4 Things to Consider for Successful Growth
Think about how much time it took for your children’s ministry to develop and grow organically into the success it is today at your original campus. Your new campus needs the same love and care with a dash of direction, strong leadership, and hard work from your volunteers.
Are you in the beginning phases of your new children’s ministry site? Keep reading for the guidance you need to lead your multi-site church to success from the point where it matters most — the next generation of church leaders.
1. How Will You Coordinate Communication?
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Church communication is everything. Conversations should be happening frequently, whether it be discussions between small group leaders and parents or meetings with ministry managers and volunteers.
Group Chats
Make the most of the technology at your fingertips by creating cross-ministry chats on Slack. Save one for serious updates and another for friendly conversation to keep the feeling of connection alive and maintain bonds across a distance.
Reports
A weekly report from each site outlining attendance and anything else of interest will empower your ministry to monitor how each location is doing. This will flag any concerns to church management before they become a real problem.
Meetings
Set up meetings for kids’ ministry leaders to check in with each other regularly, at least every month. Preferably, these should be in person, but depending on where your campuses are in the world, a video chat might have to do. Have an organized framework to follow, so each site gets a chance to share its news and any updates.
2. What Resources Will You Offer Your Kids?
Providing the same resources to each campus is essential, as it gives each child the same chance as the next. It might take a while to get there, but your church should have a plan to offer the same resources to each campus.
Technology
If one site has an Apple TV for the kids to play around with while another is stuck sharing black-and-white photocopies, you have a problem. The possibilities for creativity and engagement with the material are increased significantly when the technology is up to scratch, so invest in each of your campuses equally.
Curriculum
Will you extend your current kids’ ministry curriculum to include your new campus, or will you develop an entirely new curriculum strategy to suit your new church vision? This is up to you, but an expert-designed children’s ministry curriculum that can be imported at the touch of a button will make your life a whole lot easier.
Field Trips
Standardize the trips and excursions you offer at each site to ensure consistency across your church campuses. If they are close enough, you could even send the kids to the same location offering a chance to get to know each other better and build friendships.
3. Different Methods of Curriculum Delivery
Once you have selected your curriculum for kids, it’s time to think about how you will share it. It will depend on each campus’ access to resources, but choosing one format to suit all is the most effective, time-saving method.
1. Printable Sheets
If you are old school with how you run things, this could be the way for you. Sharing in-house designed worksheets by email for printing at each location is a low-cost way of sharing resources. However, it is pretty outdated, the content will be somewhat boring for the kids, and it wastes paper, which is detrimental to the environment.
2. Hard-Drive
Are your campuses close enough to share physical hard drives? One-up the previous method by sharing complementary videos and media with each campus to supplement the learning experience. It does the job, but given the technology available today, hard drives seem like a lot of work.
3. Playlister
Did you know you could save yourself all the trouble of planning, prepping, and sharing materials? Playlister is a user-friendly church presentation software that automatically sends content where and when it’s needed. Combine it with a smart TV for a seamless streaming experience across your campuses.
4. Streamlined Class Preparation Process
Preparation of the learning environment has a significant impact on the learning experience. Ask yourself questions like: How many volunteers are there per child? Are the walls adorned with colorful displays? Are your workers fully-trained?
Trusted Workers
If you have a trusted team of church volunteers from your original campus, sending them across to the new site in the early days is a smart idea. Putting people who identify with the church vision and know how things are done at your church in the driver’s seat will help train new workers while setting your new ministry off on the right foot.
Trained Volunteers
Ensuring new volunteers pass a standardized training course will give them the skills and knowledge needed to lead young students. Sending clueless people in to run your kidmin will end in disaster.
Running a multi-site church can be hardest on the kids’ ministry because of the streamlined infrastructure and number of workers needed to help things run smoothly. Get ahead of the game by thinking of these things before jumping into multi-site ministry.