This ministry is God's ministry. You cannot rely on your own strength and there is no way that I alone can accomplish what God has set before us. If we are going to be successful as a church in reaching kids and their parents for Jesus Christ, it is going to take a team effort. We need to fully surrender the ministry and our team needs to be built upon the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
I wished I would have started building ministry teams sooner. 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.
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 your 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, but get to know the needs of the church and to be known by the church. 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. 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. 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.
Make yourself approachable. 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 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?” In so many contexts (your relationship with God, your family, and your
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 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 atwww.jasonrhode.com/resources
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 and enthusiasm for the ministry.
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.
