Nick Blevins Family Ministry Podcast: Children | Youth | Students | NextGen

In this episode, Jeremy O'Neill gives us a quick look into Children's ministry of Sandals Church, a multisite church in Southern California that is producing a unique and original approach to the in-person and digital experience for kids and families. Jeremy also shares some of the things that are shaping Sandals Kids teams and leadership development.

Connect with Jeremy through Email.

Check out our courses and register now at MinistryBoost.org.

Sandals Kids at 11 campuses:

• Use a Small Group and Large Group model
• Digital Storybook for preschool
• Range from 70 kids to over 1,000 kids (2,000 across all campuses)
• Content completely original for all kid's ministry
• Created Roku app for devices on their campuses for Kid's content

Sandalskids.tv:

• This is where ALL content lives
• A mixture of fun and serious
  • Youtube videos are mainly for fun
  • The Sandalskids.tv platform is more for engaging content

What's going well at Sandals Church:

• Measurement of everything
  • The return rate of attendees
  • Recognizing trends
• Invite Events, Develop People, Serve Events
  • Schedule these strategically for families to adopt church as a part of their lives
• Consider all your data (key audiences – survey them)
  • Volunteers
  • Parents
  • Kids (Idea: emoji survey)
  • Staff
• Ask the hard questions
  • How are we doing? Is there a disconnect with how kids feel and how parents feel? What is working, what isn't, and where should we invest more of our energy?

What needs some work at Sandals:

• Bringing people around the VISION
• Address the gap in identifying potential leaders
  • Identify leadership levels (pipeline)
• Simple Model for leadership development
  • Tasks
  • Projects
  • Role

1. MinistryBoost.org/screens
2. Look at return rate – retention plan
3. Sample survey or visit sandalskids.tv

Use the form below to subscribe to my email list where you’ll get an email each Tuesday when a new podcast comes out. That email will also include something exclusive related to the podcast that’s not found in the post or in the episode.

In this episode, Dr. Terry Linhart shares some of his experiences with teaching in youth ministry as well as thoughts from his book The Self-Aware Leader. From years of ministry experience in the local church and as a faculty member at Bethel University, Terry is able to speak to the current state of teaching in youth ministry as well how self-awareness effects those leading in family ministry.

Connect with Terry through Instagram, Twitter or his Website.

Check out our courses and register now at MinistryBoost.org.

Talking about being self-aware:

• People develop patterns and preferences over time; we just need to be open to identifying these things
• Dramatic identity stages in the 20s – and it's hard to get them all together
  • singles
  • married people
  • those who went to college and those who did not
  • people with kids
• Areas where there is a common lack of self-awareness
  • People who are forward-thinking/moving tend to have a harder time looking back and seeing and helping those around them
  • Barna Data: approximately 7 our of 10 lead pastors tend to steer away from caring for their staff/teams
  • Must be careful not to become too similar to a CEO where you just move things forward
• Emotions involved in self-awareness
  • When we have an emotional reaction to something, we should take a “reactions selfie”
  • Ask the questions: Why did I react that way?
    

The State of Teaching in Youth Ministry

• Observations
  • Need for teaching to be rooted in discipleship
  • Need to be student-centered and lean more into the relational aspect of ministry
  • Concern – we can be all “minds-on” without being “hand-on” or “hearts-on”
• Pivots student ministry leaders should make in regard to disciplining students
  • Consider art – program expressions of worship and enhance experiences through art/video/creative elements
  • Provide opportunities for your introverts
  • Teaching – teach in the 7s, vary what you do
    • Do 7 different things and change every 7 minutes
    • Virtually – program in the 7s, rather than full 30+ minute teachings
  • Link everything together
  • Something to consider… changing methods does not mean the quality of content changes as well (example: panel discussions)

1. Get the book, read it, and journal – The Self-Aware Leader

In this episode, Jason Young gives some helpful ideas for guest retention and new families by considering how the experience makes people feel, especially as churches return to campus ministry. Jason also shares from his experience at Northpoint Community Church and LifeChurch.tv and what he observed while serving on staff.

Connect with Jason through Instagram, Twitter or his Website.

