If your family is anything like mine, the low-key routine of summer, the weather, the less-demanding schedule, traveling; are all highlights of the year. My kids have no homework, more free time, later bedtimes and more sleeping in, extra fun with friends and an opportunity to just be kids. There’s just something about the summer.
This summer, however is starkly different than the others. We have sort of rolled into something that feels awkwardly similar in some ways to the Spring. Except it isn’t the Spring. Its plain awkward. We arrived at the summer before summer was ready for us.
We have SUMMER expectations in a world that is still rebounding.
Family ministry leaders feel the tension too. There is a longing for the familiar summer ministry programming. You likely have an event that immediately popped in your mind when you read that. Something that your church offers every summer, that your team and the kids look forward to every year, it keeps families engaged and helps them grow even deeper in their relationship with Jesus.
And your left asking…WHAT NOW?
What if in this tension, God is pushing us to step outside of what is familiar and find, creative, innovative ways to engage families and point them to Jesus?
Maybe the next best season of your ministry is coming on the other side of some creative, out-of-the-box, connection points that will take place in your ministry – THIS SUMMER!
“Sometimes it takes a crisis before we can see.”
-Reggie Joiner
Back towards the beginning of the pandemic, I heard Reggie Joiner say, ‘sometimes it takes a crisis before we can see.’ Crisis causes our eyes to open to new ideas, strategies and people we may not have seen before.
In my opinion, the pandemic has highlighted the importance of three key things in family ministry.
1.Priority on what happens outside of church buildings
Kids, students and parents that may have never visited your physical location ARE tuning in digitally. Thanks to a digital pivot, the church’s reach now extends far outside the building walls. More people will be reached with the Gospel than ever before.
2.Relationships > Content
How well staff and church leaders have personally invested in volunteers, kids, students and families, appears to be directly correlated to the level of engagement churches are seeing. The more relational equity that has been deposited, the better connected people have stayed to the local church.
A leaders time is better spent making personal phone calls and connections to volunteers, parents, students and kids that it is creating unique content. There is amazing content out there for you to use! Better to let someone else do what they can (contribute content) so you can do what only you can (connect on a personal level with your team and the families you minister too!)
3.Priority on Caring for and Equipping Volunteer Teams
Everyone is struggling in one way or another in this season. Your volunteer team needs to be seen, supported, invested in and prayed for more than ever before. How well you connect on a personal level, in this season, with those who serve alongside you communicates to them how much you value them.
People notice when they only hear from the leader of their team when they are being asked to help/volunteer/give/serve.
*(Special note: if you have struggled to maintain a healthy volunteer team, or you struggle to get low-risk volunteers to return after your building re-opens – please humbly ask yourself if your actions towards your volunteers communicate to them that you VALUE them as people or that you only value them filling a spot.)
Most often, the degree of care your team pours into kids is going mirror whatever is being modeled to them (the care they receive).
There’s just something about the summer for deepening relationships. Kids and students are relationally driven. If your goal is to increase engagement with the next generation during these summer months…MAKE IT PERSONAL.
Increase the personal connection and you increase the level of influence you have as you point kids and students (& their parents to Jesus). This is possible for your ministry regardless of the size of your church, the date your building re-opens or the size of your budget. Keep reading for some ideas…
10 Ideas for Launching into Summer Ministry 2020
Your building may already be open. Perhaps, the date for re-opening is approaching. For some of you, your church is portable and meets in a public space and you may not have been given any time frame at all for reopening. Regardless of the situation you find yourself in, there are creative ways you can continue ministry with your team and families in your community!
1. Connect Packs: create a ‘connect pack’ for each person on your team. This is an excellent strategy for every level of leadership on your team.
For each person who oversees a team of volunteers, provide them a weekly checklist (digitally via excel or printed) that includes all relevant contact information for their team and any important details. Be specific regarding how they should connect each week. Ideally, every volunteer is getting a touch point at a minimum of once per week. Maybe this connect pack includes $5 Starbucks gift cards, or a card with a verse or a list of the volunteers ‘favorite’ things (candy, gas station drink, etc).
For each small group leader that invests in kids, students and families, provide them a connect pack. All contact information, family information, birthday, etc, should be included. Depending on the age group, considering adding 2 stamped cards for every child in the small group. The small group leader can send one card to encourage the child and another blank, pre-addressed one. The child can write on it and mail it back to them.
However you go about this, define the win for the team and then inspect what you expect. (Shared, digital forms are a great option that allow you to check-in each week, so you know if you need to offer support.) You wouldn’t want to find out later that volunteers or families went weeks or months and had no personal contact.
2. Parent Focused Phone calls: different from the connect packs – what would it look like for parents to get a personal phone call from their child’s leader?
I wrote more details about this in the article ‘5 Ways Small Group Leaders Can partner with Families.’ Perhaps this summer is the opportunity for your church to partner with parents even more intentionally than ever before.
