Guest Blog: Kendra Golden
The Kids Down the Hall
I get chills every time. The message closes, Craig acknowledges the hands, the lives surrendering to Christ, one by one. Maybe you’ve had the honor of standing in front of that human sea. Jesus promised to make us fishers of men. Here’s a challenge: Are we sport-fishing on ESPN, or are we commercial fishing?
The career fishermen Jesus called to His ministry fished with nets. The best Bass Pro in the world today couldn’t catch enough fish to make a living selling them. Jesus’ fishermen often caught fish that would get thrown back by a sport fisherman. And yet, one of Jesus’ last miracles on earth was to overflow a net so full of those little fish that it couldn’t be hauled in.
Statistically, children’s ministry is where our nets are most likely to overflow. (See George Barna’s Raising Children to be Spiritual Champions for the hard numbers.) Many church leaders I have spoken with are quick to recognize that a thriving children’s ministry “grows their church.” However, often what they mean is that it’s a draw for the children’s parents. Many of these same leaders often don’t know if the ministry down the hall from the “real preaching” is effective.
Is your church body being led to take full advantage of effective children’s ministry? Here are some hard questions:
Are your kids’ rooms painted beige, so they can be “multi-purpose”? (preferring to be attractive to adults who may share them)
Could you answer specific questions about the curriculum in your kids’ rooms?
Do you believe it’s the parents’ job to lead their kids to Christ, while they assume it’s the church’s? Have you addressed this disconnect?
Does your children’s ministry struggle to get and keep passionate volunteers?
Even if you can list the activities you offer children, can you show how they support your desired outcomes?
Do staff salaries/prestige increase in proportion to the age of the people they serve?
Are your children’s ministers regularly challenged to update their strategies? Can they demonstrate a healthy return on resource investment?
Are you satisfied with merely “entertained kids” and “satisfied parents”?
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[...] effective children’s ministry Posted in children’s ministry, leadership, church by childmin on the June 28th, 2007 This was posted by Kendra Golden over at lifechurch.tv blog. Thought it had some good points: The Kids Down the Hall [...]
You are speaking my language! As children’s pastor in a theater church, I face lots of challenges but they are just different than other’s…not better or worse. I’m thankful the one challenge I don’t have is a pastor that’s not behind me a 110%. He does all he can to make my job easier and honestly thinks children’s ministry is top priority. He’s stretching me to be a better administrator and leader. I in turn am trying to equip our parents to be the spiritual leaders of their homes through take-home family devotions each week and a parenting class we offer as a Life Group.
WOW! To paraphrase Acts 2:37:
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to [Kendra], “…what shall we do?”
In my few years in children’s ministry I have noticed it is a strange world. The most common thing I see is leaders who verbally say the children’s ministry is important, but never are involved in any way. They want to hire a staff person and then forget about it forever, only to be involved in financial decisions.
Also, an enjoyable children’s ministry is a draw to families; would you attend a church your kids hated and got nothing from? I do not see anything wrong with that. If the parents are not drawn into a relationship with Christ, all we do will probably be lost by the home experience. However, I agree that attracting families for numerical growth cannot be our primary goal. If there is no substance behind it all a ceiling will quickly be hit.
It is nice to see the kids ministry get some love on here!
I really appreciate your passion for children. I am hoping this is the proper forum to ask an unrelated question but here goes: you mentioned indirectly the call to committment at the end of your services. I was wondering how Craig (or any of you for that matter) handle “altar calls”. Do you ask them to raise their hands, fill out a card, walk to the front, go in a dark, smoke filled room or recite a prayer? This is a major talking point in our staff right now about how we can improve how we do this very important moment. Maybe it would be a good topic to launch into.
thanks again
Excellent post. I am the chior and I hear you preaching. Those are some excellent questions to ask. Do we really truly value kids or are they and means to a different end.
I did a post about this a couple of weeks ago based on an article I came accross on the Willow Creek website about “Do children really matter.”
http://www.willowcreek.com/wcanews/story.asp?id=WN07I22007
http://samluce.wordpress.com/2007/06/06/actual-values-vs-stated-values/
Lee,
I love the way LifeChurch handles decisions for Christ. They ask people who want to make a decision to raise their hand boldly. The speaker acknowledges as many people as he can by looking at the person eyeball to eyeball and welcomes them into the family of God. I like it because in so many churches it’s usually done with “every eye closed and no one looking around” so as not to embarass the individual. I’m not sure why it’s gotta be such a secret? After the show of hands the entire church leads these individuals into a prayer. Very motivating and encouraging for the body!
Mike
Thank you Kendra. I needed this message, and in particular perhaps this question, “Do you believe it’s the parents’ job to lead their kids to Christ, while they assume it’s the church’s?”
Working in kids ministry, I always question are we reaching the kids who have no parental support spiritually at home yet at the same time challenging parents who do know Christ to raise their children to know God personally and help them grow spiritually. If you swing one way, you alienate the kids who don’t have the spiritual support at home yet if you don’t challenge parents you have what Kendra called “entertained kids” and parents that assume that it is the church’s sole responsibility to help their child grow spiritually. Any thoughts on how to balance this? What do you do at your church to challenge parents to help their kids grow spiritually without alienating the children that don’t have any spiritual support at home?
[...] Most churches claim to value children… but few actually do where it counts. A friend recently sent me to this blog post, and I thought it was fantastic, so I am re-posting a part of it here for feedback. (italics is quoted) [...]
Carrie,
in answer to your question: “What do you do at your church to challenge parents to help their kids grow spiritually without alienating the children that don’t have any spiritual support at home?”
Well, it’s not much but I recently opened a lending library”. There are some things for children there so a child / a parent may come and lend something home and then simply “push the button”. Parents don’t realize what worthy resources there are there for them.
[...] I found this great article. You can read rest of it here : here [...]
[...] I found this great article. You can read rest of it here : here [...]