What are your favorite Sunday School Curricula and why? Do you have organized activities for youth beyond Sunday School? Do your churches sponsor Scout troops? ABW girls groups? Awana????
We are hoping to attract more families with children to our church, and if there is something in place already going for kids to do, even if it is only our few kids to start, its more likely that a visiting family might want to return. Back when I I had small children and had dropped out of one church due to a fundamentalist takeover ( not a Baptist church, either!!) my kids were invited by a mom in our school carpool to join an AWANA group. My son loved his "sparks" group, but my older daughter hated her group-- all the memorization was "Just more homework, Mom!"-- she was in a rigorous academic program at her magnet school, and wanted to have FUN in the evening, not "More Homework"
The Nazarene Church, which we began attending later that year, we found to be a place of loving acceptance, and my son loved the Nazarene Caravans club, which is patterned after Scouts or Campfire, with badges to earn for life skills and hobbies, and learning about famous people in the history of the denomination. I'd like to see something like that for the American Baptist church, even if I have to write it myself.