What is your vision for children’s ministry? We trust that it is more than simply a baby sitting service and that it seeks to build a biblical foundation in the hearts and minds of children. This should be a ministry where children can meet Jesus as their Savior and be inspired to keep growing in that commitment for the rest of their lives. For many churches the primary focus is getting enough volunteers to fill all of the needs, rather than looking at what the ministry should accomplish in the lives of the children.

Statistically, 70% of the people that came to Christ in the United States did so by the age of 21. This statistic alone should give a real sense of urgency to what is done in the children, youth and young adult ministries. Additionally, these ministries are often bridges to reach the other 30% - parents who bring their children to church or whose youth are brought by their friends. Most visitors in a church on any given Sunday morning are coming out of a feeling of responsibility for their young children rather than their own sense of a need for God. Parents of today live for their children. They spend their time, when they’re not working, shuttling their children from soccer to baseball to music to dance class, all in an effort to give them every advantage possible. They buy them cell phones so that they can stay in contact with them. It is this mind-set that may lead un-churched families to your church on a Sunday morning. Parents have a sense of responsibility to teach their children something about God, and therefore go on a quest to find a church.

When the average visitor with children comes into your church, what do they find? Is it easy to see where the children should go? Is there a sense that the ministry is well organized? Are the parents given confidence that the children are safe and secure? Can they easily wander off, or can someone, other than their parent get them? Is there a sense, in eyes of a visitor, that the church places a high value on children? These parents do – and that’s why they’ve come in the first place. If our ministries communicate to them the importance of children, then we’ve gone a long way towards retaining these visitors and ultimately being able to reach them with the good news of Jesus Christ.

For children’s classrooms, multi-media learning is essential. The standard “flannel graph type” lesson does not encourage attentive listening from today’s children. Additionally, the education level of the instructors must be fairly high for them to be able to teach in a manner that holds the children’s attention. By varying the forms of media being used to present information – kinesthetic work centers, craft activities and Bible lessons – all the different learning styles are being utilized, improving the likelihood that the message will stick. Puppet stages or multi-media centers can be creatively incorporated into the decor of a room. See our photo gallery for Church on the Move- Children’s Ministry.

It is not our intention to tell you how you should be doing children’s ministry. There are plenty of organizations that have developed wonderful children’s programs that you can implement in your church. (Among these are Promise Land and Kids on the Move) Once you determine how you want to minister to children, the spaces are relatively easy to design. In fact, they can be a great deal of fun as you incorporate creativity, lots of color and graphics into the theme of the room and spaces. For examples of some dynamic children’s ministry spaces, see our image gallery or see Church on the Move- Children’s Ministry.

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