Children’s Ministry Transitions

Facing the transitions of a rapidly changing 21st century environment is a stretch for most of us. Think about it. A little over a decade ago the internet was born and now you can access the internet from a palm device. Six years ago terrorism became the central focus of our government and we were suddenly launched into a middle-eastern war. Muslims were on TV. Now there is a mosque on the street where I work. Gasoline was $1.20 a gallon. Global warming was a new concern and in 50 years my community hadn’t seen a hurricane - in three years we have had 3 hurricanes. Five years ago my hair was blonde, now it’s gray. I no longer have children, they have grown up, they are young adults now.

Along with these geo-political, environmental and personal changes are transitions in church ministry. Children’s ministry specifically. I would like to take a few minutes to address some of those major transitions and why they are happening. There are some clear reasons and some not so clear reasons for the changes in children’s ministry. No ministry department functions in isolation so the changes in adult ministry, parenting, and church leadership have huge impact on how children’s ministry works in the church.   

About six months ago I was faced with a major life change. I decided to move away from twenty years of full-time ministry and begin a new career in a related field, teaching early childhood vocational skills to high school students and providing oversight for a new preschool opening as a learning lab for students in my high school class. Fortunately, it was a career change that utilized many of my skills in early childhood ministry as a children’s pastor and student relational skills as a youth pastor that I already had, so the transition wasn’t as invasive as some career changes that a 45 year old person might have to make. After the initial stress of the decision to change careers and expend the effort to jump through all the hoops to re-certify with the state of Florida to be recognized as a qualified teacher, I began to reflect and think deeply about my twenty years in ministry as a Family Ministry / Children’s Pastor.

Here are a few observations and conclusions about my experience in ministry over the years, and how the changes in church culture has shifted from where we were twenty years ago to where we are today, and maybe where we are heading into the future. Warning: there may be some editorial included in what you are going to read, but take it for what it’s worth.

Historical Perspective

From the 1950’s through the 1970’s many churches became notable, riding their Sunday school attendance successes into the church growth record books. Back then, Sunday school was primarily organized as Christian education groups for adults and children on Sunday morning headed by DCE’s (Directors of Christian Education) and assisted by key volunteers with the title of Sunday school superintendents.

The churches that systemized Sunday school programming for their congregations were the first to catch the wave of numerical growth, and by the late 1960’s some of those emerged as mega-sized-churches, where thousands of people attended on Sunday for the worship service and then additionally for Sunday school. This was a new phenomena, because before this time churches with a thousand or more parishioners were rare. Now, through effective administration, bus ministry, organized Sunday school, youth ministry, the emergence of local church TV ministry, gave birth and popularized para-church organizations. Churches with Sunday attendance of over five thousand began to spring up in many population centers, but primarily in the region known as the Bible Belt which is the mid-west and southwest United States.

Then from the 1980’s through 2000 another shift began to take place. The idea of Sunday school and meeting in a centralized location on Sunday morning for adult Christian education began to diminish. A new approach, the mega-model of small groups, enabled adult church ministry to be free from the campus facilities and Christian education/fellowship hit the neighborhoods every night of the week. The DCE position was replaced by small group coordinators for adults and a new position was elevated to priority status in churches – Children’s Pastor to focus on the spiritual development of nursery through late elementary age groups. Prior to 1980 no one had ever really heard of this role on a church staff, now they were popping up in churches everywhere. Resources for children’s ministry began to flood the market, providing methods and age appropriate skills development for those who ministered to children. Churches, for the first time began asking, “What can we do to attract families with young children to our church; what can we do to make our church a welcoming place for children?” This was a new harbinger and churches that cracked the code on those two questions began to enjoy unparalleled numerical success. Churches built facilities with playgrounds, and rooms with elaborate murals and activity centers just to accommodate children and pacify young families. Seminary students were passing on pulpit ministry to fill burgeoning children’s ministry positions. It wasn’t uncommon to find children’s pastors with MA’s, MDiv’s or Doctorates in Christian Education or Theology working with kids during this period.

Also, during this period, many people just like me, came of age and enjoyed the best years of their church ministry because they loved to work with children and families and that seemed to be what the job was about. It was a unique time when large groups of children and parents enjoyed kid-crusades, giant Vacation Bible school events, theme activities for the community and large numbers of people showed up for events almost without any marketing effort. Today, if you can find a network that has a few of the old forty and fifty year old children’s pastors still around, they will talk about the decades of the 80’s and 90’s as if they were the golden age of children’s ministry.

