RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

A few days ago, I was reading the Bible during my quiet time and a verse jumped out at me.  It's found in 3 John 1:14.  Here is what it says.

"I hope to see you soon and we will talk face to face.  Peace to you.  The friends here send their greetings.  Greet the friends there by name."

In this verse are 5 things you can do each week to impact kids for Christ.
 
 #1 - Be the person kids look forward to seeing.

 "I hope to SEE you soon and we will talk face to face.  Peace to you.  The friends here send their greetings.  Greet the friends there by name."

Do kids anticipate coming because they know Mr. _________ or Miss ____________ is going to be there looking for them? 

Be the kind of leader that develops a friendship and relationship with kids that has them looking forward to seeing you at church.

 #2 - Talk with kids face to face.

"I hope to see you soon and we will talk FACE TO FACE.  Peace to you.  The friends here send their greetings.  Greet the friends there by name."

Look kids in the eyes and let them know you are so glad they came.  If you serve in preschool - get down on their eye level so you can see them face-to-face.  Kids are longing for someone at church to look them in the eye and let them know they are valuable, accepted and loved.

Make sure every child has someone who looks into their face instead of past them.  And make sure it's a look of kindness rather than a stern look. 

#3 - Help make your church a peaceful place for kids.

 "I hope to see you soon and we will talk face to face.  PEACE to you.  The friends here send their greetings.  Greet the friends there by name."

Today's kids are growing up in a scary world.  They've heard about people being shot at school, the movie theater, a restaurant,  a sports event and  yes...even at church. 

Put the proper security in place and have plans in place that make your church a safe place where parents and kids feel protected and secure.    

Each week you have kids come that are facing things that are the opposite of peace. It may be their parents are getting divorced.  Perhaps they feel the tension of their parents struggling to pay the bills.  Perhaps they are bullied at school.

Church should be a peaceful environment where kids can feel peaceful and secure.

#4 - Help connect kids with each other and make FRIENDS.

"I hope to see you soon and we will talk face to face.  Peace to you.  The FRIENDS here send their greetings.  Greet the friends there by name."

Kids don't come back to church because of cool videos or crazy skits or fun games.  They come back because they have friends there.  This is especially true with kids who are new.  Make sure you help kids get connected and be intentional about helping them make some new friends.  Icebreakers are always a good way to get kids talking to each other.

Don't get me wrong - cool videos help, crazy skits help and fun games help.  This doesn't mean you drop those things.  You simply make them support for the main thing - building relationships. Use these and other tools to help kids get connected and establish friendships.

And of course, as a volunteer leader, you can be a friend to kids.  When kids know you genuinely care for them and are there to be a friend on their spiritual journey, they'll be waking up their parents to be on time for church.

#5 - Let each child hear their name spoken. 

"I hope to see you soon and we will talk face to face.  Peace to you.  The friends here send their greetings.  Greet the friends there by NAME."

Every child should hear their name spoke each time they are at church.  This lets them know they are valued as a person.  And with name tags, it's easy to address each child by name.  Just be intentional about it so you don't miss anyone.

It's also a game-changer for kids when they hear their name called out in prayer.  During your prayer time at church, pray for each child by name.  Taking prayer requests from each child and then praying for their requests is important as well.

Incorporate the 5 steps in this verse and you will leave a legacy of faith in the lives of the kids you minister to. 

Ratios matter in children's ministry.  I mean they really, really matter.  I would go as far to say that ratios will determine your effectiveness in children's ministry.

Let's talk about why ratios are so important and the part it plays in a child's experience at church.

Right ratios make your ministry safer.  When there are 30 preschoolers in a room with only 2 volunteers, accidents are more likely to happen.  In your early childhood rooms, it's vital that you not only have a correct number of kids, but also enough volunteers to help keep the kids safe.

Right ratios helps each child be known, cared for and prayed for. When you don't have correct ratios, kids may leave having never heard their name called, not having someone look them in the eye and telling them how important they are to God.  They may leave having not been personally prayed for.  