Check out our courses and register now at MinistryBoost.org.

The Comeback Effect:

• How do you USE hospitality in a way that compels a guest to come back?
• Create a culture, not a job title (chapter 2)

Experience at Northpoint:

• Autonomy to try things in regards to guests
  • NEXT: an opportunity to hear more about the church (stopped using this approach)
  • Realized that it was more about presentation than interaction
• Simplified: Life can be complicated. You want to get it right. We can help.
  • Instead of starting with the church, start with the person, and guide them to what the church offers and how that can match the person's needs
• Sometimes, we are so close to the experience that we don't understand what is wrong with our approach
  • Consider getting an outside ear to listen to your approach
• Tension: Groups got the majority of stage time, but volunteering was not as much of a priority
  • groups are amazing, but there was a systemic volunteer challenge because there was not a healthy approach to recruiting and retaining those volunteers

How did you get families to come back a second time (in some capacity)?

• No prescribed process, but there was an intentional approach to move people somewhere
• Create a culture of clarity
  • Be clear, Be clear, Be clear (say it again)
  • Instead, think about these questions, “What do we want them to know?” and “What do we want them to do?”
  • Build toward clarity by saying less and giving a call to action
• We often fall in love with what we do FUNCTIONALLY, but it's more important to understand how people FEEL about the church and how they FEEL when they leave
• The church is being compared to everyday moments that people experience; the church should be lead out on how people FEEL

How does this translate to NextGen/Family Ministry?

• There must be a partnership between the ministry spaces
  • Have similar language and hand-offs from ministry to ministry
  • Volunteers and Staff know the plan for this experience and intentionally look for ways to serve families based on their needs
  • Aim for congruency and then consistently deliver on that
• Help families know that you “have the

In this episode, Jonathan Malm gives some practical steps and insight on utilizing digital platforms and social media for discipleship and encouragement. He also shares some of the foundation for a book he co-authored with next week's podcast guest, Jason Young, called The Come Back Effect, focusing on hospitality both for church on campus and online.

Connect with Jonathan through Instagram or his Website.

Check out our courses and register now at MinistryBoost.org.

Social Media focus for churches:

• Social Media comes first
• Moving towards discipleship and encouragement (supports ministry)
• Season Kits for sermon series
• Focus on making it easy for the overwhelmed graphics person/team
  

What are you seeing that churches should focus on in this season?

• Digital Discipleship
  • If we don't have them in our services, we don't really have steps for them to follow Jesus
  • Ministry looks different on social media, so our 35-minute sermons may not work on those platforms
  • ***Discipleship happens over time; through social media, how do you help people take one small step toward Jesus?
• Create content that meets people where they are
• Examples of Digital Discipleship WINS:
  • Instagram Carousels
  • Questions with
  • Deep content that is quickly digestible (topics below)
    • Shame
    • Loneliness/Isolation
    • Fear/Anxiety
    • A desire for influence/impact
    • Anger/Forgiveness
    • Selfishness
    • Sadness
    • Personal: Money, Diet/Exercise, Work
    • Spiritual Disciplines (holiness, prayer, fasting, worship)
• Rather than starting something, church leaders maybe just jump on and watch/consume to better understand Gen Z

The Comeback Effect:

• Expansion of the book Unwelcome
• Entirely hospitality minded
  • Tendency to think about the “functional” things and the checklist
    • Parking attendants, bright shirts for kids workers, etc.
  • Instead, look for opportunities to connect with people and recognize the negative emotions people may be facing
• Understanding hospitality ONLINE
  • When people come to church, it's like them coming into our house
  • When we stream live, they are now welcoming THE CHURCH into their house
    • We surrender control
    • Don't prompt them to get coffee
    • Affirm their potential situations and help people know they belong
    • Showing diversity and values

1. Check out Sunday Social,

In this episode, Tom Shefchunas spends time sharing about what it's like connecting students during the current state of church ministry and ways they have prioritized building relationships. Coach Shef also shares the importance of shaping youth ministries to focus on the quality of relationships with leaders and students rather than just the programming.

Connect with Coach Shef through his Website and on the YS Whiteboard.

