Young Family Focus Group Ideas
Young Family Focus Group Ideas
The following ideas were generated by the Young Family Focus group between May 2023 and October 2023. The Group members were Pastor Karl-John Stone, Andrew Dodge, Jennifer Magwitz, Mitch Adam and Greg Feld. The goal of the group was to brainstorm ideas that could potentially help with attracting or retaining younger families to House of Prayer. The only area that this group prioritized and started to implement any of the ideas was with Outreach. The intent was to turn the remainder of the ideas over to the appropriate council committee for their consideration. The ideas generated are listed below and are found on the following pages:
Page Tropic
1 Outreach
5 Worship
6 Small Group Study
8 Fellowship
9 Sunday School
11 Communication
12 Strengths / Improvements
13 Criteria for judging ideas
Current HOP Outreach Activities
Dispensa – volunteering, food & clothing donations, First Fruits donations
Eras Senior Network (Interfaith) – individual volunteering, First Fruits donations
Quilters – volunteering, donations for supplies
Youth Group Mission Trips – volunteering, fund raising & budget support
Adler mission trips – volunteering (last trip in 2019)
Post office food sorts – volunteering (last food sort in 2019)
Other Individual Outreach activities from HOP Members:
Robotics – Kathy Adam
Milwaukee Empty Bowls – Linda Anderson
Boy Scouts – Andrew Dodge
Girl Scouts – Jackie Johnson
Ascension Hospital, Thrivent – Chris Barwick
Volunteer companion, care-giver respite & resource, Ascension Hospice at Home – Carol Durling
Stamp our hunger, food sort with United Way / Feeding America in Racine, serving Thanksgiving lunch at Hospitality Center in Racine – Brenda Malik
Special Olympics – Candi Schneider
Items in RED are opportunities being investigated by the Young Family Focus group.
Potential New Outreach Ideas
Grass Cutting - Set up a schedule with 2 to 3 people per household to take care of grass cutting during the growing season. Get referrals from Eras list.
Habitat for Humanity - Sign up for building help one Saturday per quarter or for a few days at the start of a house build.
Adopt A Highway - House of Prayer can adopt a portion of Ryan Rd for clean up and get our name posted on the road in recognition of our efforts.
Hunger Task Force Farm - On 68th & Ryan – group volunteering for planting, weeding & harvesting
Revitalize Milwaukee – Home repair projects for people in need for individual or group volunteering.
Backpack buddies – Donate & pack backpacks or boxes of food for school children who are on subsidized school lunch programs to provide healthy meals and snacks to get them through the weekends.
Sleep in Heavenly Peace – Construct beds for people in need. Group activity in Waukesha or Racine?
Lifeline (Food Packing) – We pay for and pack storage bagged food at our church.
Blood donation drive – Arrange for a blood drive at our church through Versiti.org.
Just One More Ministry – Glendale, food packing for 15 – 20 on Thursdays and Saturdays.
Family Promise of Waukesha County – Provides shelter to families in need. Volunteers stay overnight to monitor the facility.
Reading mentor – travel to local school for one on one with student helping them with their reading skills.
HOP Meals on Wheels - We accumulate a list of potential favorite meals that our members would volunteer to prepare for our HOP members or those known to our members in times of need most likely during illnesses or recuperation. Those in need could choose a roast or casserole that sounds good to them or their family. The meal or meals would then be prepared for them by our volunteer and delivered to them. We would require that the cook gets reimbursed for their cost (so that we can make it visible to our congregation) but they may choose to donate that money back into our holding fund. I would think that a fund for $100 would be more than sufficient to get started.
HOP Hot Meal Night - Work out a schedule with other local churches where HOP would purchase supplies, prepare and serve a hot meal for those in need in the community once per month (I.E. the 3rd Tuesday in every month). If meals were made available twice per week, this would require between 9 and 11 churches to limit each church to once per month.
