“Wow! There are so many kids here!”
“Where did all these young families come from?!”
I hear things like that all the time. So I want to share some data about what our growth actually looks like. Spoiler alert: The number of kids is growing, and we need our volunteer team to grow too!
First, let’s talk about the growth in the number of kids who are regularly attending half of our church gatherings or more.
Last year, 152 kids came at least 10 times between January-May (2023)
This year, 171 kids came at least 10 times between January-May (2024)
That’s 12% growth in the number of kids regularly attending!
These are not visitors. They are part of our church family.
But what about visitors or people new to the church? Are we growing in that department too? Yes!
Last year, 248 individual kids came to at least 1 Sandhurst event (Jan-May 2023)
This year, 329 individual kids came at least 1 Sandhurst event (Jan-May 2024)
That’s 32% growth in the number of individual kids coming to Sandhurst events!
As you can see, not only have we grown in regular attendance, but we have also grown in visitors or occasional attenders.
Thankfully, we have also had a 13% growth in our volunteer team: up from 205 people serving with kids during January-May 2023 to 233 in January-May 2024. That is amazing too!
I am so thankful for the busy parents, the engaged grandparents, the teens, the young adults, the seniors, and so many others who serve so faithfully. We have grown our leader team at a little faster rate (13%) than we have grown our group of kids coming regularly (12%). But we are not growing our team fast enough to keep up with new families.
We don’t have a team large enough to best love, welcome, and engage all the new families that are coming.
As a missional church, we need to grow our team so that we can best serve all the new families that are hoping to find a church-home at Sandhurst. And PowerUpClubs are coming soon. That is our biggest yearly outreach to families with young kids. And we are praying that God would bring many of those families to the church for the long-term. We are asking that God would build his Kingdom and grow his church.
But we need to be ready for that growth. So here is how I am asking God to grow our Sunday morning team:
7 additional individuals to join our nursery team (serving once per month during the 10:15 Gathering).
5 additional individuals to join our PreK team (serving once per month during the 10:15 Gathering).
2 additional adults to join our 5k-2nd Sunday School team (serving about twice a month at 9am).
1 additional individual to join our preK Sunday School team (serving about twice a month at 9am).
2 additional adults to serve as subs when our regular volunteers are unavailable.
That is 20 new team members. That’s a big ask. God is growing the numbers of kids in big ways, so I am praying that He will also grow our team in big ways. If you are interested in joining the team, start here. You could be a part of God answering this prayer.
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