Children’s Ministry Insights

Getting Started in Children’s Ministry

December 31st, 2007 | by Jason |

Advice for those just getting started in children’s ministry.

[.mp3 file] [subscribe to the podcast]

In October, 2006 I was interviewed on the topic of “What do you need to know the first three years of ministry.” Having served as a children’s pastor for nearly 5 years prior to co-founding, Children’s Ministries University Online and serving as adjunct faculty with Valley Forge Christian College, I certainly had a few tidbits of advice to share. The interview took place via email and so as I received the interview questions, I began brainstorming various responses. Before long, I had an extensive list of various pieces of advice, all of which I believe that anyone starting out in children’s ministry would benefit from.

So, what I’ve decided to do is to share my random suggestions in the form of this blog posting as well as the accompanying podcast. Enjoy…and if you find what follows to be of benefit, please take a moment and fill out the feedback form at childrensministrytraining.org. And better yet…pass on the suggestions and ideas on to others!

Basics 101: What you wish you had done during your first three years of ministry?

I wished I would have realized earlier on that the ministry I was leading wasn’t my ministry…it was God’s ministry. It’s easy to claim a new ministry as “yours” but really, it’s not yours, it’s God’s. When I arrived at my first full-time children’s ministry position, I quickly felt the overwhelming responsibility that I had been entrusted with to not only lead the ministry but also to handle the numerous programming and planning aspects. I found myself attempting to rely on my own strength and I soon realized that there was no way that I alone could accomplish what God set before me. If we were going to be successful as a church in reaching kids and their parents for Jesus Christ, it was going to take a team effort. And, I was blessed to be at a church that already had some very healthy ministry teams in place. But, before I as a leader could help lead the way in taking the children’s ministry at our church to the next level, I needed to fully surrender the ministry that team needed to be built upon the Holy Spirit’s guidance. This was a significant time of growth form me as God was teaching me that I had to rely on Him fully, for everything.

I wished I would have started building ministry teams sooner. As soon as I did, God began to pour out some incredible blessings upon the ministry. God is never going to give you any more than you can handle. If you are not building ministry teams, you will quickly reach a point where you can not handle further growth. No matter what size ministry you lead, your ministry will benefit greatly by the development of ministry teams.

Basics 102: How to get started.

Pray. Commit the ministry to God. Pray for the children, parents, and volunteers in your ministry.

Keep your priorities in line. Don’t ever allow the busyness of ministry cause you to neglect your relationships with God, your spouse, and family. There certainly IS a big difference between the work of the ministry and your personal relationship with God. Guard your personal devotional time along with the time you set aside to devote to your family.

From the very first day you begin your new ministry assignment start by building relationships. Meet with the leaders in your children’s ministry individually and allow them to share with you about the ministry they lead. Listen and ask questions. Work at continually building relationships with the children, parents, and leaders of the ministry.

Get organized. If you aren’t an organized person, then find someone who can help you put some metrics in place to help you stay organized. As a children’s pastor you have many dates, times, names, and various other items that you need to keep straight.

Ask questions. Don’t ever hesitate to ask questions. You’re asking for trouble when you begin making assumptions. If you pastor asks you to do something and you’re not quite sure what the expectations are for the outcome, ask.

Don’t make any major changes right away, at least not the first three months. You need some time to get settled, for those in your church and the ministry to get to know you, and for you to begin to develop a level of trust with those who are involved in the children’s ministry. Even if you feel strongly the need to make specific changes in order for the ministry to advance, these changes don’t have to be made overnight. There are those in every church who adamantly resist change. Yet, there are others who will be much more receptive to change if they have developed a measure of trust in you as the children’s pastor. Trust is built with longevity.

Be innovative and relevant…be willing to try to new things but don’t discount the value of the tried and true. Don’t change for the sake of change, but introduce change only as the Holy Spirit leads you to do so.

Be visible…make every effort to get to visit the various ministry classes. As a children’s pastor, I made every effort to try and visit all the Sunday School or Wednesday night kids classes each week to at least pop in to say hello and let the teachers know how much their efforts are appreciated. The times before ministry classes or kids church when I have the opportunity to talk with kids and their parents in the halls or visit with volunteers are my most favorite times of children’s ministry. These informal times of connecting with others are an important part of the process of building relationships. And, strong relationships are the key to any successful children’s ministry. Sometimes things will come up that will prevent you from being able to visit all classes in a given week. But, make it a habit to be visible and try to get to all the classes as frequently as possible.

