I recently read a great book on children's ministry called Build on Jesus by Deepak Reju and Marty Machowski. It was a really stimulating read.
While some of it was more appropriate for an American context, there was loads to take away.
One bit that really got me thinking was the encouragement to aim for excellence, within our capacity, in our children's ministry.
There are some for whom getting any session out on a Sunday morning is a huge achievement and the maximum they can achieve - this challenge isn't for you! However, for some of us it's easy to become content with decent children's ministry when we might have capacity for something a little bit closer to excellence.
I want us to think about a few ways we can improve our children's ministry and aim for excellence. Here are five areas I often need a bit of a push with, to make sure I'm making the groups we run as great as they can be; maybe one or two might be something you could work on this year.
Crafts
If you use a resource, is your default to just print off the in-built craft? That's fine, but it could be great to occasionally have a think about whether another craft would work even better. And, going a step further, could there be some weeks where you really push the boat out and get glue, paint, and crazy craft materials to make a real showstopper? It might be that, in order to make that happen, you pick a date in advance and advertise it to force you to stick to your word!
Singing
Do you sing in your groups? And if so, how much thought goes into what you sing? It can feel daunting, but you can find some great action videos on YouTube that you can sing and dance along to - and the videos can do all the hard work for you. The best way to do this is to think about what you are learning this term and find a kids song that works well with that theme; then sing it every week, and each week the children will know it better and sing it louder.
Memory verses
Doing memory verses can be really fun and is such a blessing for children as often the Scripture will stick in their heads well into adulthood. But it does require planning in order to do well, and you can't just do a different one each week! You could pick a verse and find a song that incorporates it (or get someone to write one for you), but simply repeating the verse each week is still a really good way to learn it - just don't make it too long!
Drama
This might feel like a big step and it does take organisation but the payoff is high. It can really help to bring our teaching down-to-earth and land it in the life of a child by having a drama (and they are bound to engage really well with it). It will require lots of planning and it can't all be down to you but it could be something to do as we aim for excellence in our ministries.
Application
Personally speaking this is an area where I know I could improve massively, especially when it comes to teaching children. How often do our talks stop short of really drilling down into the children's lives? But improving in this area isn't that easy and takes effort - both time in our prep but also time to get to know the children in our groups, to know what's going on in their lives.
Games
If you're like me, you'll have between five and ten go-to games which you cycle through week by week. You play them because you know they work with the group and the children will enjoy them, but they rarely link with the teaching point and they are in danger of getting stale. Maybe something to aim for in the new term is to introduce some fresh ideas and to work to have some of them reinforce the teaching point in some way.
So maybe if you have capacity, there might be some areas above that you could look to in order to aim for excellence in your ministry. But if you are maxed out just running what you run, then ignore all of the above and keep going!