Sojourner Truth House Home - Purchase an abandoned house or appropriate building, refurbish it, furnish, pay utilities and purchase food for a family referred to HOP from Sojourner Truth House for a woman and her children until she can afford to move out on her own.
School Help – Mini Make-A-Wish - Is there anything that any of the local grade schools would like assistance with? Mini Make A Wish - Give rewards to special deserving students such as a day of fishing on Lake Michigan or inland lake? A weekend at the vacation cottage of one of our members? Snowmobiling? Water skiing? Share a game from season tickets? Etc. Possibly partner with other local churches to provide a more expanded choice list.
House of Correction help - Help the HOC with any of their volunteer needs. Participate with HOC bible studies. Run library. Transport to our HOP Sunday services and bible study.
Acknowledged HOP Prayer Chain - People in need would submit their request for prayer with a volunteer coordinator who in turn would pass this on to our prayer volunteers. After they pray for their special needs, the volunteer would then send a post card acknowledging that HOP is praying for them. This gives positive reinforcement for those in need as well as potentially give additional volunteering opportunities for those who are home bound to do volunteer work for HOP. Our volunteer coordinator would report how many people have been prayed for or how many post cards have been mailed out each month. A small fund would be required for postage and post cards.
Elizabeth Residence Assisted Living - On 51st & Ryan – Administer communion, visitation, Sunday school singing, bingo, card playing, etc. Are there any other hospice care or shut ins that we could visit & give communion?
Tutoring
Career Guidance
Grocery Shopping
Mental Health Support
Hosting of Onsite Events: Farmers Markets, Craft Fairs, Car Shows, Flea Markets
Provision of "How to" classes - Cooking Meals, Woodworking/Carpentry, Beer/Wine Making, Car Care (i.e. changing a tire, oil changes), Sports, etc.
· Serve Breakfast / Give Thank You Cards to Public Servants (i.e. Franklin Public Works, Fire Department, Etc.)
- Regular volunteering for Feeding America or Friedens
- Clothing drive, sort, and donation
- Local house painting/yard work
- Salvation army (bell ringing or otherwise)
- Tutoring for church kids or community kids
- Big brothers/sisters (within our church or community)
- Local sports programs for kids or church leagues in local clubs or vs each other
- Meals on wheels service for elderly or homeless
- Food or clothing drives
- Raffles of pro bono services to raise money for specific charities
- Service trip for all ages
- Tough mudder / spartan race team to raise money for wounded warriors or other charity
- Honor flight volunteering
- Philosophy/religious book club
- Days to go to local nursing facilities or get together baskets for people in facilities
- Local happy hours
- Dinners for incoming members
- Starbucks mornings during Sunday school (or coffee hours at someone’s house)
- Mentoring for church or local young adults or youth by 20-30 year olds
- Give new members a peer to utilize as a direct contact
- Group cooking class out or where people bring/educate others about their favorite dishes
- Group chats or some place to talk online for individuals of the same age group
- Kids sermon before the sermon
- Occasional contemporary music
- Potluck at the start of each Sunday school year
- Free car wash or rummage sale to draw people in driving by on Ryan Road
- Parenting classes
- Financial literacy classes
- Gift baskets to donate to Salvation Army (Fathers day, Mothers day, Veterans Day)
- Helping with yard work with people in need in our community
- Parent’s night out, drop off their kids at church while parents go our some place for dinner
- Saturday morning breakfasts for working members (One month men, next month women)
- Move Sunday morning bible study back to classroom to allow more socializing in the narthex between services
- Mitten tree before Christmas
- Hospitality Center in Racine serving meal
- HALO - Homeless Assisted Leadership Organization
- Street Angles – homeless ministry on 27th St
- Community meal in Racine, always at the same location but served by a different church once per month
- Open Table, serve a restaurant type meal once per month for people in the community. Members eat along with the guests
- Food packaging
- Hunger Task Force in Franklin
- With a Little Help – A summer camp for people with special needs
- Souls for Jesus – collect shoes to send overseas
- St. Anne’s Center for Intergenerational Care – child and adult day care
- Veteran’s Outreach of Wisconsin – housing for homeless veterans
