Develop Children's Ministry
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Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.” – Matthew 19:14a
According to George Barna in the book, Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions, children in the 5 to 12-year-old range are in the crucial stages of forming “lifelong habits, values, beliefs and attitudes” (pg. 18). Childhood is an essential time in faith formation. Therefore, children’s ministry is an essential component of every Christian community. This is the second most important ministry in a church plant. There is both a high expectation on the part of the community that there will be a children's ministry and it will be a highly effective way to connect people the mission, both children and their parents.
When developing a children’s ministry for any church, there are four main components to consider: program design, curriculum, volunteer recruitment and training, and security. In addition you may want to consider accommodating children in worship, providing childcare, and Vacation Bible School.
Design Program
When you launch your ministry, it is important to have a children’s ministry plan in place. There are three main program formats that churches have adopted for the discipleship portion of their children’s ministry whether it occurs on Sunday mornings or another time during the week. All three formats can be adjusted to fit multi-age groups and various ministry sizes.
Traditional Classroom Format
The traditional classroom format is probably the most common format used in Lutheran churches and may be the easiest to put in place. Traditional classrooms consist of age-level specific lesson materials and teachers who teach those lessons to their group of children in separate classrooms. Classrooms could consist of children in one specific grade (e.g., 1st) or a couple of consecutive grade levels (1st & 2nd). One benefit of this format is that with confident and trained teachers, the program can run fairly well without much need for editing or oversight from a program director. One downside to this format is that it looks much like a school classroom and would need a lot of attention to make it fun and exciting for children and their families.
Large Group - Small Group Model
Recently rising in popularity among churches in several denominations, is the large group-small group model. In this model the Bible lessons are taught to a large group of children using drama, puppets, videos, etc. Then, the children are broken down into age-level specific small groups for discussion questions and application activities. Small groups could consist of children in one specific grade (e.g., 1st) or a couple of consecutive grade levels (1st & 2nd). One benefit of this format is that while you build a lot of energy and excitement by having so many children together for the large group lesson, the children still get to build significant relationships with one another and with their adult leader during small group time. One downside to this format is that it requires a large number of volunteers to have adults teaching the lesson and other adults leading small groups.
Site Rotaton
Some churches have adapted the common VBS format of site rotation for their year-round children’s ministry format. Site rotation is where the children learn the same Bible lesson several weeks in a row, while each week rotating to a different site to learn the lesson through a variety of means including: crafts, drama, videos, cooking, games, etc. Site-specific teachers teach their lesson repeatedly for several weeks to each different group of children. Shepherds (adult volunteers) are assigned to each group of children with the main responsibilities of building relationships with their children and taking the children to their sites each week for lessons. One benefit of this format is that it is perfect for the church that wants to avoid the traditional format altogether. One downside is that it takes the most number of volunteers and a lot of coordination from the program director to communicate the rotation schedule to all involved.
Choose Curriculum
There are two main LCMS publishing companies to consider when deciding what curriculum would be the best fit for your ministry and program design: CPH and Kid’s Kount.
Concordia Publishing House
CPH’s main children’s ministry curriculum is called “Growing in Christ.” This curriculum allows for much needed age level flexibility by overlapping ages and grades to fit your program needs. For example, they offer curriculum for Early Childhood, Lower Grades, Middle Grades, etc. “Growing in Christ” makes it easy to combine age levels, recruit teachers, make smaller classes larger, and so much more. This curriculum would be ideal for the traditional classroom format, but their website also includes suggestions on how to adapt the same materials for site rotation.
If you decide to go with Concordia Publishing House, you might look into purchasing the curriculum through Church Partner, a discount warehouse located in Littleton, CO. They usually offer a 5-10% discount and, if you are in the Denver area, you can pick up at the warehouse to avoid any shipping costs.
Kids Kount
This is a publishing company started by King of Kings Lutheran Church in Omaha, NE. Their main children’s ministry curriculum is called “Kingdom Quest.” This curriculum also allows for much needed age level flexibility by overlapping ages and grades to fit your program needs. Curriculum is broken down into 3 year-olds to Kindergarten, 1st – 4th grade, and 5th – 6th grade. Rather than a curriculum book, this curriculum comes in CD format so it’s easy to edit lessons as needed and email or print them for your volunteers. “Kingdom Quest” would be ideal for a large group-small group model. Click here to connect to their website
Suplemental Materials
Once you’ve selected your main curriculum, you may want to consider some additional touches to enhance your children’s ministry program, such as an incentive program. Incentive programs encourage children to memorize Scripture or parts of the Catechism or to live out their faith by leading the group in prayer or bringing friends to church. CPH produces a line of “Inexpensive Classroom Pins” that are great for an incentive program! Here is an example of a pin incentive program as implemented at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Lakewood, CO.
Recruit and Equip Volunteers
Volunteer Descriptions
When people are considering whether they want to assist with a ministry, they want to know as much about the position as possible before they say, “yes.” That is why it is important that you develop position descriptions for all of the volunteers you will be recruiting. At minimum, position descriptions should include time commitments and responsibilities. Here is an example of a volunteer position description from Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Lakewood, CO.
