People often ask about conferences that they might be able to attend. For those serving in a small church, those options may be limited due to the expense of attending a conference, available time off from their job, coverage for the local ministries, etc.
I have been fortunate to be able to attend the Children’s Pastors Conference (CPC) five of the last six years. It was CPC17 that began my motivation to begin Small Church Kidmin. There are not many leaders from small churches who attend CPC.
The demographics from INCM (International Network of Children’s Ministry, the conference host) notes that 19% of attendees are from churches with less than 200 people. With 85% of churches being considered small churches, I would hope that number would be higher. But as I noted above, costs and time can be things to prohibit people from attending. When I have attended, I personally bore the cost of the conference and used vacation time from work to attend. If you have the time to attend, then you may be able to ask someone in the church to cover the cost. This is not to take anything away from CPC, it is a quality conference and I would encourage anyone serving in children’s ministry to attend if they are able.
This will be my second year serving as a coach during CPC and my first year serving as a breakout speaker. I will be part of the panel in the Small Church Kidmin breakout session on Wednesday. I am honored to share some insight with others as they serve in a small church. Last year we had an impromptu meetup Wednesday evening which drew about a dozen people. We were very pleased with that as we had a great time of fellowship and discussion.
If you will be attending CPC20, then I encourage you to attend the small church kidmin breakout or connect with me sometime during the conference.
If you are not able to attend and would like some insight into the conference or would like me to talk to someone (a resource provider, etc), then please contact me and I will see what I might be able to do. I want to be your representative at CPC20 as I am able.
I will try to post a little about the conference, and resources I saw, in the following weeks. I hope that helps you in your local ministries.
Please keep me in prayer as we travel to CPC and back next week.
Thank you.
This is great that you are presenting at CPC. We pastored in small churches our entire ministry (40 years). I started a blog towards the end of our ministry to equip and encourage small church workers. I am not contributing to it at present because I have not had time, but I still have some more ideas to add. I did this blog specifically to resource others. I don’t make a thing from it. Please feel free to use anything from it to encourage others. Kidfrugal: https://www.kidfrugal.com/
Hi Bill,
I follow along in the Small Church Kidmin group on Facebook. After seeing your post about CPC, I wondered if you’ll be presenting again next year? I’m looking at attending with a friend (also serving in a small church). I know we’d be interested in networking more with others who understand the unique joys and challenges.
I also would be curious to hear what it was like to serve on a panel – did you get asked or did you apply for that?
Thanks!
Hi Chelsea,
At this time I do not know if I will be presenting again next year at CPC. I was asked if I was willing to be a coach for CPC and I have coached for the last two year. To present a breakout, you have to apply with what your breakout will cover. CPC then selects from the many applications that they receive. I submitted three breakouts and they selected to have a small church panel and invited me to be a part of that panel. Serving on this panel was good as I knew the other panelists prior to CPC.
Even if I am not selected to present, at a minimum, we would have a small church meet-up like we did in 2019. That was a great time of fellowship and discussion.