- Partner with a school for mentoring, provide backpack of food for weekend
- Outreach of Hope – Synod outreach, annual bike ride
- Vendor at ball park / Fiserv Forum
Category 1 – “Low hanging fruit.” Those ideas that we are currently doing or can be easily implemented now with little effort:
- Bring in today’s songs / music – maybe reinstate the split in service (more traditional at the 1st service and modern at the 2nd service) (Pastor, worship,youth)
o Contemporary music before / after service
o Contemporary music
o Variety of music in each service: contemporary, traditional, global, live
- Continue children’s message (Pastor)
o Kids sermon before the sermon
o Children’s sermons
o Children’s sermons
- Involve kids / youth in worship, in things they are interested in doing on their own or helping with (e.g., offering, acolyte, AV/tech production, social media) (worship, youth, evangelism)
- Greeter team (separate from ushers) who greet every person as they arrive at church (evangelism)
- Make sure other church members also greet visitors before they leave (Pastor, evangelism)
- Small group discussions / sermon series periodically (Pastor)
- Continue shorter service. What are the minimal items that we need in a weekly worship service? (Pastor)
Category 2 – More work required. Good ideas that will take more effort from our group or other church committees or members:
- Sermon subjects: (Pastor)
o Enjoyable, insightful and meaningful sermons that are practical & actionable
o Sermons about tough subjects and how it applies to our lives
o Sermon series related to current issues
o Increased sermon series on current events or moral themes
o Tying sermon series on current events and social justice
o Pointed messages towards life and problems as a young adult, new parent, etc.
o Messages which embrace and address the occasional question of faith
- Any short videos available on the weekly topic (Pastor)
- “Telling the story” of ministry at House of Prayer through short video clips while the offering is being collected. (Stewardship)
- Increasing congregation participation through the asking of questions (Pastor)
- Greeting / Helping people upon arrival: (evangelism)
o Support young families upon arrival, help with coats, bring them coffee, etc (getting to church on time is stressful)
o Welcoming committee for guests - greeters / ushers for that service?
o Help answer questions, be a “go-to” person for the guest
- Good signage throughout church so visitors can easily figure out where things are (evangelism)
- More live acoustic music or choir music (worship)
- Youth group assist in the service every other month – or at least updates from a youth group member (youth)
- Keeping kids occupied during service: (worship, education)
o Ensure children activities during service
o “Blessing Bags” – toys, games, puzzles, etc in a bag that a child can easily pick up as they enter the sanctuary, which will give them something to do during the service.
- Treats after service: (fellowship)
o Coffee/donuts in between services – at least 15 minutes after first service and 15 minutes before second service.
o Donuts / snacks in the narthex before and/or after each service – a time for informal socializing.
o Have a snack or other food of some kind to facilitate fellowship (pizza, build your own ice cream Sunday, brats & dogs, party subs, chili, etc) People sign up to bring food every 6 to 8 weeks.
o Any games to play while eating & fellowship?
- Nursery: (education, youth, evangelism)
o Staffed nursery
o Provide nursery volunteers to allow parents to enjoy the service
- Cry room – Continue to allow babies / children to cry (by saying it is a joyful noise) and offer an area they could step in (but still view / hear the service) which also includes a place for nursing (instead of the bathroom). Do we need TV with live feed? (Property, AV)
- Philosophy / religious book club before or after worship to build on some of the concepts (education)
Category 3 – Back burner. We’ll set these aside for now so that we can concentrate on the above ideas
- Pick a day & time when young families can attend (don’t interfere with weekend sports)
- Play area at front of church
- Youth service:
o Youth pick topics for sermon / discussion
o Youth pick favorite songs
o Sit in a circle
o Sit on the floor or on bean bag chairs
General Philosophies:
- Continue a culture of open doors / open hearts
- Use technology appropriately – only to enhance the message (not detract from it)
Ideas to develop small group studies
Recognize the different needs and wants of small group participants—some are more interested in building friendships, others in studying the topic at hand, etc.
