Children need to be able to feel like they’re a part of the church community. One way to do that is to give your children’s ministry an identity for children to be a part of. Here are four ways to give your children’s ministry a new identity.
Give your children’s ministry a name. It sounds simple, but it can be very effective in giving the ministry the identity it needs. Here’s some ideas for children’s ministry names.
- Chosen Generation
- Transformed
- Sonshine Avenue/Cove/City/Mountain/etc
- Kids on the Rock
- Power Kids
- KIDS – Kids in Divine Service
- Young Champions
- God’s Boot Camp
Decide on a décor. Decorate your children’s ministry space to reflect a certain theme. If you share a space, you may have to get creative, but it’s worth the trouble. You don’t need a lot of money for this. You can paint backdrops on sheets or use washing machine and refrigerator boxes to set up cities. Find creative people in your congregation to help. You can do this in two ways.
Decorate to match the name and identity of your children’s ministry. For instance, it you’ve chosen Kids on the Rock, you could paint a rock climbing wall on a backdrop. Add or change these decorations occasionally to keep interest.
Decorate to match the theme of the lessons you’re teaching. For instance, if you are using a curriculum on the armor of God, use a military theme. The only drawback on this is that you will have to change the décor every time you start a new teaching project.
Develop special characters for your children’s ministry. Whether you use puppets of skits, develop special characters for your ministry based on your overall theme. These characters don’t have to appear every week, but if you use the same characters often, the children will begin to look forward to them.
Example: Here’s a theme I used once when I was a children’s pastor.
Name: Sonshine Cove
Décor: I used a nautical theme with a lighthouse for the puppet stage and different buildings that would go with a nautical town. I had Jonah’s Boat Shop (We’ll make you a whale of a deal) and Peter’s Fish Shop. The fish shop had a sign on it that said “Closed – Gone Fishing For Men”.
Special Characters: I had a puppet that was a lighthouse keeper. I also had a Gilligan’s Island type live skit character called Smammy Fishbreath.