We all know that kids matter to God, but what else can we say about the importance of children’s ministry. Here is my attempt to spell it out in detail.
68 Reasons Why Children’s Ministry Matters:
- 14 Ways Children’s Ministry Helps Kids
- 8 Ways Children’s Ministry Helps Families
- 24 Ways Children’s Ministry Helps The Church
- 8 Ways Children’s Ministry Helps Everyone
- 14 Ways Children’s Ministry Helps Kid’s Learn
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{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow! What a detailed list. I’ll be signing up for your newsletter. As a children’s ministries director this was encouraging.
Janine
christianparenting.today.com
Janines last blog post..Proud Mama of Caring Boys
Christian’s ministering to children instills Godly character qualities. This is positive for society as a whole, AND for each individual. Traits such as honesty, kindness, love and justice are rooted in the nature of God. Society believes children should learn these character qualities, but most public instruction has removed the standard and basis root of the qualities themselves, which is the nature of God. We have the opportunity to instill in children the source of all ‘goodness’ in the universe; the heart of God.
So much can be stated on this subject, but please consider including it as a major benefit of working with children. Thank you.
Ginger,
Thanks for the great feedback. Some of the benefits I listed hint at character development but it definitely deserves its own point.
I’ll add this when I next update the list. Thanks.
Can’t improve on it.
Tony, We have a small church in NE Oklahoma and we are looking for a part time children’s minister and or a full-time children and youth (don’t know how that would work). If you know someone you could recommend, we would appreciate it. Email me if you do.
Liz
Liz – Thanks for your encouragement about the list.
I don’t know anyone over in the Oklahoma way. I think there is a job board on Kidology.org
I know you can get resumes from Southern Baptist Seminaries too, like Southwestern in Ft. Worth
Sorry I can’t be more help on that one.
This is fantastic! I am headed out of town for a week OFFLINE, I will digest this deeper when I return to civilization in a week! GOOD STUFF BROTHER!
Karl Bastians last blog post..HELP WITH STUPID MICROSOFT!
I’m going to use this in a volunteer training next Sunday!
Christ gives kids hope for an amazing future with God who loves them in such a profound and intimate way and that one day we will see Him face to face and enjoy a feast like no has ever experienced.
Tip: Plan a feast w/them with many of kids favorite foods. Teach and discuss the future banquet and homecoming with Christ. WOW!
Just for the record, I love your email newsletter, your website, and the articles. I use your website often for resources, and I love the list. My comments are in NO WAY meant to be critical. You asked for input, and hope that my contribution helps!
I must admit that while some of these concepts and ideas for children’s ministry are good, some are inaccurate. For example, number 12 says children’s ministry gives children keepsakes. Research shows that most crafts go from Sunday school, to the minivan, to the garbage/recycling. Very few families actually hold onto the crafts.
We need to transform our ministry TO children to ministry WITH children. Children are human beings made in the image of God. We are fellow spiritual pilgrims who march through life, as Robert Coles said (see The Spiritual Life of Children). They deserve more that a ministry geared toward having them make a decision to accept Christ. They need a ministry that values them as human beings and gives them opportunities to explore the meaning of life and their innate spirituality WITH those around them. Let’s not limit the capabilities of children to our predetermined molds. Let us rather walk with them as they seek God and God’s kingdom.
This is a well-thought-out list. Thank you very much for sharing it.
And I loved the story about you and your son sharing your faith with your neighbours.
David McKays last blog post..What is the message of the Bible?
@All: Thanks for your thoughts and encouragement. These concepts have been growing in my mind for a while and it’s something I really felt led to share here. Children’s ministry does matter, because it matters to God.
@De #9
Great suggestion, I will work it into my next revision.
@ Dave#11
I agree with your point about joining kids on their spiritual walk. Many times the little ones have been greatly encouraging to me too. I’m always amazed at the way God is working in and through them.