Check out our courses and register now at MinistryBoost.org.

Student Ministry focus during COVI-19:

• Partnering with Parents
  • never been more important
  • never have parents wanted more input; they are open to it
• Being Present 
  • Especially in the digital world
  • Avoiding isolation
    • work your list and connect
    • the more senses you can hit, the better
• Work ON your ministry
  • Rather than just working IN IT right now, work ON IT and gett it better while we wait

Overview of When Relationships Matter:

• Creating a ministry that a kid won't miss because of someone who will miss them
  • Can't systematize relationships
  • 1,000 different little things that will help to make relationships matter
• Concerts, Classrooms, and Circles
  • Key Question: Is a relational connection a PART of your program, or the POINT of your program?
  • Adjust your talk to not be “complete” to leave room for discussion
  • Communication for a Change – leave it to the small group leader to make the connection to the content

Things to do to prepare for and work toward this type of ministry:

• Think through the people who would be amazing leaders with students
  • If you have more than one gender, or more than 10 kids, YOU NEED to recruit
  • Cast vision for walking with students for a season
• Create an active roster of your students
  • KNOW your kids
  • Know if your attendance is growing because more kids are coming, or kids are coming more often (and why)
  • Systems you can measure

• Where do you start with leader commitments?
  • Start with a list of people who will do great, then cast vision and go from there
  • Start with 2-3 year commitment
  • Don't be afraid of people NOT committing to the vision
  • “Look, this job isn't for everybody”
  • Stewardship is the quality of relationships, not just the program

1. Check out the book When Relationships Matter

In this episode, Gina McClain shares some ideas that she has gathered and a resource she helped create: a COVID-19 Family Ministry Road Map. Whether you have a specific strategy already in place or are just starting this conversation, Gina brings years of expertise and insight from some of the nation's leading family ministry leaders to help prepare churches for leading families well in the next season.

Connect with Gina on Twitter, Instagram and Website.

Check out our courses and register now at MinistryBoost.org.

In the COVID-19 season, what are you seeing and noticing in churches?

• Churches are getting creative
• There is still a lot of unknown
• Must stop thinking about CONTENT and think more about CONNECTION
• Thinking about who is there AND who isn't there
  • In this season, we don't really know who is there, so engagement must be measured differently
• Families need content on the weekends, but they also need someone to show up during the week
• Some students are not safe right now
  • What was a crack in our ministry yesterday, today is a CHASM

Three Phases of the Family Ministry Roadmap:

• Phase One: Online Engagement
  • Keep volunteers engaged and call on them to make connections
• Phase Two: Seeing the return date
  • Asking all the questions we need to ask about returning
    • What families will come back?
    • Cleaning buildings?
    • Which ministries will meet?
  • Volunteers: we get a RESET
    • Not just focusing on activities, and remind them about CONNECTION
    • Update procedures
    • Possibly recruit for Guest Services to move to “hands-free” check-in (no screens)
• Phase Three: Full launched back to church on campuses
  • DIG INTO PHASE ONE
  • Realize that your families that call your church home may NOT return right away
  • Engage and offer what was available in Phase One
    • You must know who is there and who isn't there
    • You must know WHY families aren't returning
    • NOTE: emailing families for prayer requests is less personal than calling a family and asking how you can pray for them
  • “The silent enemy in this season is not coronavirus, it's disconnection.” – Gina McClain
• Secondary resource: A Leaders Guide to a Connected Ministry
• Launching a Cohort for ministry leaders: Connected Cohort

In this episode, Sean Sweet shares about preteen ministry and his specific experience helping his own church develop a thriving preteen ministry. Sean also gives some specific insight into FourFiveSix, a ministry of Destiny Church in Rocklin, CA, focused on community, training, and resources for preteen leaders around the nation.

Connect with Sean by Email or at FourFiveSix.org.

Check out our courses and register now at MinistryBoost.org.

What is FourFiveSix.org?

