4. Include and encourage parents.
Parents want to be involved in their family’s spiritual development, but may often feel unequipped. Sometimes they are afraid their child will ask a question they don’t know how to answer. Rather than facing that fear, they choose not to have a spiritual conversation with their child and assume it’ll be taken care of if they go to church.
How would your ministry grow if, on a weekly or a monthly basis, you emailed an update to the parents of your students? As a parent, I expect this from my daughter’s school. I can’t know how to help her if I don’t know the areas in which she is doing well or how she is struggling. In the church world, we usually don’t provide parents with this information, but if we hope to minister to kids throughout the week, we have to get families, specifically parents, on the same page.
Start sending emails to parents to discuss what their child is learning. Solicit their feedback. Ask questions like: “Have you seen any changes in your child’s behavior as a result of what they are learning on Sunday?” “Does your child spend time regularly reading their Bible and praying?” “Do you have a time each day or each week when you read the Bible together as a family?” Parents will feel more confident if they have the resources and instructions they need.
5. Earn kids’ free time.
Every child has some amount of free time, whether it’s when they first get home from school or right before they go to bed. The older they are, the greater their involvement in how they use their free time. If I want to expand my ministry’s reach, I have to earn some of those extra hours. When the child is younger, I earn that time by making sure parents know the value of their child’s spiritual development. Then, as the child gets older, there has to be a transition from “Mom and Dad make me do this” to “I want to do this to further my relationship with Jesus.”
How do leaders continue to earn the free time of the young people they disciple? I learned early on as a children’s pastor that kids will not come to an event if they don’t think it’s going to be fun. The same can be true for activities we ask them to do at home. If we are going to recommend tools for kids to use in their free time, they better be fun! All kids want to achieve goals, connect with peers and make a difference, and if spiritual development can incorporate these three things, they’re more likely to spend their time on it.
6. Let the lessons marinate.
Imagine if you and your preschoolers focused on the story of David and Goliath for an entire month, rather than for just one Sunday morning. Let’s be honest: most of us end up doing so already because we understand this age group’s need for repetition. Instead of viewing this as a hindrance, you could commit to examine a different point of the story each week and discuss how it could be applied.
Consider if parents could also access the lessons via mobile apps on their tablets and phones. Regardless of the age of the kids you teach, they would walk out of your classroom and continue to learn.
As Christ-followers and as ministers, our faith is not meant to be confined within the walls of a church. It needs to thrive and grow, not only in our daily lives, but also in the lives of our children—in their work and play, in their schools and homes. As we seek to be truly effective in our kids’ ministries, let’s move beyond a weekly experience to a habit-forming way of life.