From 2000 till now, almost one decade is under our belt. We can begin to draw some extrapolations about a few trends that are developing in church ministry and that have a direct relationship on how ministry to children is evolving. Inevitability, trends in local church adult ministry have a tremendous impact on what the demands are for children’s ministry as well. As most know, children’s ministry is a supportive infrastructure to the church. But for many churches, children’s ministry only exists in the minds of church leaders as a necessary expense and a ‘loss leader’ in order to attract parents with young children. That’s the seminal divergence marking the shift in children’s ministry in the ’00-’20 period form the previous periods.  

Here are a few of the adult ministry tails that are wagging the church dog. Recovery ministry; not long ago I was talking with a senior pastor who told me that he was looking for a quality recovery ministry director to add to his staff becausehe said, ‘My whole church should be in recovery ministry.’ Dysfunction in our culture has reached saturation and that means people almost everywhere are in some kind of emotional pain or destructive relationship, and church seems to be a holding pen for people with both of those problems.

In my neighborhood there is a church, a sort of new age, self help center with a psychic twist. Four years ago on any given Sunday you could count the cars in the parking lot on one hand. About a year ago they started a few support groups, AA, compulsion recovery two nights a week and now the parking lot is jammed. People need help, celebrities are in rehab, human wreckage is everywhere, support groups are hot and the places that host recovery groups are brimming with people.

House churches are another growing trend for a variety of reasons. Some people can’t get enough of their small group and they prefer being in a small group instead of a large corporate church worship gathering. House church enthusiasts defend this approach as the true Acts 2 model church from the New Testament. It’s more intimate, fellowship tends to be genuine and there are no ministry professionals or facilities, so overhead is -0-.

Another trend is internet church in which anyone with a DSL connection can watch a streaming sermon message from any church on the web. Pick a church, any church, and you can be watching from anywhere in the world anytime and access it in a matter of seconds. The internet church is convenient. It fits demanding schedules and it is private. It requires no commitment or response from its participants.

Emergent church is another trend and can be characterized as the evolving next generation of the seeker style church. Even though emergent cannot be classified as a seeker style it is the natural outgrowth of a culture that validates narcissism as a spiritual discipline. The emergent church hasn’t had enough time as an approach to be exactly defined. There are many people who think they know what the word ‘emergent’ means but the authorities on the subject have a differing list of qualifying distinctives. It’s kind of like the crisis people were having in the mid-90’s trying to define what the word post-modern meant. Emergent churches are a real mixed bag, each one having characteristics that aren’t necessarily shared by others which claim to be emergent, yet from what I can ascertain, simply put, the most common characteristic is that it’s a lot about me, my needs, my preferences and my problems, my issues, my journey. It is clearly anthropocentric.   

These trends (recovery ministry, house church, internet church, emergent church) are adjusting how children’s ministry is being done today in a giant way. Each of these are dialed in precisely on adults and there is virtually no real interest in any of these approaches to perform children’s ministry with priority or enthusiasm. In each of these trends children’s ministry is a non-issue; which is not to say that children aren’t important, it is to say that children’s ministry is not important. What is important to each of these approaches is childcare. Since children are not integrated by systems or developmentally appropriate programs into any of these trends what is one to do with the kids when the adults are meeting? Find a babysitter, problem solved. Children’s ministry really doesn’t exist in any of these scenarios. There are exceptions and I am speaking generally, of course. But the fact remains. I have never known of a recovery ministry, house church, internet church or emergent church with a negligible ministry to its childhood age parishioners.    

Childcare is the new children’s ministry. But you say, ‘Na - Darrell you’re all wrong about that – you’re nuts, much reflection has made you mad.’ I don’t think so.

Those of us who have been doing children’s ministry for a while all feel the earth shifting under our feet – it feels very uncertain and we know that everything is changing right before our eyes and here is the biggest reason of all and why ’00-’20 is a cataclysmic time for children’s ministry.

