Step outside yourself

My wife and I had the privilege of accompanying our three preschool age children to a "Preschool Pajama Party" tonight at our church.

It was an incredible experience. An hour and a half of one hundred plus preschoolers (in pajamas) enjoying family pictures, crafts, face painting, singing and a movie with popcorn.

My kids had a blast, and my wife and I felt blessed to spend an evening together enjoying this event as a family. I am extremely grateful for the staff and volunteers who invest in my children each week. It brings great joy to my heart to watch my three year old daughter run out of her class each week, with a big smile on her face, unable to contain her enthusiasm about what she just learned about God. However, It also brings joy to my heart to know that my church cares enough about me spending time with my family, and connecting with other families, to prioritize an event like this.

Two observations I have after tonight:

1. I have been attending Ada Bible for just over eleven years, and have connected deeply with teaching, worship, small group community, and serving in student ministry. I love all of these things, but the fact that our preschool department took the time to create an event that values my family, impacts me in a new and different way. One night of family fun has given me a deeper passion for my church. I have only been a parent for three and a half years, but already I suspect that parenting can feel very lonely, and it means the world to know that our church believes in what we are doing and is there for us as parents.

2. I have been working for the church for just over six years. Honestly, I have a great appreciation and respect for everyone that works within the church, but most of my time and passion is spent in student ministry. When you invest yourself deeply in one aspect of an organization, it is extremely important to remember to look at what others are doing, even within the same organization. Otherwise it is easy to succumb to pride or potentially get stuck in a rut. Tonight's event reminded me again of the deep importance of connecting with and encouraging families as they lead their children.

Meet Volunteers Where They Are

Each week, we ask our student ministry small group leaders to accomplish 4 goals in their small group time

1. Connect as a group: give each student the chance to share a little about their week with the rest of the group.

2. Put handles on the teaching: give students the opportunity to dialogue about the teaching, look in God's Word together, and put "handles" on it, so they can carry away a specific idea of how this applies to their lives, and ultimately understand the concept in a deeper way.

3. Create an environment where students feel safe asking questions

4. Pray: model prayer as a faith practice and create a community where students learn to pray for one another throughout the week.

While we don't use a specific curriculum, we do...

1. Devote several leader training sessions to the basics of leading a student small group.

2. Connect each leader with a coach who cares for them, helps them grow as a leader, and occasionally sits in on their group time to evaluate and encourage them.

3. Offer them resources/further training/specific ideas to improve their small group time.

One of the ways we resource leaders is by sending them a lesson summary each week. This consists of a basic outline of the teaching, key scripture, and potential questions for small group time. From there, we leave it up to the leader to mold their small group time into a meaningful experience.

One of our goals is to meet volunteers where they are, in the midst of their busy lives. In attempt to make lesson summaries easily accessible and more memorable, we began sending our volunteers short video summaries each week.

A dual purpose:

We have also been sending these videos to our students' parents...

1. to continue to build relationship with parents

2. to keep parents informed on what we are teaching

3. to facilitate further conversation in the home about spiritual things.

Here is an example of this week's summary.

Lesson Summary Nov 1 and 4 from Jon Grunden on Vimeo.

We would love your feedback, ideas, critiques, or encouragement on this idea as we continue to grow. Please feel free to leave comments below.