Kids Ministry Idea: Have greeters at the door.
A Sunday School kid being a greeter. Indoor Sunday School. Circa 2016.
Have greeters at the door. And don’t just get the adults involved - get the kids greeting kids, too! It’s a really common thing to have greeters at the main doors of the church, that’s not a new idea at all of course. Having greeters welcoming the kids into Sunday School, however, might not be something a lot of people are doing.
Greeters are important. A warm and enthusiastic welcome is just a simple point of contact and it means a lot to a lot of people. Recognizing a kid when they walk through the doors and enter your Sunday School room is important. Offering lots of high fives, fist bumps and hugs goes a long way to making kids feel not only that they are welcome to be there, but that they are seen and their presence matters.
None of these things cost money by the way. Making eye contact, giving a smile, saying a quick hello or even giving a genuine compliment, it’s all free. But let me tell you, these things enrich your Sunday School and the relationships with everyone SO much. People want to be where they are welcome and where they are seen.
3 SUPER SUGGESTIONS:
Make fun greeter hats or special outfits. Okay, so this part does cost money, but thankfully not a lot. In Indoor Sunday School we had these dollar store plastic top hats that we used and just slapped a ‘Greeter’ label on the front of them. Or you could have special greeter bow ties, or fun jackets or big goofy glasses. There are no rules, just ideas and inspiration for you to run with. Our Sunday School was big, like hundreds of kids big, so we had several greeters. I’d suggest scaling accordingly. If you’ve got 10 kids in your class, 1 greeter will do. Plop a greeter hat on their head and tell them to welcome all the kids coming in. It’s a super way to get kids plugged in, especially if you’ve got one of those kids that needs a little bit of extra responsibility to keep them out of mischief. Boom! Greeter. Be sure to provide some basic instructions: “I’ve got an important job for you! It’s your job to stand by the door and offer high fives to every single person who comes in. Everyone gets a hello. Everyone gets a wave. Everyone gets a smile.”
Create a welcoming environment. From the get go, from the very start of things, set the tone that everyone is welcome to be there. You create the culture that you want your kids to experience. Maya Angelou said is so well: “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” The goal is that all of our kids feel noticed, cared for and loved. We want lasting impressions and memories of Sunday School to be good ones.
Give everyone a chance! You can go about this in a bunch of different ways. You can make a roster and the kids can sign up to be a greeter. You can put everyone’s names into a jar and pull out names for who will be next week’s greeters. You can assign greeters based on who runs up and asks you first. The name of the game is to just give everyone a chance to be a part of it so they’re not just on the receiving end of feeling welcome, but learning also to extend a warm welcome to others, too.