I do think craft keepsakes can be a benefit. Obviously, not all take-homes become keepsakes. But if we provide high effort crafts they often do. Many children will keep something special they’ve made along with their other treasures. Not to mention all the times I’ve had adults bring in their childhood VBS crafts (some many many years old) and tell me how much it still means to them.
Wow- this is awesome..I started to read and got blessed by the first one! What a line – I want my kids to find indestructible joy in Christ.
I mean think on that indestructible joy..what a goal and mission -no matter what happens – not just in the classroom but wherever they go..whatever they do or whatever happens..indestructible..he has come that your joy may be full! Well, I got my blessing..I will read the rest later..don’t want to stuff myself! This is something to muse on..thank you!
It’s their best change to accept Christ. I think this should be CHANCE BTW..
I can relate to this with having a 4 year old..they are so wide eyed and open..believe everything said- they just are a sponge in so many ways. Unlike older, MATURE adults, where we analyze, doubt, and dismiss things, these precious children are so very open to accept Jesus. We miss such an open window if we don’t weave teachable moments into our day and include Jesus in all that we do including relating it to TV shows or whatever we do in the day. Just practical living. Funny how they will just talk about God and Jesus openly without worrying about being politically correct or offending someone. As Jesus said, unless you become like a child.
thanks again for this list!
As I just found your website, I was pleasantly suprised by the wonderful plethora of offerings. I particularly enjoyed reading of the benefits list.
On of the things I encouraged the children to do were to stand with the greeter and shake hands with each member as they entered the church. They also had the responsibility to learn the names, so that they could mark the member present in the attendance book. This not only got the children to know the members, but the members to know the children. The net result was the children felt they were use full members and knew more of the church members.
My pastor has added a new member class for the children. I am the director for our children ministries and I needed more info for this class. I somehow (all God) found your website. ‘The Benefits for Children Ministry’ (how children’s ministry help the church section) is a big help with my class as well as the adult’s class. This is awesome! God knows how to answer prayers – quickly. Thanks for the ideas you have shared – keep walking in your calling!!!
Dear Tonny,
What a wonderful detail about what ministry for children can benefits us. I’m a fulltime worker in my church in Indonesia and want to ask if I can use your details to share with my friends here? we are helping the children from 3 – 11 years old (with Compassion) and WOW your script give me blessing. Please if this is possible for me to translate it in Indonesia and present this through the projector and share with my friends. Can’t wait for your other blessing.
Thank You.
Thanx Tony for the Benefits of Kids Ministry, they are quite good. im currently working strategy of how i can penetrate on my country to reach more children. thanx once again.
Thanks Bro. Tony for accepting my request to receive newsletter from you. I’m from the Philippines. i have been teaching children for many years. But i believe there are still a lot of things to learn. I believe your articles could best help me and give me encouragement as well. may God continue to bless your family and the ministry God entrusted to you.
God bless you for starting this website! It has helped me tremendously with Junior Church planning. Came across a book:Training Children in Godliness by Jacob Abbott. A chapter on “How to Instruct Children for Eternity” included creating a parallel story of a child’s life situation where there is a choice of behavior or thought that matches the Bible story. Sandwich the Bible story in between the children’s story intro. & summary: so they gain godly wisdom & humility as well as knowledge. Barna’s research indicates we need to do a better job showing how the Bible impacts our daily life decisions & activities.So that’s all I’ve added to your lessons. God bless!
Hey, your site/newsletter was forwarded to me by a friend, and I love it. I did want to tell you that there is a typo in #7, “thing” should be “think”!
God bless you. I look forward to reading the entire thing!
I’ve got a new CD of lullabies that I’m making available to local churches as a resource. Click here to hear the music and to learn more.
Thank you for the time and energy you have put into your site. I am a Sunday School teacher in a small church, I do have between 15 to 20 kids, though. They seem to be doing well on your lesson plans. I try to use the Bible as much as possible, so the kids will see that, that is where the answers are. Alot of other lessons want you to use there books and stories, and leaves out the Bible. I feel that teaches kids to look elsewhere. Thank you again.
