, attendance normally starts rising again after the "summer slump."  The fall can be a great time to grow and expand your ministry if you go into it with an intentional plan.  Here's 5 steps that will help you prepare.

Enlist new volunteers and re-engage any volunteers who took a break for the summer.  If your fall ministry season is successful, it will be because you have a strong volunteer team.  Start now inviting new people to join your team so they are ready to start serving when the fall season arrives.  And if you have volunteers who took a few weeks off, reach out to them and re-engage them.  You can get lots of great ideas on how to enlist new volunteers in the book "The Formula for Building Great Volunteer Teams."

Connect with all the families in your data base.  More parents start thinking about taking their children to church once school is back in session.  Reach out to every family you have contact information for and let them know about what's coming in the fall.  You can include things like a new teaching series, special days and events, programs kicking off, etc.  Use every communication tool you have at your disposal including social media, letters, phone calls, email, postcards, etc.  The more ways you communicate, the more families you will connect with.

Plan a big attendance weekend.  Pick a special weekend where you do a big push to reach as many kids and families as possible.  Wait until after school starts back.  This will enable you to get invite cards in the hands of the kids who already attend.  Do a strong push to encourage kids to invite a friend for that day.  You can do special things like giving away a prize to the kid who brings the most friends.  I have had a kid bring as many as 26 friends by himself on one day when doing this.  You can also give away a gift to everyone in attendance, bring in a special guest speaker or whatever else you can plan that will bring new kids in the door and re-engage kids who have been hit-and-miss during the summer.

Prepare your fall festival.  If you are doing a fall festival, now is the time to start getting ready.  A fall festival can be a huge opportunity to open the doors of your church to your community.  If you are going to be using bounce houses, cotton candy or any other thing that needs to be rented, now is the time to put in your reservation.  The earlier you can prepare, the less stress you will have when the event rolls around.

Start new teaching series that appeal to kids and parents.  This is a great time to kick-off new teaching series that will engage kids and their parents.  An example would be starting a fun new series for kids on a relevant topic and a teaching series on parenting or marriage for adults.

I have found over the years, in the flow of a ministry year, that there are two time frames that you will experience great growth if you are prepared.  One is the months of January to April and the other one is August to October.  Seize the moment and you will see fruit come out of it.

It's that time of year.  Churches everywhere are gearing up for their Fall Festival.  We're in the middle of our preparations.

One of the biggest questions churches ask as they prepare is, "How do we see the guests who attend come back on a Sunday for services?"

That's a question we wrestle with every year.  We've tried lots of different strategies.  We've tried big giveaways, follow-up emails, follow-up phone calls and starting an exciting new weekend series following the festival, just to name a few.

And to be honest...it has been with limited success.  Yes, we've reached a few families with these strategies, but we want to be more effective at seeing the guests who attend our Fall Festival return and become a part of our church family.

And I've got a feeling you're thinking the same thing.  I've yet to hear of a church that has cracked the code on this and been able to see a high percentage of guests return from their Fall Festival and become connected long-term to their church.

So with this in mind, we went back to the drawing board and have developed a new strategy that we're piloting this year.  I'm going to share it with you.

We're casting vision to our church familiy that the Fall Festival is a great opportunity to invite their unchurched friends, neighbors, family and co-workers to the church.  People will come to a Fall Festival that would otherwise never set foot inside a church...if they are invited.

We started this past weekend (4 weeks out) encouraging our church family to begin inviting people to come with them to the Fall Festival.  We showed this video and our campus pastors talked about it from stage. 



Provide invite tools.  We are providing invite cards that our church family can use to invite people with. 

We will have a guest VIP area at the Fall Festival that our church family can bring their guests by.  This area will be exclusively for guests who have never been to our church.  It will be stocked with extra candy and a gift for every guest.  The gift will be a ball with our children's ministry logo and website on it.  We will also have key staff and volunteers there to meet the guests and spend time with them.  Our church family will know ahead of time to bring their guests by this area.

We will give guest families an invitation to come back for a Sunday service.  At the guest area mentioned above, we will give guests an invite card to a weekend service.  The kids will be able to redeem the invite card for a free t-shirt when they return.  The t-shirt will have our logo on it.

We're casting vision for our church family to do the primary follow-up with the guests they bring.  The primary reason a guest is going to come back is because of a relationship they have with the person who brought them.  So we're going to be encouraging our church families to invite their fall festival guests back for a weekend service. 

We will provide photo opps with costumed characters for families.  We know families love to take pictures of their kids with characters.  They will stand for hours in line at Disney World for this.  The photo opps will also include our children's ministry logo as part of the background.  This will not only provide memories for families, but will also help us spread the word about our children's ministry as parents post the pictures on social media.