3. Weekly Huddles: How is your ministry team connecting in this season?
If your team had a ‘huddle’ or a ‘VIP meeting’ prior to service start, why not start hold them virtually? Share a quick word, pray, offer encouragement and updates on any news/announcements pertinent to your team, via zoom. (Perhaps you WEREN’T doing this before and it is something you can add now as a way to better care for your team.)
4. Chalk Tag: sidewalk chalk your families driveway or sidewalk.
Send them a message that they are missed, leave a special verse, draw a funny picture. Try to surprise them! Make sure you let them know ‘TAG YOUR IT‘ and encourage them to go to the house of someone in their circle and leave a sidewalk chalk surprise!
5: Virtual VBS/Camp: rethink your traditional summer programming, small group style.
What opportunities could you create if you had some families willing to open their homes for kids and students? You could livestream the main sessions from your church building (or use content that is pre-made that you can just ‘air’) and then have the small groups complete the follow-up activities together. (Color wars competitions can happen at your building OR they can happen in small groups throughout your community.) There are creative ways to bring the fun!
6: Sidewalk Chat: Empower your small group leaders/volunteers by having them volunteer for 30 minute time slots that they are available.
Invite families to sign up for a ‘sidewalk chat’. The small group leader shows up at the families home and sits on the sidewalk outside just for 30 minutes to connect with the child(ren). They can bring a snack, play ‘would you rather’, color together, fly a kite, or any other age appropriate activity and then pray together before they leave.
7: Tag the Yard: order printed yard signs that say (‘Kids Ministry Name’ misses you).
Once again, empower your volunteer team by asking them to help place the signs in the yards of your families.
8: Empower Students & Families to make a difference: use volunteer match or any other community connections you have to find opportunities for families or small groups to serve together.
Families will be looking for creative things they can do outside their home. Do the leg work and create an opportunity for kids and adults to make a difference. Let them experience how it feels to know they are making a difference.
9: Outdoor Movie Night/Drive-In: blast a movie on the outside of your building.
Invite families to come watch a movie on blankets (socially distanced) outside or in the comfort of their vehicle. One word of caution, use some form of pre-registration to help ensure you don’t have WAY more people show up that what can fit on your property.
10: Intentional Celebrations/Milestones: be intentional to celebrate anything and everything you can.
Kids look forward to ‘moving up’ in the summer. This includes preschoolers moving up to kindergarten, 5th graders moving up to middle school, middle schoolers moving up to high school and 12th graders moving up to adulthood/college. They also have birthdays, some will move away, parents were looking forward to your next baby dedication service, etc. How can your team be intentional in still celebrating alongside families this summer?
- create small group parties inviting families to gather with you to celebrate their child and welcome them and answer questions to the new age group programming in your ministry
- zoom get togethers
- front door baby dedications: have parents pre-register and drive to their house for an personal ceremony. Bring a couple leaders and a photographer to pray over, encourage, share a book or gift and take pictures of the family. (Either record a video or put together a video with the pictures for your church family so they can pray in agreement to partner with the family.)
- Drive Through Party: host a drive-through party. Drive through graduation celebrations, drive through kick-offs for digital VBS programs, drive through Carnival with game stations. I heard of one church having a WATER PARTY. Kids are invited to bring water guns and balloons and drive through the parking lot soaking their small group leaders!
BONUS #11: because “10 ideas” sounds good, but this is too important to leave off!
GO WHERE THE KIDS ARE! Find out where the kids and students in your ministry are hanging out and go there. You Tube, Instagram, SnapChat, TikTok, Fort Nite…there are loads of places kids are hanging out online. AND, some of the places are likely outside of your comfort zone. If thinking about joining Tik Tok makes your heart race (or you have NO IDEA what that even means); pause for a minute. Remind yourself just how valuable these kids are to Jesus and to you. It is good to let the pursuit of personal connection push you outside your comfort zone.
Let the pursuit of personal connection push you outside your comfort zone.
Once you remember your ‘why’…make this summer personal, every way possible. Make personal phone calls to invite. Get small group leaders personally connecting with kids and families. Create experiences that show a personal investment in the kids and families that you minister too. Engagement will increase the more personal you make it.
Ministry leader, I know you are tired. The tension and weight of decisions that need to be made in this season are heavy. Please don’t do ministry alone. The best ideas and support come from being in community with other ministry leaders. There are so many great ideas out there, borrow them and make them your own. And then make this season PERSONAL for your team and your families. Because there’s just something about the summer!
In the event you are feeling overwhelmed or defeated…before you send one more email or plan out one more idea, please stop and ready my post HERE. Remember your WHY and ask for help! If I can support you, your team or your church in anyway, please reach out.
I believe developing relational equity with your team and families is ond of the gifts we can find in this season. Ministry happens at a deeper level, when its on a personal level. Perhaps, this is the summer you kick-off something brand-new that will stay around for the next decade…