Challenge – Problem – Headache - whatever you call them, we all have struggles in children’s ministry.
I Need Your Help
I’m writing a special report (maybe book) and need some help shaping its contents. My plan is to address the major problems that we’ve all experienced in children’s ministry and then offer practical help. I have some ideas in mind, but I realize my #1 challenge might be different than yours.
So, I want to hear from you. Just leave a comment below and let me know what ministry roadblocks you’ve encountered. Thanks in advance for your help!
More Children's Ministry Ideas
The Challenge Before Us
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Poll: What challenges have you faced in children’s ministry?
Twice I’ve asked readers to share what struggles they experience in their ministries. (read it here and here) The point behind all this is...
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...
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,...
How Important is Bible Memorization In Your Children’s Ministry?
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...
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I guess my biggest problem happened this past Sunday. Three of my volunteers failed to show up. I had contacted by phone and email. I even spoke with one face to face and she still didn’t show up. I was so disappointed.
My husband and my children had to stay for both services. I don’t want my children to have a bad taste for church and I would quit my position if I knew that was going to happen.
I think one of our biggest issues is due to the fact we are a small church and a lack of volunteers. Our age group ranges from 3 – 12 and we have anywhere from 4 – 20 students attending each Sunday. It can be a little aggravating when preparing a craft. We also keep the students together so that we have enough volunteers and often times pair up an older child with a younger child to assist them with crafts or activities. I sometimes worry that our older students are not getting the deeper knowledge that they require and would welcome any suggestions.
Our other issue is the lack of volunteers or as mentioned before volunteers fail to show up so I end up teaching the class. I face constant burn out and I barely get to attend 10 church services a year.
On a positive note, our Pastor is very encouraging of the Sunday School. He feels it is so important and is a never ending defender and encourager of us. This I feel is a very important component to a successful Sunday School.
I agree with Tanya. My church has about 110 members. I can’t get people to help with S.S. Most Sundays I end up teaching, the 5-6yr olds,the first hour and I also teach the junior high kids the second hour. I would like to just combine all the kids for SS, but feel it would take too much from the older kids.
I am very thankful that my church began taping the sermons, so i get the hear our pastor.
I’m at the end of my rope.
I taught Children’s Church for about 4 years. I actually preferred to teach the class alone; it seemed to run much more smoothly. There were a couple responsible older kids who were my helpers. I ran a pretty tight ship, and parents told me often that their kids were learning more in CC than in SS.
My problem was more related to the length of the service. Our pastor was rarely aware of the time and many times I was left to fill 20+ minutes after the normal end of service.
I agree with all that has been written above. It’s hard to get people to follow through the commitments they have made. We just expanded our children’s ministry from 2 classes (0-3 and 4-12) to 4 (infants, toddlers, 4-6 year olds, and 7-12). We are a church of about 80 people in a suburban context (outside Chicago) and we had all but 2 spots filled, PRAISE GOD!
The struggle I have is wanting to do too much. I love serving the kids of our church and get just as much out if it (sometimes more) as they do. If someone calls me and says they can’t be there for some reason, I feel like I be the one to fill in for them. Even though we have set up our schedule so that people are serving once a month, the month of May found me serving 3 out 4 Sundays. I am learning the fine art of delegation and made it the policy of the ministry to call around try to switch with someone before calling me.
I suppose my biggest challenge would be just being prepared for whatever a child might ask. It is hard sometimes to come up with the right answer for a child so quickly and i worry about saying something that would be misleading to a child.
That would make me feel so bad. I only have a very small group because our church is only a congregation of 40-50. It varies from sunday t o sunday. But to me it is not the number of children but what they receive from it.
I agree with most comments that the biggest challenge is to recruit volunteers who want to teach ages pre-k through 3rd grade. We have two services to recruit for and I wonder if a Sunday School hour in between services would be best and have the kids in the service during regular church time….this would virtually eliminate our problem, but parents do not seem to want kids in the service with them. That alone is an issue in itself which I am seeing more and more. This is really sad to me and I’m not sure what the solution is.
Secondly, so much emphasis is put on Middle school/High School ages (even budget wise) that this younger group is often discounted. This seems to result from the assumption that elementary ages are not as worrisome as older ages and need less spiritual guidance. It’s a subtle deception really.
I’d like to have better tools for equipping teachers and casting and communicating a vision for our Children’s ministry. We are a young church and most of our members have not seen a good model for discipling children. I get frustrated with only taking Baby steps to move the ministry forward.
