ACS or other church systems can help you keep track of some of these things. Our ACS system lists the date kids were baptized and also keeps records of attendance on Sundays. I think it may have the ability to keep track of attendance for other groups as well, but we usually do this manually by program.

I also keep a running list of every child who is a regular attender in my church. I pray for the kids who are Kindergarten through 6th grade by name at least once per week for salvation. Once they have accepted Christ as their Savior, I note that, and continue to pray and follow up with them until they are baptized. After they are baptized, I note that on my list and begin to pray for their growth in Christ. I also have a list of preschoolers, though I don’t pray for them by name as often. When you are praying for them on a regular basis it is much easier to keep up with their spiritual needs and levels. You just know them better and are aware if they are attending discipleship classes, Sunday school, children’s church, and other events.

I do like the idea of having this recorded in a way that would make it easier for someone coming behind me to know where our kids are spiritually. It would be great to pass that information on to the youth minister as well when kids move up. Great idea.

Sharon Warner

Minister to Preschool/Children
FBC Ruston, LA

Jean - it’s cool to hear how you guys are going at it. Amazing volunteers can really make this process work - that’s cool to hear. Say hi to Rob for me!

Ryan

How we run/keep “files” so to speak is through our pods/small groups/leaders. It’d be crazy to expect the kids pastor to be able to follow up every single child every single week and compile that single-handedly.

Our pod leaders contact their kids, split up in age group and by boys/girls once a fortnight by call/mail. In addition, every Sunday, there will be a designated pod time. They will immediately be aware if their child has made a decision, a rededication decision, etc… and this will be recorded in their pastoral care reports each fortnight, including whether the child has been coming on a Sunday.

This then gets updated in the database, put on our rolls. We also have team leader reports which the room leaders complete each week. This will note any decisions made, any testimonies, prayer requests, etc…

All these get compiled by our amazing volunteers in the office for our awesome kids pastors to bring into the executive meeting each week.

If you’re running under 150 or so kids, you can probably keep up with all this information on an excel sheet or even an access database. Our church uses Fellowship One. We can mark events like salvation, baptism or re commitments. In addition, we can run attendance reports for services or small groups. You can even add confidential notes that document stuff the kids are experiencing. Other database programs can be set up to record the same information and at a variety of costs. These kind of metrics should be at our finger tips on a regular basis.