This One Habit Could Change Your Sunday Mornings

What if the secret to better Sunday mornings was hiding in a stack of printed articles on a Wednesday afternoon?

My friends joke that research is one of my spiritual gifts, and one of them claims that research is my parenting style (they’re not wrong). So when I heard about a kidmin leader who does intentional research as a weekly habit, I knew I had to learn more.

Meet Andrae Jones.

Andrae is the Kids Pastor at One Community Church in Plano, TX, a multisite church with six campuses, where he oversees nursery through 4th grade. He’ll tell you he’s working with a lean team but that they have some of the most amazing volunteers ever.

Andrae is also doing something that not enough kidmin leaders are doing. He’s learning and researching. Consistently. Intentionally. Every single week. And it’s changing how he leads.

How It Started

Andrae has always been the kind of leader who wants to get better. But about two or three years ago, something clicked. His Senior Pastor, an avid learner himself, modeled a hunger for innovation that rubbed off on Andrae in the best way. Then One Hope presented some data on Gen Alpha and Gen Z, and that was it.

“That sparked something in me,” Andrae says. “I began searching for everything on Gen Alpha, Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and so on. Since that day I’ve searched for articles every week.”

Every week. Not when it’s convenient. Not when a conference puts a stat in front of him. Every week, on purpose, because he decided that knowing his kids and their families better was part of the job.

What Does He Do With What He Finds?

Here’s where it gets practical, because Andrae doesn’t just collect articles and feel smart about it. He has a whole process.

First, he searches wide. Tech, marketing, statistics, research papers, ministry resources, local news. “You name it, I’m probably searching for it,” he says. His research topic follows the season he’s in. Right now, he’s leaning into Gen Alpha, competitive sports, and today’s parents. He’ll start with one search (“Gen Alpha and the church”), then let it branch out from there (“Gen Alpha and schools,” “Parenting Gen Alpha,” “Gen Alpha struggles”). Each search pulls in something a little different.

Once he finds articles worth keeping, he prints them. Yes, physical paper. He reads, highlights, and asks himself one key question: how does this apply to our ministry? He thinks about the impact on his church, his parents, and the broader Church.

Pro tip: Andrae occasionally runs articles through ChatGPT and asks how the content could apply in a ministry context. Smart move for a busy leader who needs to bridge the gap between research and real-world application fast.

Then, and this is the part I love most, he shares what he learns with his staff, with key leaders, and online. “I need everyone to win, not just me,” he says. His team has a dedicated weekly learning time on Wednesday afternoons where insights like these make it into the conversation.

That’s not just research and learning. That’s discipleship culture.

What This Means for You and Your Ministry

You don’t have to run six campuses to build a habit like Andrae’s. Here’s how to start small and stay consistent.

1. Pick one topic and search it five different ways. Don’t just Google “Gen Alpha.” Try “Gen Alpha and school,” “Gen Alpha attention span,” “parenting Gen Alpha,” “Gen Alpha and faith.” Each variation opens a different door. You’ll be surprised what shows up.
2. Let your season drive your research. What’s pressing right now? Summer programming? Volunteer burnout? Millennial parents who feel disconnected from church? Start there. Research works best when it’s solving a real problem you’re already facing.
3. Do something with what you find. Read it. Highlight it. Ask yourself: what does this mean for the kids in my ministry? For their parents? For my volunteers? One good article, applied well, is worth ten articles you just saved to a folder you’ll never open.
4. Share it. Even if your “team” is one other volunteer, share what you’re learning. Send a text. Bring it up before Sunday. Post about it. When you stop learning, you stop leading, but when you share what you’re learning, you build a culture of leaders who are growing too.

Reality check: Most leaders are not doing this. We’re surviving the week, not studying for the next one. But Andrae is proof that the habit is possible, even with a lean team, even with a full life, even when Wednesday afternoons and ministry schedules are already packed.

Taking the time to research and learn can improve the effectiveness of your ministry while also allowing your to work smarter, not harder. When you make a habit of learning and then sharing what you learn with your team, you’ll see big changes in your Sunday mornings and overall discipleship strategy.

So what will you learn this week, and how will you allow what you learn to influence your ministry?