Raising Christ-Centered Children, One Parent at a Time

Background
Before I experienced a call to ministry I was an elementary teacher for many years. My first ministry position was as Children's Minister, which is where I experienced my ministry call. Recently, I have been giving a lot of thought to what type of DNA I would want to instill in a new type of church start. This train of thinking has led me to think about what new DNA I would seek to develop in the Children's Ministry. This blog entry is an attempt to record where my thoughts have led me.

A "Radical" Idea
The following may be a “radical” view for a children’s ministry but after studying scripture and reviewing how most churches structure their children’s ministry I became increasingly concerned by what I observed. Scripture clearly assigns parents with the primary responsibility of biblical instruction for their children (Deut. 11:18-21) and yet if you were to look at what most churches focus their children’s ministry energies doing very little is done for the parent. Instead, the majority of the effort focuses on providing the children with a comprehensive program that they want to attend. Sadly, the result has been that many parents rely on the church to fill the parental role of Biblical instruction and little instruction occurs from home. By receiving this parental handoff the church is subverting scripture.

The New DNA
If I had the opportunity to start a children’s ministry from scratch the DNA I would seek to infuse from day one would be one that placed ownership on the parents as the primary Biblical instructor. Everything we did would seek to undergird the parents’ efforts. We would be careful to consistently and frequently communicate to parents that we exist to support their efforts. Therefore, we would provide curriculum and instruction for parents to use from home on a weekly basis and then review and reinforce that instruction when the children came together for church gatherings. We would also offer various parent enrichment activities in hopes of strengthening them as Biblical instructors, during formal instruction and informal, everyday moments. We would want parents to view the time they spend with their children to be the primary place for discipleship. The parents would see their efforts to be an integral part of the discipleship formula, a cornerstone of the children’s ministry.

In addition, the church would assist the parents by offering opportunities for the child that the parent is unable to provide such as corporate worship, peer group interaction, and ministry service through the local church. While Biblical instruction would be part of “church time,” we would be careful to not make it our primary focus. Instead, we would take advantage of the unique opportunity that comes from gathering with other children and create activities that exclusively take advantage of this.

Three questions would guide us:
1. What are we doing to increase Biblical parenting among our parents?
2. What can we do that does not replicate what is occurring at home, but instead reinforces it?
3. What can we offer children during church gatherings that the parents are unable to provide from home?