Something for Everyone

"Something for Everyone" was a trend that I noticed during our teams's fall visit to the Mall of America.

Many of the stores at the mall cater to the entire family. H&M, a trendy clothing retailer, has departments for men, women and children. This is nothing new for clothing retailers, but to see a store as hip as H&M doing it made me take another look.

The Apple Store had a little area in the back, just for kids. A kid sized table with funky little chairs and 6 computer stations with kids software. Something for mom, something for dad and something for junior!

Lego does this well too with toys for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, school agers, teenagers, my 35 year old husband, boys AND girls.

All of these places serve family units with their unique brand or product. They are creating generational layers of consumer loyalty which will keep them in business for years to come. The baby that wears GAP clothing grows into a child that wears GAP clothing which grows into a teen that wears GAP clothing which grows into an adult that wears GAP clothing which grows into a parent that buys GAP clothing for their baby.

I think kids ministry can learn a lot from this. It encourages me to think more about whether what I am doing with elementary kids has correlation to what the adults do in big church and to the larger church's vision. It makes me think about cooperating more with other age division within Kids Ministry to have more unity. It reminds me that some of the new initiatives (like ORANGE) to see birth through high school as one unit have a lot of validity. It causes me to consider the importance of creating loyalty in those who use our programs so that they will stick with the church over a long span of time.