I want to make a confession, sometimes I feel discouraged about our children’s ministry. From an outsiders perspective it is anything but glamorous and sometimes it just feels like a Christian job. There are constant discouragements and I’ve wondered how people serve in children’s ministry decades after decade. For example:
- Many of my friends from are serving in larger churches and they reach more kids than will ever attend our church.
- I’m not the senior pastor and my influence on the direction of our church is feels limited
- Our Baptist church has declined over the past three years, mostly due to pastoral turnover and changing ministry paradigms and sermon style.
- I’ve seen many children come through our ministry only to go a radically different direction when they reach the youth ministry. It’s always hard to see when a child loses her way.
- Even our best child evangelism programs suffer from limited volunteers and resources
- At the end of the day, there is always more I wish I could have done to help our church reach the community
Your Ministry Can Change A Child’s Life
If you’ve ever felt this way, let me offer you some children’s minsitry encouragement. You may not be able to change the whole world, but you can change a life. Every child has infinite value in the eyes of God. In children’s ministry, it’s essential to see victory in the small wins. No church can reach every child, but every church can reach some. It takes rural and urban ministries, small and big churches. Success in this ministry must be measured one kid at a time.
- Yes, I respect my friends for their larger churches, but I know that God wants me here. I love seeing the faith of these kids grow with each year.
- The most strategic way to influence the God’s kingdom is to shape it’s future leaders. So, even if I’m not the lead pastor, the impact of my ministry can be much larger through training the next generation of church leaders.
- Even while our church has lost some members, we’ve seen real spiritual growth in many families. I’ve seen children learn to worship Jesus and receive him as personal savior.
- Even though some kids have lost their way, I know we have shown God’s love and taught them the plan of salvation.
- Even when resources get stretched, we can take comfort in knowing that we’re giving 100% of our best efforts.
- At the end of the day, I know that God will continue his work even when I’m unable to do more.
Maybe you are a Sunday school teacher who is feeling burnt out. Maybe you serve in the church nursery or preschool ministry and constantly miss the sermon. Maybe you are discouraged because kids are not interested in your Bible stories or activities. Maybe you teach children’s church and wonder if all your lessons are making a difference.
Children’s Ministry Matters To God
Don’t be discouraged if your church is small and there are not as many kids as you wish. Consider every child as a sacred trust and do your best with what God has given you. Ministry is not a game or a job, it’s a calling.
I hope these ideas have been an encouragement for your ministry to children. You can add your own thoughts by filling out the comment form below. I look forward to reading your feedback.
Even More Children's Ministry Ideas
6 Reasons Why You Should Serve In Children’s Ministry
In most churches, finding volunteers for children’s ministry is a constant struggle. Most children’s ministers spend hours recruiting for Sunday school, church nursery, vacation Bible school, and other ministry programs. This shouldn’t be the case....
Developing a Vision for Your Children’s Ministry
No one plants a tree and doesn’t expect it to grow. You cultivate it. You protect the tree from the blistering heat and the frigid blasts. You jealously guard it keeping pests away. When the...
What I’m Learning After 2 Years In Children’s Ministry
This week I’ll celebrate my two-year anniversary at Calvary Baptist Church. This has been a very intensive period of learning. As I’ve shared before, I was called to this ministry with very little ‘formal’ training...
This Week in Children’s Ministry for 10/28/2009
It’s Wednesday again, and that means another roundup of interesting and helpful kids minsitry links. This is a great way to stay current with trends and news related to children’s ministry. Enjoy! We Love Lists!...
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the encouragment! I think anyone in a leadership of a children’s ministry needs to be reminded of this every once and a while!
God Bless as you continue to grow your ministry and website!
PA
Great post! I am always battling feelings of discouragement, esp. in regards to finding teachers and volunteers. We have so many parents that never, ever volunteer that it can be discouraging. Everyone wants to go on missions, be a part of youth group, help the homeless–all “high profile” ministries in our church. Children’s Ministry is a behind the scenes ministry with little earthly glory but an absolutely critical ministry. I am so thankful that while our teaching staff is small–each and every teacher is dedicated to reaching kids for Christ. I’ll take small and dedicated staff over many teachers but with “luke warm” faith anyday.
When I am feeling discouraged, I go back to my quiet times and pour out my heart to God. Sometimes I get so focused on “talking” that I forget about “walking” with the Lord. Often my times of discouragement come when I am too busy serving that I am not spending true time with Him.
I also visit the Children Desiring God website (John Piper’s church). I watch some of the “vision” videos to get my heart and head focused on why I am serving. Always a blessing! http://www.childrendesiringgod.org/resources/vision.php
Blessings-
Laurie
When I first started teaching kids in my church, I was not all that good. My knowledge came with years of practice, and also time spent watching others teach/assisting. My pastor had organized some workshops for us to attend organized by other bigger churches. These really helped out a lot.
For me, I found out my biggest issue was several times I would march into church and just start going to work and not pray. I have found out that pray is a very important part (although obvious, sometimes humanly possible to forget).
In His Love,
Heather
I am the Children’s Pastor at a small church. The children’s ministry has grown in the past 2 years, we had 2 kids and now I have 6 to 8. I do get discouraged because it doesn’t grow more or faster. However, I also know that I don’t have many adults to help so I guess God will give me the number I can work with.
I do have a question – I have one child in Sunday School usually, only one, and that one is ADHD. I don’t really notice the hyper part, but he doesn’t want to do anything in Sunday School except word searches – any ideas? Please email me if you have any. Thanks
Hi, i like very much working with children, and enjoy to serve in this ministry.Would like to have more information that could help.
Louis Loshita
Thanks for the encouragement. I’m a sunday school teacher and I love teaching children. I teach 25 kids during sunday( if the weather is good) with ages ranges from 2 yrs old to 12 yrs old. we have no chairs or even table in our sunday school room. we just sit on the floor but we enjoyed every minute in the sunday school. we lack some visual aids, bible stories (printed in colored). Your web site ministry to children.com is a great help on my part. I always open your web site and I learned many things in teaching the kids. I thank the LORD for your web site. thank you and GOD bless you always.