It will be interesting to see how this strategy does.  I'm excited to see what happens.

Your turn.  The floor is yours.  What are you doing to encourage Fall Festival guests to come back for weekend services?  Is there something you've done in the past that has worked well?  Share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comment section below. 

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently created a Pastor's tool kit for children's ministry.  Another tool the kit includes is 10 ways Pastors can support their children's ministry.

I can promise you that your Pastor wants to do his or her best to support the children's ministry.  This tool can provide him or her with some practical ways to do this. 

My prayer is this will make its way into the hands of pastors across the country and world.

Here's the 10 ways... 

1. Help shepherd the spiritual and emotional health of your children's ministry staff. 
2. Help your children's ministry staff grow as leaders.
3. Meet with your children's ministry director at least once a month.
4. Encourage people to serve in children's ministry.
5. Encourage the people who serve in children's ministry.
6. Encourage families to get their kids involved in children's ministry.
7. Visit the children's ministry environments at least once a quarter and offer feedback, insight and ideas.
8. Be present at family events such as child dedications, baptisms, etc. and celebrate with families.
9. Rally the church to support big children's ministry events such as camps, fall festivals, etc.
10. Help your children's ministry director identify and remove growth barriers.

Many churches use October 31st as an outreach event.  If you're one of them, you're probably asking yourself...

"How can we get unchurched families to attend?"

"How can we reach families with this event?"

"How can we get families who come to return on Sunday?"

These are great questions and it's why you do the event.  But the answers can often be hard to figure out.

Here's are some answers to these questions that will help you reach and keep families through your Fall Festival.

Get the word out in your community.  Families are looking for a safe place for their kids and will come if they know about your event.   Here's some ways you can spread the word.

• Cast vision to the families in your church that this is a great opportunity to reach families.  Encourage them to invite people to come.  
• Provide invite cards that they can use to invite friends, family members, co-workers, schoolmates, and neighbors.
• Provide posters that people can put up at places of business.
• Do a mail out to your community that advertises the event.
• Use social media to promote the event and have people in your church promote it to their social media contacts.
• Advertise on free local outlets such as the news, community channel advertising, etc.

Give families a great experience at the event.  It is vital that families have a great experience.  If they don't, they simply won't come back.  If people are rude to them, if their kids don't get enough candy, or if the festival doesn't match what was advertised...it doesn't matter how much you follow up.  They won't come back.  The first impression truly is a lasting impression.

Collect families' basic contact information.  You can't follow up without it.  Here's some ways you can collect it.

• Let them know up front that you are not going to show up on their door step the next week.  People will be hesitant to give you their information if they think you are going to show up at their house unannounced.
• Have people register for a free gift that they receive right on the spot.  It might be something as simple as a full-size candy bar for their kids.  With all the mini-candy bars being passed out, you'd be surprised how many people will give you their contact info. just to get a large candy bar for their child. 
• Have a drawing for some large prizes like a bike, family meal certificate to a local restaurant, movie tickets, etc.  Ask people to register for the drawing.
• Have a grand prize drawing on the following Sunday.  You must be present on Sunday to win.  This prize should be something significant enough that it would bring a family back on Sunday. (example - 4 tickets to Disney World or a major family attraction in your area) 
• Have a free photo spot with a professional photographer.  Offer to email them the picture. 
  

Have a table or booth set up with church information, brochures, etc.  Staff it with friendly volunteers who can answer questions.

Provide a family show during the event.  It can include music, puppets, games, and family fun.  Make it a soft touch to give kids and parents a feel of what weekends are like.

Follow up after the event. 

• Follow up as quickly as possible.  If you follow up within 48 hours, the likelihood of them returning goes up. 
• Send them an email thanking them for coming.  Include information about weekend services or other upcoming events.  Keep it short and simple.  If they had their picture taken per above, you can attach it to this email.  Here's a sample email.

Dear Parent,

Thank you for being our guest at the Family Fall Festival.  We hope you had a great time.  your church's name is a family made up of people just like you and me, who come together to encourage and support each other on this journey called life.

One of the most exciting and challenging parts of life is being a parent.  At your church's name, we want to help your kids learn more about God and discover the purpose He has for their lives.  We also desire to come alongside parents to provide parenting tools, resources, encouragement and support.

You can get more information about your church's name by visiting our website at your church's website or by calling phone number.  We also invite you to be our guest at any of our weekend services.  We're here for you and your family.

Hope to see you this weekend!

