Children's ministry is hard. It is not for the faint of heart. While it may seem smiley and happy on the surface, below the surface there are some serious challenges you must work through.
Here's 10 things no one will tell you about children's ministry. If you are new to children's ministry, you need to know these things. If you are a veteran, you may need a reminder of these things. Lead well through these things and you can go to the distance. If you struggle with these 10 things and don't know how to deal with it, you may find yourself running as far as you can from children's ministry.
You'll always need more volunteers.
Here's the first thing you must face...you will always need more volunteers. It doesn't matter if you are in a church of 50 or a church of 5,000, you will always be scrambling to enlist more volunteers. I had over 2,000 volunteers at a church where I served and I still needed more.
Get used to it. You need to enlist new volunteers every week. A year from now you will still need more volunteers. 5 years from now you will still need more volunteers.
Volunteers will quit on you.
It's going to happen. No matter what you do. You will have volunteers quit on you. This can be discouraging, especially with people you have poured your life into. But you must accept this fact-of-life.
For children's ministry leaders / pastors, children's ministry is more about the volunteers than it's about children.
Spend a high percentage of your reading time reading books about leadership. You have to be able to lead adults. You can be the pied piper with kids, but if you can't lead adults, you will struggle.
Families will get upset at you or other leaders and leave the church.
You can't please everyone or make everyone happy. No matter what you do, people will bolt on you. Learn to deal with this.
You will have to adjust your family times...especially around holidays.
Your duties at the church will interfere with your family time. Instead of enjoying Christmas eve at home, you will have to assist with 15 million Christmas eve services. You will have to postpone your Easter lunch to later in the day. Instead of being with your family and taking your kids trick-or-treating, you will have to pull off a trunk or treat event. You probably will not get to enjoy a Sunday morning sit-down breakfast with your family.
Some people in ministry try to adjust their schedule so they can be with their family during holidays, but it is still challenging. You will have to pay this price for leading in children's ministry.
There is no slow down time. You will go from a busy summer to a just as busy fall.
For those of us in children's ministry, we chuckle when adult ministry talks about things slowing down in the summer months. Not if you are in children's ministry. Summer is your busiest time and then you go straight into a busy fall ministry season. There are no slow times.
It can be very stressful.
Children's ministry is no walk in the park. It can be stressful. There is this thing called Sunday. It comes around every single week and you have to be ready. Every single week you must have volunteers ready to serve, have their curriculum, and are ready to go.
On top of preparing for every single Sunday, you have events such as sports programs, VBS, summer camp, parent and child dedications, new believer's classes, etc.
There will be times when you can't seem to go to sleep because you have so much going on.
Ministries can be territorial.
Silos will form if you are not intentional about building bridges between children's ministry and other ministries.
It seems like everyone is vying for the same volunteers to join their team.
Everyone has their budget that they carefully guard.
Ministries compete for available ministry space.
Everyone is vying for events and programs to put on the ministry calendar.
Part-time is really full-time.
I constantly meet children's ministry leaders who are classified as "part-time." But if you dig a little deeper, you will discover that they are really working full-time hours for part-time pay.
This is not right, but it is a reality that many churches turn a blind eye to.
There will be conflict. Get good at navigating it.
Often people coming into ministry have this idea that everyone sits around the campfire and sings "kumbaya." Everyone gets along perfectly. No one ever has a bad day.
The truth is there is conflict in ministry. Volunteers get upset at each other. Parents get mad at you. You will have to navigate conflict between ministries. People will talk behind your back and stir up trouble.
Read every book you can about how to deal with conflict. You need to be good at this and you can be. It is a learned skill.
So there you go...10 things no one will tell you about children's ministry...until now.
Here's the good news. In-spite of all of this, serving in children's ministry is worth it. It is hard at times...but it is worth it. You will feel like quitting at times...but don't...it is worth it.
Push through all of these things and you will experience great joy as you serve in children's ministry.
Nothing great comes without first walking through a lot of crappy stuff.
Remember your calling. God called you into children's ministry and He is always with you. None of these 10 things can stop you when you are walking in the call that God has placed on your life.