Because of Christ, Joyce King
Tony truly the harvest is ripe but the laborers are few.
I pray that God will continue to use you in a mighty way.
I pray that he will raise up more individuals like you.
You are a blessing keep up the good work!
I am the director of our church nursery which is infants and toddlers up to potty trained children. I have set up a schedule for a lady/couple to serve one service a month for a period of one year ( that is what they requested). I also gave each person a telephone listing of folks who serve with my number to call if unable to be at any given service. I do the sunday school time each Sunday. I am still having folks not show up which leave me alone with the children. I have also ask no one is to be alone we must all be accountale so therefore must have at the least two folks in the room ( we have two rooms) infants/toddlers.I love this ministry but am becoming frustrated that I am always staying because no one shows. Yet for the ladies ministry we have over 100 show up for the activities. Can you give me any suggestions. Thanks
Sir,really this is very and very excelent thoughts for me.Thank you
God bless you richly.can you please reply me.
very nice list. as one who has served in children’s ministry in the past and now serving in youth ministry finding your blog has been a delight. keep up the good work.
i reviewed your site via stumbleupon
Our church is overwhelmed with children that we are bussing in from the housing projects, which is around our church. Our volunteers, teachers and helpers are getting tired. These kids are not very obedient – but we are making progress. It has come to my attention, through a letter from our pastor, that we are going to have a meeting to discuss what to do with the kids during the summer. I cannot understand why we would even consider not having church for them on both Sunday night and Wednesday night. We are also in the process of building a multi-purpose building for our church(ground breaking in June 2009). I would like to have input from other children ministry directors about whether they cease children activities during the summer. If they do have children activities during the summer, I would like to know what they do. My husband and I are praying about this and we know that the Lord’s plan is perfect. Thanks.
To Sheila–Having been a children’s pastor and bus minsitry director in three very large congregations, I can identify with your situation. Often Sunday School and children’s ministry volunteers can become tired and feel they need a break. One of the first suggestions that can come up is to discontinue the bus ministry and children’s program during the summer. I have two things I’d like to share about this:
(1) Prior to getting to that point, I tried to recruit volunteers to keep the volunterer pool fresh and excited about service. If you have a sufficient number of volunteers, people can take a Sunday or two off throughout the year without feeling guilty or like they are letting someone (or even the Lord) down. With more involved, you can have different people present the lesson, drive the bus, lead the singing, help with crafts, from Sunday to Sunday, etc. A team approach helps lighten the burden on the individuals. One way I attracted volunteers was to try to identify people that I thought would be good working with children. I would tell them that I needed someone to teach a 5th grade class (or drive a bus, etc.) and then ask them to pray with me over a period of a couple weeks or so that God would lay that burden on someone’s heart. Often, after praying about it with me, they would come back to me and report that while praying about it, God laid the burden on them.
(2) Throughout the year I would remind volunteers that when we are making decisions about how or why to do a particular thing, that the children’s ministries (bus program, etc.) are for kids. I remember drawing a large poster with the TRIX cereal bunny on it with a headline that read, “VBS is for Kids!” Sometimes we plan children’s ministries with us — the teachers, leaders — in mind, not the children. It’s not that children need a break during the summer — they need things to do and places to go when school is out! Instead, it’s that the volunteers want to take the time off — usually a sign of too few doing too much throughout the year. It’s certainly not a sin to suspend the children’s ministry during the summer months, but I can tell you it is very hard to get it rolling again in the Fall — especially if many of the children come on the buses. If the kids are the children of church members, they’ll probably be back in the Fall because their parents will be also. But, it is different for kids who don’t get a lot of support and encouragement at home about attending church.
I hope these ideas are an encouragement and help to you. Be assured that I’ll remember you and your church in my prayers!
I just came across your site today while searching for inspiration for words of wisdom for my Sunday School teachers and our congregation during the closing program. I was touched by these lists and really appreciate the hard work that went into them. Thank you for your dedication to children and I will definitely a frequent visitor to your site!!!