Hi Tony,
Congratulations on your new baby, he is beautiful. I want to express my appreciation to you for this website and the resources you offer. I used one of your Children’s Church lessons (Jesus heals the man born blind) for our AWANA group time lesson and it was a big hit. I struggled last year to find good lessons and often just read a passage and Scripture and talked about it (which was good) but this year I was looking for something that provided more interaction, and you have got it. So I’ve pointed our other leaders to your website and encouraged them to take advantage of what you offer here.
The challenges Christine mentioned are ones I’d say we face at our church. Many of our teachers need to be brought along in their own discernment and maturity before they can really help the children. Children Desiring God has some great audio resources for handing out to teachers, if you are in a position to ask people to listen to something.
I have to agree with the recruiting. You always have your faithful ones that you can alway depend on, and you always appreciate anyone that can volunteer. I think it takes a special person to work in the nursery. I just wanted to acknowledge that the lack of volunteers happens in the larger churches too. Our Nursery is ages birth up to 2yrs, then we have the 2 yr old class that often has trouble with getting volunteers too. Our church is growing week by week but the volunteers never seem to grow. Right now we currently have a monthly schedule, and the volunteers volunteer on a monthly basis. We schedule them on the same week every month so they know when they are scheduled without even needing a schedule (Ex. they will work every 3rd Sunday of the month). We would eventually like to get it where they only have to work every other month, but I don’t forsee that in the near future. Anyway, we are blessed to be able to work with these children, and I enjoy every minute of it.
I am a missionary pastor working in Korea. I preach to marginally bi-lingual adults, and I teach the Bible to children aged anywhere from 1st and 2d grade to university graduates… yes, university graduates have language skills equivalent to young children in the USA. My greatest challenge is to find lessons that are content-appropriate, and vocabulary-simple.
I need to second what Pastor Graven said. It’s hard to find lessons that are simple. I need the simplicity to keep the attention of the toddlers.
Many lessons I’ve found are too wordy. I searched high and low and I think I will go with Life Way’s lessons.
It’s the closest I’ve found to what I’m looking for.
We used to have the same problem with lessons, the Person that was in charge before me looked everywhere too. Since she couldn’t find, she prayed God would give her a lesson plan that is simple. The lesson plan God gave her was Creation. Each Month (we find if you do the same lesson for the month they learn better through repitition, we teach age 12-23months) we teach a day of creation, also including Valentines, Easter, Thanksgiving, & Christmas. We just use simple lessons like…”god made the Day & Night”, we use flashlight & etc. She is supposed to be putting this all in book form, so if any one is interested or has questions email me @ obmnursery@hotmail.com
Thanks for all the wonderful feedback, please keep the comments coming – I’m listening and taking notes.
Hi Tony ~ here are some thoughts and thing that I have been dealing with. Feel free to email me if you have questions on how we are working through these. I feel that anything you can write about in these areas will be of extreme help to someone starting out or needing a boost.
*Dealing with opposition from others/members outside of the children ministry. Helping them to understand.
*Dealing with discipline problems and agressive behavior
*Time-out or not?
*Budgeting for supplies/playground equipment
*Background checks
*Illness policy
*Setting guidlines/Preschool Policies Handbook
*Youth volunteers
*How to make the preschool dept. important to those who no longer need a nursery.
*Children’s Church lessons that are simple, cheap/free and prepare them for “big” church.
*And certainly recruting and getting real commitment…it is so important to let your workers/volunteers know they are important and appreciated.
*Preschool Committee/Nursery Coordinator
Hope this helps! I am so blessed by this website and often come here for encouragement and ideas. Keep up the great work/service.
Anytime we are met with opposition and we are in the service and will of the Lord…count it a good thing…it just means you are on the right track. Doesn’t mean it will be easy or fun…but remembering that the reward is in planting seeds for the Lord and that it is worth every trial to bring little ones and their families closer to Christ.
Hi Tony –
I came across your site and am so impressed with what I see. As I read the responses to your questions I can relate to everyone of them. As a children’s pastor for nearly 18 years now (currently at http://www.shadowmountain.org) I’ve dealt with them all (and still do!). What I would add is that virtually every one of the issues can be solved or substantially addressed through personal and team leadership development. I started with John Maxwell, and his mantra is “Everything rises and falls on leadership”. I’ve learned that that is absolutely true. As I grow as a leader and develop leaders around me, these root of these problems is addressed and gradually they begin solving themselves as a result of good leadership (which includes the ability to vision cast, recruit, communicate effectively, delegate, etc.). I have been in small, medium and now a large church (7000) and it always goes back to effective leadership.
