It begs the question: Whatever happened to Preparation A thru G?
Children’s Church Services/KidMin Large Group Times are my passion. So, in an effort to help you do a better job, or inspire you to go to a new place with your Children’s Church Services, I’ve decided to start a posting on what will bring your services to life. In this series, I’ll not only give you practical advice… but, I’ll also tip my hand as the the “stuff” I use to make it all happen:
Prepare
- Read Your Curriculum or Lesson/Sermon Materials Early in the Week
- Read the main scripture
- Read the supporting scriptures
- Know or come up with a main phrase the kids will know when they walk out
- Pray for guidance
- Start a creativity file for each lesson and start filling it with ideas and resources you come across – http://kidology.org and http://CMConnect.org are great places to find resources, ask questions and get input from KidMin leaders all over the globe!
- Outline your topic and put together a service schedule Planning Center https://www.planningcenteronline.com is perfect as it has a way to add times to each event in your service schedule. They even have a free version so you can try it out with your team.
- Meet with everyone involved in the service and make sure they are all on the same page – http://Dropbox.com is a good way to share information with your team and http://www.nozbe.com works well as a project management with a team of people.
- Prep multi-media – I swear by ProPresenter for presentation Software http://www.renewedvision.com/propresenter.php and even Keynote for Mac is pretty robust if I couldn’t afford ProPresenter.
- Prep print materials
- Gather props and visuals and put them where they are needed for the service
- Rehearse with the appropriate people
- Make adjustments
- Set up your room
- Remember – The service starts the moment the kids walk in
