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Best Surprise Ever from Jason Byerly on Vimeo.

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What Every Kidmin Can Learn from Gregg Russell

As Children’s Pastor I’m constantly looking for examples of people and organizations that do a great job of engaging families.  Whether I’m at a restaurant, grocery store or even on vacation, my kidmin radar is always going, searching for new ideas and transferrable principles I can apply at church.

So, when my family sat down at our first Gregg Russell concert on spring break, it was a no brainer.  This guy is a master at engaging families, and I knew immediately I could learn some valuable lessons by watching him in action. 

In case you’ve never heard of him, Gregg Russell is a musician and comedian who has been entertaining families on Hilton Head Island for the past forty-one years.  Russell performs six nights a week on a stage under a picturesque live oak tree at the edge of the water in Harbour Town in the Sea Pines resort.  Dozens of kids sit on stage at his feet singing, laughing and begging to get picked to be a part of the show.

Here are five things every kidmin can learn from watching Russell in action.  

1. Create space for families. 

Back in the seventies, Charles Frasier, the man who developed Sea Pines, made a brilliant move by putting Russell front and center.  The stage and benches, nestled under the 300 year old Liberty Oak, make it obvious that Sea Pines values families. 

So how can we make family experiences central to our ministry?  Do our facilities say, “We value families?”  Do we create opportunities for families to come together as a part of the regular rhythm of our church? 

2.  Engage kids and you get the parents.

Half the fun of watching a Gregg Russell concert is watching the kids’ reactions.  He’s hilarious and they love him.  As a result every parent and grandparent loves him too. 

One of the best ways to reach parents is to make sure their kids are having an amazing experience.  Are our kids engaged and do parents notice?

3.  Include parents in the fun.

Just because kids are on stage doesn’t mean Russell leaves parents out.  Throughout the show he directly addresses the parents, includes jokes just for them and sometimes even has some parent sing-alongs.

Are we including parents in our ministry too?  Do we create opportunities for them to join in on the fun?

A dad singing "My Little Teacup"

4.  Take time to listen to kids.

At every Gregg Russell concert he invites kids to come up and sing for the audience.  Many of the kids make elaborate signs to get Gregg to pick them.  I’ve always been impressed that Russell takes the time to go through the crowd and read every single sign to the audience.  He says that he knows the kids put a lot of time into it and he wants to value their effort.  You and I know that also goes a long way in connecting with their parents.

In the busyness of our ministry, are we really taking time to listen to kids and value them as individuals?

5.  Stick around. 

Russell has been performing in Harbor Town for over four decades, and because of it, he has impacted generations.  He’s had several other opportunities in the entertainment world which could have taken him away from Hilton Head.   Yet, he chose to stay planted under the Liberty Oak, and because of it, he has endeared himself to kids, parents and grandparents who return year after year to see him again.

Parents who sat on stage with him twenty-five years ago bring their kids to the concerts to share their childhood experience.  It’s really like Russell is a part of their family.

Are we committed to staying in Children's Ministry and in our church for the long haul?  Are we sticking around to develop relationships with multiple generations?   Are we raising up leaders who will do the same?

So those are my five take-aways and the questions I'm asking myself.  How about you?  If you've ever seen Russell in concert, what could you learn and apply for your church setting?  

If you haven't been to a Gregg Russell concert, who else have you seen who engages families effectively and what can you learn from them?  The important takeaway is that we're constantly looking for these examples and learning how to make our children's and family ministries better every chance we get.

  

Simple Kidmin Podcast: Episode 002 KidSplash Family Experience

What do you do in your church when families start asking questions about salvation and baptism?  At my church, we throw a party.  It's called KidSplash.  Check out Episode 002 of the Simple Kidmin Podcast to learn more.

What Is KidSplash?

Here's an article I wrote for K! Magazine about KidSplash that gives you a great overview of the experience.

Want to see what KidSplash looks like for yourself?  Check out this video we use to promote it with our families.

Kidsplash from Southland Christian Church on Vimeo.

Helping Kids Get Their Heads Around God's Big Story

Have you ever struggled helping families understand the Bible? How about when it comes to explaining it to your own kids? 

There are so many stories, so many characters and so many details. It's easy to see the individual stories as just a disjointed series of random events.  How does it all fit together and how can you help families talk about it in a way that makes sense for everyone?

These questions have all been challenges for our team at Southland, and we've been working hard trying to figure out the best resources we can put in the hands of families to help parents be the primary disciplers of their kids.  

At my church we call our Children's Ministry the Big Picture Show, and our tagline is "helping families find their place in God's big story."  The only problem is we realized we didn't have any tools or vehicles in place to help us deliver on that promise.  Great weekend programs, but how do we connect with the home?

Recently I wrote about what we're doing to flip take-home papers on their head and put parents back in the driver's seat.   Then, two weeks ago, we launched the next tool in our family discipleship strategy, the Big Picture Show cards.    

Flipping Take-Home Papers On Their Head

Photo Credit: Mark van Laere via Compfight cc

For years our team has wrestled with the dilemma of the take-home paper.  You know, the stuff we send home to tell parents what we taught their kids so they can talk about it at home?  Sure, we all agree that God's plan is for parents to be the spiritual leaders at home.  We all agree that what happens at home is more important than what happens at church.

But do the papers we send at home each week really help?  Does anyone actually use them?  Or do they end up as paper airplanes or wadded up in the floorboard of the minivan on the way home?