Baby-boomers aren’t having kids anymore – they’re done with childrearing, they’re kids have grown up. The parents we are now encountering in our churches are Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers. And they have different priorities for their lives and for their kids. Those priorities are much different than the priorities of Baby-boomers. Hence, the cause/effect relationship for children’s ministry is no longer the same. The expectations that Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers have of a children’s ministry are in many ways oppositional to the expectations of Baby-boomer parents. Here are a few of the major contrasts that I have been able to identify:

1. Digital Media eclipses Print Media

   Until just a few years ago, print media was the primary Christian education medium for communication in the process of teaching and learning. Now, digital resources are quickly replacing print media. Digital resources are what the children’s ministry church market is screaming for and what current children’s ministry leaders are purchasing. This has had a dramatic impact on Christian publishers and booksellers. People aren’t reading books the way they used to. They are getting their information from visual media, DVD’s and downloadable material from internet sites.
   
   Here are a few reasons for this. Technology has become affordable. Eight years ago I purchased a small data projector that connects to my computer that I use for Powerpoint presentations. Back then, I was ahead of the digital trend. Today, everyone that does what I do, has their own data projector, laptop and powerful software. That’s what you need to have as a communicator/teacher to meet the expectations of today’s listeners.
   
   I’ve written a dozen books, eight of which have sold more than a thousand copies each. But I noticed a strange thing began to happen in 2002. My book sales went in the tank. The only predictable demand I had for my books were from small Christian colleges and seminaries that used them as text books for courses or reference.
   
   Why should people purchase expensive books to read when they can watch the information on a computer screen? It’s less effort, at virtually no expense. Digital capability has changed the marketplace, forever. Print media will continue to exist, but it will not have the profit margin that once existed. Bill Gates mission to create a paperless society is slowly but surely coming to pass.
   
   You can guess what this means for the demand of take home Sunday school papers, student books, activity pages for children’s ministry and curricula publishers. In some ways, this change makes me feel like a blacksmith watching the first Model A roll off the assembly line.  
   
   I-pods, cell phones, I-phones, integrated digital devices, lap-tops are all part of a child’s world today. A digital life is the key quality of today’s new parents and kids.
   
    

2. Experience eclipses Education

What is most important to Gen-X and Y parents is the experience that their child has in the church environment – if the child learns something, that’s a bonus, but they aren’t coming with the expectation that the child is participating in an educational context.

New toys, activities, social opportunities with other children in a safe place with qualified supervision are the new expectations Gen-X and Y parents have for their kids.

Over the past four years I have had more parents ask me if we background check our volunteers than what we use for teaching resources. Previous to the year 2000, parents seldom asked about background checks of volunteers but most wanted to know what the scope and sequence for their child’s class was. Today, Gen-X and Y parents have no idea what an educational scope and sequence is and they don’t care. Singing, enjoying a happy place, making new friends, becoming a better person, talking about personal struggles and what to do about them all contribute to a positive feeling and experience at church – this is what Gen-X and Y parents and kids want out of their time at church.

  

3. Childcare eclipses Spiritual Formation

   Spiritual formation requires effort, preparation, knowledge of developmental age-appropriate levels in children and how those learning levels integrate with various abstract Biblical teachings. Childcare does not require any of that. Childcare is easy and can be managed by a paraprofessional without any formal background or education. Childcare does not require that the person providing supervision know, understand or even subscribe to the churches beliefs. Almost anyone can do childcare; spiritual formation, on the other hand, requires some specialized knowledge and training in the distinctives of the churches beliefs. Spiritual formation requires more effort, time and expense than childcare. Gen-X and Y adults do not want to be bothered with the minutia of learning age-appropriate characteristics of children. They just want to be able to drop their kids off and not think about them for a couple of hours. They want some ‘me’ time apart from the kids.
   
   That’s why childcare is growing in churches exponentially. The act of having someone else care for a child other than the parent has become an entitlement at church. What catalyzes spiritual formation in children is the regular participation of parent(s) and grandparent(s) in the church context alongside them. When parents cease to be involved with their kids at church the natural result or outcome is childcare.   

4. Star Power eclipses Substance

   From the top down in church ministry star power has become a premier attraction quality. Senior pastors compete for local and national televised sound bites and promotional image management has come of age among senior pastors even in mid-size churches. This new element in ministry leadership has an impact on how churches deal with kids, because this is what Gen-X and Y adults clamor for. Star power is an important value and parents expect this value to be reflected in the adult leadership of the early childhood and elementary age groups for their children at church.
   
