My Three Things From Orange

It's been three weeks since the Orange Conference and there was so much to process after coming home. Since I was the only one from our children's ministry team that was able to attend, it was my job to bring all of what I learned home to share with everyone. Knowing that attending Orange is like drinking from a fire hose for days, I had to process before passing on anything. Sam Luce gave me some great advice the first year I attended the conference when I explained that I was a bit overwhelmed. He said to pick three things that I learned and work on those. I went to work on writing up everything on what I wanted to share and presented them to our director.

So here are my three things.

All three things are from from Gina McClain's workshop.

Gina had spoken about how essential it is to highlight the win by sharing stories. These stories will communicate what is important, that there are valuable things happening, and could potentially be an invitation to get involved. 

Prior to Orange our team had briefly spoken about doing some videos to share with the church during service, but they were mostly going to be informational. What I suggested is that we create videos that would tell the stories of why we serve and all that God is doing in the lives of our kids. Informational videos while necessary and definitely useful, often only engage those who actually have children in our ministry. So in addition to the series promotional videos, we are also sharing the stories that we hope will reach everyone.

Gina expressed the responsibility we have to empower our small group leaders with clear goals and values. That everyone should know what to do and how to do it, what is a priority, and what is expected of them. 

The most common ways of communicating these goals and values are a handbook and verbally giving these directions. We had been doing well verbally, but needed to update our handbook for our adult volunteers and create one for our junior volunteers. We took this a step further and wanted to create one not only for small group leaders, but for all leaders in our ministry. We have just finished our junior volunteer handbook and are currently working on one for the adults.

Gina discussed helping small group leaders to think small and that how they are equipped matters. She spoke of empowering small group leaders by giving them a roster of the kids in their group and explaining that these are the ones to know, love on, and pray for each week.

We want our small group leaders to take ownership of their groups and this is a fantastic way to do that. We have completed the roster and are working on additional information to provide leaders including addresses and birthdays of each child. Not only will this provide a list of children to pray for each week, but will also allow them to connect and build relationships outside of Sundays.

These are just a few things I brought home to share with our team that we are currently working on applying to our ministry.

What were your takeaways from Orange?

How are you implementing them?

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A Peek Into My Small Group

I have had a few people as me what small group looks like for me in our children's ministry. I lead a small group of girls in third through fifth grade.

Here is a peek into my small group.

We are dismissed from large group time to break out into our small groups. One of my girls will grab our small group bucket which contains our activities and supplies. As we gather in our circle, I will ask how everyone's week was and if anyone has something about it that they would like to share. Now in a group of girls this could take some time, so I usually limit it to just a couple of stories.

I ask everyone to open their Bibles so that we can read our Bible verse together and talk more about it. For example, this past weekend our Bible verse was Proverbs 3:5, so I first asked if Proverbs was in the Old or New Testament. As the girls were looking up the Bible verse, I told them about Solomon and how he asked God for wisdom and that Proverbs was written to share that wisdom. We will then read the verse aloud a few times as not everyone has the same translation and the girls enjoy reading how it is worded in their Bibles. Then I asked the girls what they think it means to trust God with all of their heart. Then I asked the girls if we should only trust God for some things and not others. Then I asked what it means to them when the verse tells us not to depend on our own understanding. We listened to everyone's answers and discussed each of them. We do this on a regular basis with our weekly Bible verses.

At this time we will move on to our activity provided with our curriculum. Sometimes I will add a craft to our activities which the girls can take home as a reminder of what they have learned and a way to share with their families. This past week we made beaded bracelets with a heart on them to remind us of our Bible verse. This activity time is when my girls are most talkative. They share about what is happening in their lives, talk about our Bible story, and really connect with each other. 

I guide the conversation by asking questions, but for the most part I am listening more than talking during this time.

Towards the end of our time together, I ask the girls if they have any prayer requests. We listen as each one shares. I repeat each one and remind the girls to be praying for each other through the week. The girls will also share any answered prayers during this time. Then we pray together. I ask the girls if they would like to pray out loud and explain that no one has to do so. We do "tap a knee" circle praying. Once a girl is done praying, she will tap the knee of the girl beside her. If someone doesn't want to pray aloud, then she will tap the knee of the girl beside her. This goes on until the circle comes back to me and then I will close the prayer.

Most times the girls are released to their families from our small group. If we happen to have time left before pick up, then I usually break out playing cards (Uno is our favorite right now) or blank paper and colored pencils (I get lots of artwork to hang on my fridge this way). We continue our conversations in the extra time.

Although I am a big believer in planning and preparing for each week, there have been times when the Holy Spirit has prompted me to put all plans aside in our time together. This happened once when one of my girls shared that they were being bullied in school. We spent our time in group discussing this issue and I watched these girls encourage and love on each other. You can't plan those moments.

I love these sweet girls and am so very blessed to be part of their lives. They are smart and funny and sassy and so very precious. In this circle, I have watched them grow in their faith, love on each other, and become a tribe.

What does small group look like for you?

Blessings,