First Impressions

I've been catching up on my http://www.childrensministrytalk.com/ podcasts lately, and I came across one about First Impressions that caught my eye.  One of the speakers was saying that you have 10 minutes, when a family first walks onto your campus to make them go "Wow!"  If they don't, you've already lost them.  10 minutes!  It's got to be about 2 minutes for a child, and even less than that for a preschool or toddler.  Here's what he had to say about his experience:

"When my son Tim was 3 years old, we walked into a church and checked him into the 3-year-old class, and boy, the lady at the door was friendly, welcoming, used his name several times when she opened the door to let him in. He looked in the room and saw the kids having fun, playing with play dough, building with blocks, playing with cars on the floor, he ran in, no problem!

"I went to a friend of mine's church the next weekend, a large church, church with a brand new facility, we went to check him into the 3-year-old classroom, and the lady didn't talk to him at all, she only talked to us (my wife and I), he looked in, and grabbed my leg and starting crying.  Why?  Because kids were sitting on a tape line on the floor. They were waiting for class to begin.  There were bins full of fun toys to play with, but they didn't have any of them out yet.  Kids that age, boy, if you don't impress them in the first 5-10 seconds, you have a problem with a kid crying the whole service, wanting his parents.  With elementary kids, you can have up to a couple minutes, when they walk in to check out Children's Church. You gotta have kids welcoming kids, something for them to do! Appeal to the child, to that culture, IMMEDIATELY when they walk in the room."

Good word for all of us to get a hold of!  Please help make families and children feel comfortable and happy! I can only do so much with the environment and classrooms, I need your help, FV Kids Staff, to do the welcoming!