FREE TRIAL: Kids Dashboard - Grow Youth & Kids Ministry Curriculum

FREE TRIAL: Kids Dashboard - Grow Youth & Kids Ministry Curriculum

Chat with usLiveChat

Chat with usLiveChat<iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-PXBC8NQ" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe>

#

Back to Dashboard

Grow Students

Planning

Teaching

Discipleship

Events

Volunteers

Families

Extras

Extras

Planning.

In children’s ministry, we all know what it’s like to leave our planning to the last possible second. Maybe you started planning that big event of yours a few weeks too late, and now you’re scrambling to get it all done. Or maybe you’re halfway through the school year when you realize . . . Wait, when’s the last time I sent a parent email? Or maybe it’s Saturday morning and you’re frantically Googling, “free kids ministry lessons.” But how about we try something different this year? How about we start planning our ministries an entire year at a time? It only takes one day each year, and it’s going to make the other 364 days of your year so much more fun, peaceful, and effective.

Subscribe to Grow

Planning Meeting

Watch the planning meeting video

In this video, Kenny and Elle Campbell (creators of Grow), will walk you through planning your entire year of ministry in 6 key areas: Discipleship, Teaching, Programming, Events, Volunteers, and Parents.

Download

Download the planning meeting resources

In this download you’ll receive everything you need to plan and host your own annual planning meeting, including: editable calendars, calendar cards, prep lists, and a meeting guide.

Download

Download the calendars and to-do lists

In this download you’ll get everything you need to stay organized this year, including: editable wall calendars, the annual calendar in spreadsheet format, and weekly/monthly to-do lists.

Download

Kids-Pastor-Planner

Download the grow weekly planners

From your friends at Grow in partnership with Church Fuel, this printable weekly planner will help you plan your weeks and stay focused throughout your year of ministry.

Download

Teaching (Samples).

It’s so important to have a strategy for what you will teach your kids. Without a strategy, we run the risk of missing important ideas, teaching only the topics that personally interest us most, and ultimately failing to give our kids a full and holistic view of God. The teaching strategy behind Grow Kids has been created, influenced, and written by hundreds (literally) of real kids pastors, in real kids ministries, from a diversity of church contexts, cultures, sizes, and denominations. Our goal is to help you help your kids grow spiritually, by teaching and discussing Scripture in developmentally appropriate ways.

Subscribe to Grow

Road Trip Grow Kids Ministry Curriculum

SAMPLE: Road Trip Series

(Free Trial)
A 4-week series on the Ten Commandments

Download Series

Lesson Builder:

Week 1: Elementary Preschool

Week 2: Elementary Preschool

Week 3: Elementary Preschool

Week 4: Elementary Preschool

Parent Email:

Volunteer Emails:

Week 1 Week 2
Week 3 Week 4

Blast Off

A 4-week series from the Gospel on Spiritual Habits (recommended for your first series)

Subscribe to Unlock

Famous

A 5-week series from the Old Testament on Solomon (recommended for August)

Subscribe to Unlock

Choose Your Own Adventure

A 4-week series from the Old Testament about Psalms & Proverbs (recommended for September)

Subscribe to Unlock

Big And Small

A 5-week series from the Old Testament about Job (recommended for October)

Subscribe to Unlock

Plate It

A 4-week series from the Old Testament on The Prophets (recommended for November)

Subscribe to Unlock

Joy To The World

A 4-week series from the New Testament on Christmas (recommended for December)

Subscribe to Unlock

A Day At The Museum

A 5-week series from the New Testament about Jesus’ early Life & Ministry (recommended for January)

Subscribe to Unlock

Opposite Day

A 4-week series from the New Testament on Jesus’ Teachings (recommended for February)

Subscribe to Unlock

Page-Turner

A 4-week series from the New Testament on Jesus’ Ministry (recommended for March)

Subscribe to Unlock

Did You Know?

A 4-week series from the New Testament on Easter (recommended for April)

Subscribe to Unlock

The Messengers

A 5-week series from the New Testament on the Early Church (recommended for May)

Subscribe to Unlock

Ever After

A 4-week series from the Old Testament (recommended for June)

Subscribe to Unlock

Up In The Air

A 5-week series from the Old Testament on Elisha (recommended for July)

Subscribe to Unlock

Discipleship (Samples).

When planning your year, we always recommend you start with a discipleship strategy. That’s because we believe spiritual growth should be the lens through which we see everything else we do in our ministries. We believe there are four spiritual habits that help kids (and adults, too) grow closer to God. These four habits aren’t anything new. They’ve been talked about countless ways, by countless numbers of people. Your church is probably already talking about them in your own unique way, so feel free to change the language to fit your context if you need to. The words aren’t important, but here’s what is: if these four spiritual habits are the behaviors that help kids grow closer to God, we need a strategy to help kids engage in these four spiritual habits on a regular basis, year after year.

Subscribe to Grow

SAMPLE: Pray Station Activity

For the spring quarter, when we always focus on the spiritual habit of spending time with God, we’ve provided a prayer labyrinth and devotional called Pray Station to literally walk your families through the importance of talking to God.

