Okay, I knew I would jump in on this thread somewhere, because….
….I am the director of the children’s ministry at our church.
Our congregation is rather small, so most Sundays we have 4 or 5 kids in the class I teach–and 2 of them are mine. Other kids attend, but only when their parents decide church is necessary. This class is for 5- to 11-year old children, and we also offer a preschool class–normally 3 or 4 kids there. We have a nursery room available, but we don’t staff it because no one really wants to leave their babies if they’re not fussy. I don’t blame them….I hardly ever did.
We have an extended time of worship music first, then communion and offering, all of which is considered as worship. The kids all stay in the sanctuary for that. It was once said in our church that children do not have a “junior Holy Spirit.” Our kids sing, kneel, wave banners, raise their hands, sometimes dance–whatever the adults are doing in worship, that’s what the kids have seen modeled, so they are all comfortable participating as the Spirit moves them. If a young toddler breaks free and runs off making noise unexpectedly, so be it. There’s grace.
Our class time takes place the second hour of the service while the adults are listening to the pastor’s message, but children are welcome to stay with their parents if desired. However, except for the babies, most parents opt to send their kids to class. I hadn’t noticed before, but since I have been acquainted with Charlotte Mason’s education methods and philosophy, I have dropped our curriculum’s Bible “story” techniques of presenting skits, ‘news’ interviews, and cutesy poems in favor of simply reading the passages (hold onto your seat here) FROM THE BIBLE! Oh, my–I guess I won’t win any children’s ministry awards this year, lol! Not so surprisingly, I’ve been fielding more questions from the kids now–good questions–and they seem to have a lot to comment about what we’re reading.
I’ve never been very fond of the “twaddley craft thingys” as someone mentioned, and I would love to do away with them altogether, but I always thought that I was the only sentimentally-challenged parent who never saves those, um, ‘precious?’ little paper plate Lion of Judah creations….
I suppose my biggest challenge lies with the fact that not all families in church are teaching their children what they should at home, and in fact, the children would be bored during the pastor’s message. Furthermore, there are often families where the father is not stepping up as the spiritual leader he is called to be to his wife and children. My own family is an example of that, but Bible teaching, prayer, and memorization is a regular part of our homeschool day. That is not the case in some families. As children’s ministry director, I have been pondering what to do for those children. I (and the other teachers) cannot take the place of what their parents–especially the dad–should be doing, but I feel so very led to reach out to those kids and give them at least a taste of the goodness of God’s Word. I also pray that, without a bored and fidgety child to deal with, perhaps the parent(s) will be filled with the Word during the pastor’s message and their spiritual lives might begin to see change.
So, we provide Sunday School classes. And I pray for God’s wisdom in ministry.
Sue