Category Archives: Leadership

Resolution #5 – Attract More Children To Your Church

Posted on January 13, 2012 | Leave a comment

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Attracting more children to your church is a goal every children’s pastor has, and it can be done easily and effectively with four easy steps.

1. Pray.

Don’t only pray for numbers. Pray that God is in the middle of your children’s ministry and that His desire for souls is at the center of your desire to attract more children. Too many pastors, churches, and children’s ministries start with the right motives but, at some point because of pride, start wanting more numbers because it makes them look good. Your first prayer should be to change your heart’s desire into what God’s desire is not for numbers.

Your second prayer should be to ask God to give you plans and creativity. If you do ministry the way you always have, you’ll always have what you’ve always had. Ask God to show you what you should focus on changing this coming year.

2. Have an effective children’s ministry.

This should go without saying, but it doesn’t. No matter how many children you get in the doors, if you don’t have something effective for them when they get there, they won’t stay.

God will only give you what you can handle. If you have twenty children and want to double that by the end of the year, start having workers, classes, and programs that will work if fifty children show up.

3. Have Effective Outreach.

There are only so many children who will come through your doors without outreach. It’s your job to go into the highways and byways and compel them to come in.

Here are a few effective outreach activities your children’s ministry could have:

Block Parties

Park Ministry

Vacation Bible School

Sidewalk Sunday School

Easter Party

School Bible Clubs

Kids Crusade

4. Follow-Up:

This is a step that most churches fail at. They have a great outreach event, lots of children come, many are saved, but then they never hear from the church until the next large outreach event.

Once a child comes to one of your event, make a personal contact through a letter and a phone call. Meet the parents, and invite them to church. Ask if they have any prayer needs they would like you to remember. That’s what will get them inside your church doors for more than an event.

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Posted in Leadership, Outreach

Resolution #4 – Disciple Children

Posted on January 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

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Discipling children is a goal worth pursuing. Children need more than learning Bible stories, and they shouldn’t stop at salvation. We need to disciple children to be Christ followers and to be a vibrant part of the church as children.

Discipleship won’t happen unless you make a deliberate effort and plan to do it. It’s also important to remember that discipleship includes both teaching and opportunities for ministry.

A discipleship plan should include the following elements:

  • You do, they watch.
  • You do, they help.
  • They do, you help.
  • They do, you watch. 

Here’s a few post to help you develop that plan:

Children’s Ministry: Discipling or Entertaining

Heart Knowledge

Signs of a Thriving Children’s Ministry – Discipling

A Children’s Pastor is a Mentor

Starting a Drama/Performance Team

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Posted in Discipling Children, Leadership

Resolution #3 – Have More Children Saved

Posted on January 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

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The Holy Spirit is the only one who can convict and convince somebody of any age to be saved. But there are things you can do to create an atmosphere to allow God to move on the hearts of your students. Here are a few.

Teach about salvation. Children need a Biblical Foundation about the importance of salvation in their lives. There are many children’s pastor who teach children the practical points of the Bible. They believe if they teach children how to be good, they’re teaching them how to be godly. But that’s not what the Bible says. None of us are good in ourselves. We can’t live out the practical aspects of the Bible unless we are transformed by the saving grace of Jesus Christ. That goes for children as well as adults. Here’s a post  about why it’s important to have heart knowledge about salvation.

Teach children that we are all sinners. In this day of self-esteem and tolerance, the message that we are all sinners and that we all need to be saved is sometimes lost. It isn’t wrong to teach children that they have a sin problem that needs to be addressed. All children know they do wrong things sometimes no matter how hard they try to be good. They aren’t good children who just get saved because it’s a good thing to do. They are sinners who need to be saved from their sins. Here’s a great object lesson about sin and salvation.

Give children opportunities often to be saved. It doesn’t matter how you do it, whether an altar call, a prayer at the end of children’s church, or individual one-on-one discussion, you will find that children will respond to the Gospel more readily if you give them an opportunity to make a decision for Christ.

Have special salvation services. You could have a fun Sunday or friend Sunday once a month where children invite their unsaved friends. Have games or contests about who can bring the most friends. Do something special or different that day. This is a good opportunity to give a salvation message.

Do follow-up. When a child is saved, make sure he or she understands the commitment they’ve made. Give them materials to help them on their walk with God, and talk to their parents about it. Call them during the week to ask how their doing and if they notice any differences since they decided to be saved. You might even have a class for new converts.