God bless all of you who are serving and leading in children’s ministry. I applaud all that you do in what I consider to be the most difficult yet important ministry department in the church in terms of impact, and I so appreciate what you give to serve families!
@Greg: Thanks for your comment. I appreciate what you’re saying about leadership and have noticed the same principle at work in my ministry experience.
I hope this thread is still open. I find from our Church that the problem is consistency. We’ll have a base group of kid’s that come each week, they know the rules, and they know how things work. And then we have a group of “non consistent” kid’s. These kids come maybe every other week or once a month. The particular “non consistent” kid’s that I’m talking about are non Christians. They need Christ in their lives, and I wish so much that they could come consistently. But when they do come, they cause a mirage of issues. All they do is cause problems. They don’t understand that we sit down when we do lesson’s, and respect the teacher.
I’ve been in the ministry for 6 years, and have been a Children’s Pastor for almost a year, and this issue is by far the hardest. We started a new program and it was working great for the base group of kids. They were used to playing games and being “free” basically the whole time, so transitioning from that to lessons and bible games instead of video games was very difficult for them. But they got used to it after a while. But as soon as the “non consistent” group of kid’s come (which is a large family, so they are strong in force, ha) they moan and groan about doing anything but video games, which is unacceptable during lessons. Them doing this, causes the base group of kid’s to act up just as bad. It is very difficult to stay nice and inviting, when honestly, if the base group of kid’s were acting like the non consistent group of kid’s, they would probably be out with their parents within the first 30 minutes of Church. Also, the parent’s are going through a rough time in a lot of ways, and are just starting to come to church themselves. So it’s very difficult to talk to them and have them understand that what their kid’s are doing is actually not acceptable in Church.
This is by far the biggest problem we have in this Church, consistency! I would definitely add this to your book if you are still writing it. And any advice anyone can think of would be greatly welcomed! This is a great site, I was/am discouraged lately with the Children’s ministry and was looking for a good site to offer encouragement, and this is it! Thanks!
Dear Devin: Look at your situation a a gift from God. He is working in the lives of this family, and He has entrusted them to you! Thank Him and ask Him daily what to do and how to reach them. Sometimes they just want to know they are loved and special, to you and more importantly, to this God and Jesus you are telling them about. You may be the only person telling them about Jesus, and it is so important they see and feel His love through you. A challenge? Yes, and that’s the great part! When God sent David into the wilderness, He provided for him, but He didn’t make it easy; the struggle built his character to become king. You will be become stronger by trusting in God to lead you with these kids, the church will become stronger by supporting the family through their baby steps, and of course the whole family might get saved. Hope this gives you some encouragement! Nancy
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5
Devin,
That is certainly a tough problem, and one with which our church is certainly familiar. I realized last year that just as in a family’s household, there must be order, respect, discipline, etc. in God’s household when we are gathered. It’s a disservice to the children and dishonoring to the Lord to let rebellious behavior go unchecked. You need a plan with other adult leaders and parents, and hopefully in agreement with the parents of the unruly youngsters. It’s not wrong to ask and require of children and their parents that order and respect be maintained. We decided on a plan to separate our unruly children from the ones who could behave and listen, so that teaching could take place. Do what you have to do in the genuine and sincere love of Christ and in thoughtful accord to the truth of His word, with generous amounts of communication.
My biggest problem is scheduling. We have basically 2 sets of kids…children with parents who bring them, and children who ride the bus (no parental involvement). WE can get the parents to bring their children early so they have choir time and then we can start SS, but the bus kids don’t arrive at the same time each week (it depends on how many are coming, if they are ready on time, etc) and after they have their choir time and then want to eat breakfast, there is very little time for a lesson…while the children who were there on time have to sit and wait. There have been a few times when I have taught the same lesson twice in one hour.
Unfortunately, this makes the parents decide that there is no reason for them to get there early so they begin to slack off as well. Downward spiral!
I share the views raised so far. In our ss, we also have the issue of limited volunteers bcos of that I find it very difficult to miss out on a sunday, since my work is demanding, it really takes a toll. I never get to listen to the sermon at church and we the teachers miss a lot. The difficult thing about it is that, no one seem to care to create a system to enable us ss teachers fill in on what we miss at church. I fill that in by using the kids lessons as my sermon but I would love to hear others. One other challenge I face comes from parents. Even some of those who are christians seem to think ss is just for convenience ( to allow them have a children-free church service ) and they chose when their children come to ss. Oh boy, they don’t seem to realise that these kids are souls just like them hence the inconsistency in ss attendance. It really is a bother.