Make yourself approachable. This goes along with being visible. Ask yourself the question, “Do children, parents, or ministry workers feel comfortable in coming to me with questions, comments, or suggestions?” If the answer is “No” then start be being visible. Can you be “found” during ministry times? Don’t hide out in your office or be so busy with last-minute ministry prep that you aren’t available for workers or children to come to you with a prayer request, praise report, or a question.

Say what you mean and mean what you say. Be clear about the expectations you have for those serving in ministry and don’t waver in the standards that you set.

Commit to excellence. God doesn’t expect perfection, but the parents and children of your ministry do expect that you do your very best. No parent will want anything less for their children. If you want to see growth in your ministry, make excellence a priority. However, don’t insist on perfection. You aren’t perfect and neither are your workers.

Develop a vision…make it clear and put it in writing. Communicate it in as many ways as possible.

Look outside the box. Be willing to ask the question, “What approach hasn’t been tried yet?” When you face a challenge, seek God for wisdom and…Also, ask yourself the question, “What’s the next step?”

Communicate, communicate, communicate. Effective communication skills are critical to successful children’s ministry at any level. You must be able to communicate effectively with the parents, workers, pastoral staff, and children.

Trust God…always!

Be timely. Respond to phone messages and emails.

Basics 103: How to build relationships with the senior pastor and pastoral staff.

Make time to have fun together. Whether it’s going to a sporting event, playing a round of golf, or some other recreational activity, don’t discount the value of having fun with those you are in the trenches with in ministry.

Do lunch. Every Tuesday after staff, I would go to lunch with several of the pastoral staff. I really grew to enjoy these times of fellowship where we could talk about all things unrelated to our ministries.

Ask to meet with your senior pastor at least monthly. During these meetings, ask the pastor what his or her vision is for the children’s ministry and what you can do to carry out that vision in the children’s ministry area. While God will give you a vision for the children’s ministry, it also fits into the larger vision of the church that is fleshed out through the leadership of the senior pastor.

Don’t be late or miss an appointment. If you are going to happen to be late, at least call and notify the person you will be meeting with of the delay.

Bounce ideas off the pastoral staff. Especially if you are considering a change to existing programming schedules or format, get input from the rest of the staff. New ideas will likely impact not only the those involved directly in the children’s ministry but also indirectly the rest of the church ministries through schedule changes, facilities usage, etc.

Pitch in and help. Remember that while you may view the children’s ministry as most important, others may not necessarily have that same opinion. By taking an interest in the ministries of others, you’ll find they will do the same.

Make yourself accountable. The enemy would like nothing more than to trip you up spiritually or morally. Find someone who you can make yourself accountable to. Whether it is your pastor or a close friend, have someone who will help you ensure that you don’t stumble.

Basics 104: How to promote the ministries to children to the adult audience.

Share testimonies of the good things happening. While there will be setbacks from time to time, don’t let those be dampen the excitement of the positive things that are happening. Be positive!

Put testimonies in writing. For example, if someone calls your or comes up to you and shares with you something positive about the children’s ministry, ask them if they’d consider putting that into writing. Once in written form, it’s much easier to disseminate that testimony to CM workers, church congregation, and pastoral staff. I always encourage people to email me so that I automatically have a written record of testimonials.

Build a prayer team. The first ministry that I publicly recruited for was a prayer team for our children’s ministry. I communicated frequently to these individuals and coveted their prayers both for me personally, my family, as well as for our ministry. As our church’s prayer ministry developed, the children’s ministry prayer team was combined with the other specific ministry teams of our church and I had an even greater number of individuals praying for the ministry. Each time I prepared a list prayer requests, I had the opportunity to communicate to these individuals the pertinent items needing prayer as well as praise reports of the answers to prayer that we had experienced largely due to their diligent prayers.

Be the champion for the children’s ministry. This means, every opportunity you get, look to promote the exciting things happening through the ministry.

Take advantage of every opportunity to speak to the congregation about the value of children’s ministry.

