Entries Tagged 'Children's Ministry' ↓

Something begins to happen in our Wednesday night program every spring. Our volunteers start to get run down. Worse than that – I start to feel tired of the program too.

I’m guessing this is typical for children’s ministry programs. The school year has its own rhythm and life cycle. Fall is constant energy. Kids are making new friends and catching up with each other after the summer break. Things settle down, and then Christmas adds to the energy with holiday parties, pageants and too much candy. Next comes the build up to Easter. Spring Break comes and goes and then the weather starts to change. We all start counting down the final handful of school weeks.

Then I get the phone call, “Tony, we’ve just had a busy week, can I get a sub at church tonight?” I assure them we can adjust and I try to encourage them to put family first. But when these kind of calls come too often, it’s a sure sign that people are getting worn out.

This all set me thinking, what should I do when my volunteers are losing focus?

1. Evaluate what the program is costing the volunteers.
Always remember that you are called to shepherd the children and the volunteers in the ministry. Most families are wildly over committed and really struggle to follow through. Ask yourself, “Are we being sensitive with our service expectations?”

2. Look for ways to renew their vision for the ministry.
We all loose focus, especially after several months serving in the same program. It is vital that your ministry leaders keep the program’s goals in mind. Remind them how God is working through their service to bring children to himself. Remind them how learning God’s Word will make the difference in their lives twenty years from now. Remind them of the eternal kingdom Jesus is building when they share his Gospel with the kids.

3. Remember The Gospel
Being tired should remind us how much we depend on God. He is our creator and holds up our very existence. Being worn out is part of being a creature in this fallen world. But remember the day is coming when the Kingdom of Heaven will rule on Earth. Our Gospel labors will be seem short when Jesus appears, so work hard while it is day.

4. Give them all a break.
Don’t be a slave to the calendar. If the situation warrants, arrange for a one-week break from the program. We have one scheduled next week while I’m away at a pastors’ conference. Be wise with this move, make sure to listen to your key leaders and communicate any schedule changes well in advance.

5. Pray for God’s direction and blessing to finish the year well.
After all, it is God’s grace that makes any real ministry possible. Be sure to seek his support and strength to make it through. Pray that he would make the final weeks of the program the best.

6. Consider a shorter schedule next year.
We’re already talking about a simplified schedule for the next school year. I made the mistake of having Upward Soccer overlap our Wednesday night children’s programs. This was very taxing on our most involved people and the quality of both programs suffered. Next year, we want to space things out.

What do you think?
I would love to hear your ideas about encouraging worn out volunteers. How do you get your people through the final stretch of the your school year programs? Click here to post your comments.

photo credit: aidantmorgan

The comments on this post are open for you to talk about your Easter Sunday children’s ministry plans. Do you have a major event in children’s church? Are you concerned about commercial and secular themes? Click here to leave your comments.

What is your Children’s Ministry doing on Easter Sunday?

I just walked out to plug in our old diesel church bus for its weekly mission trip around our town. Big Blue is beautiful but starting to show her age. This church has been running a bus ministry longer than I’ve been alive. We all know that longevity is not the test of a ministry’s value, so it’s good to re-think the pros and cons every so often.

Positives of Church Bus Ministry

• Kids come to our programs that otherwise would not. Bottom line, more children are coming to hear the gospel. About 30% of our Wednesday night kids come from the bus ministry.
• Our church is visible in neighborhoods where we have no members. Like many churches, most of our people come from the stable long-term neighborhoods of our city. The apartments and trailer parks, with their more transient populations, house almost none of our church members.
• It keeps our people outreach minded. Our volunteers get to know un-churched kids up close through this outreach ministry. We are constantly seeing new faces that remind us of the many children who are not active in church.
• It doesn’t cost much since we already own the bus and use volunteer maintenance.
• It opens new ways for people to serve. The bus ministry volunteers are pure gold.