Multiple small groups can meet at the same time, and they can study different topics from each other
Pastor-led, as well as lay-led groups
Some members will prefer short-term studies (4-6 weeks), others long-term or ongoing studies
In addition to fellowship and study, small groups can also do service projects together out in the community
Small groups at a non-Sunday morning time slot may work better for some people
Tie some small group studies to sermon series
Possible Study Topics
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Pete Scazzero
Emotionally Healthy Skills 2.0 by Peter & Geri Scazzero
The Alpha Course by Nicky Gumbel
Adam Hamilton books – mixture of biblical, topical, and theological small group studies (Difficult Topics, Half-Truths, etc.)
Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism by Martha Grace Reese
What Is the Bible? by Anne Robertson
Judah Smith small group studies (e.g. “Jesus Is_________” )
Books of Faith Series from Augsburg Fortress (covering many books of the Bible in 4 – 8 sessions, using four perspectives in each session: devotional, historical, literary, and theological)
Luther’s Small Catechism for Adults
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins
Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening by Cynthia Bourgeault
Small group study
- Activities for kids during same time
- Food / drinks available (either brought to share or provided)
- Games incorporated into the Small Group Study
- A comfortable area that is conducive for studying / focus
- Incorporation of media devices
- Study topics that offer self-reflection / self-assessments
- Topics:
o The gospel and how to present it (i.e. 4 Week Evangelism Workbook called Sharing Our Savior (SOS) - that teaches the nuts and bolts about salvation and how to present it to others)
o Theological topic studies (i.e. Abeka Bible Doctrines for Today) - Knowing Bible doctrines helps to give a broader understanding of many important concepts taught in the Bible.
o Prayer and How to Pray (The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power by R.A. Torrey)
o Discipleship (i.e. Grow Closer to Christ in Thirty Days: Daily Challenges to Increase your Faith or Changed into His Image by Jim Berg)
o Life Skills (Similar to our effort of doing small classes)
“Flipped classroom”
- Controversial topics like
o Responding to doubts/questions of faith
o The importance of advocacy and social justice
o The relationship between Christianity and other Abrahamic religions
- How to balance life and a personal relationship with God
- Applying the ten commandments to everyday situations
Outside activities – sports / active
- Softball
- Sports programs for congregation kids, inter-church sports leagues or intra-church sports
- Tough mudder or Spartan race
- Bike the Oak Leaf Trail or nature walk. Place painted rocks with HOP info
- Turkey Trot 5K
- Golf outing – 9 hole scramble
Outside activities – social
- Go to Milwaukee Milkmen game / tailgate
- Pizza nights (or other restaurant of choice) for young families while volunteers have a game night (with pizza) for their children at church
- Men’s and women’s bi-monthly breakfast on a Saturday morning
Events at church - active
- Games on the lawn / anything to make use of and be visible on our lawn & outdoor property
- Horse shoes
- Bocce ball
- Darts / dartball
- Disc golf course at church with a cook out
- Chipping golf course to buckets at church
- Build a sand volleyball court to the side of the church
- Add ping pong or pool tables to north room youth room
Events at church – social
- Bingo night
- Dinner night (bring your best dishes)
- Outdoor theater night
- Casino night
- Trivia night
- Campfire / guitar songs / s’mores on the east lawn
- Advent fair – make holiday crafts, serve Christmas cookies, Christmas caroling, etc.
- Mission Celebration” - make a presentation with picture and videos to celebrate all of the ministries and outreach activities of the past year, along with time for food, desert, snacks, etc.