Okay, first I think there's nothing wrong with take-home papers.  For parents who are already discipling their kids, they can be a good tool to keep the conversation going.  Also churches that have a strong discipling culture have a much better chance of seeing families actually put these to good use.

But I was really challenged last year when I read what Michelle Anthony wrote about take-home papers in her book, Dreaming of More for the Next Generation.  Anthony talks about the fact that take-home papers may be sending the wrong message to parents.  She writes, "Without saying it directly, I was communicating that we would be the primary teachers of God's Word and they would support us by reinforcing the message at home."

So what did she and her team do?  They flipped the process on it's head.  Her ministry created a pre-teach resource to equip parents to be the first one to read the Bible story to their kids.  This put the Children's Ministry in the position of just following up on what was happening at home.

"Now, instead of parents asking, 'What did you learn in church today?'" Anthony says, "we, the ministry leaders, were able to ask the children, 'What did you learn at home this week?'"

Leveraging the Wow Factor

When Andrew came into the breakout room, I could tell he was going to have a rough time.  It was promotion weekend, the weekend when the new 3 year-olds move up to Animation Station, our large group/small group environment for 3's-Pre K kids.

Andrew looked sleepy and clung to his dad's neck with no sign of budging.  His parents tried to coerce him to stay but weren't having much luck.  They were already running late for service and kept apologizing, obviously embarrassed.

I assured them that it was a big change for all the kids and tried to put them ease, but I knew I had to do something to win Andrew over or he'd end up in the adult service for the night.  The breakout room had blocks and puzzles on the floor but none of that was working.  I had to go big.

"Hey, Andrew," I said.  "You like robots?"  He looked up for the first time.   I said, "Come check this out, guys.  I think you're going to like it."

I led the family into our large group theater which is pretty awesome.  It's loaded with over-sized art supplies to help kids understand that God is a big artist who made them special.  And for this weekend's lesson we had a robot.

When Andrew saw it, he was sold.

But then I clenched the deal.  I showed him the coloring book.  Our coloring book is eight feet tall and ten feet wide.  When the kids walk in for the large group program, it's closed, but the storyteller opens it during the lesson to use as the backdrop for where kids are going to pretend to go that day.  It's a cool effect.

When I opened the coloring book, Andrew totally forgot about mom and dad.  They went to church, and he had a blast.  It meant the world to the parents because instead of leaving their kid crying, they got to leave him in a place he loved.   That's the magic of an amazing environment.

I pulled that same stunt several times this weekend and had 100% success rate.  Why?  Because kids couldn't wait to see what was going to happen on that stage.  They could see we'd built a special place just for them.

The cool thing is once the kids stayed, they weren't disappointed.  I saw one of hesitant girls gushing to her mom and dad after the service, "It was awesome!  You should have stayed!  It was really, really awesome!"   The parents (who an hour earlier were in the same boat as Andrew's parents) were smiling and laughing, obviously thrilled that their little girl LOVED church.

Honestly, when we built these environments, we were primarily thinking about how to use them for worship and storytelling, but since then, we've learned to leverage their wow factor in all kinds of ways.  The wow factor helps us win over new kids on special weekends like this and shows parents that we value their family so much that we put the time and money into crafting an unbelievably fun setting for their kids to discover God.

So, what about you?  What are you doing to create a wow factor in your church, and are you using it for more than just worship and teaching?

Okay, so not everyone can have a stage with a giant coloring book, but that doesn't mean you can't crank up the wow factor in your ministry.   For you, the wow factor could be as simple as a fresh, kid-friendly paint job or decking out your room with an outrageous prop.  One weekend I was teaching 3rd-5th graders about Peter walking on water and borrowed a kayak from a guy in our church.  Free wow.  The kids couldn't wait to see what we were going to do with it.

The point is, whatever resources you have, inject your environments with as much kid-appeal as possible.  Not only will it set the stage to bring the Bible to life but it will communicate tremendous value to kids and parents alike.

Making a Big Splash with Families

Image: 'Splash!' http://www.flickr.com/photos/73491156@N00/477332444

Found on flickrcc.net

A young mom approached me after children's worship one Sunday and asked if I could spare some time to meet with her son later that week. "He's been talking about becoming a Christian," she said, "and I just want you to make sure that he's ready."

I wanted to say, "You're his mom. Can’t you tell me if he's ready?" I knew she was a woman who had grown up in the church and was fairly grounded in her faith, and yet she didn't feel equipped to help her son make the most important decision of his life.

She's not alone. A dad in our church recently told one of our staff, "I know what it means for me to be a Christian, but I don't know how to express it to my son. I just don't have the words."

That’s why we designed Kid Splash, a family experience that’s revolutionizing the way our church helps kids and parents fall in love with Jesus and talk about faith at home. At Kid Splash a skilled communicator walks families through the plan of salvation using big, colorful props, video clips and creative storytelling. Then, kids and parents split up, giving kids the chance to do an activity to reinforce the gospel message and our staff the chance to have some grown-up conversation with just the parents in the room. Finally, we reunite families and send them out the door with fun souvenirs that give them the tools to continue the conversation at home.

At Kid Splash, we take something we do really well, creatively communicate the gospel to kids, and something parents do really well, walk with their kids through everyday life, and combine the two for maximum spiritual impact.

Here's how we do it: