RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

Promotion is a key part of children's ministry.  How you help kids transition up to the next grade is vital.  And a big part of HOW you do promotion is WHEN you do promotion.

Some ministries do promotion at the beginning of summer.  Others do promotion at the end of summer.  Let's compare the benefits of both.

Promoting at the Beginning of Summer: 

• Kids naturally consider themselves in the next grade as soon as school is out.  Ask a child who just completed 1st grade what grade they are in the day after school lets out and he or she will say "2nd grade."  Promoting kids when school lets out lines up with what they are already thinking. 

• Kids have the summer to get acclimated to their new class, small group, age grouping, etc.  Kids are already stressed out in the fall about fitting into their new grade.  Promoting in the summer at church helps tone down the stress from dealing with simultaneous promotion at school and church. 

• Kids can be involved in the summer activities of the group they are promoting up to.  An example would be 5th graders getting to go to middle school camp.   

• Kids have the summer to build relationships with the volunteers and staff of the next age group.  This gives them a better connection going into the fall season.  

• Parents are already in the "closure" mindset at the end of the school year.  Parents are a key part of transition and kids take their cues from their parent's emotional mindset.   Since parents are already in a closure mindset at the end of the school year, it makes it easier for them to accept the fact that their child is finished with a phase at church as well. 

• You have a better platform to advertise the promotion.  When school is still in session, more parents and families are in town, so you are better able to connect with them.  You can start communicating the promotion two to three months out.

Promoting at the End of Summer:

• Kids can still participate in the summer activities of the age group they are in.  Some ministries even do a hybrid of this and move kids up for the weekend services / classes while still allowing them to participate in the previous grades/groups activities. 

• It can build excitement going into the fall ministry season.  There is a built in excitement that comes with a new school year beginning.  You can tag onto this to create energy and excitement at church. 

• It gives you the summer to get key volunteers in place for the fall ministry season.  More volunteers and families are obviously on vacation during the summer.  This can be a challenge if you are trying to start kids in their new classroom or grade level.  Waiting until the fall to promote helps you avoid this. 

So...which is best?  Promoting at the beginning or end of summer?  This is something that you must think through for your ministry.  It is also critical that you collaborate with the student ministry in this decision.  One of the most important transitions is from elementary into middle school ministry.  Many parents are very sensitive and nervous when facing this transition.  Their "baby" is growing up and that's a difficult thing to deal with.  You want to make the transition as easy as possible for them.  This must be a big factor in when you decide to do promotion.  You must work with student ministries to determine which will be most beneficial for kids and their parents.

Your turn.  When do you do promotion?  At the beginning or end of summer?  Why do promote then?  Share your thoughts with everyone in the comment section below. 

What causes a ministry to grow?  Is it the programming?  The worship music?  The children's ministry?  The student ministry?  Small groups?  Sharp branding and marketing?  Nice facilities? 

Let's look at it this way.  How do you successfully bake a cake?  You add in the ingredients, don't you?  Flour.  Sugar.  Eggs.  Butter.  Salt.  Baking powder.  Vanilla.  Eggs.  You mix all the ingredients together.  But it's still not a cake.  What turns the ingredients into a cake is the heat.  Without the heat, it will never be a cake. 

You see...the programming...the worship music...the children's ministry...the student ministry...small groups...sharp branding and marketing...nice facilities...those are the ingredients.  But without the heat, without the fire applied to those ingredients, the ministry will fall flat.  

Zechariah articulates this when he says, "it is not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord." 

The secret that makes a ministry grow is the anointing of the Holy Spirit.  

At times, I have found myself going to a conference or visiting a growing church and then spending more time trying to implement the ingredients than I did begging the Holy Spirit to bring His fire to the ministry.  Anyone else guilty of this?  What we need more than the latest program, more than another cutting-edge growth strategy and more than the coolest new sound system, is the fire of God to fall on our ministries.  

Does that mean we don't have to make our ministry ingredients relevant and the very best we can put together?  No.  Just like we wouldn't throw together the wrong ingredients and expect to see a great cake baked up, we shouldn't expect God to bless halfhearted efforts or out-dated ministry ingredients.   We should gather our very best ministry ingredients and then place them before God to anoint with His fire. 

When great ingredients are anointed by the fire of the Holy Spirit,  you will see a ministry begin to grow.  The fire of the Holy Spirit is the extra "it" factor that causes a ministry to move from mundane to miraculous.  Interview the Pastor and staff of a church that is experiencing miraculous growth and they will tell you they do their best, but they're quick to acknowledge that they're simply not good enough or smart enough to produce the kind of growth they are seeing.  They'll quickly tell you that only God can bring the kind of growth that is happening.  Look behind their music, programs, videos, strategies and facilities and you'll find a group of people desperately crying out to the Holy Spirit to do great things. 

Acts 1:8 says, "But you will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.  And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

That's the POWER that takes the ingredients of a ministry and uses it to produce growth.

May God stir up within us a longing to see the Holy Spirit move in and through our ministries.  May God find us on our knees before each service, begging the Holy Spirit to anoint us.  May God find us desperately crying out to the Holy Spirit to do what we cannot do...produce fruit through our ministry.  

That's the secret that really makes a ministry grow.  And the good news...it's available to all of us.