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April 27, 2005

Author shares 10 components of healthy children's ministries...

I am posting this as part of my thinking around something Jane Ellen said last week at a meeting. It is increasingly clear to me that I know less about children's ministry than I would like. I need to learn more...much more. Not that I want to make too much of it, but not experiencing Sunday School as a child but once or twice has a lot to do with it. Still, how much should that matter? Should people who were kids in church be the only one to speak to kids in church? Highly doubtful.

By David Winfrey
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) -- "Parents are the missing element of children's
ministry," an author and children's-ministry consultant told a
conference in Louisville, Ky., April 23.

Too many churches are working off the 1970s model of recruiting a paid
or volunteer worker to "baby-sit" children while the adults hold their
worship service, said Art Murphy, author of The Faith of a Child. "It's
not the job of the 10 percent to do 90 percent of the work," he said.
"That's called unhealthy."

But successful children's ministries today involve parents in the work
with children and equip adults to be Christian parents and role models
throughout the week.

Parental involvement was one of 10 components Murphy said make up a
strong children's ministry. Other components of a healthy ministry, he
said, are:

-- Bible truth. "This is our power source," he said, referring to both
Bible facts and Christian doctrine. Children's ministries can reinforce
such truth, he added, by teaching kids to memorize Bible verses and
lists, such as the fruit of the Spirit.

-- Bible application. In addition to teaching Bible truth, children's
workers should be teaching what that truth means in age-appropriate
ways, Murphy said.

Noting that some educators want to teach children more than they can
take in, Murphy compared it to trying to teach a 6-year-old to avoid
adultery. The goal, he added, is not for children to know everything
about the Old Testament's Daniel "but [to know] they want to be a
Daniel."

-- Shepherding. Shepherding involves not only caring for children but
also observing them so that workers learn how best to care for those in
their ministry, he said.

-- Safety. This is the most important topic for visiting families,
Murphy noted. "This is a different day, folks, and it's not about the
members. It's about the ones outside," he said. Children's ministries
should be concerned about emotional safety as well as physical safety,
he noted, including such issues as bullies, teasing, nicknames and
labels.

-- Trained and adequate staff. Training includes children's evangelism
as well as understanding how to treat a 4-year-old differently from a
4th grader, Murphy said. Adequate includes having the right ratio of
adults to children. He said ministries should have one adult for every
two babies; one adult for every four preschoolers; one adult for every
five elementary school children; and one adult for every seven or eight
preteens.

-- Facilities. Child-friendly facilities "say we like kids and kids like
it here," Murphy said. "A lot of our facilities could use a touch-up."

-- Special events. Four or five special events each year tell the
children they're important to the church. They also offer children and
parents opportunities to invite other children, Murphy said.

-- Music. Christian music can help equip children to face a
non-Christian world, he said. "We want to give them some tools that
work, and music is a powerful tool," he said. "It's easier to remember
songs than it is a Bible verse, sometimes."

-- Play. Churches that offer play help children interact and get
exercise, Murphy said. "You'll have more discipline, they are never late
anymore, and they bring their friends."

Every church's children's ministry should aim to equip children to have
two thoughts throughout the week, Murphy said: "What would God want me
to do in this situation?" and "I can't wait until next Sunday."

One simple change any church can make is to change the name of its
children's Sunday school. Approximately 45 percent of the churches
Murphy talks to are using such names as Kid's Zone.

"If you love Sunday school ... please change the name, because it sounds
worse than Saturday school," he said.

Posted by tripp at April 27, 2005 07:03 AM

Comments

Interesting, though I would add returning children to the worship of the whole congregation. My whole childhood there wasn't anything like "childrens church" we were there in the service singing the hymns listening to the sermon (well drawing during the sermon, but one can listen and draw at the same time). I remember much more about worhsip service then I remember from Sunday School. But then I hated parts of Sunday School, like having to recite a memory verse each week. I remember the flannel boards, and the silly pictures of biblical stories and figures. I think I learned more about being a Christian in the Church sanctuary and watching the adults after the service in the Sanctuary then I did in Sunday School. Sunday School was significant for making friends at Church, and the torture of memorizing scripture.
So, yes I would also agree that the training of Children in Christian faith has to do with the ability of parents to raise thier children in the faith. Sunday school also seems like an astoundingly poor evangelism tool.
Those are some of my thoughts.
I have a poem about my child hood church experience I might post it on my blog.