Download

Party Kits For Small Groups

Because we always focus on the spiritual habit of spending time with others during the fall quarter, this year we’re providing a quarter-long activity called Small Group Party Kits to help kids have fun and connect with their small group members and leader.

Subscribe to Unlock

Gift Tag Challenge

This time of year, the frenzy of shopping, wrapping, and opening gifts makes it easy for us to forget about the gifts we already have. The Gift Tag Challenge will not only help kids discover the gifts that God has given them, but it will also create opportunities to serve others with those gifts in a pay-it-forward kind of way. This activity will prompt kids to think of an individual or family to gift tag by sharing God’s love with them and encouraging them to continue to spread the love by gift tagging someone else! Are you ready to get your kids to share their gifts? Tag . . . you’re it!

Subscribe to Unlock

Crossway Station

For many kids, the story of Easter seems to follow very quickly behind the story of Christmas. This leaves very little time for kids to pause and process what happened between Jesus being born and Jesus dying and rising again. Whether they’re at a crossroads in their faith journey or this is their time aboard, this activity will help kids learn about and reflect on critical moments in Jesus’ life leading up to Easter. At each “platform” in Crossway Station, you can help kids experience how meaningful and necessary it is to spend time with God.

Subscribe to Unlock

Dream Big Workshop

This quarter you will have the chance to help kids discover and share their story through the creative outlet of a dream board! Using all kinds of arts and crafts supplies, kids and families will create boards that represent their past and their hopes for the future. Kids can decorate their boards with images of major events they’ve experienced, talents and interests they have, and their big dreams for the future. Through this simple, fun activity kids will learn to see the beauty in their own stories and how to share that beauty with the world around them!

Subscribe to Unlock

Events (Samples).

Events are a pretty big deal for most youth ministries. They’re a way to have fun, connect with students, get new people in the door, and create some excitement. Events matter, but we’ve got to keep things in perspective. That’s why we’re fans of keeping your event strategy really simple, because you can make a bigger impact each year if you choose to do fewer events with more intentionality. Here’s our recommendation for keeping your event strategy simple: do one event each quarter, plus a summer camp and a mission experience.

Subscribe to Grow

SAMPLE: Flashlight Scavenger Hunt

Our spring event, called Flashlight Scavenger Hunt, is giving the traditional Easter egg hunt a fun twist – by having kids hunt at night, or in semi-darkness, anyway, with flashlights!

Download

Pick Your Path

By the time fall rolls around, kids have had enough of making mundane decisions. Break up the monotony, and give them a chance to make some fun choices while competing for prizes. Creamed corn or french fries? Mystery meat or suspicious-looking hot dog? Pick Your Path is the ultimate DIY adventure. Participants will blaze their own path through an Island Paradise, completing tasks and collecting points along the way.

Subscribe to Unlock

Christmas City

Christmas is celebrated in many different ways around the world, but there is one theme that remains the same no matter your location; it’s a time of joy spent with the ones you love! At Christmas City, your families will “travel the globe” to experience unique holiday traditions. With passports in hand, they will visit each station to engage their senses in a global celebration of food, song, crafts, games, and more!

Subscribe to Unlock

Kids Color Run

Are you ready for a burst of color, excitement, and fun? We are too! Welcome to the Kids Color Run! This will be an event that seeks to bring families together to celebrate the resurrection, and even capture that ideal family photo where everyone is smiling (while burning a few calories). Leave the pastels at home, throw on white T-shirts, and come ready to celebrate the bright and beautiful Easter season in a unique, exciting, and wonderful celebration!

Subscribe to Unlock

Aquaball

What’s better than four bases and a pitcher? You guessed it — four bases and a pitcher plus water! Aquaball is a family event that gives kids and adults an opportunity to play together. Your whole church will love getting outside for this sensational super-soaked sports experience . . . no athleticism required!

Subscribe to Unlock

Volunteers (Samples).

If we want to be effective as youth pastors, we need to get really serious about investing in and empowering the volunteers we lead. When we do that, we multiply our influence, increase the capacity of our ministry, and give students a better shot at building a lifelong faith. Research shows that young people need not just one youth pastor, but a community of adults who are all investing in them and in their faith. So, if you want volunteers to invest in teenagers, it’s probably a good idea for you to invest in your volunteers first. With this 1-Year Volunteer Strategy, you’ll learn a system for investing in your volunteers in seven different ways throughout the year.

Subscribe to Grow

Volunteer Resource Samples

SAMPLES: Volunteer Resources

Included in this download is a small sampling of our Volunteer Resources. Let us know if you have any questions!

Download

Kick-Off Event

If your ministry is like most youth ministries, you’ve probably got plenty of events on your calendar already. But, again, if you’re like most youth ministries, the vast majority of those events are probably designed for students. That makes sense, of course, but here’s the thing: just like events are effective tools for mobilizing and inspiring teenagers, the right event can mobilize and inspire your volunteers in new ways, too.

Subscribe to Unlock

Meetings

Sharing vision and inspiration with your volunteers is probably pretty important to you as a ministry leader, but volunteers need more than just inspiration. Your volunteers need practical training all year long! They need resources to help them do their specific jobs better. They need help navigating the specific issues they’re facing with kids and families right now. That’s why it’s so important to schedule meetings with your volunteers throughout the year that train them on specific topics.

