Alright…here is your time to shine! 
I am looking for some heavy feedback which means I need you guys to go nuts with the comments…tell your friends to log on & drop a comment…tell every CM person in the world to log on & drop a comment (ok, so maybe ‘every CM person’ maybe a little much but you know what I mean)!
One of the things we are looking at/doing right now is rethinking everything we do! Testing which formats, theories, processes, writings, etc. work & which ones may not work as well! We are in search of some of the best ideas out there for how to do Sunday’s from top to bottom!
Now, I know everyone’s Sunday’s look different and that is something we even take a little pride in, but that is the great thing about what we do…we are different but all in ‘quest’ for the same goal…to teach kids about Jesus in a way that STICKS!
And…we want to hear from you! So here I am humbly asking for your thoughts, ideas, and theories of how you guys do things on Sundays. Stuff like…
Small Groups
- How many activities do you do?
- How much ‘text’ do you give volunteers?
- Is the ‘text’ you give volunteers scripted?
- How different is your Preschool small group material from your Elementary small group material?
- What is the MAIN THING you are focusing on for your ’small group time?’
- How long is your ’small group time?’
- What new ideas, formats or processes have you tried & been successful?
- What works for you?
Large Group
- Do you use video? How much?
- Do your kids enjoy video?
- How long is your ‘production’ time?
- Do you use volunteers on stage?
- Do you teach the Bible Story on stage? How?
- Do you have fun Large Group games you do on stage? What are some examples?
Teaching Tricks
- Do you do a new Memory Verse each week or every ‘X’ number of weeks?
- Do you use a ‘Main Point’ or ‘Key Phrase’ each week to help the kids see a ‘main idea?’
- Do you use motions with your kids to help them remember Main Points & Memory Verses?
- Are their other teaching tricks you might have tried that help the lesson stick?
- Do you use ‘Parent Letters’ that go home with the kids? Are they successful?
I know that is a lot of stuff & please don’t feel like you have to answer all or any (if you don’t want to)! However, we would really love your feedback on these ideas & many others! Come on…throw them at us!! I am sure your insights to how you plan your ‘Sunday’ at your church will benefit us all as we think, rethink, and move forward with how we all plan ours!
Thanks and I can’t wait to hear from all of you…I hope!
December 17th, 2007 at 11:39 am
I feel weird leaving this in a blog postings, but here goes with some answers.
Small Groups
* How much ‘text’ do you give volunteers? Using Elevate curriculum, I usually select 1, maybe 2 activities and distribute the appropriate scripts, discussion questions, and/or activities
* How different is your Preschool small group material from your Elementary small group material? Right now it’s in a transition, which is to say that the Preschool area is more traditional in teaching nature. No Preschool ‘Small Groups.’
* What is the MAIN THING you are focusing on for your ’small group time?’ Relationship building and applications for the kids to make use of what was learned in the large group teaching.
* How long is your ’small group time?’ 10-20 minutes
* What new ideas, formats or processes have you tried & been successful? We have moved all prayer time, offering, and some special music into the small group areas.
* What works for you? Still figuring that out. Small groups have allowed us to improve the the safety and security aspects of our ministry; eliminating the ‘get lost’ factor we find in large groups.
Large Group
* Do you use video? How much? Again, we use the Elevate curriculum. But we do the live performances with the video that runs in the background. Some series have been much better than others.
* Do your kids enjoy video? When it’s not the ‘Main Thing’; they really get into it.
* How long is your ‘production’ time? 25-30 minutes
* Do you use volunteers on stage? YES!
* Do you teach the Bible Story on stage? How? I rotate with some trained volunteers, using the Elevate ‘Performance’ videos that back up the teaching on the screen. It’s really a cool way to teach. (Not all Elevate series work this way, though.)
* Do you have fun Large Group games you do on stage? What are some examples? We do games at times, but they tend to take up to much time, and don’t get everyone involved. We usually reserve game times for small groups.
Teaching Tricks
* Do you do a new Memory Verse each week or every ‘X’ number of weeks? New verse every week.
* Do you use a ‘Main Point’ or ‘Key Phrase’ each week to help the kids see a ‘main idea?’ New Main point and Key point every week, however they are all related for 8 weeks of teaching.
* Do you use motions with your kids to help them remember Main Points & Memory Verses? Always motions with at least one of them each week.
* Are their other teaching tricks you might have tried that help the lesson stick? Anything that brings all the lights down, except those lights on the stage with the teacher. Anything with sound effects keeps the volume down in my audience; and of course the bigger and messier the stage the more memorable it will be. My big challenge is keeping it fresh every week, and not letting it bog down into the same formula every week.
