Michelle Suarez

70 percent of young adults leave the church. We need to help kids fall in love with the church at a young age. Change can be seen as trauma. Causes mental and emotional harm. Transitions matter at every phase. Most at this phase

Who are 6th graders?
Phase with less consistency
think like engineers,
“who do I like”,
motivated by acceptance,
lots of emotions!
Crave stability!
Into conformity.
Need events they can bring a best friend to. “Who else is coming?”
Value non parental adult influences
Often mask emotions to fit in
May have romantic interests and begin to experiment with physical affection – need to talk about sex
Transitions take longer than you think – need to start 6 months out Set expectations between differences in kids and student min

Events – cross attend events. Student pastor should be greeting in kidmin and teaching. Kids pastor should be greeting and teaching in stumin
Promotion Sunday
Retreats – pre transitional
VBS alternative – setting up a similar schedule to the regular ministry

Make it a BiG deal!
We need to reach them before they need to be rescued in the middle of a high school crisis.

Why and when do you transition?
Schools celebrate so why wouldn’t we tap into to that?
Sports – what’s their schedule.
Major events and vacations need to play into this. Make their family calendar a priority in our calendar also.

Transitions in environments
More than decorations. Says you like them, you care about the,, you want them to be there. Says you’ve thought about them. Create a space where relationships can happen.
Need to be engaging. Music – always have a playlist!
Age appropriate- less children’s ministry more stumin

What’s New for them?
What do they get to do that’s different. Create a culture of anticipation.

Transition with people who matter – parents
Prepare the family. Meet with them prior to transitions. Prioritize small groups and get parents
to see the need. Help them with the hard questions. Help them know it’s ok to say I don’t know.
Let parents experience some of stumin so it’s not so scary. So they can prioritize. Resource wall

Prepare Small Group Leaders – Prep them for what it’s about to be like
Games help build relationships also. It doesn’t have to just be discussion. Leaders are mini pastors
Let parents meet leaders

“Do not hinder them” –  Matthew 19:14

Team Dynamics – preschool to elementary to students    Communication
Schedule open meetings
Align your messaging

How do we get the most from our teams and ministry?

1. Have vision. Principle: ministries need vision. Problem: most leaders don’t know how or when to cast vision. Vision is a picture. What’s your end goal. What’s the picture you want to see? An unchurch parent unhappy because we can no longer sleep in cuz kid doesn’t want to miss church. To change culture need to cast vision. Do you have a vision? Do you have a picture? Vision leaks…..say it again. And again.
2. Strategy. Principle: a vision needs a plan of action with an end in mind. Problem: Most leaders don’t review their strategy. Problem: Most leaders recycle someone else’s strategies. Every strategy needs to be tweaked. We can have multiple visions. But we need to prioritize. 3 most important – tackle those immediately. Reevaluate every quarter. You can’t have an effective strategy without a vision.
3. Teams. Principle: ministries need teams. Problem: most leaders don’t know how to give ministry away. If you want to be successful- you were never expected to do it alone. If you’re not giving away tasks, you’re failing. Even putting out the donuts and changing diaper pails. That can be ministry. Give every piece away to someone else. Problem: most leaders look for renters and not owners. Treat them like you want to be treated. Problem: most leaders struggle due to ego or trust issues. Ego – do it on your own, you’re the superstar. Trust – they’re not good enough. However you won’t have teams if you don’t have a strategy and vision.
4. Training. Principle: all leaders need and desire training. Problem: we do training once or twice a year in big rallies. But we don’t onboard volunteers once or twice a year. Because we don’t train, we create renters who won’t stick. Training videos each week – less than 2 min. Vision, strategy, wins, training. Problem: most leaders are not trained.
5. Replace. Train, empower, walk along, hand off and trust. Principle: healthy ministries grow. Problem: most ministries never reach their potential because they lack what is needed to expand. Vision + teams + training = burnout. Strategy is missing!
You won’t be able to replace yourself if you don’t have teams of trained leaders. You won’t have leaders if you don’t have a plan of action. You won’t have a plan if your don’t paint a picture.