Negatives of Church Bus Ministry

• Reaching parents is a problem. Very few churches, ours included, have really figured out how to get the families of our bus kids involved in our church.
• Bus discipline is a constant struggle. There are some frantic moments for the bus monitors; it takes special people to keep 25 excited kids safely in their seats.
• We reinforce poor parenting habits. We preach parental responsibility, but contradict it by picking up these kids while their parents stay home.
• The kids from the bus route are often our most disruptive.
• We see very few conversions. Bus kids are often very open to the Gospel, but we don’t see much long-term fruit. This may be because they move away or because the home environment counteracts what we teach.
• There are safety risks. Any child waiting for the bus after dark makes me nervous.

So what about you? Does your church run a bus ministry? Are the pros and cons I listed here a fair assessment?

In many churches, Bible memorization is an essential part of their Sunday school or children’s ministry. Most Sunday school curriculum options have some element of Bible memory. Programs like AWANA are built upon a high value for scripture memory.

But memorization is not a universal value in Christian Education. I am in a master’s level course titled Biblical Worldview and Educational Practice at the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, KY. We’ve been discussing philosophies of education and how they have impacted local church ministry. The goal is to arrive at a more biblical approach to Christian education rather than just copying the latest educational trends.

As you might guess, traditionalism (more specifically Perennialism and Essentialism) highly valued teaching methods like drills and rote memory. Their approach was to promote the learners’ will power and train their mental capacity. In other words, traditional education approached schooling like physical training or even boot camp.

But a movement called Progressivism came on strong in the early 1900’s. Its advocates were strongly opposed to any passive learning by memorization of information. High value was placed on problem solving and maximum student involvement.

Historically, churches have been moving away from rote memory. Some of this has been good. Any veteran Sunday school teacher will tell you the value of active learning. But sometimes I think we’ve gone too far.

The Bible speaks very positively about scripture memory and meditation. If you’re not convinced, just read Psalm 119 or Jesus’ temptation in Matthew 4. Knowing the Bible from memory is a great benefit for everyone.

Too often we confuse child focused teaching with low expectation teaching. It’s one thing to accommodate the developmental realities of childhood. But it becomes a problem when use “kids will be kids” as an excuse not to challenge children in Sunday school.

Our ministry has experimented with several ways of doing Bible memory. In Sunday school, our curriculum encouraged the children to learn one verse each week. In Children’s church I have a set of 10 verses we reinforce every week through drills and games. These verses rotate over time. We’ve also taught the children extended passages of scripture like Psalm 23, The 10 Commandments, The Lord’s Prayer, and Psalm 1. Our Wednesday night club program has children learn a 21 verse Gospel outline over the school year.

What do you think? Leave me a comment below to join the conversation. How much Bible memory do you expect from children in your ministry?

photo credit: culture.culte

photo credit: kanspice2000

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Kids love Easter egg hunting, but does that mean we should have one at church? This is an issue our pastoral staff has been working through over the past several years. My first year at the church, I carried forward their existing program called Easter EGGstravaganza.

It was a Saturday morning Easter egg hunt that doubled as a massive outreach effort. We did the works – door prizes, crafts, resurrection eggs, and more tubs of stuffed plastic eggs than I care to remember. The event took weeks of planning and a full roster of volunteers to make it happen. We mailed postcards to 500 households with children. The publicity budget for the event was close to the VBS level.

Turnout was great and everyone had a wonderful time. There was only one problem – the event did not meet its goals. No prospects from that group visited our church for Easter. None of the children were enrolled in our Wednesday nightclub program. None of the follow up efforts showed any promise. Six months later all I could show was a mailing list for future ministry events.

That was the end for EGGstravaganza. In fact, we haven’t had any Easter egg hunt since then. For me, it wasn’t a theological decision as much as a programming choice. Our resources are better directed toward events that advance the church’s disciple making mission.

What do you think about Easter egg hunts at church?

Do you see it as a helpful outreach tool? Are you concerned about detracting from the real meaning of Easter? Leave a comment below and join the conversation.

My Other Articles About Easter

• What Should I Teach On Easter?
• Children’s Easter Crafts Resource Page
• Bible Verses About Easter
• When Is Easter Sunday 2008?