Right ratios prevents volunteer burnout.  When you don't have enough volunteers, it can cause the volunteers you do have to burn out.  They end up doing more crowd control than teaching...which is not what they signed up for. 

Right ratios makes the teaching more effective.  Kids are able to participate more in the lesson.  They can be an active part of the teaching.  

Right rations makes the experience more enjoyable for kids.  No one enjoys being crammed into a small space.  And that includes kids as well.  It's hard to listen and participate in activities when you are squeezed into a small area.

Right ratios can be a determining factor in whether guest families come back or not.  There are a few things that guest families look for when checking out a church.  One is safety and security.  Will my child be safe and protected?

And they look at ratios.  How many other kids are in the room?   Will my child be able to express him/herself and be heard? 

Right ratios requires you to build a strong volunteer team.  Having the right ratios comes down to one big thing.  If you are following ratios, is your volunteer team large enough to accommodate the number of kids attending?  Are your volunteers trained properly?

If you need help with building your volunteer team up, then get my book "The Formula for Building Great Volunteer Teams.  This book will help you build your volunteer team and get your room ratios up to where they should be. You can get it as an ebook or paperback at www.buildingchildrensministry.com.

The bottom line is this:  Lowering child-to-volunteer ratios helps ensure that children receive adequate care, supervision and Christian education.

When ratios are met, it sets your volunteers up to provide high-impact interactions with children.  When ratios are not met, it can cause children to not be known or truly connected.  It's that important.

You may be wandering what proper ratios looks like. Here are the ratios I follow.

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)

I want to challenge you to take a look at your current ratios.  Do you need to add some more volunteers?  Do guest families look into your preschool rooms and see chaos.  Do elementary kids have the opportunity to be in a small group. (BTW - ever tried to do a small group with 20 kids?  That's not a small group...that's a crowd.)

This takes us back to this quote...


Your turn.  Share your thoughts, ideas and insights about ratios in the comment section below.

A few days ago, as I was doing my Bible reading, this verse jumped out at me.

"Peace to you.  The friends send you their greetings.  Greet the friends there, each by name."  3 John 1:14

John, who wrote this book of the Bible, asks the believers to be personally greeted by name.

You see...names matter.  Especially in children's ministry.  It makes a big difference in a child's life when he or she is personally known by name at church.  The sweetest sound to a child's ears is his or her name. 

It should be our goal that every single child who attends our church is known by name.  We should strive for every child to hear their name being used by a caring, loving volunteer every time he or she is at church.

Take another look at the verse.  Notice John calls the believers "friends."  The reason names matter is because relationships matter.  If we want to see kids grow up to love Jesus, we must ensure they have significant relationships with volunteers and staff.  Discipleship happens through relationship.  Spiritual growth happens through relationship.  Care happens through relationship.  Personal prayer happens through relationship.  Mentoring happens through relationship.  Influence in a child's life happens through relationship.

We must be intentional about knowing the names of the kids in our ministries.  How can this happen in a growing church?  Name tags are a good start.  You should already have this in place for safety and security purposes.  Encourage your volunteers to look at kids' name tags and use their names as much as possible when interacting with them.

Place kids in small groups where they are called by name and prayed for by name each week.  The larger your ministry becomes, the smaller it must become.  Kids don't come back because of amazing facilities, cool music or fun videos.  They come back because someone knows their name and cares about them.

Names matter.  Because names matter, here are some questions to talk through with your team.

• Are we using name tags for kids? 

• Are we encouraging our volunteers to use kids' names as much as possible when interacting with them?

• Are we placing kids in small groups where they are known by name?

• Are kids being prayed for by name when they are at church?

• How can we be more intentional about using kids' names?

This week you will have the opportunity once again to minster to children.  As you do this, it's important to keep in mind that every child has 3 big needs.

The need to be accepted.   Every child has insecurities, doubts and some type of self-esteem struggles.  Many of their thoughts about themselves are negative.  They struggle with knowing who they are.  They long to know that someone accepts them.  They long for someone to love them in spite of their weaknesses.
  