• Community, Training platform, Resources
• Letting go of the bike and giving ownership to preteen's faith
  • Ready developmentally, but not experientially
  • Minister to them for who they are, rather than just keeping them in a holding pattern
  • Help them begin thinking about taking their first faith steps
• Podcast of 4,5, or 6 minutes
  • 360 episodes (goal to have 456)
• 3-year Scope and Sequence curriculum designed for preteens
• Summer VBS option for preteens
• Peer Groups for preteen ministry leaders
• Online Conference (Onference) annually
• Launch-inar

How does preteen ministry bridge the gap from Kids to Student Ministry?

• Middle School/Junior High Pastors typically want to hop right in and ride alongside the students, but kids are typically just told “about the bike”; so preteen ministry allows for preteens to learn “how to ride”
• Children's ministries can be stronger and focus on the younger age groups
• Youth ministries can now focus on the awkwardness of kids moving right into students
• **Great idea… 30-week preteen leadership/discipleship program
  

How do you structure services?

• No small groups on Sunday; small groups on Wednesdays
• Easier for preteens to invite to a mid-week

1. Check out FourFiveSix.org
2. Do a Zoom call w/ preteens in this season
3. Create a preteen plan

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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.”

Connect with Dale on Facebook, Instagram and Website.

Check out our courses and register now at MinistryBoost.org.

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?

1. How often do kids attend you

In this episode, Jarrod Harris shares about his church's recent shifts in kidmin to online church as well as some unique tips for volunteer recruitment and empowerment. Making adjustments within kidmin and family ministry is inevitable, but all the strategies we hold tightly to within our churches can still be championed and upheld, including personal connections and partnering with parents.

Connect with Jarrod on Facebook, Instagram and Email at [email protected].

Check out our courses and register now at MinistryBoost.org.

Ideas for connecting with families digitally:

• Online kid's services
  • Personalized
    • Volunteers are the heroes
    • Utilize staff sometimes, but allow volunteers to still be seen
    • Pre-recorded and included in the weekend
• YouTube
  • A show focused on family connection
    • Reinforces parents as spiritual leaders
    • Engages families in activities together
    • Prompts families to watch again with challenges
    • Recaps weekend service content for the family
    • Note: After recording this podcast, there were some delays in launching the MISSION YouTube Show for kids (see additional examples and resources in the Action Steps below)
• Zoom calls for groups
  • Continued connection for kids with their leaders
  • Take the most consistent kids and get leaders contact info
    • Prompt leaders to reach out via text, email, or even a personal video to kids and families
  • Relationships truly happen outside of the weekends; otherwise
  • Using GroupMe to interact with teams and send out information to volunteers
  • Zoom Calls can be set (with licensed and private accounts) for kids and leaders to have face-to-face group time
  • Weekly Zoom Calls for grade levels (all first-graders from one service at the same time; then 2nd grade and so on)

• Building the Bench: a unique approach to filling the weekend gaps from call-outs
  • Turning people's No's into Yes's
  • Volunteer empowerment to recruit and schedule their SUBs
  • Gamification is a great incentive
  • Staff still responsible for orientation, background checks, onboarding and training
  • Identifying pools of potential SUBs

1. Check out a YouTube show for #kidmin online
   • Uptown Kids Online
   • LifeKids

In this episode, Nick Blevins takes time to share some unique ideas for churches while they may not be gathering during this most recent COVID-19 virus. Some ideas are specific to this situation, but others are absolutely applicable in the future and could even be a blessing in disguise.

Check out our courses and register now at MinistryBoost.org and check out the special Webinar on Leading Your Family Ministry in the Midst of Crisis on Wednesday, March 18th.

Church Online

• Services Online – Tips / Changes
• Small Groups – Zoom/Hangouts/Marco/Polo
• YouVersion Bible Studies

NextGen Ministry

• Children’s Ministry Online
• Student Ministry Online
  

Other

• Staff – Work From Home Policies / Tips
• Serve the Community – childcare/meals/bless people
• Pastoral Care – personal call/text to every person in groups/serving

Use the form below to subscribe to my email list where you’ll get an email each Tuesday when a new podcast comes out. That email will also include something exclusive related to the podcast that’s not found in the post or in the episode.

To make sure you never miss a post, hit the subscribe button in iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, or Tune In radio. Keep your friends and co-workers up-to-date as well by sharing it with them via email or social media.