The Children’s ministry is a considerably large Ministry, based on its size and scope. Studies point out to the fact that this ministerial segment has the potential to strengthen and positively impact the church, as it often seeks to do its part with regards to fulfilling the church's practical mission (McKnight, 2014, p. 13). Research also points out that a constant evaluation of ministerial effectiveness is critical to making assurances of ministerial work. The essay seeks to evaluate some of the most common challenges that the children’s Ministry continues to grapple with, and shall suggest specific, step-by-step solutions to help reform and elevate the ministry.
The Children’s Ministry is of the essence to church work for quite a number of reasons: firstly, it provides faithful evangelism in the form of the true gospel to persons who otherwise, might have been considered as the lost. The Children’s Ministry also offers fruitful discipleship for continual servant growth in Godliness and additionally, provides the kind of family support that greatly encourages and equips parents. Furthermore, it provides ministry assimilation, in so doing, provides enormous opportunities for believers to proactively use their giftedness in facilitating the church’s growth. This extends the church spiritually and has the potential to also expand it, physically speaking (Maddix & Akkerman, 2013, p. 18).
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Despite the massive benefits and critical roles that the Children’s Ministry plays in the society, it has further been associated with increasing challenges. To which end, studies have shown that significant ministerial work does not necessarily imply fruitfulness or biblically faithfulness. The Children’s Ministry has come to be associated with the adversity of some of its impacts on the church as a whole. The ministries are claimed to be the reason behind increased issues related to gospel manipulation, the spreading of false teaching in addition to the lionization of a false assurance of salvation (McKnight, 2014, p. 11). In addition to this, the ministry has continuously been reported to discourage and usurp the roles that come with basic parentage, exhausting rather than edifying those individuals who often serve in these Ministries, depleting churches of their finances, and distracting them from their focus. To a greater extent, these issues are argued to have created a bad image of what used to be the role model in the form of churches globally.
Children’s Ministry has been reported to have experienced increased level of challenges related to language and communication where the majority of the children within the ministry do not understand the Spanish language that is primarily spoken in the church. As a result of this, there has been increased level of miscommunication among the children and teacher which has greatly affected the children who could not understand Spanish (McKnight, 2014, p. 11). Leadership is critical to the success of the ministry, but it has been shown that the Children’s Ministry experiences higher levels of lack of leadership and teachers to direct the children in the positive direction. As a result of this, there have been cases where children have been forced to emulate bad characters from incompetent teachers and their fellow children. The other major challenge is related to the concept of identity development within the children. These children need to be directed in a positive direction, and the leadership should be able to culture them in a way that they can explore their personality to create a better identity. Lack of identity has been argued to have negatively impacted the children since they could not stand before other kids out of fear. The last major issue that the Children’s Ministry experiences are lack of leadership clergy development that has deprived the children an opportunity to explore effective services offered by the clergies (Maddix & Akkerman, 2013, p. 27). The church has clergies that are not well rounded and lack the critical knowledge to lead the church members.
There are specific strategies that can be adopted by the Children Ministry to manage and address some of the challenges facing them. First, to handle the issue related to language and communication, it is important to introduce a language course where the children will be presented to the basics of Spanish language. This will improve their communication skills and will thus be able to communicate with the rest of the children and teachers effectively. Leadership has also been established to be a major problem in the Ministry. This can be addressed by recruiting only competent and qualified teachers who would impact the children positively (McKnight, 2014, p. 21). After acquiring qualified teacher, the Ministry should invest in training and learn to improve and boost teachers’ skills and knowledge. The Ministry should also obtain teachers who have specialized in the field of identity and personality development because he or she will know where to start in helping the children develop their personality while in the church. Lack of leadership clergy development can be addressed by introducing a comprehensive training and exposure that will result in the development of leadership clergy (Stone, 2007, p. 10, p. 24).
When the above measures are adopted and implemented within the church effectively, then the major issues that have been affecting the Ministry would be eliminated or reduced resulting in effectiveness of the church (Stone, 2007, p. 9). Evaluation plays a critical role to ensure that the strategies adopted to meet the set objectives of the Children’s Ministry. Evaluation of these changes can be made possible focusing on the impact it has had on the children. The overall behavior, punctuality of teachers, improved communication among children and teacher will all help in evaluating the effectiveness of the strategies adopted. In addition to this, these changes can also be evaluated by measuring the level of complaints or satisfaction among the children, and teachers. Minimal complaints will imply that the changes are working towards the objectives and goals of the Ministry but increased complaints would mean that the measures are not effective (Maddix & Akkerman, 2013, p. 25).
Personal discipleship and the shepherding of people, both hold really great potential for positive impact within the Children’s Ministry. It is important to ensure that the Children’s ministry becomes a seedbed for the fertilization of future leadership talents. Quite importantly, it should be ensured that Children’s ministry becomes the soil from which the tree of adult ministry springs. However, for many years now, the express lack of discipleship and shepherding has served as a significant pitfall and problem with respect to ministry workers becoming spiritually neglected. Sadly, this type of ministry can quickly become a place where people give spiritual effort but without experiencing any growth themselves, forming a major area of concern (Stone, 2007, p. 19). Measures to ensure that the Children’s Ministry does not run leaderless and that it as well, actively seeks the continual spiritual edification of those who sacrificially serve within its ranks must be put in place. Evidently, one could also argue that the Children’s Ministry presents any of the persons that serve it in earnest with the opportunity to better understand God's Word, deepening their faiths. As they give Biblical instructions, these teachers also have the opportunity to access relevant teachings that enable them to grow spiritually.
Sound leadership is one of the keys to sustaining a healthy ministry, which truly is a blessing and not a burden upon churches. For many years, the Ministry has patiently, slowly, and systematically developed a leadership structure, manned by various leaders who perform specific oversight over the multiple parts of the Ministry, in as well as general oversight over the ministry as a whole (Cooper, 2016, p. 22). When this is done in the most efficient manner, there are higher chances of maximizing productivity and of the dutiful delight of serving through minimizing discouragement, distractions, and ministry exhaustion.
One of the primary pitfalls that seem to impact every Children’s Ministry is the difficulty experienced with the recruiting process, alongside low ministry involvement. Children ministerial segments can be accurately described as places whereby the demand for ministry is often greater than the number of actual ministers. At this location, the servant opportunity is usually much higher than servant involvement. To improve on their recruitment process, it might be important for them to develop a clear, biblically convicting message, validating the ministry and encouraging recruitment from the perspective of inherent, positive opportunity, and not focusing on the negative need. The Ministry should also make any of its expectations clear and concise during recruitment (Cooper, 2016, p. 9).
In conclusion, the Children’s Ministry, courtesy of various established programs, concerns itself with meeting the spiritual needs of any of the kids that participate in its activities. These programs equip the children involved with vital skills and knowledge that enables them to grow into responsible adults. From the above evaluation, the Children’s Ministry has been associated with various plausible benefits and as well, with numerous challenges that should be focused on to improve their overall performance.
References
Cooper, A. S. (2016). Means of Grace as Formative Holiness: The Role and Significance of John Wesley's Spiritual Formation Practices in The Pursuit of Christian Holiness for The Church of The Nazarene.
Maddix, M. A., & Akkerman, J. R. (Eds.). (2013). Missional Discipleship: Partners in God's Redemptive Mission .
McKnight, S. (2014). Kingdom conspiracy: Returning to the radical mission of the local church . Brazos Press.
Stone, B. P. (2007). Evangelism after Christendom: The Theology and Practice of Christian Witness . Brazos Press.
