Taking the pressure off Children's Ministry

Last week I had what is becoming an all too familiar conversation with someone about children's ministry in their church. The current leader(s) would be stepping down at the end of the year and they were not sure who would be taking over. It confirmed for me that there is a particularly high turn over of leaders in children's ministry. Sometimes a change is necessary and healthy. Often though, we loose experienced, committed people and the children's ministry suffers accordingly.
This article is not to pour guilt on leaders who leave; their reasons are always justified. However, there seems to be a couple of key reasons why people leave and I wonder if we addressed these more effectively, could we not hold on to experienced, capable leaders.

1. Reason One: Worn out by the weekly grind.
Many churches schedule Children's church every Sunday. Eventually the pressure of preparing week in and week out, while missing out on regular church, takes a toll. To ease the pressure and refresh your leaders you may try the following:

a. Change the schedule for children's church. For example: rather than having children's church every week, change to a '4 week on, 2 week off time table.' In this way your leaders will have regular breaks and children will adjust to regular services (when the children are in church, find ways to engage them in the service.)

b. Or you may try rotating teachers throughout the year to give each leader some time off. Some churches rotate a different team each term. Or find other leaders to step in from time to time. On those weeks change the program to something they can handle. For example, regularly conscript some younger leaders to lead games and include a different teaching time. On these Sundays give a couple of the adult leaders time off.
The goal is to find ways to keep leaders fresh and enthused. If your leaders are groaning under the load they are likely to leave.

If you have found other ways to overcome this problem, please let us know.

2. Reason Two: Feeling unsupported in an unimportant ministry.
Children's ministry is often taken for granted in many churches and it's profile is not high. Leaders who feel their work is unimportant or unappreciated will soon loose interest and leave. To work against this try the following:

a. Make sure your leaders know the value of their work. Remind them regularly about the importance of children's ministry in the Lord and it's vital role in shaping children in the formative years of their life. Our leaders must be continually reminded that, in the Lord, their work will bear lasting fruit for the kingdom. It reminds me of the story of the three men breaking rocks on a building site. When asked what they were doing one replied, "I'm breaking rocks." Another said, "I'm earning a living." The third proudly stated, "I'm building a cathedral!" You can guess who was the most enthusiastic and committed to his task. So too with children's ministry. Develop a sense of calling in your leaders by reminding them of what they are doing and why.

b. Share the vision and direction of your children's ministry with the whole church. Newsletters, up front announcements, regular prayer requests, letters home to parents, Children's services and a rotating door of volunteers in your children's ministry are ways to ensure your church understands the vital nature of your work. Never miss an opportunity to build the profile of your ministry to the level at which it ought to be at.

c. At least annually, but also more regularly, reward your leaders for their hard work and commitment. Cards, phone calls, personal visits, regular outings and annual dinners will keep them motivated and enthused. Leaders who put in ought to be encouraged and rewarded for their commitment and will be reenergised and motivated by the support.
d. Make sure that children's ministry has a significant slice of the church's budget. Spend what has been allocated and do not be afraid to ask for what you need. A ministry the church is supporting is a ministry worth having.
If you have other ideas or examples of how to keep your leaders feeling appreciated and supported please pass it on.

What do you think is the greatest reason why leaders turn over so regularly in children's ministry? Do you have any suggestions or examples of what can be done about it?

Postmodern Children's Ministry: A Book Review

By Ivy Beckwith. Published by Zondervan

I cannot recommend this book enough. In it you'll find some very stimulating and helpful chapters such as:
'The Beginning of Faith' (a discussion of child development and its relationship to spiritual development.) 'Children in Community' (a great chapter outlining the traits of community life essential to faith formation) and 'The Bible is for Children To' (a passionate, well argued and Biblically sound plea to take the Bible seriously in children's ministry.)

Beckwith does not avoid confronting the shortcomings in much that goes for ministry to children in our day. In its place she argues for a ministry that takes the nature of children and their spiritual formation seriously.

This book will help deepen your understanding and increase your passion for truly transformational children's ministry. To top it all off, she basically comes from a Reformed perspective!

Get this book, read and digest it's contents. Four out of five stars from me.

Selecting the Right Children's Story Bible

Finding a children’s story Bible that suits the understanding level of your children can be hard and the options are plentiful and varied. When you are trying to cater for children of different ages it becomes even harder. As you go out hunting for a Bible, I encourage you to consider these following options concerns.

1. Is the Bible about God? This sounds like a dumb statement, however this is the number one concern when selecting a children’s story Bible. The Bible, being God’s Word, is a means by which God reveals himself to us. Through Scripture, we learn of the story of creation, sin, God’s saving plan in Jesus and the redemption and restoration of creation in and through Jesus Christ, His Son.

So when looking for a story Bible ask yourself this; is the revelation of God there? Does it capture the longing of creation for salvation? Is it pointing constantly to the coming of the Christ and the second coming of Christ? If not, it really is little more than a storybook.