• Send them a handwritten note.  Include a coupon that they can redeem for a free gift the next time they attend the church.  It might be a drink for the parents and a small toy or t-shirt for the kids. 
• Invite them to your next big event.  Add them to your mailing list and invite them to your next event.  Even if they don't show up for a church service the next weekend, you may see them return for another event.  Keep planting seeds...God will bring the fruit.
• Call them.  A short...thank you for coming...if we can be of any service to you...phone call is appropriate.  I would encourage you to keep it light and not come across as pushy.

Fall Festival is one of your best opportunities to reach families.  I'm thinking of a family who came to our Fall Festival last year.  It was their first contact with our church.  They came back on the weekend, gave their lives to Christ and are now growing in their faith and serving in the ministry.

What a great opportunity you have this year.  Whether you're hosting a Fall Festival on your church property, participating in a community event off-site, or being a witness in your neighborhood, I'm praying with you for many families to come to Christ.

Do you limp into weekend services?

Do you find yourself struggling to get one foot in front of the other on Sunday morning when you know you should be running?

Do you enter the weekend with your energy tank on empty when you need it to be full?

Here are some things that may be causing you to limp into the weekend.

Doing too much. 
When I first started in ministry, I was taught to get as many "hooks" in the water as possible.  The rationale was the more ministries you have, the more fish you will catch.  I have found the opposite to be true.  Trying to do lots of things will leave you limping into the weekend and result in less fruit.  

In this post, I share how to determine what to say "no" to. 

Mid-week programming.
About a year ago, we went to 6 services on weekends.  For us, that was the tipping point for ceasing mid-week children's programming.  We knew we couldn't do 6 weekend services coming off of a mid-week program.  Let me rephrase that...we could...but we would be limping.  And we couldn't afford to limp into the most effective thing we do.

Big events.
I love big events.  And I've done a lot of them over the years.  The problem...in the past, I did too many in a year.  And the weekends suffered because of it.  What I had hoped would be a boost for the weekend, ended up being a drain on the weekend.

Now I only do two big events each year.  A Fall Festival in October and a 1 night family experience in the summer.  That's it.  Do I miss all the big events?  Yes...but I don't miss the limp they caused.  And our weekend services are much stronger because of it.

Not taking your day off.
I know...you've got too much on your plate to take your day off.   Been there...done that...and limped into the weekend too many times to know that you can't afford NOT to take your day off.  You think you are getting more done by working on your day off, but in actuality you are getting less done.  You will be more productive over the course of the week if you take your day off.

I take off Fridays.  It helps me catch my breath and go into the weekend rested instead of exhausted.

Not using your vacation time.
Again, by experience, I can tell you that not using your vacation time will not only cause you to limp into the weekend, but can take you out of ministry completely.  You can read more about that here.

When you pull away, it helps you return refreshed, strong and ready to conquer weekends.  Along those lines, it's important to include being away for the weekend when you are on vacation.  Being off for a weekend makes you better when you come back to it.

Working too many hours during the week.
It's hard not to chuckle when someone asks what you do all week.  As if all the programming, volunteers and avalanche of details magically appear on the weekend.  I know if takes a lot to pull the weekend off, but don't spend so much time getting ready to pull the weekend off that you don't have any energy left to actually pull it off.  Make sure you balance your time.
 
Poor calendaring.
Do you carefully plan and space out the items on your ministry calendar?  If not, you can find yourself with back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back events and activities that cause you to limp into the weekend.  

Stress
Stress during the week can drain you and leave you empty when the weekend rolls around.  There is going to be stress...it's part of life.  But you can manage it and keep it from causing you to limp.  One way is to exercise during the week.  Exercise is a great stress reliever.  Another way is to have a hobby or other outlet that takes your mind off what is stressing you.

It's also good to avoid stressful conversations or conflicts going into the weekend.  Of course, things pop up that are out of your control, but as much as possible deal with the ones you know about early in the week.

Not getting enough sleep.
Lack of sleep causes limping.  Get a good night's sleep going into the weekend. 

A crazy summer schedule.
Up until the last few years, summer was our busiest time of the year in children's ministry.  We did lots of stuff.  The stuff we were doing was good...but it was causing us to limp into the weekends of the Fall season.  The Fall is one of our most important seasons of growth and reaching new families.  It's hard to bring your A game in the Fall when you've spent all your energy during the summer months.  We've slowed down our summers so we can be ready to run hard in the Fall.  I talk more about this in this here.
 
Each weekend is the super bowl for children's ministry.  Don't go into it with a limp.

Strategic planning is an important part of children's ministry.  Whether you have a paid or volunteer team, it's important to get together on a regular basis and strategize about how to move the ministry forward.

I meet with our team once a week.  What do we talk about?  Here's an inside look at one of our team meetings.   I believe it's important to have a set agenda when you walk into a meeting.

