This weekend at Trinity Church we are kicking off a totally new way of doing check-in for our Elementary students.  I’m a HUGE advocate of self check-in, and this plan has worked for our Elementary areas for a few years now.  Due to our building setup this is NOT a security check-in system, it is a attendance check-in system.  We do not do any kind of check-out, and still rely on small group leaders and other leaders to help identify parents and others that have business in our Children’s areas.

What’s different?

• Families can check-in using a RFID key tag.  Each family is being given two key tags that they will then be able to use anytime they visit Kidsplace.  Previously we used name tags with magnetic stripes that kids “swiped” on a reader.
• After check-in for each child, there will be a name badge printed for them next to the kiosks.  Previously we used hard plastic name tags that had to be returned each week to be used again the next week.  Can you say time-intensive?
• All visitors are entered into our ARENA database program when they visit.  Using Family Registration, every visitor will be entered in, and subsequently checked-in to their appropriate location.  Previously we kept a running spreadsheet and didn’t enter a child until they had attended 3 times or more, and then we would create a permanent name tag for them.
• Visitors will be able to check-in using their phone number on there very next visit to church.  No more visitor line for them!  Previously, they continued to visit this visitor line until they had attended for a few weeks and were moved to a permanent name tag.  I’m so excited to be able to give our first-timers a real special experience!

I’m real excited, and mildly concerned about how easy this will all pull off this weekend.  I can tell you that I’m gonna love the RFID name tags, as we no longer have to deal with barcodes or magnetic stripes at check-in!  Here is a short video that was distributed to parents this week to prepare them for the transition.  Now…fire away with those questions in the comment area!

Way back in May, I’m reading an article that Wayne Stocks wrote at www.ministry-to-children.com where he speaks about the Sunday upcoming for our volunteers is anything but a normal Sunday.  It really spoke to me, and I thought about it for a few days.  I then took his idea (with his permission) and worked it into my volunteer Kidsplace Unscripted video series that goes out to all our volunteers.  It was a hit.

Thanks to Wayne for the idea, and for his writing genius!

This is video #3 of our continuing effort to “get the word out” that we have Children’s Ministry available for families that attend Trinity Church.  These are NOT volunteer recruitment video’s, but rather just informational in format.  You can see the first video HERE, and see the #2 video HERE.

Kidsplace Promotion #3 from Jonathan Cliff on Vimeo.

We will be running these videos throughout the next few months.  They are only 30 seconds in length, and are designed to fit along with whatever video announcements the church is running in weekend services.  They are not designed to be stand-alone.  They will also be used over and over throughout the year.  Make sense?

We outsourced the work to a local place here in Lubbock.  All videos were filmed, created, and designed by Kevin Rhodes over at Dream Taxi.

This is video #2 of our continuing effort to “get the word out” that we have Children’s Ministry available for families that attend Trinity Church.  These are NOT volunteer recruitment video’s, but rather just informational in format.  You can see the first video HERE.

Kidsplace Promotion #2 from Jonathan Cliff on Vimeo.

We will be running these videos throughout the next few months.  They are only 30 seconds in length, and are designed to fit along with whatever video announcements the church is running in weekend services.  They are not designed to be stand-alone.  They will also be used over and over throughout the year.  Make sense?

We outsourced the work to a local place here in Lubbock.  All videos were filmed, created, and designed by Kevin Rhodes over at Dream Taxi.

Yesterday I wrote about our experience with kids in a Large Group Ministry Time, and wondered how we could move some of these positive Large Group moments into our Small Group ministry times.  I’ve come up with two ways we can help make this happen.  Go read the first goal HERE.

The second way we can do this is to schedule in time of large group ministry times, that can then transition into small group times. In an effort to create community for kids in a small group level, I often forfeit any chance of large group prayer and ministry time.  Why can’t both exist at the same time?  I’m thinking what if we setup times throughout our calendar year for large group ministry time?  In our church, I believe much of the success we’ve seen in our ministry times is that it’s so new and fresh for the kids.  To keep it fresh we will have to do a few things.

1. Find the lessons, and biblical lessons that fit a large group ministry time.  Not all lessons are created equal, and it’s worth the time taken to find the lessons that lend themselves to praying together as a group.
2. Give our Small Group Leaders ample time to prepare for transitioning into Small Group time from a Large Group ministry time.  I foresee a slow, deliberate transition from large group prayer time into small group.  I would want to take the same atmosphere of ministry time into small group, but this will take some training.  There would need to be common things happening in small groups each time there was a ministry time.
3. Accept the fact that it will take time from Small Groups.  I whole-heartedly believe that life change happens in the environment of community, and I am committed to working to create the small group atmosphere for our children at Trinity Church.  However, I am also committed to large group ministry times, and I want to give kids the opportunities to pray as a group with each other and for each other.  To do this occasionally, we will have to adjust.