August 2021

My family and I recently spent a week at the beach and decided to make a 1-day trip to Disney World while we were there. So we packed up all the snacks and diapers and spent a day at Magic Kingdom with our 1.5-year-old. It was a blast! While we were riding Dumbo, waving to Winnie the Pooh, and eating Dole whip, I noticed a few of Disney's priorities that are good reminders for children's ministry leaders too:  Prioritize kids. This one seems obvious, but it's a good reminder. Disney World prioritizes kids, especially in kid-specific areas of the parks and around kid-specific rides. There are designated stroller parking zones throughout the park to make it easy for families to leave their belongings in a safe place while riding. These stroller parking zones take up space and may be inconvenient to maintain, but they enhance the guest experience...

There's one mistake I often see ministry leaders make when it comes to their ministry social media accounts: They use social media as a digital bulletin board. If your social media accounts are just posts of reminders or upcoming events, you are missing out on a great opportunity to connect with your people. Instead of using your social media as an announcement monologue, change your posting approach to foster conversation and engagement instead. Use the 80/20 rule - let 80% of what you post be about your people, not you, so about things that serve, inspire, engage, encourage, or equip your parents and families, rather than asking them to attend something or go somewhere. Then 20% of your posts can be service times, event invites, and other reminders. One way to help with this ratio is to remember 6 social media content buckets: ...

I've seen a lot of posts in children's ministry groups lately about parent resource centers and how to provide a place for parents to pick up devotionals, books, ideas, and more. Parent Resource Centers (or corners or stations or walls or whatever you want to call it) are a great idea and an excellent way to partner with parents and equip them to be the primary disciplers of their kids. But if you stock these hubs with the wrong kind of resources, they can sit dormant and go unused. If you want to make your families ignore your parent resources, do these 5 things... Make resources (and finding them) complicated. Our brains are hard-wired to choose the path of least resistance, and busy parents are no different. If your at-home devotionals and resources are too complicated and difficult to understand or pull off, parents may pick up a copy the...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Promotion Sunday is one of my favorite days of the whole year! It always has such a great energy as kids are excited to move up into a new class. We host ours right before school starts, so there's the added excitement of the back-to-school season too! I like to make the morning extra special and something out of the ordinary to celebrate all of the new beginnings. Whether you're adding a fun theme to your already-planned curriculum or making the whole morning all about Promotion Sunday, here are a few fun Promotion Sunday themes! Promotion Sundaes - I've always wanted to host a giant ice cream party on Promotion Sunday and make special ice cream sundaes with the kids! Peel some bananas, scoop some ice cream, and drizzle some chocolate syrup for a tasty celebration. Then hand out "Here's the Scoop"...