Deepening Your Church’s Engagement in The Crossroads Ministry

Crossroads Kids Club is more than a weekly 90-minute ministry. What happens on a weekly basis at your club makes a huge impact on children. But in addition to that, Crossroads is also about reaching families. The Crossroads club is one piece of a larger mission: entire churches adopting their local school community to reach kids and families. 

In fact, that’s our organizational mission statement:“Bringing the hope of Jesus to children & families and connecting them to the life of a local church.” Why? Because long-term impact happens over the long term. And in order to do that, it helps immensely to cast vision to people at your church and get them involved in prayer and in other ways behind the scenes. 

How can leaders do this? Here are some practical ideas:

1. Talk about Crossroads all year long, not just when you need volunteers. Crossroads staff have created free vision casting materials (powerpoints, graphics, videos, etc.) that you and your church leadership can use to spread awareness of the ministry.

2. Recruit for volunteer positions on your team that don’t require being at the club weekly. Church champions, prayer team, supply coordinators, community bridge builder, parent liason, “special event” volunteers for club parties . . .be creative!

3. Brainstorm what it would look like in your context to build bridges between your congregation and families in the school. This can be highly effective if you do this with church leadership.

4. Plan out how you will intentionally invite families to your church and involve others in your congregation. Personal relationships and trust are a precursor to families taking you up on an invitation to come on a Sunday. Think about what you can do to come to them on more comfortable “neutral ground” first. You’re already doing this with your weekly after-school club, so build upon that. Several churches have had success with hosting a “Crossroads Sunday.”

5. Think about the needs of the families from your club and how your church can help meet those needs. One church had a Christmas toy drive and then hosted an event for the families to get Christmas presents for their kids. It’s best to ask the principal or PTO of the school to identify ways that you might help. They know the school needs and context best and will appreciate you asking.

It’s truly exciting to see what happens when a church body truly gets behind the vision of reaching children and families in your local school! Take steps today to deepen your church’s engagement, and in turn, you will deepen the impact and sustainability of your club ministry.