Our church might be small in numbers but we have approx 17 children attending on a weekly basis. Our main struggle is that there is nowhere for the kids to meet & have Sunday School within the building we are using
Many of these children are bored, running around making a noise. I am going to put together an activity pack each week that includes puzzles, coloring in etc, where the children will have to bring their bible to look up their answers. At the end of the night if they complete everything in their activity pack, they can choose a prize from the reward box. Does anyon else have any ideas on amusing children during a sermon? Gone are the days where the parents provide anything 
Although volunteer recruiting can be a big challenge, our #1 challenge is getting parents to be spiritually engaged with their childen (Dt. 6). We have made several adjustments in our Sunday ministries, but many parents are only marginally involved in the spiritual development of their children. We have adopted a “family” approach this year. It will take a number of years to change the culture of our church. Thanks.
Yes, and yes to all of the above! The most aggravating problem I have is parents taking their children out of my class to play sports at school. (I do the wednesday night kids class). There is either a practice or a game. And of course, there is baseball, basket ball, football, judo, karate, and on and on. One week I have a room full, and the next week, only a few kids. I have asked the parents to please let me know ahead of time if they are not going to be there, but seldom do I get that respect. I plan a lesson and include a game with teams, and then there are not enough kids to do it. I was brought up with Bible basics–put God first, have no other gods before me, forsake not the assembling of yourselve together, we are members of the body and need each other, etc. All these doctines are just basics to me, and yet, these days it seems like the things of the world are more important than worshiping God and learning His word and fellowship with our brothers. Are sports important for fun and excercise? Sure they are, but when they come before God, something is wrong with our priorities. I don’t believe this is legalistic, just putting the Almighty God number 1. We are not to love anything more than Him. We are to crucify our flesh and not conform to the patterns of the world. Take a stand about practice and games being on Wednesday (or whatever night your service is on) and, although it is hard, pull your child out if they refuse to change nights. Hard? Sure it is. But when you put this up against Daniel and the 3 Hebrew boys, uhhhh–get it? How can you teach these stories and talk about standing up for the Lord and you can’t even give up a game? Take up your cross and follow me is still in the Bible. We are such a spoiled generation that we whine about the most pathetic things and there really are people giving their lives for the Gospel in other parts of the world today. Shame on us! Yes, you are right about leadership. Watchman on the wall–Blow the Trumpet–Warn the people.
I would ditto most of the above but right now I would say my biggest frustration would be lack of commitment by many (not all) teachers. You can certainly tell who is simply giving and hour on Sundays or Wednesdays and very little else. I am trying to lead by example, giving them tools that are easy but effective, offering encouragement and ideas, etc. But if the commitment is not there – hmmm? I would love to say I have people waiting in the wings to help out but that is not the case so sometimes a caring person for Sunday mornings is better than an empty seat?
well, i’ve only got twenty years of living experience under my belt and now our children’s ministry leaders at our church are stepping down. I have been picked to take over! I have volunteers every night.. but they stand in the back of the room while two or maybe three of us on a good night handle all of the 30+ kids we have come on wed. nights. It’s frustating to me. I am probably a good 15 yrs. younger than my volunteers.. how i do i ask them to actually help when they come instead of sitting in the back and talking? And make it sound respectful but still let them know that i am serious? I need help and they are there.. just not doing anything.
To whom much is given, much is required. As children ministers we have been blessed with so much to have someathing to give. Being in children’s ministry allows you to see just how blessed we are. It would be an ideal situation to have the people, space, supplies and cooperation in dream world for minstry but the reality of it is is that “it is what it is”. I minister at an extremely small church; old, small building, fixed income members, no electronics, a Wal Mart speaker system and on and on. But the fact of the minisstry is kids come, broken kids. On to the biggest issues I face in ministry are ADHD children, learning disabled children, and children who are split between parents on weekends. Being the only youth minister, trying to meet the challenges of the ADHD kids while sharing Jesus with those who know the purpose, having materials for the learning disabled and continuing your series with the kids who only get to come two Sundays out of a month…..I stand on the Word of God that says He will never put more on us than we are able to bear and depend on increased faith to meet the needs.