Small Church Ministry: 5 Reasons DIG IN Is the Perfect Fit

Small churches can be a wonderful place for community and belonging. But they can also come with challenges—especially for children’s ministry.

Perhaps due to a low number of kids, your small church places all kids together in one room. And maybe you struggle to find age-appropriate materials that connect with your preteens while also being understandable to your preschoolers.

DIG IN will fit your ministry perfectly—because we designed it with flexibility in mind! Here are five reasons why DIG IN will be just right for your small church.

1. One-Room Sunday School Built for Small Church

DIG IN lets you choose the format you need, and one option is One-Room Sunday School. One-Room is perfect for small churches because it’s written for a smaller group of kids. Some of the activities may involve reading, writing, or other skills that your younger kids may not be able to do—but fear not! Sometimes we suggest alternatives for younger kids, and other times, we empower the older kids to help the younger ones.

This is a great way to foster leadership skills in your preteens and engage them in the materials. We’ve found that when kids are grouped only with peers of the same age, discipline problems abound. But when preteens are grouped with younger kids, they don’t goof off as much. Instead, they set an example for younger kids and relish in the opportunity to have a job—helping the younger ones.

So your small church one-room Sunday school may be a blessing in disguise! Even though you may have struggled with age-appropriate content, you can take comfort in the fact that combining ages helps you avoid some preteen problems—and helps kids develop their gifts.

And here’s a bonus! If you use DIG IN’s Combo plan, you’ll also get access to our Children’s Church content—which is also designed to have all ages together!

2. Room to Grow From Small Church to Medium or Large Church

Your small church may stay small, and that’s wonderful! DIG IN will have you covered. But if you do grow, you won’t have to find a new curriculum to suit your needs. That’s because DIG IN is built to be flexible! If you outgrow the One-Room format, you can switch to Large Group/Small Group or Age-Graded models that will accommodate your new needs.

Large Group/Small Group is similar to One-Room in that it combines ages. But Large Group/Small Group only includes elementary ages and assumes you have enough kids to form smaller groups within your large group. If you choose this option, you can have preschoolers in their separate age-graded classroom.

Or you can pick and choose from four ages that fit your age-graded classroom needs. You can even mix and match if you have different needs for different services! The options are endless, so you know that with DIG IN you’ll be getting a curriculum that can grow with you.

3. Choice, Choice, Choice!

No one knows the needs of your small church better than you. Perhaps you’ve been using curriculum that kind of works, but you spend a lot of time editing it to make it fit your space and size.

DIG IN is easy to adapt because there’s nearly two hours of Sunday School content and over one hour of Children’s Church content. That’s three hours’ worth of meaningful, engaging experiences to choose from.

So if a certain game requires more space than you have, you find the craft supplies too hard, or you lack the ability to use media, skip those! There’s plenty of content each week that will work for your small church ministry! Just drag and drop the options you want to build your custom lesson.

Your personalized lesson will be delivered via Word doc or PDF, so if you’d like to make additional edits, download the Word document.

Choose from exciting options like Games, Craft, Object lesson, Activity Pages, Jesus Connection, Scripture Skills, Bible Memory, and so much more! There are even multiple options to teach the Bible story! You’re sure to find meaningful, hands-on experiences that work for your small church.

4. Flexible Time Frame

We’ve said that DIG IN is built to be flexible. And that’s true of time frame as well as ministry size! DIG IN’s easy-to-use online lesson builder will add up the duration of your lesson as you drag and drop your activity choices.

Your small church may have different needs than larger ministries. You might include kids in the beginning of service, shortening your children’s ministry time. You might have a service time and an adult Sunday school time, and have children’s ministry for both of those sessions.

Whatever your small church needs, DIG IN easily adapts to your timeframe. No more paring down a lesson that’s too long—just drag and drop the options you want to build a lesson that’s just right for you.

DIG IN Children’s Church even includes an Overtime activity option—a supply-free, no-prep activity that fills extra time in a meaningful way. It’s a great idea to have in your back pocket!

5. Volunteer-Friendly for Small Church Staffing

We know that volunteers are hard to find at any church, but small churches can especially struggle with finding enough volunteers. DIG IN is volunteer-friendly because of its flexibility! Volunteers can choose the activities they feel the most comfortable leading. And volunteers who feel comfortable will stick around!

Plus, volunteers will feel like they’re making a difference as they engage with kids and build relationships. And since relationship-building is one of the great advantages of small churches, Group’s R.E.A.L. philosophy will help you capitalize on that opportunity.

DIG IN can also be as high tech or low tech as you’d like. While the lesson builder is online, you don’t need internet access in your classroom. You can build and print lessons ahead of time. Or if you have volunteers that don’t like paper, they can download the lessons and teach from a tablet! Plus, DIG IN includes video options—but you can have a complete lesson without them! If you do choose to include them, you can stream them, download them, or go old-fashioned with a DVD player. Even DIG IN’s tech adjusts to your small church needs—and that will keep volunteers happy.

BONUS: Budget-Friendly for Small Churches

With DIG IN, your price is based on the number of kids in your classroom. So you can get the benefits of a well-developed curriculum at a price that fits your ministry.

You know your small church best, so check out DIG IN to find a curriculum that’s easy to custom-fit to your ministry!