So we decided to try some new ways of doing church to kids. Things we had in our favor - we had a casual group. Because our class met on Saturday nights, we were a little more laid back. Kids came in shorts and jeans, we were in our overalls most of the time! Parents were relaxed and fine with just about whatever we did.
Right away - some things made sense. We split up our kids into a few small groups. We did this by grouping together the kids who naturally drifted together without creating a negative clique. It was easier for kids to open up in small groups when they already knew each other. We also tried to keep it gender specific - girls with girls and boys with boys. We were lucky to have a couple rotating guy volunteers who ROCKED!
But we had issues that popped up almost immediately. What do you do with the floater kids? Kids who normally come on Sundays, but came on a Saturday that week? Kids who came with a friend? Kids who only come once a month or so? We constantly struggled with that. Most of the time we let them go into the group that had the most of their friends.
The other big issue was Large Group. Our material wasn't really designed for the creative, interactive large group experience that Willow used. Don't get me wrong - it wasn't bad material, just not as creative as others. We spent MANY hours rewriting, tweaking and fabricating new ways of delivering the content.
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