Here’s 10 big questions about children’s ministry … with my responses.
1. What should I be focusing on? If I had to be good at one thing in children’s ministry, it would be building a volunteer team. The success of your children’s ministry rises and falls on the strength of the volunteer team you build. Here are some tips for building a dynamic team.
2. What’s the best strategy for equipping parents to lead their children spiritually? I have found the best way to impact parents is at key times in their lives. These include when they are new parents, when their child starts asking questions about a relationship with Jesus, when their child is entering elementary school, and when their child is preparing to enter middle school. These are times when parents come looking for help. Have a class and time of celebration attached to each of these. More about that here.
3. How do you know if a child is ready to begin a relationship with Jesus? Here are a few ways to know:
- They continue to bring up the subject on their own.
- You sense they don’t just “want” to invite Jesus into their life, but they know they “need” to invite Jesus into their life.
- They also have a clear understanding of what sin is.
Here’s some help with leading kids to Christ.
4. How can we see our children’s ministry grow? I believe the way to see your children’s ministry grow is to remove barriers that are hindering growth. These can include lack of space, lack of volunteers, unwillingness to change, lack of vision, no follow-up strategy for first-time guests and more. Take a hard look at your ministry and identify your barriers. Then work toward removing them.
5. How can I keep kids’ attention while I am teaching them? This is not as hard as it seems. One big, big key is to simply honor their attention span. You’ve got about one minute for every year of their age. So with three-year-olds, you’ve got about three minutes. After three minutes, change and do something different. This will re-set their internal clock, and you will keep their attention. Here’s some more help for this.
6. Should we make church “fun” for kids? The simple answer is “yes.” The number one question parents ask their kids is, “Did you have fun today?” Here’s what they mean by this question: Did they keep your attention? Was it relevant to your life? Did you get anything out of it? If the answer is “no,” then you’ll have a difficult time growing your children’s ministry.
7. How can I keep volunteers long-term? A great children’s ministry team is made up of new volunteers and lots of veteran volunteers. One big word that will help you keep volunteers long term: RELATIONSHIP. Volunteers stay or go based on the quality of the relationships they have with the people they serve with. Here’s some help for keeping volunteers long-term.
8. How can I get the leadership at my church to see the importance of children’s ministry? Here it is in a nutshell: You’ve got to be the squeaky wheel. Here are five ways to champion children’s ministry in your church.
9. How can I get first-time guests to return? The best way is to make sure they have an incredible experience on their first visit. If this doesn’t happen, it doesn’t matter how much you follow up with them; the chances of them returning are slim to none. Here’s some help with this. That being said, having a follow-up strategy helps a lot. Here’s a simple strategy that we’ve found to be effective.
10. How can I grow as a children’s ministry leader? One way is to do what you’re doing right now: Read. Read books, blogs, articles, websites and anything else you can get your hands on. Here are eight books I’ve read recently that have helped me grow.
Another way is to attend a conference. There are lots of great conferences you can attend that will pour knowledge and inspiration into your life. And with technology, if you can’t attend a conference in person, there are online conferences available for free.
What are some other answers you’ve seen work for the questions above? What are some other questions you have? Share them with us in the comment section below.
