8 ideas to help you connect with families

Ideas for connecting the children’s ministry at church with the children’s families and supporting parents in their role.

Children are part of families and while friends grow in their influence as children reach their teens, families are still the biggest influence on the life of a child. How do we support families as they develop the spiritual life of their children? How do we connect our children’s ministry with their families?

Here are some ideas to help you connect with and involve families in the fantastic ministry you do with their children:

  1. When planning your ‘Big Picture Calendar’ for each year, include some events for the whole family – Family Services where families can worship together, Family Events (sports days, picnics etc).
  2. Alternatively, explore ways of including families in events you are planning for children. For example if you are planning a camp, maybe make the last day a picnic day for whole families to enjoy the venue and arrange a couple of key leaders to be available to circulate among the families to get to know them.
  3. Be sensitive to the needs of those children whose families aren’t able or don’t want to attend. Have a number of families on the lookout for children in this situation and be proactive about inviting them to join their family for the day.
  4. Take the initiative in contacting families to let them know the topics and stories you are using with their children, this will make it easier for families to follow-up on the teaching you are doing. The easiest would be to send a letter at the beginning of each term to welcome the children to another term of children’s ministry and to let the families know what will be covered. Then you have only the welcome letters to new families as their children come along.
  5. Be on the lookout for great resources to encourage families to worship, to explore, to learn and to serve together and share these with the families of your congregation. If you hold Family Services organize a bookstall with these resources, or promote parenting courses at that time.
  6. Meet the parents of children in your group. If this is too big and overwhelming, start small by meeting parents of new children.
  7. Be family friendly by keeping confidential information confidential.
  8. Invite specialists to your church to speak about parenting issues such as enjoying and understanding your children, discipline, drugs, etc. Invite parents from the church and community and use it as a pathway to relationship building.

You can download this article at the Max7 resources website