The beginning of the Konnect experience is the welcoming part—the pieces included in it are all about welcoming kids and orienting them to the structure and procedures of Konnect. Find out how leading small helps!
Watch This:
This video will show you how to use the welcoming part of Konnect to lead small:
Check Out These Tips:
Small Group Welcome
Answering a silly icebreaker question helps kids gel with their group and practice taking turns speaking and listening. Leading small now helps later when questions get personal, because kids learn it’s safe to share what’s on their mind and respect others while they do the same.
Small Group Welcome Tips
- Small Group Leaders: Make each kid know they matter. Use their names and give them the opportunity to answer the welcome question, share something about their past week, or simply listen respectfully as others speak. Kids should be talking more than you are.
- Emcees: Visit groups to see what kids are sharing, but keep interactions brief. Turn off your microphone, as it can distract from the important connections being made in small groups.
- Coaches, Techs, and Emcees: If a kid doesn’t want to join a small group, sit with them, talk about the welcome question, and look for ways to get them interested in joining a small group.
Konnect Theme Song
The theme song is a super simple map to let kids know what Konnect is all about. As the lyrics outline the purpose of the hour, small groups get to connect further by dancing together.
Konnect Theme Song Tips
- Small Group Leaders: Keep your group together for the dance. Melt to the floor at the end of the dance—if you kept your kids together, you’re right back in small group!
- All Leaders: Prepare at www.leaders.life.church (Great job! You’re already here!) so you can participate and lead by example.
Intro Konnection
Even though the emcee is addressing the whole group, this is a great time for small groups to regroup, refocus, and transition well from an active time to a listening time.
Intro Konnection Tips
- Small Group Leaders: Pull your group closer together and lead them to focus on the emcee.
- Emcees: Make it fun, but don’t overstimulate kids with too much yelling, screaming, or intense activity. Overstimulated kids are difficult for small group leaders to manage. Focus on introducing yourself, introducing the monthly topic, and letting kids know the rules are up next.
Rules Video
The rules outline expectations in Konnect. Keep it positive by making them interactive and upbeat.
Rules Video Tips
- Emcees: Silently count the rules on your fingers, and help keep kids’ attention on screen.
- All Other Leaders: Follow the emcee’s example of counting along on your fingers. Model listening and saying the rules along with the on-screen characters. Encourage kids to participate.
Giving Konnection
This reinforces the rules and gives leaders an opportunity to start the process of collecting offering.
Giving Konnection Tips
- Emcees: You have three goals—recap the rules, encourage appropriate behavior, and explain how helpers are getting chosen to pick up the offering. That’s a lot to cover in 30 seconds, so you may want to select helpers before the experience even begins.
- Small Group Leaders: If a kid in your group is selected to help pick up offering, send them to the tech booth to get their bucket right away. Keep tabs on who has money to give.
Offering Teaching Video
You don’t have to teach kids the answers to their commonly asked questions about giving—you’ve got a video to do that so you can focus on collecting all the money and sending it to the right place.
Offering Teaching Video Tips
- Techs: Give helpers the offering buckets, and make sure you get them back at the end of the video. Follow your campus’ procedure on giving the offering to LifeKids staff for counting.
- Emcees: Quietly assist your offering helpers to make sure they visit each group.
- Small Group Leaders: Make sure your kids pay attention to the video, and help kids get their offering into the bucket when it comes to your group.
Talk It Over:
Now that you’ve watched a video and read a few tips, help the info stick! Talk over these questions with your experience coach or a LifeKids staff member. Share what you’ve learned with other leaders in Konnect!
- How do you think kids sitting in small groups for the welcoming part of Konnect is helpful?
- The welcoming part of Konnect covers a lot of housekeeping and procedures. Which ones have you had difficulty with, or do you think may be difficult for you as you start serving?
- Ask advice from an experienced leader or staff member to see what tips and tools they know that might make it easier for you to lead through the procedures that are more difficult for you.
- What tips and tricks have you used to lead through the welcoming part of Konnect? Share them so others can add them to their toolboxes
A special thank you to Orange and the reThink Group for their ideas and research on their “lead small” philosophy referenced in this article.