A Coordinator’s Guide to DWELL Flex: Everything You Need to Know to Equip Your Leaders

Launched in 2020, Dwell Flex is a new multi-age, multi-setting segment of Dwell. These simple sessions (samples here) are built to meet the specific needs of churches, whatever the coming year might look like. This post includes some important details to keep in mind as you begin using this resource.

You can find the full list of Dwell Flex stories on our Flex scope and sequence, including year 2 stories that have been released. To view all of the year 2 stories that will be available this fall, check out our Dwell Flex page. Our stories are assembled in a rough chronological order, but as each session is stand-alone, you can use them in whatever order works for your unique situation. 

Parents or leaders using Dwell Flex will need a few things to be able to lead the sessions. Here are materials you’ll want to make sure they have on hand:

• Dwell Flex Story Symbols. These can be downloaded from Dwell Digital (log-in required), or Dwell's Leader Support page. You can access a pdf of the full-color story symbols grouped by year, or black and white symbols grouped by unit. 
• God’s Big Story cards. We recommend that you purchase a set of God’s Big Story cards for each leader, so they can refer to those cards in the “Respond” step of each session, and for each family so they can continue exploring God's story together at home. You can lead the sessions without these, but it really helps to have them.
• 5 Ways Resources. The sessions also mention 5 Ways to Pray with Kids and 5 Ways to Retell a Bible Story with Kids. Leaders might find it helpful to have hard copies of these resources for easy reference while preparing and leading the sessions.
• Printable Pages. Occasionally the session will have an attached printable page. Leaders who have a Dwell Digital login will be able to easily access and download these materials, but if you’re sending the sessions to parents, you might want to download and include any printable pages for them. Parents can absolutely lead the session without these pages if you forget, but they are fun extras that are nice to include.

If you’re planning to share the Dwell Flex sessions with parents to have them lead at home, you might consider sending a monthly packet with everything they’ll need to lead each session. The sessions are designed to print easily from Dwell Digital. We’d recommend including the following each month: printed copies of the sessions, the corresponding story symbols, and any printable pages from the Easy Extra activities. Or you can print the session to a PDF and email that to parents, along with the story symbol and printable page.

We also have a variety of 5 Ways resources that would be great to include in your monthly packets, encouraging families to focus on a different practice each month. Check out our Dwell at Home page to view all of the resources we've created to encourage family faith formation.

Whether your Dwell Flex leaders are parents or regular children’s ministry volunteers, it’s important to set them up for success. In addition to providing these important materials, we recommend you share  A Leader’s Guide to Dwell Flex with anyone planning to lead the Dwell Flex sessions.