Looking back at the WIN: The two things parents want

I always tell myself that after every set of weekend services at our church I should be able to see what we excelled in and where we want to go from there.  In other words,  I should be able to identify the WIN.

Going from week to week without identifying where your services were a success and where they need improvement is like washing your windows using your bare hands and a bar of soap.  In the end you are going to have a clouded view on what is a success.  To keep a clear view on what success looks like in your ministry you should constantly be evaluating.  Now make sure you are evaluating and not beating yourself up, because there will always be room for improvement.  You are doing many things well too.

Over  this next blog series, I will identify areas that I am constantly evaluating in my ministry.  They are places that I think are important to look at on a regular basis.  Today I want to look at the fun/learn area.

There are two questions you can hear parents ask as they pick up their kids in almost any Children’s Ministry.  The first question is “did you have fun?”  the second question is “what did you learn?”.  What that tells me is to have a WIN in our Kids Ministry, it must be a fun learning environment.

FUN-  This is almost always the first question from parents.  That tells me that I need to provide fun first.  I know that some kidmin folk out there think that church isn’t all about fun…but I disagree.  We have to provide a fun atmosphere to get kids excited about being there.  A bored kid (or adult for that matter) will most likely never  truly respond to  an altar call.  So make it a fun environment.

LEARNING-  Most of us, including myself use curriculum.  The problem with curriculum can often be that it is over programmed.  You see most curriculum companies write lessons as a business.  The writers sometimes aren’t working in Church or haven’t worked in church for a long time.   I’m not saying it’s bad to use a curriculum from a curriculum company though.  Just make sure that you take a lot of time to make sure that there isn’t so much stuff crammed in your 1 hour service that the kids don’t know what to say when they are asked “what did you learn?”  I like my curriculum to be stripped down to a short main point, Bible story, Bible verse, and a life application (tell them how it relates to them).  Everything else is extra and should be used sparingly.

So, did you have fun?  Did you learn something?  If your kids can answer yes to those two questions every week then you have created a great WIN for your church.

-JM

3 Responsesto “Looking back at the WIN: The two things parents want”

1. Roger Fields says:

   October 19, 2010 at 7:44 am

   Good article, Joe.

   My goal each week was that the kid would get in the car each week after church bubbling about what they learned–without having to be asked–so that the parents would say to themselves, “Dear Lord, I wish I got to go to children’s church. I think they learned more than I did.”

   Of course, I didn’t always accomplish that. But that was my goal.

   Reply
   • Joe says:

     October 19, 2010 at 12:07 pm

     Thanks Roger! That is a perfect goal. Then we can get the parents into kids church and put them to work too! Haha!

     Reply
2. Roger Fields says:

   October 19, 2010 at 1:14 pm

   Yep. That’s the plan.

   Reply