By this I mean, the story of Jonah is not the story of Jonah, it is one of the many stories of God that make up the great revelation of God and His work. The central character of the story of Jonah is God, on a mission to set His creation free! Jonah is a story about God and how he wants his Word to go out to some of the hardest of places; it is a story of how he calls ordinary people to do extraordinary things, about how he triumphs over human weakness and fear and how he softens hard people’s hearts to His good news. The story of God in Jonah is also a part of the greater story of God’s saving plan, God wants to set his creation free from sin and death and there is one to come later who would also know storms at sea and risk death because of his message. He will also know three days in a dark place only to re-enter the world and complete the work of seeing people set free

It is hard to find a children’s story Bible that is intent on focussing on God as the central character, and point us constantly to the hope we have in God in Christ. It is easy to write the stories, to make up cute little moral connections to help our children be ‘good little boys and girls’, but to centralise it on God in Christ is an often missed, yet fundamental ingredient. There are good children’s story Bibles out there so research well and pray for guidance.

2. Illustrations. Good story and good pictures seem to be the rule for what makes a good children’s story Bible. Often when you look over one, both the author and the illustrator are credited on the front cover. Illustrations do capture the interest and the imagination, helping the children enter into the story and understand it.

As you look over the illustrations, consider if they are helpful or unhelpful to the story. Much of the Bible is set in a different time and place to ours; it both reveals mystery and invites us into mystery. The imagery that the Bible carried with it in our imaginations can be loaded, and for children just as much so. Therefore, illustrations can help us all to understand the setting and maintain a visual interest in the story, but over-dramatic attempts to illustrate the story carries with it the potential to limit imagination or explain that which is not revealed.

Think for a moment: let’s say we were to illustrate God as a big white-haired, white-bearded, old, friendly looking man sitting on a cloud throughout our literature. Is this actually helpful or unhelpful? In Scripture, God chooses to reveal Himself as in a cloud by day and in fire by night, as a voice in a burning bush, as a burning pot and on Sinai amid massive stormy, smoky drama. Is illustrating Him as the white-haired man, limiting our children’s ability to enter into the wonder of what and who is God? Are we restricting Him to one place, one race, one size, human, and having the attributes of only one gender? Is this helpful? Is that the way God is revealing himself in scripture? I remember one time on a road trip my son asked me “Dad, how big is God?”. While the theological and rational answers flooded to mind, I am glad that I stopped thinking answers and replied “How big do you think he is?” Scripture invites us to wonder and be amazed, to ponder the mystery. At what point do our attempts to illustrate, just like our rational adult needs to explain and understand, actually hinder the revelation God has intended in Scripture?

The children’s story Bible we are using at the time of writing has great colourful and engaging illustrations, however when I look at them discerningly, they are very ordinary and somewhat disproportionate. For example, the other night Jesus, when sleeping through the storm, was lying on his back on the deck of the ship and took up half the boat, meanwhile the boat was a tiny thing on the biggest monster of a wave. To make it even stranger was the face that a disciple hanging off the mast was being blown horizontal. All that being said, I remember thinking (as we were laughing about it as a family) “I like this”. It helped the children engage with the story and you could visualise that Jesus was asleep, but it did not really add anything, nor distract from the essence of the Bible story.

3. Is it all there? The art of writing anything is deciding what to include and what to leave out. It is no different when a writer decides to paraphrase the Bible for the children. We have already discussed the importance of checking that the children’s story Bible includes the foundational themes of the revelation of God and salvation in Christ. As you search for a Bible, take time to explore what is there and what is missing. Make sure that you are comfortable with what is not there. Being a story Bible book for children it makes sense that the author would choose to leave out some material. However, some do not cover the death of Jesus, some do not cover the expectant return of Jesus and there might be other aspects important to you that are not covered, like the covenants, Mount Sinai and the giving of the law. Be sure you know what you hold as important to be included and take the time to be sure that it is there.

© Jonathan Vandenberg

As to suggestions, you may choose to look at some of these,

Candle books "My first Story Bible'.

The 'Look and See' Bible
The Big Picture Story Bible, by D. Helm (Crossway, 2004).
The Jesus storybook Bible, by S Lloyd-Jones (Zonderkids, 2007).
The Beginner’s Bible, mentioned by The Goodbook Company.

Never too late to try.... again.

A good way to reinvigorate your children's ministry is to build on past successes. Even after a long break. This is what Sth Gippsland CRCA has done. After many, many years of clubless holidays, they have again ran a holiday club. Far from taking the, 'been there done that' attitude, this enthusiastic bunch (I know, I've met them) has experienced God's blessing in their efforts. Read about their Ship Shape holiday club, and see if this is the type of blessing you would want in your own children's ministry.

All in all it was a great event and we saw many blessings from the Lord. The children who came participated well in every aspect of the programme.

