RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

In a day when the majority of churches are plateaued or in decline, there are some churches that are experiencing long-term growth.

Year after year, they continue to grow and reach more kids and families.  As I connect with these churches and personally observe what they are doing, I have found they all have one thing in common.

What is it, you ask?  Here it is.

Children's ministries that are experiencing long-term growth are in multi-site churches that consistently start new campuses.  

Is your children's ministry plateaued or in decline?  I believe the answer, in most cases, is to go multi-site and then to continue to add campuses.  I've had the honor of being part of some of the fastest growing churches in America.  Without exception, here is what happened. 

• We started growing. 

• We grew to the point where the auditorium and children's ministry space were full. 

• We plateaued. 

• We added another service and started growing again. 

• We grew again to the point where we were full again. 

• We continued to add new services as we grew, but eventually got to the point where it wasn't healthy to add any more services.  When you get the point where you are doing 6 services a weekend, it's not healthy for the long-term health of the staff to continue to add more services.  

• We eventually plateaued again even with having 6 services. 

• We added a new campus and began to grow again.  

• This same scenario is repeated again with each new campus.  

Again, the bottom line is this.  In today's culture, churches that experience long-term growth are multi-site churches that continue to expand and add new campuses.  Need more proof?  Once a year, I meet with the children's ministry leaders of the largest, fastest growing churches in the country.  Without exception, this is what is happening.

• Their original campus is plateaued. 

• They are still growing.

• Their growth is coming through the new campuses they are starting. 

Why is a multi-site strategy necessary for long-term growth?

• You can only construct so many buildings and kid's ministry space in one location.  Now matter now big an auditorium or how large a kid's space you build, you will eventually run out of room. 

• There is a limited number of kids and families who live in the vicinity of your one campus.  Whether you are in a heavily populated, urban area or in a less populated, rural area, there is a limit to the "number of fish" in the pond.  If you want to start catching more fish, you have to fish in some additional ponds.  

• New campuses free up space at the original campus, so you grow by "re-growing" to where the attendance level was before you started the new campus.  Normally, you will take a group of people from the original campus to help start the new campus.  This will allow you space to reach new people at the original campus.  Here's an example...

• You have 300 kids attending the original campus.  Due to space or other limitations, this is your cap.

• 50 kids go with their families to help start the new campus.  This leaves you with 250 kids at the original campus.  

• You reach 50 more new kids at the new campus.  This plus the 50 kids that came to help start the new campus means you are now reaching 100 kids at the new campus.

• You reach 50 new kids at the original campus since you have now have space available. Though it appears you aren't growing at the original campus, you are.  Your growth has been getting back up to 300 after sending 50 kids to the new campus. 

• Add the growth from both campuses and you've grown from 300 to 400 kids per weekend.

I am reminded that this is grounded in the great commission where Jesus tells us to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to everyone."  As a church, this is not optional.  We must continue to "go."  We must continue to go into new neighborhoods, new communities, new cities, new states, new countries.  If we want to grow, then we must go.

Is your ministry declining?  Is it plateaued?  Then it's time to go.  It's time to go and start a new campus.  If you want to grow, then you've got to go.  Until every single boy, girl, mother and father have had the opportunity to know Jesus, we have to keep going and growing. 

These are my observations about children's ministries that are experiencing long-term growth. 

Your turn.  Do you agree?  Disagree?  What other strategies or methods have you seen among churches that continue to grow long-term?  Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

Our church launched another new campus two weeks ago.  The campus is in the city of Port St. Lucie.

Port St. Lucie is a fast growing city with over 179,000 residents.  By 2020, population is projected to be over 230,000.  The city is about an hour north of our original campus.

God opened the door for us to purchase an amazing facility for this campus that has over 115,000 square feet.  We've been busy remodeling it and getting phase 1 ready to open.

Over 3,200 people walked through the doors for the first service last week...most of them were people brand new to our church.  Phase 2 will include a new auditorium and expanded children's space.

If you'd like an inside look, here are some pictures.  Pray for us as we shine Jesus' light of love and grace in this city.  As long as there are people who still don't know Jesus, we'll keep starting campuses and reaching out.

I've been doing research lately to determine how many kids live in areas where we have campuses and in areas where we are praying about starting new campuses.  Our church is multi-site with campuses spread across a 50 mile radius.  As long as there are people who still don't know Jesus, we'll keep starting campuses.

That being said, if you're going to reach kids and families, you have to go where they live.  One great tool I've discovered that helps you determine how many kids live in a zip code is the Census Quick Fact.  This tool enables you to type in any zip code and find out how many kids live there.  You can also see how that zip code compares to the national average of kids 18 and under.  It also lets you see if the number of kids in that area has grown or decreased in the last few years.

It's a great tool to help you determine where families with kids live in your area.

You can access it at this link. 

Praying with you for the kids and families in your city to know the love and salvation Jesus brings.

The key to effectively leading change or new initiatives is to get "buy in."  In other words, you need people to stack hands with you and say, "Yes, let's do this."

The challenge is people's natural reaction is to hesitate or resist when faced with change.  Through lots of mistakes and miscues, I have discovered the best way to get buy in.  Here it is.

When people have things pushed down to them without being part of the creative and planning process, they may comply, but complying is not the same as buying in.

People own what they help create.  When people help build something, it takes engagement to a whole new level.

Here's some real time examples.

Example #1
You're thinking about introducing a new curriculum.  Instead of just purchasing one, you get samples of 3-4 curriculums, let the teachers review it and help make the decision.  You'll get buy-in for the new curriculum because you involved them in the decision.

Example #2
You're thinking of changing the name of your children's ministry.  Instead of just coming up with one yourself, you ask team members to come up with 10 possible names.  You then take those 10 and have everyone vote on the new name.  You go with the name that gets the most votes.  People are excited about the new name because they had a part in creating it.

Example #3 
You are leading in a multi-site church.  You're trying to think of some ideas that will help guest families have a better experience during their first visit at the campuses.  Instead of trying to come up with the ideas by yourself, you ask the campuses to send you their best practices and ideas for welcoming guest families.  From those, you choose 2-3 that can be implemented across all campuses.  People receive the new ideas and are excited about implementing them because the ideas came from the campuses.

Bottom line - Good leaders get compliance by creating and distributing...great leaders get buy in by empowering and involving.

"How many paid children's ministry staff members should our church have?"  I often get asked this question by churches.  Here's my answer.

Our church is multi-site which means we have campuses of all sizes.  We are also opening new campuses on a regular basis.

Because of this, we created a template that helps us determine how many paid children's ministry staff members we need at existing campuses and at new campuses when we launch them.

Below is the template.  This is the results of lots of discussions, brainstorming and trial / error.  You will see that it's based on ratios.  It has been a huge help to us and takes the guess work out of how many staff we need.

I trust it will be a help to you and your ministry.  Feel free to download it if you'd like.  Blessings.

Here are the notes and resources from my "Multi-Site Children's Ministry" session at Children's Pastor's Conference in Orlando and San Diego.