The Biggest Mistake #kidmin Can Make
2 Sep
What’s the biggest mistake a Kids Ministry can make??
Arguably?
Cumbersome Check-In
If your Check In system takes more than 180 seconds to complete…
It’s. Too. Long.
Consider this…
It’s Sunday morning and Meredith has finally convinced her husband, Brad, to check out the new church down the street. Brad’s grown accustomed to sleeping in on Sunday morning but he promised his wife he would take her to church this weekend. 8:30am rolls around and the desire to read the paper over a hot cup of coffee far outweighs the desire to shower, dress and go to church. He delays getting out of bed as long as he can.
Meredith is showered and getting ready. She’s tired from a busy week but ready to check out this new church. Brad has finally agreed but doesn’t appear anxious to get out of bed. Getting the kids up will be a chore this morning. “They were up late last night. This should be interesting”, she thinks to herself.
The rush to get ready then pile in the car is more of a chore than a joy. Running late, the ride to the church is less than enjoyable.
***
Is this family relaxed or tense?
You may never know. We have the tendency to cover up sticky-family-stuff like this and put on the “everything-is-wonderful-and-we’re-all-blessed” faces. But the truth is…
Sunday morning is the toughest drive of the week
Our solution?
Reduce the stress. Disarm them.
Greet them at the car with a cart prepared to deliver them to the building entrance. Be prepared to help them get their kids checked-in with nametags A.S.A.P… then set them free on the best, most exciting, most engaging, most loving kids ministry offered in your area.
Don’t discount the opportunity to disarm your audience with an amazing Check-In process. Set the tone from the start… Make Check-In easy, efficient, safe and thorough… then set parents free to enjoy a life-changing message without worry of what their child is enjoying in their absence.
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So let me ask you what check i software do you use and why?
We use Fellowship One for our check-in system. We have Assisted Check-In (for new families) & Self Check-In for regularly attending families.
Self Check-In doesn’t take more than 45 seconds to complete. That’s the main answer to “Why?”. We utilize barcode cards & touchscreen computers to facilitate. We have 6 Self Check-In computers to accommodate the average influx of 200-250 families within a 20 minute time frame.
We are always looking to change our check-in systems, and I’ve turned down some fancy schmancy check-in programs that just took too long. I don’t want it to be digital, electronic, and SLOW. We’ve actually kept paper check-in in some Early Childhood areas, because it’s easier on parents and faster.
I can see this changing as our environments and buildings change, but faster will always be better!
Here here! A little over five years ago I was at a church that did check-in by hand. Then I moved to Texas and to a church that was using Fellowship One. Got to use it for a year and a half before we merged into another church that had just started using Shelby (they picked it over F1 because it was cheaper). So I used Shelby for about 18 months. Now I’m at a new church that is using F1. I missed it. All I’ll say on your blog is that the 18 months I was with Shelby was one of the worst years of my life.
My church here at Gateway has even shopped around recently to see if there was anything else out there that was cheaper than F1 but could do the job. There were a few that came close, but nothing could even touch F1 when it came to speed, accuracy and flexibility in check-in. I’m so grateful that although my team has had some frustrations with F1, they value the importance of check-in for out kids and that’s what we’re sticking with.
Todd,
Lifechurch uses the check-in fuctions built in to fellowship one. In the past they used the software that became I.D.ME. Both are very easy to use and very fast. Getting your tags takes less then 30 seconds on both. Parents have to show a matching “receipt” or tag to pick their kids up.
great post. and absolute dead-on. we use ccb… http://www.churchcommunitybuilder.com it is mission critical to our weekend experience…and its not another silo of information. our check-in goes in about 30 seconds too…i shopped around and we landed on ccb. my background is in fund development…i think ccb probably has the most economical answer.
the sad part is that with the current economic conditions alot of people can’t pay the cost that F1 charges and I agree that it is head and shoulders above everyone in check-in speed and processing. Reporting is ..eh but I don’t know if there is a great mix of both cheap and super fast. I have no idea where that exists.
If anyone does give me a buzz
jcisonline@gmail.com
JC, I know what you mean. Budget is typically a show stopper. Have you checked out ID Me? http://www.idmenetwork.com
We used this program prior to F1 and L-O-V-E-D it. The move to F1 was a church-wide decision b/c of it’s overall benefit to LC. But we didn’t move to their check in system until it closely mimicked ID Me.
Highly recommend checking them out.
Try Connection Power. Does the same as Fellowship One, but a little cheaper.
This whole check in thing is the 1 issue I have been dealing with this whole year. The church uses ACS and it is a mule and not very friendly. The book keeper loves ACS only because it is what she is use to and she is also the Pastors personal assistant. So to change has been a very hard uphill road.
I am interested in watching this conversation develop. It would be helpful when people do comment to put down what they currently use and why?
We use a paper check in system and the 2 women that do it have it down to a science. I’d still be curious to see how we can improve it. Jonathon, I’m headed to your blog to see if you’ve written about your system. If you haven’t, will you please?
We’ll be moving to electronic check in EVENTUALLY *sigh*
Until then, we try to have a simple, yet safe, paper check in system.
LOVE the idea of a welcome team that greets families at the parking lot… may I ask, how/who you recruit for such a team?
Anthony,
We have a team of volunteers that make up our Host Team. They drive golf carts to pick people up from the parking lot and bring them to the front door. A great way to make sure a new family makes it to the right entrance.