Prayer

• We share personal and ministry prayer requests.  
• We ask for God's guidance and wisdom as we meet.

 Teaching

• I share either a devotional or practical teaching that will help us grow personally or in our ministry skills.
• This is normally an overflow of what I've been personally learning.

Weekend Review and Praise Reports by area (nursery, preschool, elementary, guest services, etc.)

• What did we see God do this past weekend?
• What was our attendance?  Any patterns or areas of growth or concern?
• How many first-time guests did we have?
• What went well this past weekend?
• What do we need to fix or adjust from this past weekend? 

This coming weekend 

• What is happening this coming weekend
• What prep needs to happen for this coming weekend

 Upcoming Events

• Details and plans for upcoming events such as fall festival, baptism, parent-child dedication, etc.

Volunteer Updates

• How many volunteers served this past weekend? 
• How many new volunteers attended orientation and joined our team this past weekend?
• Who did you ask to join our team this past weekend?
• What are areas we need to focus on for more volunteers?

Budget

• How is our budget looking? 
• Are we tracking well?
• Are we over or under budget in any areas?

Miscellaneous Items


Final Questions

• What did we miss?
• Is there anything else that you want to bring up or talk about?
• What do you know that everyone else needs to know about?

Your turn...

How do your staff meetings look?  
How often do you meet?
What do you talk about?

We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

What's the best way to grow a children's ministry?

Direct mail with great print pieces?

Television ads?

Vacation Bible school?

Outreach events?

Fall Festivals?

Bringing in a big-name special guest?

These are all different ways you can see families brought into your children's ministry.  But...there's one thing that is not listed above.  And it's the #1 way to grow your children's ministry.

Wait for it...wait for it...

Here it is...word of mouth.

People talk about a children's ministry that has impacted their lives.  And those people talk to other people...and those people talk to other people...and...etc.

Before long, you've got guest families walking through the door every single week.  And the majority are coming because someone told them about the ministry or brought them.

When this happens, you will experience the "big mo."  Momentum.  And when momentum kicks in, you will experience exponential growth.

The big question...how do you get people talking?

Give them something that's worth talking about.  
Create environments for kids that will get them excited about coming to church.  When that happens, parents will take notice and begin to talk.

Encourage them to talk. 
Message how important it is to invest in relationships with people who don't attend church and invite them to come.

Give them tools they can use to talk.
Create invite cards that people can use to invite their friends and connections.  Doing a really cool series?  Make invite cards for the series.

This past Easter, we had a lady that came to our church for the very first time and accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior.  When asked how she heard about the church, she told this story.  She is a crossing guard at one of our local elementary schools.  One of our kids talked with her and invited her to come to church while he was waiting to cross for school.

When people start talking...great things happen.  

Churches across the country hosted Fall Festivals this past week.

As a result, many churches saw first-time guest families walk through their doors. 

Now that the event is over the big questions is - How do I get them to return for a weekend service?  How do I engage them with our church and more importantly see them become followers of Christ?

Here's 6 steps that will help you effectively follow up with your Fall Festival guests.

1. Get their contact information. 
If you're going to follow up with them, you obviously have to get their contact information.  Have a plan in place for this.  It might be having them register to enter the event or a drawing for a giveaway during the fall festival or a photo booth where you take their picture and mail it to them later.

2. Give them a great experience.
Make sure your guests have a blast at the event.  If they have a bad experience, follow-up will be futile.

3. Send them an email.
Send them an email the day after the event.  Here's the email we sent out this year.

Dear Parent,

Thank you for being our guest at the 2013 Family Fall Festival. We hope you had a great time. Christ Fellowship is a family made up of people just like you and me, who come together to encourage and support each other on this journey called life.

One of the most exciting and challenging parts of life is being a parent. At Christ Fellowship, we want to help your kids learn more about God and discover the purpose He has for their lives.  We also desire to come alongside parents to provide parenting tools, resources, encouragement and support.

You can get more information about Christ Fellowship by visiting our website at www.goChristFellowship.com or by calling (561) 799-7600. We also invite you to be our guest at any of our weekend services. We're here for you and your family.

Hope to see you this weekend!

4. Send them a letter.
Another option is to send them a letter with the above information or send the email and then a letter the next week with different wording.

5. Call them.
A short...thank you for coming...if we can be of any service to you...phone call is appropriate.  I would encourage you to keep it light and not come across as pushy. 

6. Invite them to your next big event.
Add them to your mailing list and invite them to your next event.  Even if they don't show up for a church service the next weekend, you may see them return for another event.  Keep planting seeds...God will bring the fruit.