As a KidMin Specialist for Orange, I coach children’s ministry teams throughout the country and get a glimpse behind the leadership curtain of many different churches. During COVID-19, no area has been fraught with as many safety and logistical challenges as your children’s ministry. If you don’t have a kidmin leader who’s part of your church leadership team, it’s time to include them!
Children’s ministry leaders want to be part of the decision-making process on how to relaunch church in a post-COVID reality. It’s time to open the conversation and give them an active voice at the table, not only during COVID-19, but in all seasons of ministry.
Learn 4 tips to encourage and equip you to relaunch your children’s ministry.
What It Looks Like on the Ground Floor
I know the heart and muscle that goes into pulling off a Sunday morning in normal times. The complexity of kids’ ministry in the midst of a pandemic is exponential. Anyone who’s leading a kids’ ministry has been asked to create protocols and procedures already:
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- No one can share crayons anymore.
- No more snacks because we can’t hand out food to individuals.
- We need stickers on the floor for distancing.
- Do we have hand sanitizer?
- Are volunteers being trained?
- Will we have enough face masks?
- How are we communicating with parents?
- How do we clean the rooms, surfaces, toys, and check-in systems?
- Do we have enough space to split up groups to have smaller classes?
- Will we be able to flip rooms between services if that’s the decision from up top?
- What is our process for contact tracing if there is an exposure to the virus?
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The list for reopening kids’ ministry—the process and procedures—can feel as long as a CVS receipt. If your list of changes and requirements and training and protocols to relaunch your children’s ministry is this long, it may be time to reimagine what it will look like to bring families together instead of providing individual kids’ ministry experiences.
Creating a Better Experience for Families
Many senior leadership teams are imagining “congregation first,” thinking about the whole and then moving down into various ministries to consider the implications of gathering again. If your children’s ministry leaders have a seat at the leadership table, you’ll be better able to create experiences that serve families as a whole.
To create better family experiences in the church, we may need to create new ways to do church moving forward, and that can only begin by imagining a Sunday morning experience where everyone—children and their families—can come and worship and learn and grow together.
Reimagining a New Way Forward
Kids ministry isn’t going away, and some day it may return to the way things were. Right now, though, based on the reality and complexity of factors, you may need to do something entirely new to meet the needs of families and maintain the sanity and health of your staff and volunteers. I offer some practical ideas in my webinar with Aspen Group.
Adapting and coming up with a new way of doing ministry is a healthy thing. Instead of sticking to a particular method, you are choosing to adapt and connect and serve and minister to families based on what is actually happening in their lives and the life of your church.
In this season, churches need a new way of seeing and doing children’s ministry, and no one is better positioned to give input on these decisions than kidmin leaders. They’re already investigating other organizations–daycares, school, health department recommendations–and evaluating how and what decisions they’re making that have implications for your church. As they are able to share what they’re learning from these other organizations, you’ll be better equipped to make decisions about how to relaunch your church and your children’s ministry for a new era of ministry.
Collaboration like this provides an opportunity for everyone at the decision-making table, including kids’ ministry, to open the doors to better family experiences and a reimagined way forward for your church.
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Missy Purcell is an Orange Kids Specialist. With nearly 20 years experience in both education and ministry, Missy shares her extensive knowledge as an Orange specialist, helping children’s ministry leaders strategize, cast big vision, and recruit and retain volunteers who love owning the faith of their smallest church attendees.