   A good friend of mine was a children’s pastor at a large church. As the church grew to surpass the 10K mark of attendance, the leadership became more obsessed with presenting a polished image. My friend enjoyed being with the kids as he was a ‘hands on’ children’s pastor. He participated in the ministry at every level. He was a kid-magnet and the Baby-boomer parents loved his total immersion approach to working with the kids. Every Sunday he would pick kids from the children’s church audience to help lead music. Sometimes he would pick kids to be on the stage with him that were non-performers. One day a Gen-X executive staff member stopped by the children’s church and observed what was going on, they told my friend that he could no longer randomly pick kids from the audience to be on the stage to help lead the song time in children’s church. From that point on, he was only to involve ‘Disney’ style kids who had rehearsed the songs and were stage ready to perform – kids who had star power.
   
   The obsession that Gen-X and Y adults have with star power all but eliminates the substance of real life. It elevates perception over reality. It is a dangerous obsession that teaches children that a hairdo and straight teeth are more important than substance and truth.

5. Multicultural eclipses Homogenous

   Culture has changed. Unless you are Rip Van Winkle and just woke up from a 40 year nap, you know that the homogenous nature of our world no longer exists. Multiculturalism in the United States is the new order and this shift is likewise changing the church culture by the day as well. Today, sanctuary cities exist openly, aiding undocumented aliens and their children. Within those cities, churches lead the way in providing safe houses from ICE officers searching for the undocumented. These churches view their role as taking the lead this new civil rights issue of our day.
   
   As older, senior adult Americans hold fast to the homogenous values of a day gone by, the up and coming ground swell of young Gen-X and Y adult Americans are sympathetic and supportive of the plight of undocumented aliens. Most Gen-X and Y adults would prefer to just grant these people amnesty and be done with it – move on.
   
   Here’s how the shift in multiculturalism is affecting ministry to children. If you are a leader that works with kids in a church, you need to learn Spanish as soon as possible. The Latin-Hispanic population of children in the US is growing faster than any other category. Unlike Asian, European and eastern European immigrants who have come to the U.S. and assimilated into the language and culture, Latin-Hispanic immigrants hold fast to their language and culture and do not wish to adapt. They have shown that they want the American culture to adapt to their language and culture and they are achieving success in that regard. If you don’t believe this, visit Miami, Los Angeles, San Antonio or Yakima.  You simply can’t navigate those cities without the ability to speak Spanish. Si?
   
   I am making an observation, not a judgment. 
   
   The message of the Scriptures is multicultural – it speaks to the human need around the globe. It is universal. Those who work with kids need to get better at understanding that fact, the multicultural demand is only going to become greater.
   
      

6. Safety/Security eclipses Training

   About ten years ago I was busy traveling all around the country providing children’s ministry training in churches, conventions and denominational events. Slowly that came to a close not just for me but for everyone that was out there providing training and in-service events. These trainings ranged from subjects such as – Story Telling to Administrative Practices. For a number of reasons the training/seminar circuit fizzled.
   
   Because of the shifts over the past few years away from children’s ministry toward childcare, the training and preparation emphasis has also shifted away from Christian education and toward safety and security.
   
   Gen-X and Y parents live in constant fear that their children will be abducted, abused or left in an unsafe situation. This is the obsession for parents today. Consequently, those who have been responsible for ministry to children have focused their attention on ways to make the church environment safe and secure for children.
   
   Since churches have limited budgets and personnel, the focus on safety and security has often had to come at the expense, time and resources previously dedicated to training and recruiting volunteers and staff members.
   
   Once again, the world we live in is a scary place for parents and they want their children to be safe – this requires facility changes, security hardware upgrades, surveillance systems and all this stuff is very expensive.
   
   But that is what needs to happen to bring church facilities up to today’s standards and provide piece of mind for parents.
   
    

7. Paraprofessional eclipses Professional

   Children’s ministry professionals are odd ducks. They have one foot firmly planted in the administrative side of leadership and the other foot is firmly planted in the people side of leadership. This is a very unusual psycho-graphic.
   
   Most who would consider themselves a children’s ministry professional also have some formal training in the field of education and bible or theology. A proven track record and years of experience also count heavily toward being considered a professional in children’s ministry.
   
     Over the past couple of years I have observed the educational preparation for children’s ministry leaders decrease as well as the age of the person making applications for children’s ministry positions. Because of the trend among churches to move more toward childcare, it is not necessary to hire a highly trained or experienced person to oversee the ministry. This being the case, paraprofessionals or part-time children’s ministry people are filling more of the needs that churches are having. When a church can hire a person to fill the children’s ministry position part-time it saves money, benefits and time. Even in large churches the role of children’s pastor is being replaced by administrative managers and the various age levels are coordinated by part-time directors that make phone calls to staff volunteer positions, and know how to use the tech equipment for the DVD lesson presentation for the kids.
   
   

  
8. Cost Base eclipses Budget

   Churches, like other businesses don’t have money to spend like they used to. Cutting costs has become a survival skill. In the past, churches set a line item for children’s ministry in the general budget and that was how children’s ministry was funded. Today, it’s different. Children’s ministry is becoming far more entrepreneurial. Ministries that provoke a heavy deficit to the budget are getting phased out. Ministries that are able to sustain their own costs through registration or other revenues are pushing their way forward.
   
   For instance, a Sunday school ministry that costs the church $3K a quarter to operate and has lagging attendance may be replaced by a revenue funded ministry like Upward that is well attended and that people scramble to join. The big advantage of Upward over traditional church children’s programming is – Upward pays its way.
   
   The business of doing church business costs a lot of money and children’s ministry when done well, carries huge costs for human resources and material supplies. Some churches just can’t afford the costs unless it shows a break even or profit on the bottom line. Funding is the issue and the old way of carving up the pie by percentages is changing.  

Summary

Here are a few conclusions.

First, we are entering the childcare era in churches. As adult ministries become more therapeutic and consumer oriented, attention and resources will turn away from Christian education to children. Safety and security issues will absorb budgets that previously went toward educational resources, curricula, staff and volunteer training in children’s ministry. For many churches the costs of surveillance and security upgrades will overwhelm money and personnel previously earmarked for full time or part time children’s ministry professional staff. This will be a hard decision, but one that churches have to make to keep up with current trends in our culture.

Second, parenting trends are another huge reason for the shifts away from children’s ministry to childcare. Remember, Gen-X and Y parents have moved into the drivers seat with new priorities and opinions about care for their children at church, but that’s not all, Gen-X and Y age pastors and professional staff are filling up more church positions which gives them a voice in moving children’s ministry toward childcare as well.  

A Few Suggestions 

If you’re like me, a career children’s pastor, what should you do? Realize that you do have options. You may be a victim of downsizing at your church but that doesn’t mean that you are not needed. You’re skills are valuable to someone. Begin cross training in a related field. That’s what I did. Utilize your contacts with people at your church, those who have appreciated your dedication on the job at church will help you locate contacts that may be the next step in your employment process.

Reinvent yourself. Take the Strenghfinders inventory. Identify what you do well and stick with your dominate profile patterns. Don’t be paralyzed by your situation. As soon as you perceive things shifting, get busy, don’t wait for the shoe to drop. Unemployment is at a record low, there is a job, or jobs, out there for you, you just have to search.

As you see some of the transitions in your church that I’ve mentioned begin to progress, don’t panic, don’t react and don’t be angry. That’s the worst thing you can do. Change is part of life and at the beginning of the article I briefly mentioned some of the radical geo-political and environmental changes over the past ten years. Many of which no one could predict.  In the same way trends in ministry can be very fickle.

Listen carefully to this advice because you won’t hear it in seminary, Bible college, or any church growth or denominational conference. Be a life long learner. Build a career safety net and spend some time, starting today, asking yourself, ‘What is my next step after children’s ministry?’ The day will come when you will not be a children’s pastor. Be prepared, too may people in ministry are gloriously prepared for a future that no longer exists. Don’t be that person.

Kids need Christ. That’s why people like you and me are in church, to do everything in our power, summoning all of our experience and enthusiasm, to help make that happen whether we are paid to do that or not. Sometimes achieving that goal requires that we graciously but with determination guard the gate in churches for the sake of children and their need to know Christ and grow in faith and obedience toward that end. That’s the calling of a children’s pastor. Don’t ever confuse that with a title, location or paycheck.

Darrell Fraley
Children and Family Ministry
Copyright 2007
Darrellfraley.com or Childrenandfamilyministry.org