Posted by: Larry Kamphausen at April 27, 2005 03:08 PM

While I could not wait to get old enough to not have to go to children's church, I think Sunday School is a good thing. I remember begging my dad to let me stay in big church instead of have to go up stairs 1/2 way through the service.

Looking back right now, I, too, hated the memorizing part of sunday school. But, Sunday school also made me feel part of the community of the church. Even as a small kid, when we did the art fairs or church pagents, I felt part of the bigger. I also learned much.

Where I went, though, there was a difference between Childrens church and sunday school. Adults and kids alike go to sunday school, and it happened before service. Children's church happened during the service and the kids left 1/2 way through the big service.

Posted by: justin at April 27, 2005 04:50 PM

I grew up fundamental Baptist in a small southern town. I never heard of "children's church" until I was an adult. Sunday school, for me, was great fun. I still remember 4th grade when we learned about Moses in the wilderness - we made a mural together. Somehow, that was a big deal.
I accepted Christ in Sunday school. I made my Christian friends there. As I became a teen, this is where I questioned my elders and learned to think on my own as a Christian. (I would never question the pastor, but a Sunday school teacher - well, that's quite different.) It was a good training ground.
The church service......well, I too just remember drawing. And, when I was old enough to tell time and have a watch, counting down until it was time to go home.
Of course, then there were the "extras," some of the best memories of my youth -- vacation Bible schools, youth mission trips, overnight camp-ins, Christmas carolling. It all provided a rich tapestry for my faith. All very important to who I am as a Christian today.
Just a lay person's 2cents.

Posted by: Stacy at April 27, 2005 08:44 PM

Point of clarification on my part. I was speaking of "Childrens church" and Sunday school as two different things.
It wasn't until sometime in the mid 80's I think that I first heard of "Children's Church" But by then I was in High School so it didn't affect me. I think my point was that, at least from my experience as a child the negative aspects of Sunday School, and there were those, were softened by what was for me the positive of being seen as a member of the worshiping community, and that there wasn't Church for kids and church for adults. My sense from observation that the common wisdom in churches today is that there is a need for this separation and that it is a bad thing to have children sit through church and an adult sermon.
Had I been shiped off into childrens church I wouldn't have gleened some of the most imporant things I learned as a child about the Christian faith. Granted Pastor Elving was a fairly exceptional preacher and he often brought objects into the pulpit to ilustrate his sermons. I think I probably waited to see if and what he had brought into the pulpit this Sunday. He didn't always do that.
My point, although I believe Sunday School was good reinforcement for what I was taught at home and what was enacted in the worship of the congregation, the most formative thing for me as a child was being enfolded into the worship life of the congregation, those are my postitive memories of church (well and playing and running throughout the church grounds with my friends after the service.) It saddens me that it is rare to find children in a church's worship service on a Sunday, because the worship service is my fondest memories of church as a child.

Posted by: Larry Kamphausen at April 28, 2005 09:38 AM

"Granted Pastor Elving was a fairly exceptional preacher and he often brought objects into the pulpit to ilustrate his sermons. I think I probably waited to see if and what he had brought into the pulpit this Sunday."

Ditto that. Dr. Compton was a theater major as an undergrad. A couple of times a year he would do 1st person, I was there, type sermons. I more often than not was hoping we would get one of those.

;-)

Posted by: justin at April 28, 2005 10:24 AM

I'm the heretic in the bunch, I know, but I'd like to weigh in on this, especially since I spent every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday evening (and sometimes Tuesdays too if I remember correctly) in a Southern Baptist church for pretty much all of my childhood.

I agree with Larry. I detested the thought of children's church. I wanted to be part of "grown-up church" and my parents were wise enough not to force the issue. For me, as a child, Sunday mornings were a place of safety and respite. Even my quiet activities in the pew (drawing, writing stories, etc) were blanketed in a larger context and community.

These memories of being a child in adult church are truly the fondest I have of church. Not interacting with other children, or sunday school teachers, but being still and respectful within the pace of music and words unfolding around me - it introduced me to a place of quiet within myself that I still draw upon. Lives these days are too busy for children. I seemed to have been born knowing this. Church was a place where I learned to draw into myself and to look inward. It's a lesson I value to this day.

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