About the Children’s Department: Don’t Miss the Mark!

I love Children’s Ministry; I’ve served happily in it for 44 years! I believe  Children’s Ministry is important and it matters; every church should be focused on what they want to accomplish in and with their Children’s Ministry and have a real plan to do so.

But, I am becoming more and more convinced we are missing the mark in our Children’s Ministries. We put all our “eggs in one basket” – and invest all our budget for children in Children’s Ministry. And, while this may seem like it makes sense, when we do this, we are missing the mark.

No matter how effective your Children’s Ministry is; and we certainly want it to be extremely effective, it will never have the lasting impact on children their family can have. It is for this reason I absolutely believe any truly effective and focused Children’s Ministry, absolutely must have a truly effective and focused Family Ministry AND Grandparenting Ministry.

In the best of situations you are able to impact children directly for five hours a week, but there are 168 hours in a week. What are you going to do about the other 163 hours in a child’s week? Since you can not live with each child in your ministry, you can not directly influence those hours; but the parents and grandparents can.

So, if you are serious about having a truly effective and focused ministry, you have to also be focused on what you can do to engage parents and grandparents and help them pass on a heritage of confident faith.

And, when you think about what you can do to engage parents, don’t forget the grandparents. Many of us are very engaged in the lives of our grandchildren and many of us truly want to pass on a heritage of confident faith.

So, what are you doing to engage parents and grandparents in a focused and intentional way in your ministry?