- Dinners for incoming members hosted by members of the congregation
- Cards / board game night at church
Before or after worship
- Donuts or breakfast type food before & after both services, once per month to start
- Starbuck morning during Sunday school (or coffee hours at someone’s house)
- Packer / NFL tailgate party & cook out on the front lawn in September or early October. Everyone wears their favorite team jersey (Bears & Viking fans must sign waivers of personal injury)
- trick or treating with kids in costumes between services at Halloween
On-going programs
- Mentoring for congregation middle / high school kids by young adults
- Give new members a peer to utilize as a direct contact
- Group chats or some place to talk online for individuals of the same age group
- For all events, consider if collections for a worthy cause (youth trip, first fruits event) will entice increased participation.
As mentioned, I cannot stress enough about the amazing job the Sunday School teachers have done over the past couple of years during these unprecedent times!!
As requested, below is the list of ideas from the kids (Note: I kept off the request to bring in their cat, lizard, and goldfish..... :-) )
- Night-in/Sleep-over
- Field Trips (i.e. Zoo to learn about God's Animals)
- Life Lessons - Learning to cook, make clothes (i.e. For Christmas Pageant)
- Help with decorating the classroom based on Seasons / Church Events
- Getting to know others better by bringing in favorite toy to share
- Continuation of the coloring, crafts (i.e. sculpture making), singing, reading
- Team building games, outside games, trivia games
- Model Rocketry (To send notes to God)
- Christmas present exchange (i.e. Secret Santa)
- Movie Night – invite friend
- Lock-in sleepover at Church with the Youth Group – play games and have activities
- Pastor Pop-in – Pastor stops into Sunday School for a few minutes at least once a month
- Youth Group leads a Sunday School session once every other month
- Redo old play area into a garden. The Sunday School kids are responsible for helping clean up the area and then assisting in maintaining the garden
Cross-generational gardening at church, donate the vegetables to the food pantry
Older kids mentoring younger kids in Sunday School (like the Boy Scout model)
Pet Blessing on St. Francis Day, Oct 4 (or another time)
Hybrid in-person/zoom learning even after the pandemic (e.g. Confirmation Class and Sunday School)
Spiritual formation for kids and parents utilizing online technology/website/smartphones/etc that can be used any time of the week. Examples include: 3-minute children's sermon videos, 3-minute videos of pastor talking about topics of interest to kids or parents, discussion platforms for Sunday School lessons (there are probably more ways to grow into using our new technology that we haven't thought of yet)
- Starbucks mornings during Sunday school (or coffee hours at someone’s house)
- Bible study or fellowship during confirmation for the parents
- Group chats with parents of Sunday school or confirmation classes for updates
- Provide parents with small write ups on what was discussed in class to encourage conversation at home
- Choreographed dance routine to a Christian song
- More outreach projects
o Visit & sing / dance @ nursing home
o Food sorting
o Paint day for handicap ramps
- Invite a friend to a game day
o Outdoor games – Frisbee golf, botchie ball, bag toss, etc.
o Indoor board games
o Ice cream – build your own sundaes
- How to handle a bully in a Christian way
Confirmation Class:
- Rewrite the Lord’s prayer in their own words
- 15 minute discussions on topics of their choosing:
o Inferiority complex
o Bullying
o Sex
o Jealousy
o Forgiving others
o Asking forgiveness from others
o Handling the loss of a loved one
o How can I make more friends
o Better relationships with family members
o Setting goals
o Handling abuse
o I feel so stupid, untalented, unathletic…….
o When God doesn’t answer my prayers
o How can I break a bad habit
o How can I do God’s work
o What should I do when I make a mistake
o Why / how should I pray
o Accepting (or giving) criticism
o I have trouble having conversations with others
o How to interview for a job
o Coping with difficult change
o I’m worried about my future
o Expressing gratitude
o How to handle my personal finances
Website looks good and is being updated well. However, HOP is not showing up on the first search page
Search engine optimization – how can this improved to increase our site visibility
Utilize google reviews to move us up the ranks
Evangelism committee is looking into changing our web address to make it easier to find
Good that our web site says “Welcome to YOUR HOP”, anything that says “you are welcome here” for inclusion and diversity are good.