* Do you use ‘Parent Letters’ that go home with the kids? Are they successful? I like them, but the work involved isn’t worth the reward. Parents simply didn’t miss them when I stopped doing it.
Please forgive all grammar and spelling errors.
December 17th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I want to comment on some of these and am anxious to read the responses of others. But first, would you be willing to share what is prompting such a major evaluation?
December 17th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Sure Christy - although I’m not sure how profound it will sound…!
For us there is always a ‘general’ and regular ‘revamping’ of what we do to make sure we stay up to date & relevant with what we provide on Sundays. We are also considering that NewSpring will be a multi-site church very soon. Our passion is to provide what we do for ‘the Majestic ‘ on the Anderson Campus at every campus. This means a lot of what we do now may have to change (keep excellence…better packaging…make simpler?). Change is a good thing but merits a lot of thought & a lot of homework (hence the research questions here)!
So, as we prepare to do this I’m just eager to hear from other CM people out there about ‘what works?’ for them. This may lead us to try something new or confirm that something we may be trying isn’t really working well for other CMs out there.
How’s that?
December 19th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Thought I might throw a few ideas out there.
Do you do a new Memory Verse each week or every ‘X’ number of weeks?
We have a monthly theme which has a memory verse
Do you use a ‘Main Point’ or ‘Key Phrase’ each week to help the kids see a ‘main idea?’
Yep - the Big Point. Ties in with the theme and is the point we want the kids to take away.
Do you use motions with your kids to help them remember Main Points & Memory Verses?
Yep
Are their other teaching tricks you might have tried that help the lesson stick?
Um.
Do you use ‘Parent Letters’ that go home with the kids? Are they successful?
Small group take home sheets - could always be better…
December 19th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
I am a volunteer for 3rd graders at Newspring and I believe that when they show a video of the bible story during large group as well as us reading it in small group that the kids really soak up the bible story. At the end when we do a activity that has questions about the bible story I seam to get more feedback when they have been able to watch it.
December 19th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Hey, long time reader, first time replier…
How much ‘text’ do you give volunteers? I hand out a full lesson plan to all our volunteers in advance regardless of their role so we are all of one mind for the vision of the morning…
Is the ‘text’ you give volunteers scripted? It is, but I do it so those who need to use it can, where others who are comfortable in front of kids can use it as a guide.
How different is your Preschool small group material from your Elementary small group material? it reflects the same format but on an ‘age appropriate’ level
What is the MAIN THING you are focusing on for your ’small group time? It depends on the age level… the older level small groups focus more on discussion questions (description, analysis, interpretation, application) with time spent on activities if time, whereas the younger age groups spend more time on activities reflecting the lesson with discussion questions throughout their time
How long is your ’small group time?’ 25-30 min
Do you use video? How much? We make our own dvd for our curriculum which features for 3-5min highlighting the sundays message
Do your kids enjoy video? because they feature in it, they love it, we love placing kids in cameo appearances, and let them know which ‘episode’ they’ll feature on…
How long is your ‘production’ time? not long, we aim for B grade due to our technology and resources… about 8 hours for an 8 episodes
Do you use volunteers on stage? yes
Do you teach the Bible Story on stage? How? yes… any creative means possible… kids are involved in groups ranging from worship to creative arts, games and fun, sound and tech, and we use any method to bring across the bible story…
Do you have fun Large Group games you do on stage? yes… messier the better
Do you do a new Memory Verse each week or every ‘X’ number of weeks? our memory verse runs for the length of the theme
Do you use a ‘Main Point’ or ‘Key Phrase’ each week to help the kids see a ‘main idea?’ rhyming key phrases
Do you use motions with your kids to help them remember Main Points & Memory Verses? yes
Are their other teaching tricks you might have tried that help the lesson stick? I guess live it before you teach it?
Do you use ‘Parent Letters’ that go home with the kids? Are they successful? we give out a weekly handout with activities and stuff, but we feature a section where parents sit down with their kids and go through questions of the bible together…
I fully support your desire to stay current and fresh, I’m always looking for ways to revamp, tweak, and inspire our kids with something ‘different’. The best way I’ve truly found a way to inspire is to stop whatever busy-ness I’m involved in and give any one of our kids my full attention when they need it. I love our kids program, but I love our kids more…
I hope this helps…
June 14th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
[...] I responded to some questions about what we do in our children’s areas at the church. Thought I would post them for the [...]