Brent Osterberg is today's guest blogger at Kingdom People. He serves as an associate pastor at Calvary Bible Church in Fort Worth, TX. He’s married to Keri and has three delightfully crazy children. He blogs at From Pew to Practice—pewtopractice.
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Children’s Ministry Volunteer—Description of Responsibilities:
Is this what a person would expect your church’s children ministry protocol to say if they peered into your classroom on a typical Sunday morning?
Sadly, children’s ministry in the local church can often be seen as second rate ministry, not much more than crowd control and waiting out the clock. This can be seen on the occasions when members looking to move on to bigger and better things will see children’s church or AWANA as merely something to cut their teeth on. Or when the church leadership, in a desperate attempt just to fill the volunteer gaps, will try and make children’s ministry as burden-less and non-committal as possible. Then, of course, there are those who take a shift with the kiddos just because they feel like they have to do something to serve.
Truth be told, I’ve thought all these things at one time or another over the years. Only now that my wife and I have kids of our own have I realized the crucial role that children’s ministry plays in the lives of the kids it serves, their families, and the church.
So then, in the hopes that more Christians and churches will begin cherishing this ministry and investing in it more copiously, here are11 reasons why children’s ministry is not second rate ministry: