Faith formation is not just a Sunday morning activity. There are firsts, milestones, rights of passage with specialness wrapped all around which can offer faith experiences and sticky spiritual memories. I believe each local church, each family even, can prepare an ordered format of FAITH MILESTONES offering intentional firsts as part of a student’s faith experiences.

A retreat is time away from our normal life for the purpose of connecting with God on a deeper level.  1 Peter 4:10 was the focus of our day away at Ms. DeDe’s for rising 4th-6th graders and last week’s annual Deep & Wide Retreat: where we go deeper in our relationship with God and each other & where we look wider in our scope of influence than just our own little world.

$45 per student provided supplies, lunch, snacks, dinner, movie tickets, rental van to carry everyone to and from, and a great tshirt. Our AMAR District summer interns brainstormed the scripture, the schedule, the activities, and the supplies needed for the kids to learn more about their personality gifts, their spiritual gifts, and practice serving others in their every-day. Parents pick up and drop off at my home. Most of them carpool because I live 40 minutes north of the church.

10-10:30am Rock painting
Finding painted rocks are huge in our area, so we started the morning by painting rocks we would later hide on the playground and in the pool area of the neighborhood to delight others we would know nothing about. What happened? After going swimming the second time, we observed and heard the squeals of a family as they were finding our painted rocks and uploading pics on the Canton Rocks Facebook page.

10:30-11 Lesson #1 True Colors Personality Quiz
Take and discuss the different personalities and how accurate they are. How can we use this to better understand ourselves and others? Discuss how better knowing who you are, and your gifts, helps you better understand how you can help serve God’s purposes. The different colors and personalities each offer different ways to best serve others.
Orange: drawn to active mission projects, building houses (Amelia Earhart and Teddy Roosevelt)
Green: curious and logical innovators who can solve issues (Moses, Ben Franklin)
Blue: drawn to outreach, relationship building (Oprah Winfrey, Abraham Lincoln)
Gold: drawn to admin jobs in the church, office (George Washington, Henry Ford)

11-11:20 Make lunch of sandwiches, chips, fill water bottles

11:20-12:00noon Lesson #2 Spiritual Gifts Assessment
Dissect the 1 Peter 4:10 scripture. Discuss how we must work together as ambassadors for the Lord. How to use spiritual gifts to serve others in church, at school, in the community, and in the world. God can use even what you think is the smallest of gifts. David was small and though he was young, yet he protected his people with God’s help and a little slingshot. Esther was a woman in a time where women did not have any power, yet she saved her people by changing the king’s mind. Gideon was a farmer, but God made him into a mighty warrior who saved the Israelites from the Midianites and other meaners. Rahab was an innkeeper whose strong faith in a God she’d only heard about in stories led her to risk her life by hiding spies in her home. Moses ran away from God at first due to fear, but then he led the people to the Promised Land. Noah picked up his family and built an ark due to his huge faith in God.

12-12:30 Hiked to reservoir and picnicked lunch

12:45-2:00pm Pool time with snacks during Adult Swim/whistle blow/lifeguard breaks

2:30 Movie: Cars 3

5:00pm Lesson #3 Debriefed Movie
Proverbs 19:21 & 1 Peter 4:10 Discussed how, in the movie, each car had a different gift/purpose though all were cars/vehicles. Though McQueen had gifts he used to win, he also had gifts he could use to help others win. Jesus served others in many ways, never taking the glory for himself, rather giving it all to his Father. Discussed how each student could help others win.

5:30pm Prepared fruit salad and deep dish pizza
The rising 6th graders (since this is their last Deep & Wide) used their gifts to teach and coach how to prepare the fruit salad and the deep dish pizza. Played games while cooking: Spoons, Pit

7-8pm Distribute painted rocks around neighborhood playground and pool area and go swimming

8-9pm Returned to pack up for pick up and enjoy fruit sorbets (a tradition) Discussion of how they served each other today, their experience watching/hearing the family making painted rock discoveries, how they can carry on serving the others they live with (family), at church, and in their community.

I love these kids. I love watching the older ones teach and coach the younger ones. I love hearing the stories and seeing the comments on social media sharing their Deep & Wide Retreat experience. Enjoying their company in the everyday with the thread of the scriptures throughout makes for sticky spiritual memories. The interns and I debriefed realizing we accomplished a lot in one day without rush or mishap. We engaged every learning style and offered laughter, competition, creativity, and all the physical needs through food and lots of water. You can find out about past Deep & Wide retreats here and here. The amazing tshirts (designed by the interns and our friends at Sportsprint) we’ll wear to church on Sunday. What does your kid’s first retreat look like?

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10

This darling, little book picked up from the Cokesbury display at North Georgia’s Annual Conference is an in-your-face challenge for God’s people to respond to children in the church and in the community based on John Wesley’s instructions to Methodist preachers found in the “Large Minutes.” Rev. Dr. Christopher Miles Ritter came to learn early in his ministry career that Wesley believed in ministry to children. So much so that I didn’t have the right to call myself a Methodist preacher if I didn’t spend time with children. My copy is so marked up, starred, underlined, pages turned down, and used it looks like it’s been in my library for 20 years.

Rev. Dr. Chris Ritter is an ordained elder/clergy in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference of the United Methodist Church where he has served as the Directing Pastor of Geneseo First United Methodist Church since 2009. Dr. Ritter considers the following seven things to be the bare minimum in ministry with children:

1. Teach them intentionally – A Christian education should have no other end but to teach them to think, and judge, and act according to Christ. Stop the excuses! Don’t buy into the idea that once your kids have aged up or aged out, so have you.

2. Know them personally – Hagrid took Harry Potter to Hogwarts, Obi-Wan introduced Luke to the ways of the Force. Gandalf called Frodo into the Fellowship of the Ring, Morpheus helped Neo take off his blinders. Batman had Alfred. Daniel had Mr. Miyagi. Bill and Ted had Rufus. Mutants were recruited by Professor Xavier to become X-Men. Could it be that Hollywood makes billions of dollars telling these and similar stories over again because they have tapped into a deep spiritual longing within all of us? Side note: Who is your Obi-Wan? Who is your Daniel?

3. Pray for them intensely – One way to pray with them is simply to bless them in Jesus’ name.  It was said that Wesley always had a smile and a kind word for children, and would place his hands on their heads offering a heavenly benediction. Let’s go beyond praying for their safety and traveling mercies. Join me in prayers and fasting a meal a week for them to hear God’s voice, have a hunger for God’s word, and a fearless witness to fulfil the adventure He has for each of them.

4.  Mentor families meaningfully – Not only is the home the primary unit of spiritual formation, but it is also the place where we tend to either use or lose our Christianity. Let’s have some honest conversations of living out our family’s spiritual priorities in a regular and faithful way. We have time for what is important. How our kids will view their calendars (and Sundays) as adults is how they see us view each day (including Sundays) when they were kids.

5.  Challenge ourselves continually – Pastor Ritter offers the challenge to expand the definition of ‘our kids.’ Poor children are not that difficult to reach…they have time on their hands. Poor kids are never too busy to go to church. What does fishing for kids look like in your community? He goes on to write about the first Sunday Charity School in 1780, and by 1821, roughly a quarter of the kids in England, 1.25 million, were in a Sunday school paving the way for universal education for kids. You many not have the means to bus a load of kids to church, but your kids have friends. Following Jesus is not comfortable, convenient, nor cheap, yet the payoff is huge! Thinking about it is not the same as doing something about it.

6. Shape our ministries appropriately – Children need an advocate, an adult who is seeking their good. Sometimes this involves defending them, sometimes providing for them, and sometimes simply expecting the best from them. Kids insist on changing and growing up, kinda how God wired them/us. The gospel message doesn’t change, but the delivery better. Ministry is all about relationships, yet relationships are cultivated differently than they were even five years ago. Are we engaged in on-going learning to be better at leading kids and their families? A friend confided that she knew it was time to retire when she no longer wanted to learn anything new. What is your plan for learning and growing your ministry with children more deeply and effectively?

7. Care for them practically – Pastor Ritter opens the chapter, “You don’t know the story of Methodism until you know the story of a place called Kingswood.” He then goes on to tell this amazing story of the children of coal-miners considered a little better than beasts.

There is so much goodness in these mere 80 pages I want to offer two books to give away. Comment below how you are meeting one of the seven in your context as an encouragement to your fellow kidmin champions because we are better together. Two different recipients will be mailed a copy in August. You may not have time for a 600 page treatise on Wesley, but this little book will remind you why you’ve been called where you’ve been called.

“Take care of the rising generation.” ~ John Wesley

It’s kind of a hobby I have to listen to podcasts and read books/articles about Main Street marketing (business to consumer) through social media. That’s what we do…market and promote our ministries to and on Main Street USA. We can argue all day that ‘ministry isn’t business’, but there are many best practices in business that can benefit ministry. From 2005 to 2016, the percentage of Americans on at least one social media platform has climbed from 5 percent to 69 percent. Who doesn’t want a piece of that? (Pew Research Center, January 2016)

One easy way to market your ministry is collecting email addresses because email is still king. Do you have a system in place to get and use email addresses? When folks register for events or the basketball program or apply to be volunteers, include a line for email addresses. As tedious as it is, I use the first couple of weeks following VBS and the start of basketball season to update and input email addresses into an excel worksheet started when I first arrived at WC six years ago. Just the email addresses. Larger churches can use Constant Contact, Mail Chimp or other online tools, but for a small to mid-size church, excel still rocks.

At least once every other month I will send an email to that huge email list inviting them to an upcoming event. People expect to get emails once they’ve joined us for something. If someone wants off the email list, they’ll let me know and I oblige quickly. Many are reading emails on their phones, so the email should be short, sweet, and to the point.

This is the email that went out this week:
Let us help you get your student ready for a great school year with Grow Day Camp at Wesley Chapel, Monday-Friday July 24-28 (9-5:30 Mon-Thur; 9-12:30 Fri). For only $135 for the entire week your rising 1st through rising 6th grader can enjoy camp, small groups, archery, and still sleep in their own beds! Register today at http://www.ngumc.org/grow … then plan to join us for the Blessing of the Backpacks at 11am service on Sunday, July 30th! ~ DeDe Reilly, Wesley Chapel UMC, 4495 Sandy Plains Rd, Marietta, 770-993-4919

The next most-often used vehicle for marketing your ministry is Facebook. Most of the Mamas are on Facebook, so it’s a great way to communicate with families. Posting at least once a day is easy and helps your posts appear regularly in their timeline. Schedule it! Most of my families are on Facebook first thing in the morning, so my window of posting needs to be before 8am.

The following content stats about Facebook I found very helpful to me:

• 50% of the posts/content should be information/announcements – get an image and rock out the basics of who, when, where, how to get more info and a registration link. We have found that if we use an ‘outside’ registration link in the Atlanta metro area like Eventbrite, we get more of the community and not just our own church folk.
• 40% should be ‘shared content’ – what do you find interesting that supports what you are trying to do and ‘share’ it. Since what we do in ministry with children is faith formation, I subscribe to several blogs offering parents easy wins to champion for their kids with a faith  bent. The blogs I shared this last month included TodaysMama.com, iMom.com, AllProDad.com, Kidzmatter.com, ChurchLeaders.com, Parent Cue. A sentence or two why you think it’s important to share that content let’s folk know why you chose it and sometimes initiates followup conversation.
• 10% should be personality content which gives information about who we are, who you are. This is when we share content about who we are as a denomination, where the nearest voting precinct is to the church, the local community fireworks schedule, last day of school info.

THEN, ask the church staff to ‘LIKE’ everything you put out there and to engage in commenting to help with the algorithms of frequency. Ask your families to ‘SHARE’ upcoming events on their Facebook pages.

