Missions is Essential in Children’s Ministry

Jim, an overworked, underpaid children’s pastor, doesn’t have a program for missions in his children’s ministry. “I have enough to do without teaching the children about countries they’ll never visit. Besides missions aren’t important to these children.”

Kathy, another overwhelmed children’s pastor, understands that missions should be a part of her children’s program. Once a year, she takes two weeks to teach the children about missions. She’ll have the children collect offerings for the church’s mission project, and she’ll teach about the missionary and country they’re supporting. She even has the children do a fundraiser. She knows she should do more, but she’s pleased that she’s teaching the children to support missions.

Beth has implemented missions into her children’s program for twenty years. She teaches about a different country once a month on Wednesday nights. She incorporates different stories from missionaries around the world to go with whatever message she is preaching on Sunday morning.

Last week, she preached about the three Hebrew boys’ boldness in proclaiming God as the one true God. She mentioned a sixteen year old girl in Azerbaijan named Sara who was expelled from school because she boldly told her class that Jesus is the only way to salvation.

Beth’s students have raised thousands of dollars for missionaries even though she never has fundraisers. The children are so overwhelmed by the need, they collect money on their own, sometimes working in neighbors yards to earn money for missions.

Every month, Beth’s students pray for a different nation. This month, they are praying for Azerbaijan. They also write letters to missionaries in different countries.

This is not new for Beth, and she is pleased with how God has moved. Three children in her ministry grew up to become full time missionaries in other countries. Twenty children grew up to go into ministry full time. Many of the children in her ministry have taken missions trips as teens and adults.

Next year, Beth will lead ten children in her ministry on a mission’s trip to Mexico. These children are between nine and twelve years old. Beth is excited about what God is doing.

Missionary training for children is as important as training in prayer, Bible reading, worship, and other important tenants of our faith. God is not an American God. He is at work throughout the world. As we show God at work in other nations, we expand our children’s view of God. They see that God is at work throughout the world and will have a global concept of the Kingdom of God that most Christians don’t have.

Sometimes it seems time consuming to include missions in almost every aspect of children’s ministry, but it is a vital part of expanding your students’ view of the Kingdom of God and is worth the effort.

6 Ways to Promote Missions in Children’s Ministry

Most children’s ministers understand the important of teaching children about missions, but they’re not sure how to incorporate it into their children’s ministry program. Here are a few ideas to help you with a comprehensive missions program for your children’s ministry.

1. Adopt a missionary. Find missionaries that either have children or work with children and have your students adopt them. Have a mission’s emphasis month where you teach about the country these missionaries live in, and have the children write letters to them. Organize a drive for students to collect supplies that the missionaries need.

Give the children frequent updates about how their missionaries are doing. During the opening prayer of children’s church, mention these missionaries’ names in prayer. Constantly bring the adopted missionaries to your children’s remembrances.

Also give the children in your church names and faces to relate to missionaries by posting pictures on the bulletin board or handing out missionary prayer cards with pictures of the missionaries. You could even have a video display or have the missionaries video conference the children during children’s services.

2. Have a Missions Sunday once a month or once a quarter. These will be Sundays where you teach about missions. Feature a different country or missionary each time. Have fun with it, and decorate your room according to the culture you are featuring. You could even serve food from that country. Let the children know that any offering collected that week will go to missions.

3. Tell missionary stories. Give some thought to how stories of missionaries and the persecuted church, past and present, could emphasis the lesson you’ve planned for children’s church.

If you’re teaching about God being more important than things, teach about Jim Elliot, a missionary killed in Ecuador in 1956, and his famous quote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

If you’re teaching about God supplying our needs, tell the story of Hudson Taylor, missionary to China, and how God supplied his needs. This way, you can incorporate missions as a teaching tool.

You might also want to have a quarter where you teach about missionaries of the past and present and work the lesson around the missionary.

4. Pray for missionaries. Each week, pray for missionaries with your children students. Give the children names of missionaries and countries that need prayer and encourage them to pray every day. Missions is a great way to teach children how to intercede for others.

5. Have children reach out to their community. Missions isn’t just oversees. Missions is in your neighborhood. Involve your children in your benevolence ministries in your local church. Have them collect canned goods, toys at Christmas, and school supplies in August. Have them wait tables at your soup kitchen. Give them opportunities to be involved in missionary endeavors here at home.

6. Take a missions trip. There is nothing like a short-term mission’s trip to help you and your children see the great need and opportunity in missions.

Check with your denomination to see if there are opportunities for children to minister to others in our nation or in another country. A manual called Little Preacher End-Time Missions can help you plan your missions trip.

Adventures in Prayer Map

An international prayer ministry, Every Home for Christ, has Adventures in Prayer maps for children. These maps are absolutely free and include steps and a schedule for children to pray for every nation on Earth within one month. What a great way to teach children about prayer and about missions. You can order children’s prayer maps here.

