Structuring your children's church requires a lot to put in.
From children check-in to where to site your teenage church. Many churches struggle with this aspect of ministry and it shouldn’t be so.
One thing that you must realize is that the structure of your children’s church will determine attendance. The interest children have in the children’s church will influence their parents’ attendance. See why you need to structure your children’s church properly?
In this post, we will discuss 5 unique ideas that will help you structure your children’s church. Let’s get started.
Determine age groups
This is one of the most important steps you must take when structuring your children’s church. Why is it so important to determine age groups? The age groups will determine the kind of teachers you will recruit for your children’s ministry. They also influence the kind of programs you’ll be planning for the attendees.
The age groups will depend on the ages of the kids in your congregation. With a church management app like ChurchPad, you can easily figure out children’s ages. You can have a class for kids between ages 1 to 3, another for kids 3 to 5, and 5 to 10. If your congregation is large enough, you can have a pre-teens class and a teenage church.
Choose your team
Now that you have decided on the age groups, it is time to choose your team of teachers. Just like it is for every organization, having the right hands is very important. In fact, it is even more sensitive since we are dealing with kids in this case.
You need to get individuals who are interested in catering to kids. Define the responsibilities of the teachers in each age group. This will be based on the requirements for each age grade. We suggest that you have a minimum of two teachers per class. It should be more if you have a larger congregation.
When choosing your team, make sure that you run a background check on the teachers. This will help you assure parents to bring their kids to your children church. More than anything else, ensure that they are born again and have a personal relationship with Christ.
Decide on your format and curriculum
The format and curriculum may be related but they are different. Let’s talk about the format first. By format, we mean how the children church will run. Will the church close before the adult church so that kids can attend some part of the service?
Other questions you must answer concerning the format include:
- What kind of songs will you introduce the kids to?
- Will kids attend the praise session in the adult church before joining their church?
- How long will each teaching be for the different classes?
There are several other questions depending on your congregation and preferences. Now, let’s discuss the curriculum. Since it is a class, it should be structured as one. You need a curriculum that pinpoints what children in each age group will learn.
Designing a curriculum should be in tandem with the leaders of the children’s ministry. First of all, you need to decide on your objectives for setting up the children’s ministry. Your objectives and doctrines as a church will help you come up with an effective curriculum.
There are several guides to help you out. You can purchase materials from Christian Education Publishers for children’s churches. The curriculum will also include the kind of worship songs that your kids should learn. This means that must make provision for kiddies’ DVDs and CDs. There materials for different kinds of budgets so you shouldn’t worry if your budget is low.
Create an order of service format
Great job so far! You are almost done with structuring your children church. It is time to create an order of service format. But it is a class, why do you need an order of service?
True, it is a class. But it is also a church for the kids. Every church has an “order of service.” This refers to the basic elements that each service should contain. We are not saying that you must stick completely to this order for every service. However, doing this infuses a structure that creates uniformity across all age groups.
It also ensures that the kids know what is coming up during each service and have something to look forward to. Doing this also creates a level of consistency that will help multiple volunteers when your original teachers aren’t available. Check out some suggestions below:
- Call to worship.
- Worship music.
- Bible lesson.
- Snack time.
You can always tweak the order of service to add some fun. Don’t forget that a lot of creativity is required when dealing with children.
Establish safety and discipline guidelines
For parents to trust you with their children, you must assure them that you are capable to handle the responsibility. One way to do this is to establish safety and discipline guidelines. Parents want to know what security measures you have in place so that their kids aren’t hurt in the church.
You can adopt a simple kid check-in measure. This way, parents have to check their kids in and come and get them when they are ready to leave. The ChurchPad app can help you achieve this very easily.
It is also important to establish a discipline guideline for the church. You cannot have the same guideline for the different classes. It is important to draw up your guideline based on the different age groups. Ensure that all your teachers are involved in drawing this up and understand what is expected of them.
Conclusion
Congratulations!!! You now have a structure for your children church. What is left for you is to share the vision with the church board and the parents.
