In this episode, Dale Hudson spends time recapping some of the kidmin challenges large churches are facing across the country including attendance trends, volunteers and online church strategies. He also shares briefly about his new book “Lead Well in Children's Ministry.”
Dale Hudson
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Notes
Key trends in the church amidst online church:
- Online service is the new norm
- Use to be able to count on one hand how many churches provided online content
- Personal connections through Zoom calls
- Chief concerns:
- Less relationship when not gathering
- Can churches keep up with this when we return to on-campus services?
- Less church attendance and greater online presence upon return
National Gathering for Kid's Ministry Leaders in Larger Churches:
- Topics of conversations
- What's going well? What's going not so good?
- Attendance Frequency
- Average attendance in kids is 1.25 times per month (from Saddleback Church stats)
- Concern: only catching 25% of the teaching content; may grow up with a shallow faith
- Key obstacles: sports
- Ideas to encourage attendance
- Have lead/teaching pastor speak to this statistic
- Teach through child dedication / baby dedication
- Families serving together (staying engaged)
- Empower kids to serve with parents
- Do you have an at-home strategy for parents/kids?
- Forced now, but how can we utilize what we do now for the future (specifically when families don't attend on campus)
- Volunteer Teams
- This is a universal need
- Getting students serving is key (greater percentage will stay engaged and follow Jesus for life)
- 65% of volunteers at Willow Creek are 18 and under
- Moving ALL student ministry off of Sunday as a strategy to get them serving
- Student leaders signing a commitment card
- Children's ministry leaders on the same page with Student ministry leaders about students serving
- And more
- Lead Well in Children's Ministry (buildingkidmin.com)
- Everything rises and falls on leadership.
- How do you lead yourself well?
- How do you lead parents well?
- How do you lead through challenges well?
- How do you lead UP well?
Action Items
- How often do kids attend your church? 1.2? 1.6?
- Put families in buckets – communicate differently
- Convo with student pastor about them serving
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