Children’s Ministry & First Time Guests

As we check out churches around our area to see what’s happening on Sunday mornings and to get an idea of how other churches are doing things pertinent to our situation we’re taking a lot of notes. One of the biggies for us is the Children’s Ministry.

For us we anticipate connecting to families with young children and so we want to excel in this area as best we can. Here are some thoughts and ideas for you to consider, off the top of my head.

1. Do first time guests know where to take their kids? If it’s true, and I believe it is, that the sermon starts in the parking lot then for those guests with children your children’s ministry area will affect their overall experience and receptivity to the message on Sunday morning. You should take great pains to make it as easy and seamless a process for first time guests with kids as possible.

Do you have adequate signage upon arrival in your parking for guests to find the children’s area?
When a guest steps into your lobby do they know where to go?
Do you have people in your lobby dedicated to helping first time guests find their way to the children’s area?

2. Are your volunteers equipped? Maybe more than any other area of the Sunday morning experience, you children’s workers need to be equipped to perform their role. And this starts with catching a vision for the children’s ministry.

Do your volunteers catch the vision in such a way that they actually want to be there? We have attended so many churches that have been wanting in this regard. I can’t even begin to count the number of times over the last four years we have been greeted with, “Oh, you want to drop your kids off?” Not any more. I don’t know that anything else is as important as a children’s ministry volunteer who loves kids and is excited to see a first time guests child.

Are your volunteers smiling?
Do your volunteers respond to the children when parents drop them off?
Do they enjoy children?

Do your volunteers know what they need to do with the kids? Love for children, interest in the child, and true concern for first time guests will take you a long way. But it is also important that your children’s ministry volunteers have some idea of what you expect of them as they interact with kids and I’d suggest having a leader apprentice set up in every room.

3. Is your children’s ministry area safe? A parent wants to know: Do you care about my child, Did my child enjoy herself in your care, Is my child safe? You must take the necessary precautions with children.

Do you have a screening process for children’s ministry volunteers?
Do you have a supervision process for volunteers?
Are your volunteers easily identified in some way (lanyard, name tag, smock, shirt, etc)?
Do you have safeguards in place to protect children from predators?
Do you have a secure check-in procedure?

4. Is your children’s ministry check-in procedure first time guest friendly? If it’s not this might be the first and last visit. You need this process to run as smoothly and efficiently as possible, especially for first time guests.

Do you have a process to fast-track guests to the front of the line?
Do you have easy to read and understand signage?
Do you have easy to read and understand paperwork?
Do you have security tags for the parent and child?

5. Do you have a rotation schedule so volunteers get a break? It may not seem as though this has anything to do with first time guests but it does in a round about way. If volunteers are overworked they are going to burnout and no one’s going to have a good experience.

But this one does relate in the first place to the sanity of volunteers. You need to, as best as you can, give volunteers a break on a regular basis.

Do you have enough volunteers so no one has to work more than 2 times a month?
Do you have multiple services so you can amplify your volunteer force? (This is going to be a problem for us.)

6. Do children (and parents) see Jesus in your volunteers? This isn’t babysitting. Any 13 year old with a pulse can do that. This is an opportunity to influence people for Jesus. So do that. The faces of your volunteers are going to be their earliest recollections of Jesus. So volunteers need to exude the character of Jesus.

Do your volunteers smile?
Do your volunteers love God and love kids?
Do your volunteers catch the vision of reaching and growing kids for Jesus?

Well, there are few things to consider from my journeys to a lot of churches in the last four years. As a parent there are not many things more important to me than the wellbeing of my children.  I certainly don’t have the corner market on this one but we are doing all we can to make sure we excel in this area.