Subscribe to Unlock

Discussion Groups

When we think about training and leading volunteers, we probably picture environments where we (the kid ministry pastor or staff member) are doing the training and leading. That should be a necessary part of our volunteer investment strategy, of course, but it’s not the only way. Sure, you’ve got a lot of wisdom to share with your volunteers, but have you ever considered that your volunteers have a lot of wisdom to share with each other, too? That’s where these Discussion Groups come in.

Subscribe to Unlock

Conversations

We’re big believers that meeting regularly with your volunteers one-on-one is pretty important — not just for your volunteers, but for you and your ministry, too. It’s important for your volunteers because they need to know you care about them . . . and spending time building relationships is a great way to communicate how much you value them. It’s important for your ministry because it will give you an opportunity to evaluate how well your volunteers are doing in their roles. And it’s important for you because it will give you an opportunity to hear how you and your ministry can better help and equip your volunteers to do their jobs better.

Subscribe to Unlock

Celebrations

We don’t always think about celebrating or appreciating our volunteers as a form of training, but maybe we should! Because here’s the thing: what we celebrate gets repeated. So when we celebrate our volunteers for being awesome and following through on the vision and expectations we’ve set for them, we’re reminding our whole team about what matters most. Oh, and a little celebration can make our volunteers feel pretty awesome too.

Subscribe to Unlock

Tools

You probably do quite a bit to train, encourage, and inspire your volunteers to do their jobs well. You probably explain things well, give them great ideas, and tell them exactly how to be successful. But you know what? Sometimes, in order to do their jobs well, your volunteers need more than just words. They need a physical, practical, tangible tool they can take and use.

Subscribe to Unlock

Communication

When we think about training our volunteers, we often about in-person meetings or big events. But if we want to keep our vision in front of our volunteers all year long, we have to think about training in a different (and more consistent) way. That’s where communication comes in. Whether you prefer to communicate with your volunteers through email, text messages, social media posts, or phone calls, the point is that you stay in touch with them every week.

Subscribe to Unlock

Families (Samples).

When it comes to families, let’s be honest… we could all do a better job of engaging them. For some of us, sometimes even just acknowledging their existence would be a good step forward. But no matter how new or how seasoned you are at engaging families in your ministry, we hope this strategy will give you a framework for your family strategy that you can replicate and improve year after year.

Subscribe to Grow

Family Resource Samples

SAMPLES: Family Resources

Included in this download is a small sampling of our Volunteer Resources. Let us know if you have any questions!

Download

Communication

Whether you prefer to communicate with families through email, text messages, social media, bulletin boards, or phone calls, the point is that you stay in touch with them regularly. So let’s talk about how!

Subscribe to Unlock

Discussion Groups

When we think about environments for families (and especially the grown-ups in those families), we often picture situations where we (the kids ministry director or staff member) are casting vision or providing training. There is a time and a place for those kinds of environments, of course, but it’s not the only way to engage or serve families. Sure, you’ve got a lot of wisdom to share with adults who are parenting kids, but have you ever considered that those adults have a lot of wisdom to share with you and each other? That’s where these Discussion Groups come in.

Subscribe to Unlock

Move Up Day

Move-up Sunday is a specific day, which includes an Open House event, for families and their kids that takes place just before the beginning of every school year. While your main audience for this event will be the families of elementary and incoming kindergarten kids in your ministry, we recommend keeping it open to families who haven’t felt comfortable leaving their kids yet to come and learn about your ministry.

Subscribe to Unlock

Open House

Move-up Sunday is a specific day, which includes an Open House event, for families and their kids that takes place just before the beginning of every school year. While your main audience for this event will be the families of elementary and incoming kindergarten kids in your ministry, we recommend keeping it open to families who haven’t felt comfortable leaving their kids yet to come and learn about your ministry.

Subscribe to Unlock

Family & Small Group Leader Breakfast

A Family and Small Group Leader Breakfast is an event designed to help the families or guardians of kids connect with their kid’s small group leaders. It’s as simple as that. This event does not require tons of programming to pull off, but it does require intentionality. You need to be intentional to cast vision to your small group leaders, and your small group leaders need to be intentional to invite and encourage their kids’ grown-ups to show up.

Subscribe to Unlock

Parent Workshop

A Parent Workshop is a training event for the parents of kids in your ministry. Your main audience will be families who have kids who are already involved in your ministry, though you can market this event to new or prospective parents as well.

Subscribe to Unlock

Tools

Between you, your leadership, and the other ministry leaders in your church, your church probably does a number of things throughout the year to encourage and inspire families — especially parents and guardians. But you know what? Sometimes, in order to do their jobs well, grown-ups need more than just words. They need a physical, practical, tangible tool they can take and use.

Subscribe to Unlock

Extras.

Subscribe to Grow

THE GROW CURRICULUM APP

You can edit and send the Grow Series or your own custom content to volunteers, parents, students, or whoever you want.

Tutorial video of how to use the Grow App

Get for Android

Chat with usLiveChat

Chat with usLiveChat