Our youth (the best children’s ministry volunteers on the planet!) use Instagram so the experts say to be sure the image there is close up, clear, a little off-center. Colors of the images that are brown, green, and blue cause the eye to linger longer. Steer clear of red and orange images. Think ‘nature’, not ‘fire.’

There are even gender preferences. Guys linger on images with straight edges, lines, and corners. Chicks on the other hand linger on images with curves, drapery, and the impression of movement. I’ll just let that sit there for a bit…

You can post all day on Facebook. It helps the algorithms. Post only once a day on Instagram and let it reflect the story of who you are since it’s more personal. Your peeps will recognize it’s you and won’t just scroll through. My personal story on Instagram has to do with tea and daily reading through the bible. I use WordSwag and Text over Image apps on my phone to market on Instagram which will let me share straight to Facebook and Twitter as well.

I use Twitter when I watch TV to find out if everyone else is thinking the same thing I am, or not. Crazy, I know! And I use Twitter when I’m at a conference, learning event, or to quote folks when I hear good stuff on podcasts.

The best all-in info ebook that is free and can guide you through a strategy and a plan can be found here.

What’s your plan for marketing your ministry next week?

Churches that don’t take social media seriously will soon lose any opportunity to engage emerging generations with the gospel. – from the Definitive Guide To Social Media in the Church (ChurchLeaders.com)

WC is located at the northernmost tip of one county with two other counties touching the corners within just a few miles. Because the suburbs of north Atlanta are filled with elementary schools, WC is surrounded by several elementary schools.

For six years, I have tried to get in at the closest one. I’ve walked in to meet the principals face to face and offered tutoring help.  Nothing. I joined the PTA for several years to get a calendar of events so not to schedule anything in conflict for my families. Nothing. Not even after multiple phone calls and emails. The only foot in the door we’ve gotten is they call to use our parking lot for fall and spring events if their parking lot is insufficient. I’ll take it.

Then I noticed several of the students in our program wearing “Rise Up” tshirts. I asked a third grader, “What’s Rise Up?” He began to share with me that it’s like VBS at his school where they talk and learn about Jesus. I did some research and found out he was right. Then I saw a few of my student’s parents pics on Facebook as a team of volunteers for Rise Up.

I jumped online to read everything I could about Rise Up 4 Christ and found myself immediately clicking on the get involved tab and filled out the application. After completing the background check and child safety protocols, I got an email from a lovely woman who loves Jesus and loves kids who was thrilled someone like me would apply. Huh…someone like me? We set up a meeting.

We met face-to-face last week along with her husband at the RISE UP offices. These folks have a great open door to gather students once a month for a little more than an hour speaking of Jesus and how He loves them…at the elementary school…a mile behind WC. The system is already in place and that ‘get involved’ tab invited me to play. They’ve only had this elementary’s chapter for a little over two years. There are multiple chapters all over the Atlanta and even one in Florida.

Right now it looks like I’ll be involved to champion the fifth graders to lead small groups and in worship with sign language and wait for it….dance moves! There are several times a year when this group of fifth grade leaders will gather for fellowship and training. Since I don’t live in the community, the largest space I can offer is WC. The first leadership meeting is in August and I can’t wait!

Rev. Junius Dotson is the top executive of Discipleship Ministries who began the ‘See All The People’ initiative for the United Methodist Church this summer. “ʽSee All the People’ is not a program,” said the Rev. Junius Dotson. “It really is an attempt to spur and ignite and inspire the spirit and movement of disciple-making across our denomination.” The first goal is to not focus on fixing churches, but rather be laser-focused for intentionally building disciples. The second goal of the initiative is to boost engagement with those outside the church. “It’s not about waiting for people to come to us,” Dotson said. “It’s about planting seeds, building relationships and knowing that once that happens, that really is the beginning of the disciple-making process … We can’t disciple people we’re not in relationship with.”

Everyone reading this is someone like me: loves the Lord, desires to build His kingdom, shares with others that God made them and Jesus loves them, and knows it takes relationship to make disciples. What’s something already happening in your community where you can get involved to ‘see all the people’?

“In the church there is no ‘them.’ There is only ‘us.'” ~ Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson serving the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church