RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

Children's ministry is made possible by volunteers.   The success of your children's ministry rises and falls on the strength of your volunteer team.

I am often asked how many volunteers should a ministry have?  To operate at the optimal level, here's how many volunteers you should have in the rooms or environments.  This does not include greeters, check-in team, etc.

Infants - 1 volunteer for every 2 children (minimum - ideally 1 volunteer for every 1 child

Crawlers - 1 volunteer for every 3 children

Toddlers - 1 volunteer for every 4 children

2-year-olds - 1 volunteer for every 4 children

3-year-olds - 1 volunteer for every 8 children

4-year-olds - 1 volunteer for every 8 children

5-year-olds thru 5th grade - 1 volunteer for every 10 children (minimum - ideally 1 volunteer for every 8 children)

Monitor your numbers carefully and strive to reach these ratios.  The younger the children are, the more critical it is to meet these ratios for safety reasons.  This should be a top priority.  Parents who walk into a nursery that is not meeting these ratios are far less likely to return. Some churches even hire people to work in their nurseries to ensure ratios are met.  I have never done this, but if you choose to do so, it is definitely money well invested.

The primary reason you want to have these ratios for older children is because of the relationship factor.  These ratios help ensure that kids are personally known by a caring volunteer.  When you get above these ratios it can turn into crowd control rather than discipleship happening.

If you aren't currently at these ratios, don't be discouraged.  Keep building your team.  You will always needs more volunteers, especially if you are growing and reaching new families.  You can also get key insight about building a dynamic volunteer team in my book - "The Formula for Building a Great Volunteer Team."  In this book, I share the steps I took to build a volunteer of over 2,600 in a local church.  You can get the book in paperback or ebook formats at this link.

Volunteers is one of, if not the most important, aspects of your ministry.  Focus on it and you'll see your ministry flourish.

We have a rose bush in our front flowerbed.  At first, it flourished and produced beautiful flowers.

But not now.  The flowers have stopped blooming and there are no signs of life.  It's branches are brown and crackly.  We've left it there for several months, hoping it will come back.  We'll see...but right now it doesn't look good.

The rose bush has been a good reminder for me of the importance of keeping the children's ministries we lead healthy and growing.

When you see a children's ministry that's growing, there are usually 5 things at play behind the scenes.   

VISION
A growing children's ministry flows from the heart of a leader who has a vision to reach his/her community for Christ.  The vision compels the leader and his/her team to never stop until every, single child and parent in their community is reached.  Not satisfied with the status quo, they focus on the future rather than dwelling on the past.  Great growth comes from great vision.

ADEQUATE SPACE
A growing children's ministry makes sure they are not hindered by the 85% rule.  This rule basically says that when you reach 85% capacity, you will stop growing.  Here's an example.  If your children's ministry rooms hold 100 kids, once you are averaging 85 kids a week in that space, you will stop growing unless you create more space.  This can be done by building or starting more services.  Growing children's ministries keep a pulse on this.

HARD WORK
It takes a lot of hard work to build a children's ministry.  Growing children's ministries are committed to doing the hard work of preparation, planning, follow-up, excellent execution, cleaning and more.  God doesn't bless laziness.  Simply put...pray for a good harvest with the sweat running down the hoe handle.

VOLUNTEER TEAM
A growing children's ministry has a growing team of enthusiastic, committed volunteers.  As your volunteer base grows, your children's ministry will grow because kids are being cared for, ratios are being met and connections are being made.

GOD-FACTOR
Of course, all of the above hinges on the "God-factor."  A growing children's ministry often wonders in amazement as they watch God move.  They know without His anointing and blessing, all their efforts are in vain.  This keeps the ministry humble and constantly seeking God and depending on Him.  They plant the seeds...God grows the fruit.

Perhaps you are reading this and your children's ministry is currently like my rose bush.  Not much happening.  Be encouraged.  Renew and expand your vision, make sure you have adequate space, work hard, grow your volunteer base, seek God's face...and watch your ministry begin to grow.

Complaints.  If you're in children's ministry, you will hear them. 

But how you view the complaints can make a huge difference for your ministry.  If you look at complaints as a gift that someone is giving you to help make the ministry better, it changes your perspective. 

Complaints...no matter how far out there they may seem,  usually contain some level of truth and your ministry can use them to improve.

Here's 10 complaints you may hear at times in children's ministry and how you can use them to make your ministry better.

It's boring.
If a child complains that the ministry is boring...it's probably because it is.  When you hear this, check the energy and excitement level of your ministry.  You may need to infuse some fresh life and energy.

