Children & Family Ministry Listening Session Minutes

Strategic Planning Committee

Saint Michael and All Angels

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 ~ 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Notes submitted by Sarah Freeman

          We had two people for most of the night and then two more people came in at the end because they had been at another session. A couple were Sunday School teachers in the past and all were parents.

          We started and ended by talking about family activities. The overwhelming response was that parents want activities that they could do with their children throughout the school year. The other family item that came up was outreach. Parents want outreach projects they can do with their children that don’t include cans (canned food drives, etc.). They want to take their children with them rather than dropping them off with childcare when they work at Jubilee Center or Austin St. Shelter. Parents also would like a family retreat where they do some activities as a family and others where the parents and children are split into separate groups.

          We also discussed Sunday School for children and adults (as this pertains to parents of our children). We discussed the youngest children first.

1. After the Joy Mass there is too much time before Sunday School starts so families leave.

2. Many parents leave to go to Starbucks after they drop their children off at Sunday School.

3. There was complaint about 1^st through 5^th grade Sunday schools not being engaging enough. These children want fun activities that are engaging and age appropriately challenging.

4. The parts of the lesson (craft, games, story, songs, etc.) need to all relate and work together to teach the story.

5. Theater was suggested as a way to teach the stories for the children because it is more engaging than just listening to a story read.

6. The suggestion was made that Sunday School work more like VBS on a rotation model where the children move from activity to activity because the children love VBS but find Sunday school boring.

7. If there is adult education on Wednesday night, have a related program for children at the same time.

          We talked about adult education for a portion because these parents want to be fed at the same time their children are fed. They had thoughts that they wanted to share for Adult Education. The theme of what they were saying is that we need to develop a sense of community and togetherness as one church, not as several small pockets of community that happen to all be in the same building.

1. First, we are trying to do too many things at once so the community is very fragmented.

2. We need to pick a direction and go with it instead of trying to be everything to everyone. We cannot please everyone.

3. People are smart here and the staff and Sunday School need to cater to this on an intellectual and spiritual level. These people want to be challenged and have accountability. These want a lesson to take with them and then to check in on it the next week to see how they applied it.

4. They would rather see fewer events/programs/classes with more variety rather than too many programs pulling them in all different directions with less substance to them.

5. We need to look at the Sunday school hour. Ministry should not be attached to a Sunday School class. The classes should be cross generational and lifestyle rather than fragmented by “couples,” “empty-nesters,” “singles,” etc.

6. They suggested having only 2 Sunday school classes in big rooms rather than fragmenting the community. Use the theater or church for classes like Chip’s that are popular. They suggested large classes on subjects like Christian Living that apply to everyone but have been touched on in the past but focused only on one aspect (such as parents of teens).