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Posted in Leadership, Salvation of Children

Resolution #2 – Be Prepared Earlier For Sunday Morning

Posted on January 4, 2012 | 1 Comment

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This blog gets more hits on Saturday evenings than any other time of the week. I can’t say for sure I know why that is, but I do know that most of the posts looked at during that time are for object lessons and children’s sermons. It’s great this blog provides much needed resources, but the earlier you prepare, the easier it will flow on Sunday. Here’s a few steps to make sure you’re prepared early.

Decide how much time it takes to prepare for children’s church. Once you know how much time it takes, you can work it into your schedule.

Schedule a time to prepare your lesson. Some people like to prepare the whole thing at once. Others like to divide it into bite size pieces. Whatever works for you, make sure you’re finished by Friday. If Saturday’s the only day you have to prepare, get a week ahead on preparation.

The reason for this is because if you have a game plan already in place, you can spend time praying for the students and about the lesson. Also the creative side of your brain has room to mull over what you’re doing. If you come up with some fantastic object lesson, you’ll have time to get it together and make sure you have the supplies you need. If you wait until Saturday night, you’re limited in what you can do.

Pray before you plan and after you plan. By planning early, you’ll have time to seek God about your lesson. It may be the Holy Spirit will nudge you in a certain way. But if you wait until Saturday night, God won’t be able to speak as clearly through you planning frenzy. Prepare early and give God time to work.

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Posted in Leadership, Planning

Resolution #1 – Get Closer To God

Posted on January 1, 2012 | Leave a comment

Every December 31st, Christians around the world make a New Years Resolution to get closer to God. That is the best goal worth pursuing during 2012. No children’s ministry can thrive spiritually unless it’s leader is close to God. Here’s a few suggestions for getting closer to God in 2012.

Ask God: Seriously! He wants you to be closer to Him than you want to be. This is the most important step. Ask Him to help you have a closer walk with Jesus, to be a more devoted Christ follower, and to grow spiritually. You’ll be amazed by the results if you begin with asking God to be your ally in this.

Schedule a Time For God: We schedule doctor’s appointments, meetings, children’s ministry events, and time with friends. But often our time with God is hit and miss. Make an appointment every day to spend time with God, and don’t let anything else interfere with that. When other things come up during that time, explain that you have a previous engagement. When you plan a time to spend with God, even though you may fail at times, at the end of the year, you will have spent 90% more time seeking God than if you just played it by ear.

Start the year with a 21 day fast: Many Christ followers all over the country start the year with a fast to make sure they put God first in their lives during the rest of the year. There are many kinds of fasts: total food fast, Daniel fast, chocolate and sweets fast, Internet fast, Facebook fast, or anything else that you spend time doing. Remember that fasts only work if you’re not doing it to bargain with God and if you spend time with God during the fast.

Read God’s Word: I can’t stress how important it is for Children’s pastors to be in God’s Word every day, not just to get a Bible lesson for Sunday, but to allow it to transform you. YouVersion is an online program with apps you can load into your phone that has tons of reading plans. Start this year right by absorbing God’s Word in your heart.

Pray: Don’t just pray before you teach or when you need something from God. Pray everyday. Start a pray journal with verses you pray everyday. Write out your prayers. It will change your prayer time forever.

Become a Person of Integrity: Ask God to show you where you have sin in your life and what you need to do to become a person of integrity. You may already know where that area is. Do whatever it takes to give it to God. You may need to give up something that causes temptation in that area. You may need to confess your sin to a trusted person who will hold you accountable. Whatever you need to do, do it.

Spend time in church: You may be laughing now and saying, “I live in church.” But how long has it been since you’ve been in a church service where you weren’t serving in some capacity? Find a worker to give you a break occasionally so you can be in service, or ask your pastor if you could have the children in the sanctuary once a month. Remember, you can’t fill student’s buckets with living water if yours is empty.

Spend Time Having Fun With Your Family: God gave you your family and He expects you to spend time having fun with them. Take vacations, play with your children in the backyard, and have date nights with your spouse. You’ll be glad you did, and you’ll find yourself growing closer to God through it.

Have alone time: The quickest way to burnout spiritually is to always spend time ministering but to never spend time alone. If you believe you’re already headed for burnout, read this post.

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Posted in Leadership