Traning Opportunties and Encouragement
In order to ensure your volunteers feel confident in their ministry roles, it is important that you offer training opportunities and encouragement. At least one training opportunity should be held prior to any program launch. However, additional training opportunities may be needed throughout the year.
More and more you will notice that it is difficult to get everyone together for training opportunities in person. You could enhance training and encouragement online through email or web articles. One resource which touches on a broad array of children’s ministry concerns is Group’s “Teacher Training on the Go.” This is a resource that comes in print and CD. You can print copies or email the training sessions depending on what works best for your situation.
Additional articles on children’s ministry and Sunday school can be found at the LCMS Children’s Ministry Connections:
Maintain Security
It is very important that your church plant strives to ensure an environment where members and visitors of all ages feel safe and secure.
General Guidelines
In general, your ministry should strive to
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Serve using commonsense safety practicesBackground Checks
For the safety and security of your children, appropriate background checks should be performed on all paid employees as well as all children’s ministry volunteers. As a ministry of the LCMS you have access to certain discounts and benefits through the LCMS Group Purchasing Agreement, which includes a background screening company.
After reviewing several background screening companies, the LCMS national office selected Protect My Ministry as a provider for background screening services. Protect My Ministry is an employment and volunteer background screening company established to assist churches, schools, and other faith-based organizations in implementing and maintaining a thorough background screening process. For more information please visit Protect My Ministry at or contact:
Benton Mobley, Service Representative |
Permission/Medical Forms
Medical release and permission forms should be collected for all children participating in your ministry and filed in a safe and secure place that can be accessed in the case of an emergency. Please feel free to use the following Medical Release and Permission Form or create a similar form to fit the needs of your ministry.
Check-in, Drop-Off, and Pick-Up Procedures
n order to give confidence to the parents and volunteers that the children in your ministry are in a safe and secure environment, it is of utmost importance that you have a clear plan in place for parents to check-in, drop-off, and pick-up their children from children’s ministry events. There are a variety of computer and pager systems that have been created for this purpose. However, a simple sign-in/sign-out sheet could suffice. You will need to decide what will be the best fit for your ministry based on your ministry size and facility. Regardless, children should never be dropped off without adults present, and children should never be allowed to leave until their parents come to pick them up in person.
Adult Supervision
For the safety of children and for the protection of volunteers, at least two adults should be present for any children’s ministry function. One trained adult volunteer with a teen helper may also be adequate. An ideal adult to child ratio for children’s ministry would typically be 1:8 or 1:6 for preschool and younger.
First Aid
You should consider encouraging all children’s ministry volunteers and church staff to become first-aid certified. Make sure that your church has first-aid supplies on-site and familiarize your volunteers with the location of these supplies.
Involve Children in Worship
In addition to a children’s ministry discipleship program, your church should enhance its worship experience to benefit children and their families. Some suggestions include:
Seating
Instinctively, parents with young children often sit in the back of the worship center to avoid distracting others with their active youngsters. Aiding young children to see what is going on during worship might actually help them to behave better. Suggest that families sit near the front of the worship center or provide booster seats for young children.
Children's Messages
The pastor or another individual who is dynamic and communicates well with children should lead a children’s message during the worship service. This helps to explain the Scriptures to the children on their level. For some examples of excellent children’s messages, check out Concordia Pulpit Resources or Sermons 4 Kids. When using a message suggestion written by another individual, it is always good to check it for theological consistency with the teachings of the LCMS and add personal touches to make it your own. Connecting the children’s message to the lectionary readings or the pastor’s sermon is also helpful.
Children's Bulletins
Children’s bulletins are a inexpensive way to connect children to the worship experience as most children’s bulletins have activities based around one of the lectionary readings for the week. Here is a site that provides this service.
Quite Worship Bags
For children that are too young to read and enjoy the children’s bulletins, it is helpful to parents if you offer something to keep children busy during worship, since they will inevitably have difficulty following along and participating. One suggestion would be to offer “Quiet Worship Bags” that contain a coloring book, crayons, small stuffed animal, etc. Please feel free to use these tags for your worship bags (Insert link to Quiet Worship Bags.PDF) or create something similar to fit the needs of your ministry.
Develop Childcare
If your facility has an appropriate room for young ones, you may want to consider offering childcare to provide a caring and nurturing place for infants and toddlers to be while their parents participating in worship or adult Bible study. If this is your desire, you will want to follow some general guidelines:
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Plan VBS
Vacation Bible School (VBS) is a prime opportunity to reach out into your community and bring more children and their families to know Jesus. Many families seek out VBS programs during the summer months to send their children to as a way to get them out of the house for awhile! A well-planned VBS can attract many families, who may consider attending worship as a result of the impression your church makes during VBS. Here is a list of considerations you should make when planning a successful VBS:
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For additional suggestion or answers to questions, please feel free to contact Lisa Matthis at thaete@hotmail.com. Lisa is the former Director of Children’s Ministry at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Lakewood, CO, and the wife of Rev. Chris Matthis at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Englewood, CO. She currently teaches 5th grade at Peace with Christ Lutheran School in Aurora, CO.