Making your Church Welcome Packets Kid Friendly

Many churches have welcome packets these days filled with some information about your church and the church doctrine, your programs and activities.  These are great for your first time guests!  We will talk more about some of the information that should be a part of the Welcome Packets in a future issue. But today I want to focus on the school age kids who come as guests.

I don’t recall ever seeing any information particularly written to the kids!  I have occasionally seen materials ABOUT kids programs, which is written to parents, but I cannot recall seeing information written TO kids! 

Today, I have included a lesson plan for your Church Education staff to use to help create letters of welcome TO kids FROM kids!!! 

Most churches that are growing have realized that when kids are happy at church, and when kids feel welcomed, their parents are also much more likely to stay!  If kids are unhappy, one of the most common reasons for the anxiety is that the child has to join into already organized classes and meet new classmates.  The child may be worried that “they won’t like me”, or that “they don’t want me to join them”.

Simple preparations RIGHT NOW can help the new child to anticipate the new relationships and understand that the kids in his/her class are also looking forward to having a new friend join them!    BEFORE the summer, ask students from each grade level to write a few sentences or a short paragraph of welcome on a letter (which is attached) that you will be able to add to your church welcome packets.  A simple way to organize this would be to make some small welcome packets or a letter for every grade of children in elementary school.  When guests come to visit, each child could be given a letter which is written TO THEM by their “new friends.” 

We have attached several different printable letters to this newsletter.  Download your copies now and give them to the teachers at the next staff meeting.  To make it easy, there is a lesson plan included for you to give to the teachers.

Not only does this activity help the guest, but it also creates the perfect opportunity for the current attenders to think about the needs of guests and to grow in their awareness and sensitivity for being a “First Friend” to the guests.  Encourage the students to be “First Friends” to any new kids in their neighborhood. 

This lesson and fun activity are sure to encourage students to think about others, and it gives them a critical role to play in welcoming new guests.  Just think about new families who come to your membership class and say “Our children love it here!  The rest of the kids made them feel SOO welcome!”