Children’s ministry can evoke strange attitudes. In some churches the attitude seems to be anyone can undertake children’s ministry. After all, how hard can it be to keep them amused for the time their parents are in church? If they learn something at the same time so much the better. This attitude is likely to stem from the idea within the church leadership that children’s ministry is secondary and less important than teaching adults, and therefore anyone should be able to do it.
When my husband took over as superintendent of our Sunday school years ago, he stopped the practice of automatically relegating very young teenagers to come in and teach the younger children the moment they became too old to attend Sunday school themselves. Until this point many of the up to then young teachers felt no great calling to this work. They were only doing what other people expected. Reasoning that young children are extremely impressionable and take in so much of what they are told, my husband decided we needed to have our best teachers and most mature Christians in these positions as teachers and role models.
Children are special and precious. This is in line with what Jesus taught and He wants them to come to Him. There is more chance of a child making a commitment to the Lord, if the teacher is mature in his or her own faith and able to convey bible truths simply and creatively, if they are experienced in teaching and dealing with children and take that responsibility for their care and teaching seriously, not as something to occupy them while parents are in church.
A lot depends on how important we view teaching children. The fist time I ever taught children was when I became a children’s leader at BSF international http://www.bsfinternational.org or as it was known then Bible Study Fellowship. My class consisted of two year olds. What can you possibly teach a two year old I hear a lot of people ask? I must admit when I first took it on, I had more than a few thoughts about that myself. But as always God knows best and God undertakes.
The other children’s leader and I taught children through a bible stories certainly, but also through finger plays, songs, games and activities that re-enforced the main points of the stories. I remember one boy in the class, who at two was not talking. His first word was ‘God’ as he pointed to any number of things God had created. It brought tears to more than one leader’s eyes.
Another mother used to take her child shopping immediately after bible study. The child used to sit in the trolley and tell all the shoppers about the story he’d heard that day, much to her embarrassment initially. Later she began to see it as a good opportunity for outreach.
When our daughter was two and went to the BSF children’s program, I could actually tell which one of the children leaders had told the story that day, as she parroted almost word for word a rendition of the story each week. Any wonder she is now involved in children ministry herself? Because she sees how important it is.
Over many years I have taught two year olds to twelve year olds. The teenage age group, I leave to those more experienced and with a heart for this age group as well as the extra curricular activities like caving and camping etc that go with working with teenagers.
Even if you don’t feel able to teach little ones or teenagers you could support those who do by praying for them. Children’s ministry should never be undertaken without a lot of prayer. Another way you could help is by taking an interest in what those involved in children’s ministry are doing and seeing if there is a practical way you could help by collecting egg cartons and materials etc for craft activities. Maybe you could supply a meal for the kids club or wash up or do some other behind the scenes activity that will free the teachers to do what they are called to do.
The Blessings in Making Good Choices