Sit down with a group of kids and ask them what's boring.  Is it the music?  The lesson?  The videos?  The games?  It may be time to change up your format, curriculum, music or approach.  In our upcoming book, If Disney Ran Your Children's Ministry, we dedicate an entire chapter to capturing kid's attention and making church a fun, exciting experience.  

My child doesn't learn anything.
This complaint comes when parents ask their child what they learned and simply get a shrug or "about God" answer.  The solution is to focus your teaching on one key truth for the month.  Have the kids repeat that truth with you at least 6 times each week.  When you hear something once, you only remember 10% of it.  When you hear something 6 times, your retention rate goes up to 90%. 

Then make sure you're sending home a take home page that shows parents what their child learned that day and provides follow-up questions.

My child doesn't have any friends.
Normally this complaint originates from a child who is shy or withdrawn.  Provide opportunities for kids to talk and connect throughout your class time by using icebreakers and other activities that get kids talking and sharing about themselves.  Also place kids in the same small group or classroom each week so they can build relationships.

It's not deep enough.  
This usually comes from a parent who wants to make sure their child has a solid knowledge and understanding of the Bible.  And that's a good thing.  And that doesn't mean you have to sacrifice fun and games to help kids get a solid grasp of God's Word.

Make sure every game, activity, song, etc. is helping teach God's Word.  Everything that happens in the class should point kids to the Bible.

It's also important to have a clear teaching pathway that maps out for parents what their kids will be learning while they are in your ministry.  Showing parents a clear scope and sequence up front will give them confidence in what their child will be learning.

Also help parents understand that "deep" is not only head knowledge, but application as well.  Going deeper means living out what you are learning. 

I already heard that story before.
I remember as a child complaining about this once myself during a Bible lesson.  The reason I remember is because I got in trouble for saying it and was removed from the classroom.  Hey...what can I say...I needed a fresh take on it. 

Keep a list of Bible stories you've taught and don't repeat the same story more than once in a 3 year period (of course...this doesn't include the story of the cross).  By doing this, you'll give kids a broader view of the many, many incredible, true stories found in the Bible.  Better to share that unique, not-as-well-known story than sharing David and Goliath for the 5th time.

There's not enough volunteers.
This complaint will come from all angles.  From other volunteers who are stressed out because they're trying to manage a large class with little help.  From parents who look into a room that has 30 preschoolers and 2 adults.  From an elementary volunteer who has a "small" group of 20 kids.

Volunteers are what makes children's ministry happen.  There is no children's ministry without them.  The simple solution is to build a solid team of volunteers.  I say simple...but it's every ministry's greatest challenge.  But it can be done.  In this post, I share 10 secrets to building a dynamic volunteer team.  We've used these steps to build a team of over 2,600 children's ministry volunteers at our church.  (BTW - we still need a lot more and always will)

It's too babyish. 
This complaint usually comes from older kids who are not being targeted.  When you have a class of kids who are different ages, don't make the mistake of targeting the youngest kids in the room.  When you do this, the older kids will tune out.  Always target the oldest child in the room.  If you have a group of 1-5th graders, make sure the music, lesson, games and activities are geared to hit a 5th grader.  With children, cool rolls downhill.  I talk more about this here.

My baby's diaper didn't get changed.
No parents like to pick up their child and find their diaper is wet.  Make sure you have a plan for your nursery volunteers to check babies' diapers during the service and make sure they are all changed at pick-up time.  It's also a great idea to have stickers that say "I was changed" to place on the diapers.

We never know what's going on.
This complaint is due to lack of communication.  Use many different avenues to communicate with parents.  A parent Facebook page, emails, texts, take home pages and phone calls are just a few of the methods you can use.  Find a good balance though...bombard them and you'll hear the opposite complaint.  Create too much noise and it will get drowned out.

My child hasn't connected with any of the volunteers. 
It's hard for a volunteer to effectively connect with more than 8 kids by himself or herself.  Make sure your volunteer ratios are conducive to volunteers getting to know the kids.  Here are the ratios we follow. 

You can also be intentional about providing icebreakers and activities that allow the volunteers to talk with and get to know the kids. 

Ask volunteers to also be intentional about hanging out with kids during the pre-service time and building relationships with them.  You can also have kids write down their prayer requests each week and then have the volunteers take the requests home to pray for them during the week.

Okay.  The floor is yours.  What other complaints have you heard about children's ministry?  What are some other ways you fix the complaints mentioned above?  We'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below.