You can help meet this need by creating a welcoming environment.  You can help meet this need by teaching children who they are in Christ and modeling His unconditional love for them.  You can help meet this need by speaking words of encouragement and inspiration to them.                                                        

The need to belong.  Kids are hardwired to connect with others.  They long to be in relationship and do life with others.     

You can help meet this need by providing a small group for children to be a part of.  Whatever you call it, Sunday School, small groups, life groups, etc.  - give kids the opportunity be personally known and cared for in a setting of 6 to 8 kids.  Help your volunteers see the important part they play in this as well.  Every child needs a connection to a non-parent, adult meaningful relationship. 

The need to find meaning in life.   Why am I here?  What is my purpose?  What should I do with my life? 

You can help meet this need by showing them they were created for a purpose.  Help them see that God created them to be in relationship and fellowship with Him.  He has a special plan for their life.  As they grow and follow Him, He will reveal what it is. 

Think about the impact you could make if you geared your ministry to meet these needs for kids.  Think about what could happen if your volunteers caught hold of this.  Think about the kids and families who's lives could be changed if you focused on these three things. 

Kids want to know that they matter to someone.  They want to know that someone cares about them and is taking a personal interest in them.

If you really want to see your children's ministry impact kids' lives, then you've got to make it personal.  Here's some ways to do that.

Make sure every child hears someone say their name every time they are at church.  No matter how many kids attend your ministry, this can happen if you use name tags.  Be intentional about saying kids' names when they are checking in, are inside the room and are leaving.

Make sure every child has a caring leader who knows them.  Every child should have at least one leader who is investing in their life.  Someone they look forward to seeing at church.  Someone who knows when they're not there and lets them know they were missed.  This can be accomplished by placing kids in small groups, having leaders who are consistent and being intentional about building relationships with the kids.

Make your communication personal.  Remember how you feel when you get a generic email, note or letter that's not personally addressed to you?  It's very cold and impersonal, isn't it?  And normally it's quickly discarded.  But when you receive a personal, handwritten note it's different, isn't it?  It makes you feel valued.  When you send correspondence, personalize it.  It makes a huge difference.

Your turn.  The floor is yours.  How do you make your children's ministry personal for kids?  Share your ideas and thoughts with everyone in the comment section below.

Your car has a dashboard that tells you lots of important things.  It's a big indicator of the health of your car.

It's important to have a dashboard for your ministry.  Key elements that you check each week that help you determine the health of your ministry.

Here are 10 items I have on our ministry dashboard.  I check these every Monday morning.  They are not the only indicator of health...but they are key indicators of kids and families taking significant spiritual steps.

Overall church attendance
Are we growing?
How is our attendance compared to this time last year?
What percentage of the overall church attendance is children?

Children's Ministry attendance
Are we growing?
How is our attendance compared to this time last year?
How is the attendance in each area? (nursery, preschool, elementary, pre-teen, etc.)
How is the children's ministry growth compared to the overall church growth?

Small Groups
How many children did we enroll in a small group this week?
How many total children do we have enrolled in small groups?
What percentage of the overall children's ministry attendance is enrolled in a small group?

Volunteers
How many total volunteers served?
How many new volunteers joined the team this week?
How many volunteers do we have compared to this time last year?
What areas do we need more volunteers in?

New Believer's Class
How many children went through our new believer's class? (parents must attend with them)
How many children have been through the class this year?

Baptisms
How many children were baptized this week?
How many children have been baptized this year?

Kids serving
How many kids served this week as greeters, ushers, praise team, tech team, etc.?

Parent & Child Dedication
How many parents and children have we dedicated this year?

New families
How many first-time families did we register?
How many first-time families have we registered this year?

Returning new families (we have a system to track new families who return)
How many new families came back for the second time?
How many new families came back for the third time?
How many new families have returned this year?

What's on your dashboard?  What other indicators do you check?  Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.