Develop an identity for your ministry. How is the children’s ministry perceived in the church? In the community? An identity is far more than just a logo…it is a conceptualization of the vision and values of the ministry. Work at strengthening the identity of the children’s ministry to being one that is both easily identifiable and one that captures the essence of what the ministry is all about. The goal is for people to quickly identify with the children’s ministry and its values.

Basics 105: How to train and utilize adult leaders AND junior leaders.

Plan ahead. It’s easy to fall into the trap of doing everything yourself. Remember….you can not do it all yourself! It takes more work initially to plan ahead, but in the long run you’ll be saving yourself a lot of extra work and stress by making it possible for others to come alongside you and help. For our kids church, for example, I conduct a planning lunch every 3 months where I bring service skeletons for all the upcoming services. After enjoying a great lunch on Sunday after church with my kids church staff we then sit down and we go through the service skeletons together for the upcoming services. Themes and ideas are discussed and team members volunteer to help lead the various segments of the services. By the end of the luncheon, volunteer assignments and the initial planning is complete for the upcoming services. You will find it much easier to involve others in ministry if you plan ahead. Examples of the service skeletons I use along with a variety of additional children’s ministry planning worksheets I’ve put together can be downloaded for free at www.childrensministryarchive.com

Trust others with ministry responsibilities. Realize that you aren’t the only person who has good ideas. By allowing other ideas beyond your own to be implemented, you provide others with a sense of ownership of the ministry, which will promote further involvement.

Set the standard, but don’t micromanage. You need to be willing to give those working in your ministry the opportunity to make mistakes. Certainly, the goal is for every single worker to succeed in their ministry efforts. However, if you are truly equipping and empowering people for ministry to the children of your church, you have to be willing to release people for ministry and allow them the opportunity to do things differently than you would. Sure, they might not initially be as skilled or proficient as you’d like. However, with time, they may in fact surpass any expectations that you have for them. The key is to set the standard and to provide training and mentoring opportunities.

Basics 106: Where and how to find the “tool” needed to make your ministry work.

Find out what tools others are using. As you build networks with other children’s pastors, ask them what resources they have found most useful. You may be able to share resources.

Visit other ministries in your area to see what they are doing.

Basics 107: How to begin effective ministry on a shoe-string budget—or how to have a BIG church ministry look and operation on a small budget.

Share resources with others.

Break down the “classroom closets.” Are duplicated resources being used that could be shared? One valuable initiative in our children’s ministry was to centralize the storage and dispersement of class and craft supplies. When we went through and cleaned class closets one summer, we found stashes of supplies that had been unused and subsequently were no longer usable. By centralizing the storage of supplies, we were able to be better stewards of the resources we did have. Purchasing was centralized and when teachers needed supplies, they simply went to the craft supply area to get what they needed.

Basics 108: How to find free resources on the web—games, object lessons, graphics, etc.

Bookmark helpful websites and online resources you find. You can use a social bookmarking tool like del.icio.us or furl.com to keep track of the free resources you find online share them with others. For more details on how to get started bookmarking your favorite children’s ministry resources, check out www.cmbookmarks.com

Basics 109: How to network with the district and other children’s leaders in your area and how to share resources.

Contact your district office to find other children’s pastors in your area.

Find a mentor. A mentor can be either someone you have a personal relationship with, or someone from whom you can learn from their wisdom and experiences.

Be willing to be a mentor to someone else.

Basics 110: How to involve children in ministry within and outside of the church, and how to build a ministry and missions minded focus.

Involve kids in ministry as often as possible. Whether it’s collecting the offering, greeting others at the door, or by assisting with an object lesson, make it a habit of involving kids in ministry.

Make serving an honor and privilege. One of the opportunities on our kids ministry team that we called the “T.E.C.H. Team” (Trained, Empowered, Committed, & Helpful) was that of prayer team member. These 5th & 6th graders were invited to the altar during prayer times and they would pray for other kids who would come forward for special prayer.

Basics 111: Whatever else you wish to add.

Don’t make the same mistake twice. Why make mistakes that others have made? I decided early in my ministry that I’d much rather learn from the experiences of others in ministry rather than make the same mistakes myself.

Pace yourself. Children’s ministry is a marathon, not a sprint. Guard against burnout by reminding yourself that the course of this ministry journey will include many hills and valleys along the way to the finish line. Run the children’s ministry race…run hard, so that one day you can cross the finish line and hear from your heavenly father, “Well done!”

Tags: advice, Leadership