We’ve all heard the comparison that most kids are at church maybe 52 hours a year while parents are with their kids 3000 hours a year. So the question that comes from that is how do you get the lesson from church into the home. How do you help parents apply what the kids are learning.
There are many ways to do this. And I’m sure you have some that I haven’t thought of, so please share those too. Here are my ways:
1. Social Media- This is a way to continual remind families about what happened Sunday and what’s coming up. I’ll be talking about more ways to integrate Social media and ministry this month.
2. Take Home- We have a take home that goes home every week with the kids. It covers Memory verse, bottom line, series title, questions to start conversation, daily devotion, what coming up in the ministry, last weeks attendance, and a leader of the month. If you want to see the format, you can check it out here.
3. Newsletter- I haven’t started this, but will I’m planning on launching a weekly parent newsletter this fall. We are currently doing the Parentlink by Group that goes out monthly. On the calendar at the end we add two more calendar layouts and Pre-k, elem, and Pre-Teen, all get a calendar that bottom lines and events (both current and upcoming) go on.
4. Web site- I don’t interact with the website as a means to keep parents informed about our week to week, but I know a lot of churches do. Crossroads in Cincinnati is an an example of a church that has a parent interaction with their site.
So here are the ways that I’ve thought about helping parents bring the lesson home through the week. How do you help parents teach their kids at home.
