10 Key Goals to Set for 2020

As you enter a new year, it's important to set some goals for your children's ministry. Here are 10 key goals to set and then measure throughout the coming year. Attendance How many kids do you want to see attend your services and programs? Set a goal and track the attendance through the year. I believe it is important to track attendance. Why? Because the "numbers" represent real people whom Jesus died for and wants to redeem. Behind every number is a person. How much growth do you want to see this year? How many new kids and families do you want to reach? Set a goal and then pray and work toward that goal. Parental engagement One of your top goals should be to engage parents in their child's spiritual growth. I believe the best way to do this is to have milestone classes that include parents. These milestones are key times when you can engage parents and empower them to help their child take major spiritual steps. You can get classes for this at this link. Guests Growth comes through new kids and families that you reach. Tract how many guest families are attending your services. Create a culture where the families in your church have a heart for their neighbors, friends, family, co-workers, school mates, etc. Encourage them to invest in people and then invite them to church. Guests return How many guests are returning for a second visit? The national average is 7%. Work toward increasing that percentage in your ministry. Think through some additional follow up steps you can take that will see more guests return. Here is a strategy I have used that caused the guest return rate to jump to 30%. Volunteers Volunteers are the life blood of your ministry. How many volunteers do you currently have? If you are like most churches, you need more volunteers. Your goal should be to raise the number of volunteers serving in your ministry. As your volunteers grow, your ministry will grow. In my book "The Formula for Building Great Volunteer Teams" I share a proven formula for building a great volunteer team. It's available at this link. Salvations Of course, salvation comes from the Lord. He is the one who saves people, not us. But we can set some goals for seeing kids and families to come to Christ. And then be faithful to share the Gospel. When Jesus is lifted up, He draws people to himself. One strategy that works great is to have a salvation class that kids and parents attend together. You can get more information about this at this link. Baptisms Baptism is the first major step of obedience that Christ asks believers to take. Coming out of the salvation class there should be a baptism class that helps kids and parents have a clear understanding of what baptism means. Here's more information about a great baptism class that is geared for kids and parents to attend together. Ratios It is vital that you keep tract of your ratios...especially in early childhood. Set a goal to have your ratios get better in 2020. And then work toward that goal through volunteer recruitment and retention. Here is more info. on what ratios should be. Special Events and Programs Set a goal for events and programs like VBS, Fall Festival, Camp, etc. How many kids do you want to engage in these events and programs? How many kids and parents do you want to connect with through these? How will you do this? Number of Kids Serving One of the best steps you can take is to move kids into serving roles. We know that kids who serve are much more likely to follow Jesus as an adult. Create serving roles for children and then work to fill those roles. It might be running the sound system, greeting at the door, helping clean up after class, etc. The more kids you move into serving roles, the more you will see kids follow Jesus for a lifetime. I would encourage you to take these 10 areas and focus on growing in these areas. Keep track on a spread sheet so you can see how things are progressing. I remember at one church where I served, we set a goal to see 1,000 people baptized in one year. Week in and week out we did our best to share the Gospel and then explain what it means to be baptized. When December 31 rolled around, we had baptized over 1,200 people. Yes, God gives the increase and He does this when we pray, share the Gospel and give God the glory. So...as you enter 2020, I would encourage you to set some goals. Set a goal for parental engagement. Set a goal for service attendance. Set a goal for how many guests you want to see come. Set a goal to see guests return and get connected into the church. Set a goal to build your volunteer team to the next level. Set a goal for how many kids and parents you want to see come to Christ. Set a goal for how many kids and parents you want to see follow Jesus in baptism. Set a goal to improve your volunteer-to-child ratio. Set a goal for how many kids and parents you want to see attend special events and programs. Set a goal for how many kids and parents you want to see serving. Do this and you will have a great 2020 in ministry!