We had singing (thanks to Mrs Susie who led us so energetically) craft, Bible stories, drama...who could forget the drama team - they were so believable!

The children learnt about what it is to follow Jesus and even when we don’t show our love for Him, as Peter did when he denied his Lord, He still loves and forgives us. They learnt about the "greatest treasure" being Jesus and not things in this life.

The numbers fluctuated a bit but averaged between 45-50 each day - all in all about 60 children participated over the week. We were really happy with this number as we could manage with our team and resources.

Please continue to keep the children and their families in your prayers that they may grow in their faith.

Thanks to everyone for helping in whatever way...on team, as a helper, setting up and preparing craft, baking for our morning teas, donation of money etc, but mostly for your prayers. The parent/family BBQ and concert night was extremely well attended also.

Until next year when we hope to do another Holiday fun week we'd like to say thanks to you for your support.

Reinventing something you've already done has it's advantages, especially if the initial experience was positive. You can tap into the bank of positive feeling and rekindle latent enthusiasm. On top of this you have people with experience, skills and knowledge. Especially if you're ministry is lagging why not get some momentum by launching from success?

Can we help each other?

At times children's ministry can seem like a job which we tackle alone. Isolated in our own churches we forget the hundreds of passionate people though out the denomination who want to see our children's ministry succeed and grow. I'm sure your one of them!
How can we help each other? One way is by prayer. As Paul himself said,

He has delivered us... On him we have set our hope... as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. 2Cor. 1:10 - 11

Together we can support and help each other through prayer and see a movement of God among us to grow our children and ministries in answer prayer.

On the contact page, email through your requests. With your permission we can circulate them by email and join together in prayer. Who knows what God will do!

If you do not wish to receive prayer requests in this way, just let us know and we will take you off that mailing list.

Recruiting the leaders you need: a training resource

One of the greatest challenges in children's ministry is recruiting leaders.

“Part of your role as leader is to find and develop your replacement who will do a better job than you.”

Yet, there are never enough leaders.
The main obstacles seem to be our hesitation to ask already busy adults to add one more thing to their hectic life or our reticence because we wonder if the person is 'the right kind of person' for children's ministry. Then there are the discouraging knock backs and general disinterest. Easier, we think, just to put an add in the newsletter and see what happens. Yet that rarely works.
Recruit we must and now is the time to begin thinking about next year. It may seem hard, yet there are things we can do to make it easier. Here is the short list.

• 1. Adopt a recruiting attitude.
• 2. Pray
• 3. Hunt
• 4. Inspire
• 5. Involve.

For a more complete description of each of these go to the web site 'training' page. See Leaders and download the file 'Recruiting Leaders.' Let me know how you get on, or if I can help you with any of the ideas mentioned.

Big Picture Children's ministry.

From my own experience and shortcomings in children's ministry I have begun to compile a list of what I've called, "Important but neglected dimensions of Children's ministry." I've included things like, 'developing leaders' and 'prayer.'
However one topic has come to stand out over the rest. I call it, "Working from a bigger picture of Children's ministry."
What I mean is, most of us would rightly feel affronted if people said we were merely babysitting. We would retort, "It's much more than that!" But then just what is it? We often describe it in terms of teaching. Yet this answer too is far from satisfying because it is too narrow. We do more than impart information and our role must include much more if it is to reach what God intends.
A more complete answer sees us as those who help shape young lives as disciples of Christ and to develop children to become mature in Christ with all that that entails. What Paul says metaphorically, we say literally,

"My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you." (Gal.4:19)

Another way of describing this is to say our aim is to develop truly wise children. Wisdom means applying God's ways in every aspect of life. Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord (Prov.9:10). Wisdom enables a person to effectively navigate life (Prov.2:6-11). It has high values, is deeply satisfying and brings rich rewards (Prov.3:3 - 6.) In Proverbs 4:7 the child is told,

Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have, get understanding.

If we are to do this well it is not enough to have a series of 'lessons' on proverbs. The challenge is to imbed, promote and practice the principles of wise living in the very fabric of our ministry. For example; a wise person is proactive and works hard. Where in our program are children given the opportunity, expected or rewarded for taking initiative? How do we encourage them to do so? On the contrary, we as adults often prepare everything and simply 'spoon feed' the children week after week. At an age appropriate level could we give children responsibility for aspects of the program? Could we take time to reward those who make an effort "while no one is watching?"

If we are to do this well we need to have in mind some of the fundamental practices of wise living which we will aim to incorporate into our ministry. What would you include in such a list? The list should not comprise so much of christian virtues (such as 'being kind') but of habits of wise living. This is because we can all think of various christian virtues, but the goal is to develop children who are committed to choosing the good, whatever that good may be. Perhaps that is one of the habits: 'Chooses the high road.' Your list should include personal habits, as well as 'communal' habits, that is, how they work with others in community. I'd be interested in what you would include in your list. More next time.