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?
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3 comments ↓
I would say that this is a fairly good list of pros and cons. I am a driver for my church’s bus program. With our program a huge pro is that it allows the children to see that the hopeless situations that are going on in their home life don’t have to dictate their future, and that they can make a change in their life, and it shows them that people really do care about them.
A con though at my church is that it has been around so long that the church has stopped getting involved. We are down to a handful of workers. Any ideas on how to recruit new workers and create a passion in the church for the Bus program?
Elizabeth - One of the hardest things in Children’s ministry is “maintaining” an existing program. It seems like things must always be moving forward with a new vision.
Here are some quick thoughts:
1. Pray for God’s support.
2. Share stories with the church that talk about the value of the ministry.
3. Find a bus ministry “evangelist” who will constantly remind the church how important and awesome a chance to reach some of these kids.
Could anyone help me know what a bus program is and how to go about setting up a nine week bus program with weekly promotions? Must do this for Bible College project and am up against a wall. Thanks
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