Franklin community pages
Facebook pages to post any of our upcoming activities
There are a variety of community pages available that are coming from an individual
We want to show photos, videos, postings from the various demographics that we are targeting to show our inclusion and diversity
Communication Ideas:
-Group chats between various organizations
-Shared online calendars
-App for push notifications, forums, discussions/chats
-Video instead of text updates in the weekly express
Getting us to pop up on Google
Within church communication, have an App, can send out a push notification to groups, however this can be quite pricy, probably at least a couple of thousands for a basic
Can we have discussion groups, group chats to communicate to groups
Have group calendars to send out notices & events
People don’t like to read long emails, maybe send out a 2 minute video with the weekly updates, sent out via email, either the entire congregation or to specific groups. If the files are too large to email, they could be shared with a Google drive link. Probably limit to 30 seconds with people’s short attention span.
Brevity & visual over text is usually better.
Need different forms of communication
Communication is an investment more than an expense
- Can we send out any mailings for welcoming new families to the Franklin / Oak Creek area in new subdivisions
- Can we give a welcoming flier to any of the APL school families
We don’t have a link to our weekly announcements in our web site.
Strong Points
Openness to try new things
Friendliness & welcoming
Committed volunteers and good lay leadership
Mix of generations
People step up when there is a need
Variety of skill sets among the members
Good location and facility
Good support for service projects
Generosity
Growing Edges
Need to keep figuring out how to adapt to all the changes that have occurred in the past couple of pandemic years
Improvements to the outdoor sign
Continue learning effective use of social media, internet, website
Connecting with younger generations
Rebuilding youth involvement
Greater visibility in Franklin/Oak Creek communities
Building Friendships within and through Church involvement
Encourage 5 areas within church activities that help people to develop friendships
Time/availability with others
Openness
Trust
Shared Activities
Unstructured interactions
Strengths:
Pastor – welcoming, engaging, personable, knowledgeable
Leadership – Council, Committees, Sunday School Leaders
Communication – weekly newsletter, social media
Financial – no debt, on budget
Modern interior – narthex, sanctuary
Events – fellowship, outreach, small groups
Weakness:
Try to bring in more younger families and children
Exterior landscaping/signage – clean up the beds, plant flowers
Strengths:
- Youth
- Space
- Passion/people
- Programming
- No over soliciting
Weakness:
- Communicating successes
- Service/donation
- Community presence (seems like mostly youth group)
- Technology
Friendships:
- Service!!
Potential Criteria For Judging Ideas
- How many people do we need
- Is it a one time or repetitive event
- What is the age group that this would apply to? Will it involve whole families including kids
- What is our cost, do we have a budget for this activity
- How likely will we be able to invite others outside to our church
- Engagement of both the members along with outside community, bringing awareness to others outside our church
- Ease of implementation
- Is it something that we need to invent to get off the ground or is it an existing program that we can more simply plug into
· Magnitude of Impact:
o Internal Growth – Growth comes from the reliance of the congregation to invite others to serve / take part in the activity
o External Growth – Growth comes from the activity itself (i.e. The family of the child the church is tutoring decides to join the church, Members of the community that take part in onsite classes decides to join the church)
o Both Internal & External Growth – The biggest impact are the activities that allows for the congregation to be able to invite others to serve / take part in the activity (internal) - as well as - the activity itself bringing in people (external)
· Ease of Implementation:
· How easy is it to implement? Do we have the internal expertise? What is the time impact?
- What would be the most energizing for young families?
o Hands on activity
o Fun
o Includes all ages
o No limit on number of participants (we can invite as many as we can)
- how likely are non-members to say yes, is it intimidating
- likely to say yes to a one-time vs repeating