In my mid-teens I attended a conference for Children’s Church leaders.  It involved training at a conference centre followed by a Sunday morning visit to the Children’s Church belonging to the Church hosting the conference and ending with their night service where the Children’s Pastor would preach.  I don’t recall anything from the training.  I do recall the embittered Children’s Church Pastor’s preach berating the church for its lack of support, volunteers and finances.  I distinctly remember saying to myself, ‘I don’t ever want to be like that.’  The Children’s Church Pastor must have felt she finally had a platform to share all her grievances but bitterness was destroying the effectiveness of her ministry.  Of course, back then I didn’t fully understand how hard it is to run a Children’s Church department. 

The Case of the Missing Picnic Blankets

One Sunday morning I was running around the Church auditorium looking for our five picnic blankets.  The blankets were used every week for the children to sit on for morning tea.  I was teaching ‘Jesus feeds the 5000’ and wanted the children sitting down ‘picnic style’ for the story with morning tea to follow.  All five blankets had been taken by a deacon and used for the mid-week Baptism service so those coming out of the pool had something to drip onto.  No one asked.  They weren’t returned.  The three I found were wet and I never did find all five blankets.

The Case of the Carnival Catastrophe

The Pastor decided to hold a Family Fun Day after Church.  Great!  The car park was being turned into a carnival complete with jumping castle.  For some reason the company hired to set up the attractions arrived early.  Kid’s Church was held in the neighbouring building to Big Church, so when we were released from the main meeting, all the children had to file past the jumping castle before entering their age appropriate rooms.  That’s when an astute four year old asked the question, ‘If the jumping castle is out there, what are we doing in here?’

I totally understood the sentiment but we were confident in our program.  In fact we had designed it to be as exciting and attractive for visiting children as well as our usual kids and for it to Segway nicely into the carnival. 

Then the Pastor’s PA came in the room.  ‘Since we’re paying for it Pastor has sent me to take 6 kids at a time to play on the jumping castle.’

You can imagine the neck turning every time the door opened and 6 breathless, flush faced and barefooted children returned to the room clutching their shoes and socks.  Then arms were flung up into the air as children called out, ‘Can I go next?  Choose me!?’ All focus on the Bible lesson or Memory Verse, no matter how spectacularly prepared and presented, went out the door with the next six kids. 

Occurrences like these are a big deal to those of us who are passionate about Kid’s Ministry.  We know the value of what we’re doing.  But having a victim mentality is only going to lead to us becoming like that embittered Children’s Church Pastor of my youth.

There’s a dedication in the front of my Children’s Ministry Bible that says, ‘…to those who quietly labour in the largest, most forsaken mission field on the earth.’  It’s certainly true that Children’s Ministry can be under resourced and underappreciated.

‘The church tends to focus either on ministry with adults (preaching, small groups, new believers classes) or youth (youth groups, intergenerational ministry efforts to connect youth within the church), and it has not given enough careful thought to our beliefs about how God works in the lives of children, and how we in the church can minister to them best.  Effective ministry with children leads to stronger youth ministries and eventually stronger adult discipleship.  Childhood is a foundational time for faith development, and we need more careful consideration about how to do this well.’

Dr Kevin Lawson, Professor of Educational Studies at Talbot School of Theology

How Do You Keep a Sweet Spirit?

My parents have survived nearly forty years of ministry by ‘keeping a sweet spirit’.  Whenever I have been tempted to become bitter, the Holy Spirit has reminded me of those words.

Pray and ask God to forgive you for being bitter.  Decide to be a blessing to those who offended you.  The Lord had me heal a breach between the Youth Department and the Kid’s Church by having an open cupboard policy for all the play equipment.  Did the youth always return the hula hoops and balls or even put them back in the right place?  No.  But we were all serving the Lord and wanting kids to have a real and vital faith in God.   So I coped with it and the relationship turned around because we had unity.  Be Christ minded (Philippians 2:5) and keep yourself in the love of God (Jude 1:21).

Becoming jaded and embittered will hurt you and render your ministry ineffective.  And there’s nothing sweet about that.

P.S.  If you’re looking for some carnival fun for a Super Sunday or special event:

Samson’s Bumpy Ride https://cooeekidsministry.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Samsons-Bumpy-Ride.pdf

Circus!  https://cooeekidsministry.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Circus.pdf

Clowning Around!  https://cooeekidsministry.com.au/clowning-around/