As a children’s pastor/director, I love kids! I hope you do to. I love seeing them come to an understanding of scripture and the principles we are trying to communicate to them. And I love teaching them those principles.
But I came to a realization – I should not be the one teaching them those principles, or at least not on a week to week basis. Why? Well, it’s not about the teaching part, it’s about leadership. In fact, I DO encourage the children’s pastor/director to teach the kids, just don’t commit to a single class on a week to week basis.
Here’s why:
1. Your role is primarily about adults, not kids. Your should be primarily about connecting with staff, core leaders, volunteers and parents. And the larger the church, the more imperative this becomes. In my opinion, about 85% or more of your time should be spent in adult focused communication.
2. Your role is about equipping others. As a church leaders, Ephesians 4:12 is pretty clear about what our job is – to equip others to do the work of the ministry. If you are assuming the primary teaching role on a week to week basis, is the equipping part really happening?
3. Your role is primarily about leading. If I tie myself up during a full service time on the weekend (and in many cases I’ve seen the children’s pastor tied up teaching during every service time), it limits my ability to lead effectively when my followers are actually there with me. So doing things like solving problems, making the necessary connections, evaluating ministry, etc., simply can’t happen very well.
What I recommend to children’s pastors/directors, when it comes to teaching, is to rotate through all areas of your ministry. Every church is different when it comes to scheduling, but be in all the different areas at least once per quarter without committing to any single area each week. This allows you the freedom to do the 3 things mentioned above. It also gives you another very important benefit – being in front of ALL your kids, not just a single age group. It accomplishes everything you should be accomplishing as a children’s pastor/director.
