RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

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.

Check my prayer journal and you will see something that I pray for every single day. 

It's the greatest need of every children's ministry in the world.

Volunteers. 

Plain and simple. I need more volunteers. I have a good team now,  but I need more volunteers to take things to the next level.

I'm thinking you need more volunteers as well. You probably have about 80% of the volunteers you need.  The 20% you still need will keep you on your knees. 

Here's the good news. Jesus told us to pray for more volunteers. Look what it says in Matthew 9.

"So PRAY to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ASK HIM to send more workers into his fields.” 

I believe at times we are short on volunteers because we forget this command.  Jesus wouldn't ask us to pray for something He didn't want to give us.  

Pray for more volunteers.

Pray for more volunteers.

Pray for more volunteers. 

I can't say it enough. 

Remember...the success of your ministry rises and falls on the strength of your volunteer team. 

Yesterday, I added three new volunteers to our team. I believe God sent them to us because we specifically asked for them. 

Do you need more small group leaders?  Pray for them. 

Do you need more people to hold babies in the nursery? Pray for them. 

Do you need more large group Bible teachers?  Pray for them. 

Do you need more greeters?  Pray for them. 

Do you need more preschool teachers?  Pray for them. 

One thing to remember in addition. 

When you pray...ask for divine appointments.

I believe there are already people in your church that God is speaking to about serving.  Ask God to lead you to those people. 

Several years ago, we needed some more volunteer security team members.  We started praying for God to lead us to the right person.  There was a man named Dan that we thought would be a good fit for this opportunity. We begin to pray God would speak to him about serving. 

One Sunday, we approached him and asked if he would be interested in serving with us as a security team member. As soon as we said this, his eyes watered up with tears. He said he had been praying about serving somewhere and God had been talking to him about being a security team member. 

He immediately said "yes" and so God filled that position through a divine appointment. 

You have people like that in your ministry right now. Ask God to lead you to them. 

People often ask me what they should focus on as a children's ministry leader.  I always say the secret is building a great volunteer team. 

When was the last time you asked God to send you more volunteers?  

When was the last time you prayed for a divine appointment?  

Pray...pray...pray...every day for more volunteers.  

Remember...you have not because you ask not. 

p.s. Have you read my book "The Formula for Building Great Volunteer Teams?"  It has been called the best book ever written about volunteers. Get your copy today at this link. 

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How do you build a children's ministry?  What factors are involved in a thriving children's ministry?  How do you see your children's ministry succeed? 

Let's take a look at 7 secrets to a successful children's ministry.

A solid volunteer team.

The success of your children's ministry rises and falls on the strength of your volunteer team. 

When people ask me about building a successful children's ministry, I always tells them to focus on building a great volunteer team. A great volunteer team equals a great children's ministry. 

This being the case, how much time are you spending each week with enlisting, equipping, and empowering volunteers?  You should be investing a large chunk of your time each week in building your volunteer team.  If you've never read my book "The Formula for Building a Great Volunteer Team," get your copy today at this link. 

Partnering with parents. 

The greatest influence in a child's life is his or her parents. If you want to be successful in children's ministry, then get really good at influencing the influencers.  

Always be thinking about parents. How can I equip parents to disciple their children? How can I help parents grow in their faith which will result in their children growing in their faith?   What discipleship tools do I need to provide for parents? 

Successful churches have successful children's ministries. When you build parents in the faith you are building your church. 

The Fun Factor.

Should children have fun at church?  Absolutely.  In fact, I'd say successful children's ministries have something in common.  They are fun places to be. 

For clarity, when I say "fun" I am not just talking about running around acting silly.  

When I say "fun" here is what I am referring to.  

Fun is singing upbeat, high energy songs that have lots of motions.  

Fun is playing challenging review games.

Fun is using hands-on, active, engaging lessons to capture kids' attention. Check out Connect12 curriculum for this.

Fun is giving kids time to get to know each other through discussions and icebreakers.

Fun is taking the Bible story and helping kids apply it to their life. 

Fun is talking to and listening to God. 

Prayer

A few years ago, I went to speak at a conference in Jakarta, Indonesia. At the time, Indonesia was 98% Muslim. I was hoping to not get my head cut off while I was there.  They had a guard at the church with a machine gun and we had to go through a metal detector.

The church that was hosting the conference has over 12,000 people that attend for weekened services. They only have 2 staff members for that number of people.  Crazy right?  Why did this church grow so fast in a predominantly Muslim population?

They took me down stairs to some rooms.  In one of the rooms, there was a group of kids praying for the service and worshiping Jesus.  In another room, there was a large group of adults praying for the services.

They also require volunteers who are going to serve in children's ministry to come and pray for an hour before they start serving. 

Remember this...nothing of eternal value happens without prayer. Success in children's ministry originates from prayer. 

Less is more. 

Success in children's ministry is not found in busyness, but in productivity.  Just because you have a full calendar doesn't mean your ministry will be successful.  Sometimes the best thing you can put on your ministry calendar is eraser marks.

Children's ministries that are successful normally focus on doing a few things well. You can do a lot of things mediocre or you can do a few things with excellence. 

Determine what your ministry can be really good at and pour your time, resources, staffing, and energy into those things. 

Communication.

I have often said this - don't expect your volunteers to shine on Sunday if you are keeping them in the dark during the week. 

Successful children's ministries communicate consistently with volunteers, parents, and other ministries in the church.

Vision

People are drawn toward a compelling vision.  A successful children's ministry knows how to regularly cast vision.  They inspire the people on their team. They inspire parents. They inspire the kids. 

Put your vision in writing. Make it known to those who follow.  Successful children's ministries have a vision in writing. Their team knows what the vision is.  Parents know what the vision is. Kids in the ministry know what the vision is. 

Put these simple secrets into action and you can build a thriving children's ministry. 

Your turn. What are some other secrets that are necessary for building a successful children's ministry? Share in the comment section below.