Hi "Newbiepastor"!
In our 252 Basics curriculum, we promote moving toward a small group / large group model for your children's ministry and then leveraging the Family Experience to help partner with parents better. We have a very broad spectrum of how churches implement the Family Experience (FX) piece of the 252 Basics curriculum. You will see churches who use it to build a bridge into the community as a outreach component, or offer an FX to their families on a quarterly, monthly or even weekly basis. I have heard of a few churches that will even run the FX piece once a month as their main worship service so that families and the entire congregation can experience it together.
Many of our churches even offer a weekly FX. For example, my church currently runs a 9 am Worship Service, 10:20 am FX, and 11:15am Worship Service.
I think the most important thing to consider is that when you are ready to launch your FX, it needs to leverage the lessons that you are teaching kids to parents -- so that they can continue the dialogue at home. Our strategy with putting kids together with parents is to help the parents better engage with what their child is learning in their 252 Basics hour as well as for us to have an opportunity to lean in to parents with our communication during the event. We affectionately call this the "Lion King" effect. Families will dialogue about what they have experienced together on the ride home and throughout the week.
A great person to connect with would be your area Partner Development Director (PDD). They can speak with you concerning your goals for your FX and give you some guidance on how to launch well. If you don't know who your PDD is, you can go through the general contact form and we will route it to the right person: http://www.rethinkgroup.org/contact.php
