When I first started serving in our church plant’s kid’s ministry it was kind of a lonely business. There wasn’t a team and since we grew so fast we were trying to make it work the best we could. After some changes in volunteer leadership and the realization that doing this on our own was a mess, we decided to form a KidMin volunteer team. This team has been such a blessing to me, personally, and to our church. We all bring different gifts to the table and it works beautifully! Over the summer, we had a planning day and really began to discuss the vision we wanted in our ministry.

The vision of our church is, “to be a community of people loving our city because of the person Jesus Christ”. We felt that this vision needed to be communicated and evident in our KidMin. Our team sat down and developed the idea of CORE. Below is what we shared with our KidMin volunteers and leaders:

C-Community: We want our ministry to be a community. Community is a vital part of our church and should be a part of our ministry. Not just community with adults, but creating a community within Kids Church, within preschool. A community full of KINDNESS and genuine care and love for one another.

O-Ownership: We want our KidMin volunteers to take ownership. This is YOUR Sunday, make that day your own. Have a fun game? Great! Have a craft you’d love to do? Even better! These are your kids, your Sunday, so make it your own! Don’t see it has a box to check, but your day to make a difference.

R-Relationship: It’s vital that each volunteer have a growing relationship with Jesus Christ in order to foster healthy relationships within our ministry. We want you to build relationships with those you are serving alongside and with the kids in your area. Learn their names, talk to them even when you’re not serving, ask them about their lives.

E-Equip: We want the children in our ministry to be trained up with Bible tools and training in order to be as successful as possible outside the walls of this building. Part of that is making sure you, are a leader in our church, in a Bible study or community group, and growing in God’s word. Then, we can better equip our children with Biblical instruction and model for them what a relationship with God looks like. Children are concrete thinkers, you are their concrete representation of God and Jesus.

It was so important to our Kids Team that we empowered our volunteers, first, in order to understand the vision God gave us. Then, we shared a similar outline with our Kid’s Church (grade school kiddos). We also aimed our curriculum to build on these “CORE” values. We want to see the vision of our church come to life in our kids. To see them understand the need to grow and mature in their walk with the Lord and to see the importance in serving others and treating others with kindness and love.

If you are serving in your church’s children’s ministry solo, stop! Pray, recruit and build a team. You need that support, encouragement and teamwork. Our children’s ministry has finally caught up to our church’s growth through working together as a team. I also encourage you to take time and vision cast. Where are you headed? What do you want your ministry to look like? Sometimes we’re so busy with operations, curriculum and recruiting that we don’t take the time to seek God’s vision for our ministry. Take the time, dream and see what God will do through your ministry.

Thanks for letting me share,