Episode 13: How to Help Kids Have an Awesome First Day in Children's Ministry

What's it like to be a new kid in your Children's Ministry? Is it awesome or just okay? If you want to make sure kids have an amazing first experience with your church, then check out episode 13 of the Simple Kidmin podcast.

In this episode I talk about 8 things you can do to help guests kids have an awesome first day in your Children's Ministry. The first one is to create an inviting atmosphere for your kids. Here are four inexpensive ways to do it and here are a few tips about decluttering your space so it looks like you're expecting company.

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5 People You Don't Want Greeting Your Families

Who is the face of your Children's Ministry?  Who do you trust to make a great first impression on behalf of your team, your church and, ultimately, Jesus himself?  

The volunteers who greet your families and help with the check-in process may be the most important leaders on your team.  Why?  Because they could be the first and only person a parent talks to during their visit to your church.  

At our church these volunteers are stationed at guest check-in desks, but this could just as easily apply to the Sunday School teacher or small group leader who greets families at her classroom door.

Whatever your situation, here are the five people you never want greeting guests:

Grumpy Gus
Gus is the kind of guy who looks like he just ate a lemon.  He may genuinely like people (or maybe not), but you could never tell it by his gruff exterior.

Apathetic Annie
Annie isn't just laid back.  She's bored.   She slouches at the guest check-in desk, plays with her phone and appears inconvenienced when she has to assist someone.  When guests arrive late, she's in no particular hurry to check them in.

Flustered Frank
Frank lives in a constant state of emergency.  He knows families are in a hurry to get checked into the service and freaks out under the pressure.  When the check-in line backs up, he gets nervous and puts stressed out families even more on edge.

Clueless Cathy
Cathy never bothered to learn all of the ins and outs of your check-in process and isn't quite sure how it works.  She doesn't know how to operate the computer or find the right paperwork to get families checked in in a timely manner.  She also doesn't really know much about what kids do once they go in their room or where other age groups meet in the church.

Negative Nellie
Nellie is the kind of leader who's always unhappy about something and loves to vent in front of guests.  Whether she's complaining about a recent change in Children's Ministry, the direction of the church or problems in her marriage, she has no filter.  She lacks the maturity to realize how damaging her negative comments can be.

If any of these folk sound familiar, they either need coaching or need you to help them find a better place to serve.

Instead of these bad examples, be on the lookout for people who:

• Are warm and friendly
• Show passion for your ministry
• Stay cool under pressure
• Take time to learn your safety & check-in processes
• Have a positive attitude 

Pray that God will raise up leaders who understand what's at stake and are excited to make a great first impression for the kingdom.  Then set them up to win by giving them all of the support and challenge they need. Finally, take time to celebrate and champion these leaders for making a serious difference in the lives of the families God sends their way.

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.