In children's ministry, we normally focus on discipling children.
Of course, that should be a top priority. That's why we are serving in "children's ministry."
But I want to challenge you to think about your discipleship strategy differently.
I believe we should be focused on discipling 3 groups of people.
The first group is the children.
This is obvious. As I said, we are in "children's ministry." We should have a clear, discipleship pathway that starts at salvation and leads kids to be spiritual leaders who are passionate followers of Jesus.
What are you currently using to disciple children?
Are kids growing in their faith?
Are kids beginning to walk with Jesus and listen to Him?
Are kids taking key discipleship steps such as a faith commitment, baptism, etc.?
Remember the vintage song that says...
"Read your Bible, pray every day, pray every day, pray every day. Read your Bible pray every day, pray every day, pray every day and you'll grow, grow, grow."
"Neglect your Bible, forget to pray, forget to pray, forget to pray. Neglect your Bible, forget to pray, forget to pray. Neglect your Bible, forget to pray and you'll shrink, shrink, shrink, shrink. Neglect your Bible, forget to pray...and you'll shrink, shrink, shrink ."
The next group is parents.
I remember when I first started in children's ministry. To be honest, I didn't think much about trying to disciple parents. That was the adult ministries role. Parents could be discipled through worship services. Parents could be discipled through small groups and classes. Parents could be discipled through serving.
Then it happened. I had a wake up call. As I learned from other leaders, I realized that I should have a big part in disciplining parents.
Parents have the most spiritual influence in their child's life. This means if I can help disciple parents, the impact will flow right into the lives of the children.
Here are some ways you can disciple parents:
Take home paper / online resources. Get your take home page in the hands of the parents and encourage them to go over it with their child. They will learn along with their child by doing this.
Parent Facebook page. Start a parent Facebook page. Post Biblical parenting articles. Post scripture.
Parenting classes. Lead parenting classes that instruct parents how to raise their children to love and follow Jesus for a lifetime.
Family experiences. Have family worship experiences where children and parents can worship together.
Milestones. Milestones are a huge way to see kids and parents discipled together. I personally believe Milestones are the most effective way to disciple parents. Not familiar with milestones?
I offer 5 milestones that you can use for this. You can see more about it at this link.
The final group is volunteers.
Think about this statement:
It's shouldn't be about what you can get FROM your volunteers. Rather, it should be about what you want FOR your volunteers.
You have a tremendous opportunity to disciple your volunteers. Here are some proven ideas:
Start a small group with some of your volunteers.
Use the pre-service huddle to disciple volunteers. You can make a big impact in 5 minutes if you come prepared to share from God's Word.
Make sure your volunteers are attending the adult worship service as well.
Spiritual growth through serving is very effective. Faith without works is dead. But faith ignited through serving will help your volunteers grow as they serve.
Read more about equipping and empowering volunteers in my book "The Formula for Building Great Volunteer Teams."
Discipleship. See it happen with these 3 groups and watch what God does in them and through them.