Jan -
I can understand your frustration with no-shows. When no one shows up, you may want to tell parents that the nursery has been shut down for that Sunday and they’ll need to take their children with them to the service. This may seem drastic, but I can tell you from experience that it’s one way to make your point that people will remember. Unless they’re inconvenienced, some people will continue to take advantage of you until the 12th of Never. Also, if you continue to cover for no-shows, there’s not only no incentive for people to be more responsible, but you’re merely reinforcing an unacceptable behavior. Why should anyone else step up to the plate if you always do it for them?
We tell our volunteers right off the bat that if they don’t show up for their rotation, they can expect a follow-up phone call. That way they’re not surprised. As part of our training program, we also let people know up-front that anyone with two unexcused absences/no-shows within a one year service period is subject to removal from the rotation.
Another thing you might try is letting parents know that anyone who has children in the nursery is expected to take a turn on the nursery rotation. There’s no reason why you should have to contend with no-shows while over 100 women show up for women’s events. Be courteous, be polite, but revise your policies and BE FIRM.
I wanted to share something we did in our nursery departments. This might be long. Getting people to take a rotation during the worship service for the nurseries is a headache. I think it has been better since we started just taking a month at a time, rather than “the 3rd Sunday.” The kids get to know you when you are there 4 or 5 weeks in a row. Makes the volunteer feel out of touch, but better for the toddlers.
Anyway, my son does maintenance for the church. He put in small flat screen TV monitors on the walls in the baby and toddler nurseries and hooked them to the soundboard and the camera in the sanctuary. You can’t believe how this has helped with kids and adults. Adults have said, “Wow! I might volunteer in the nursery now.” No one likes to feel out-of-touch with what is going on.
As for the kids…The first Sunday they were up, I was in the toddler room. First of all, it was apparent that these toddlers were used to watching TV. Here is how they were helpful for me. When a couple of the kids were doing their normal crying when their mother left, I pointed to the screen and told them that their mothers were in that room, “see, you know that room, it is just down the hall (they recognize it).” I told them if they looked, they might see their mommy or daddy. The kids immediately stopped crying.
When the singing started, I thought it was a good opportunity for the toddlers to get acquainted with the music we sing, so we danced around during the fast ones, I sang aloud, and we circled the wagons and other things. If some of the children wandered off, that was fine, but we were participating in the worship.
I turned the sound off during the sermon, and concentrated on the children and reading their story, etc. Then when I noticed that someone was getting baptized, I walked to the screen and saw it was a child most of the toddlers knew. Of course, they can not understand baptism, but they will. I told them that Chris was getting baptized and all of them stood and watched the whole thing in silence. It was amazing. Also, I did not feel as if I had missed out completely on what is going on in our church. I also got a visual of who joined the church that Sunday. Made a lot of difference for me.
The other great thing was, that I did not get the kids all ready to go home 20 minutes early. I knew exactly when the parents would be coming and could get the kids excited about cleaning up.
It has been a life-saver for our nursery. I think they’ve already lost the remote – good thing it has controls on the side of the TV.
Thanks for sharing this encouraging story!
im elvie from the philippines, thanks a lot, they are very useful tips, im going to use them in our sunday school teachers’ training. You labor in the Lord is not in vain… God bless you and your ministry
im a volunteer religion teacher here in our parish
since im teaching elementary level this site really improves my teaching quality which i know will interest the children in better understanding God!!!
thia article also aflame my heart to commit more to God as his teacher and to spread the good news!!!!
Thank you so much for this wonderful list. I think it just about answers every reason why we teach our children and why we want the parents to be part of teaching them also. I teach children’s church for Kindergarteners through 5th grade children. It is so much fun to see their faces when they say their memory verses and read from the Bible. It pleases God I’m sure to know his children are here learning about His Words and passing them on to their children when they are all grown up too.
Thank you so much!
I really appreciate the wonderful job that you people are doing. the list is wonderful and important.
I am sure it will help me in my ministry.
may God bless you .
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