Comments on: Church Bus Ministry

By: Donna

Donna — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:18:40 +0000

Tony…your positives and negatives are right on target. We have had a bus ministry for 18+ years now. It has grown tremendously…tonight alone we had 215 children 5 years old thru 6th grade and 83 youth. We have 5 vans and tonight made 14 runs taking children home. We do encounter many discipline problems and that is why I am searching the web tonight…trying to find some advice or new ways of doing things. I have begged and begged for help but don’t have any one stepping up to help. My teachers are tired and ready to give up. If anyone has any programs or discipline ideas that work…please let me know. I would greatly appreciate it.

By: Betty McComas

Betty McComas — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 04:35:39 +0000

I like your comment. I agree a choice of words can bring a label to people not only children but to all ages. we can say things without thinking,not meaning to offend anyone. But I like your comment about the kids that road the bus. That sounds much more respectable. God has been dealing with me since the beginning of the year about God’s wisdom and Knowledge and I must commend you on your wisdom of this situation and this is exciting to me also and you are definately right . Everything about God is contagious to me when it comes to HIS wisdom and Knowledge. God bless you and keep up the good work.

By: Betty McComas

Betty McComas — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 04:15:14 +0000

If we are a servant of God He tells us to sow seeds. He also tells us in his word that “The fields are white and ready for harvest, BUT the laborers are few. Yes you are knowledgable on the time spent with a child. Something they enjoy they will remember, and with the love of God shown to a child God gives them good seed and your good seed will be harvested in them thru all eternity. I pray God that you will keep your hand on this sower of your seeds that she wins many to the Kingdom of God the eternity to come. God Bless you and your church.

By: Betty McComas

Betty McComas — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 03:12:49 +0000

This excites me when I hear “bus ministry” for I did this also for many years. I had a few children and adults on Sunday morning but on Sunday evening services and our Thursday night miracle services there were more elderly people that were widowed and did not drive sitting in apartments and homes by theirselves wanting to attend church and oh what a time we had on the way to services!!! We had church on old “George” the name of our bus. By the time we got to church they would walk into the building shouting and praiseing God . Most of them are gone to heaven now, but we were able to make their last days on earth a blessing. it was a blessing for us to watch them on special days bring their little gifts and exchange and share with each other. Yes, a bus ministry is worth it all if a person’s heart and soul is in the work and one has the precious love of God and compassion for people to receive what God has for them.God Bless all who has this desire for a bus ministry and may you,God, provide all the nessary needs and finances and volunteers to complete their operations for this great ministry. In Jesus Name. Amen. Please e-mail me and let me know how God worked this out for you. God bless you all.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 20:30:42 +0000

I have been involved in finding unchurched teens and getting them to church for 25 years. having pastored my first church now for 9 years I am starting to see something new. Can an imbalanced outreach ministry hinder long term growth? What I mean is that just as the article states, the bus kids are the most misbehaved. Over time your teen ministry developes a reputation as the “sweathogs”. Parents who are looking for a church to raise thier kids shy away because of the hardcore kids who create an atmosphere they dont want thier kids in. Im talking fights and honeriness which may be isolated and infrequent but take on a life of thier own. The question Im asking is is it better to keep the group made up of a majority strong church kids and then reach out only by fractional proportion to that population. I love reaching rough kids, but there comes a time when they take over and Jesus isnt Lord of the youth group anymore.

By: LARRY Middaugh

LARRY Middaugh — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 06:56:44 +0000

Our church has had a bus ministry for the last 40 years but now is in jeopardy of closing down due to lack of participation. I think our church has lost site of the pros and have focused on the cons. Please send prayers that Lord will take back control. The Children are to precious to ignore.

By: Jeanne McIntosh

Jeanne McIntosh — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 01:25:18 +0000

We have such an awesome responsibiity with the children who ride the church bus/van. A pastor’s wife at a church I attended in the past came from this type of minitry. Recently, as I was holding one of the toddlers in my arms while the mother was in line to get lunch following church, I thought to myself “I am doing what Jesus would do”. She has been attending for three weeks now (the mother) on the van with her children. It is precious! We welcome parents to sit with the children if they would prefer – a few have. It is work, work, work, but God is blessing the ministry.

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 02:45:37 +0000

SO SO TRUE!!!!I COULD NOT BELIEVE THIS!!!!!! Pros and cons of telling a child about JESUS!!!! The difference between going to Heaven OR Hell! As a child I was a bus kid they picked me up for ten years on the bus! now that I’m 18 i have the GREATEST HONOR of helping a bus route.They showed me how to get to heaven and how to love God! They NEVER put down my parents and they visit every Weekend to talk to me and my parents and they got to witness to them as well. All it takes is true patience and you can take a “disruptive” kid like I was and help them to grow. I agree!!!

By: Kat Patrick

Kat Patrick — Fri, 27 May 2011 21:18:21 +0000

Great testimony on these pages. I’m from a small rural church in England where our children’s work is successful enough, but a) we don’t have the room to properly run our three age-group Sunday school (up to 8s, 8-11s, 12 and up), so we’re looking into making space in a church with all kinds of conservation orders on it, when I thought perhaps a bus could partly serve as a new “classroom” for us, and b) we could reach the children in our un-reached areas of our little town with bus ministry. I’ll let you know how we get on: radical ideas outside the box don’t usually get a look-in, though!

By: Tammy

Tammy — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 15:16:17 +0000

Im just a little curious how there can be negatives to a bus program? Busses go out each week and pick up children who would otherwise never hear about God’s Plan of Salvation. Children who come from rough homes find a place to be loved and a place of sanctuary from the outside world. I have only been running a bus for a short time but within those 4 years I have seen 6 parents saved and now coming to church on their own. (Might I mention with their children) My Pastor was a bus kid. He then surrended to the call of God and now Pastors a growing, thriving church. If the bus has negatives then our church would not be growing to the ministry it is today. (500+ in attendance, a growing Bible College, and a Christian School) Yes children can get be disruptive but thats why we need to teach them how to act properly in a church environment. Yes children move I have had riders on my bus for 2 weeks and then vanish. But what if they learned something in those 2 Sundays that will stick with them later in life. Yes they might not have gotten saved, but when they are up agiasnt a wall and troubles are coming their way they will remember what they learned in church and hopefully find a good church.