Adventures in Prayer (targeted for ages 5-12)

Features an easy step-by-step system to help a child understand the important aspects of daily prayer. The map also features an easy-to-follow numbered world map identifying all 228 nations of the world, photos of children from other regions of the world and even a survival challenge.

Missions In Children’s Ministry

Every month, Beth’s students pray for a different nation. This month, they are praying for Azerbaijan. They also write letters to missionaries in different countries.

Next year, Beth will lead ten children in her ministry on a mission’s trip to Mexico. These children are between nine and twelve years old. Beth is excited about what God is doing.

Children’s Missions Resources from the Internet:

Pray Kids

Kids of Courage

African Children’s Mission

KidMission

Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge

Developing a Children’s Ministry Missions Program

Here are a few ways you can incorporate a comprehensive missions program into your children’s ministry.

Adopt a missionary. Find missionaries that either has children or works with children and have your children adopt them. Have a mission’s emphasis month where you teach the children about the country these missionaries live in. Have the children write letters to them. Have the children collect supplies that the missionaries need. Give the children frequent updates about how their missionaries are doing. During the opening prayer of children’s church, mention these missionaries’ names in prayer. Constantly bring the adopted missionaries to your children’s remembrances. Give the children in your church names and faces to relate to missions.

Have a missions Sunday. Once a month or once a quarter, have a Sunday where you teach about missions. Feature a different country or missionary each time. Have fun with it, and decorate your room according to the culture you are featuring. You could even serve food from that country. Let the children know that any offering collected that week will go to missions.

Tell missionary stories. Give some thought to how stories of missionaries and the persecuted church, past and present, could emphasis the lesson you’ve planned for children’s church.

If you’re teaching about God supplying our needs, tell the story of Hudson Taylor, missionary to China, and how God supplied his needs. This way, you can incorporate missions as a teaching tool.

Pray for missionaries. Pray for missionaries with your children every week. Give the children names of missionaries and countries that need prayer and encourage them to pray every day. Missions is a great way to teach children how to intercede for others.

Have children reach out to their community. Missions isn’t just oversees. Missions is in your neighborhood. Involve your children in your benevolence ministries in your local church. Have them collect canned goods, toys at Christmas, and school supplies in August. Have them wait tables at your soup kitchen. Give them opportunities to be involved in missionary endeavors here at home.

Take a missions trip. There is nothing like a short-term mission’s trip to help you and your children see the great need and opportunity in missions. Check with your denomination to see if there are opportunities for your older children to minister to others in our nation or in another country. A manual called Little Preacher End-Time Missions can help you plan your missions trip.

A Children’s Pastor Is An Evangelist

Every children’s pastor should be an evangelist. It’s great to minister to the children in your church, but what have you done to develop a children’s ministry that reaches out to unsaved children? Here’s a few ideas to make sure you are acting, not only as a pastor, but as an evangelist.

Altar Calls:

Altar calls in children’s church are an important way to give children an opportunity to respond to the message. Unfortunately some children’s pastors have decided end having altar calls. Here’s a link to an article by Jerry Moyer called Why I Still Have Altar Calls? It’s worth reading.

Salvation Sundays:

No matter how you decide to do it, you should have Sundays periodically that emphasis salvation. Advertise these Sunday’s to the children in your ministry as a day to invite their friends. Create excitement and have a special theme and special activities that only happen on these Sundays. Give a salvation message. Then do follow-up for the visitors who attended.

Outreach Events:

Some children’s pastors are also ending outreach events because they are costly and time-consuming. They’ve decided to focus on the children in the church. But Jesus didn’t focus on the people inside the church. He carried His message to everyone who would listen.

There are some children who will never come to your church on a Sunday morning. Some of them have circumstances, like unsaved parents who don’t think it’s important, that keep them from coming. But they will come to your special outreach events every time you have them. If your goal is only to get more children to come to your church, outreach events are not that effective. But if your goal is to share the Gospel to children who would otherwise never hear it, outreach events are worth the time and money spent.

Here’s some outreach events you could have:

Park Ministry

Sidewalk Sunday School

Kid’s Crusades

Vacation Bible School

Block Parties

Halleluiah Costume Carnival (Halloween)

Easter Egg Hunt or Party

Sport’s Ministries

School Bible Clubs

Missions:

Having a good missions program in your children’s ministry is vital for evangelism in the church. Outreach and evangelism aren’t only for our neighborhood. We should be reaching the world for Christ.

Here’s some links to help you with your missions program:

Missions In Children’s Minsitry

Developing a Children’s Ministry Missions Program

Fundraisers

Here’s a couple of ministries your children’s ministry could support:

Missionary Family In Thailand

Operation Kid Passion (Works with Operation Compassion)

Teach Children How To Share The Gospel

This will be the most effective thing you ever do as an evangelist. The children under you can reach children you will never be able to minister to. Give them the tools to share the Gospel. Teach them how. Practice with them. Then release them into ministry.