Strength Training for Small Churches
Most people agree that strength training is not easily accomplished. It takes perseverance, time and pain. If you’re in leadership in children’s ministry, especially in a small church, you know that an ample supply of these is needed every week.
I never paid much attention in high school biology, but I do remember learning about various muscle groups in the body; you know, neck… biceps… triceps… chest… shoulders… and so on. Each group has a different function, but all are necessary for the body to be its best. In overseeing children’s ministry in a small church, I’ve found a number of “muscles” that help deal with various challenges that are often unique to a small church.
Gratitude Muscle
Whether your church has 20 members or 20,000, if you don’t have volunteers, you don’t have children’s ministry. In a small church, however, your volunteers are probably spread very thin. They may be greeters the weeks that they’re not teaching; setting up; tearing down; leading a small group and more. They’re likely overworked and overwhelmed. It’s important to remember that you’re not just making sure there is someone with a pulse in a classroom (ok, sometimes you are), as a leader in children’s ministry, your volunteers are as much your ministry as the kids are.
Here’s a few pointers for team member care.
Know your team members. What other ministries are they involved in? What is home like? Is she a single parent? Is he serving God with an unsaved spouse at home? Watch for signs of struggle or burnout. Many people serve out of obligation regardless of how they feel. If it looks to you like they need a break, pray with them… then give them a break. Also, schedule breaks; we currently have one service each week, so as much as possible, I schedule my lead teachers only one month out of three. Sometimes I need them to fill in other times but I try to stick with this as much as possible. Be careful also with your teen helpers. Except in extreme cases, don’t schedule them more than two times per month if you only have one service. They need to be in service with their family and friends regularly.
Show gratitude. Thank your volunteers as often as you can. If your church doesn’t have a teacher appreciation budget, talk to your pastor about including this. You don’t have to buy extravagant gifts, but try to give something tangible on occasion. Whether the gift is large or small, include a brief note so they know you thought of them by name.
Pray for your team. Tell God how grateful you are for them. Remember that they are volunteers and serve by their own choice; don’t make the mistake of treating volunteers like employees.
Physical Muscle
Church life is often “portable” in the early stages, which means there is a lot of physical work to be done to make someone else’s space yours. We met in a motel conference room our first few years using two motel rooms and the breakfast room for classrooms. We had 1½ hours of setup and tear down for 1½ hours of use!
Don’t try to do the physical work alone. I made this mistake a few times and was exhausted when it was time to greet parents and children. Share the load… ask for help. Your setup crew is as crucial to children’s ministry as your teachers and helpers. When you’re recognizing your volunteers, don’t forget to include these folks. They are often people who don’t want public recognition but they still need to know that you appreciate and value them.
Creative Muscles
All curriculum is not created equal. Much of it is geared toward larger churches and might not work for you as written. Here are a few tips:
Get to the heart of the matter. What is the main theme that is being communicated? You may not have a drama team, but you and/or your helper can act out a story. Or, let the kids act it out. Our kids had great fun acting out the story of the ungrateful servant in the hotel breakfast room. They used the serving area as the throne room and silk trees for the prison.
Play the game. Even if the lesson includes an outdoor game and you have asphalt outside, you can still do the activity. Instead of using a ball outside, use a Nerf-type ball inside and modify the rules. Remember, kids consider “play” their primary role in life; don’t skip the play because of space.
Be picky. Most curriculum contains enough material to fill two or more hours; you’re not obliged to use all of it. Pick activities that work best for your situation or save one for lesson review next week. Or stretch your curriculum and make two lessons out of one. You’ll save money and prep time.
Humility Muscle
If you are in the “portable” situation, you may need some specialty items. A few extras that we needed were:
Safety gate: Motels don’t come equipped with barn doors. Safety gates gave our nursery the barn door effect. Parents could drop off babies without opening the door and risking an escapee running down the hall knocking on guest doors.
Portable storage: We could have purchased stock in Rubbermaid in our early years. We used a set of portable plastic drawers for each classroom’s supplies; a large plastic container for snack supplies; another for craft supplies; and one for diapers. (We used the top of the dresser for our changing table.) We also had a giant container on wheels as the nursery toy box.
Collapsible cribs and walkers: If you have babies that need these items, you’ll want ones that can fold flat to store.
Then there are all of the regular supplies: toys, crayons, scissors, glue, cotton balls, yarn, paper plates, construction paper, name tags, pens, pencils and on the list goes.
The cost of these items adds up quickly and small churches don’t usually have large budgets. Flex your humility muscle; don’t be shy about shopping yard sales and second hand stores. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. We’ve been extremely blessed with many welcome “hand me downs” by the church that planted us. Ask the congregation for help. Host a “children’s ministry baby shower”; register the items that you need with Wal-Mart or make a list of items available to the congregation; they may purchase the items or give gift cards or cash.
Making children’s ministry the best it can be doesn’t require everything to be new. Parents need to feel comfortable with the make-shift classroom they leave their children in, but your goal is to minister to children, not to impress the adults… and children are very flexible.
Surfing Muscle
Get out that surfboard and head for the beach (i.e., your computer). There are many resources available on the internet, some free or minimal cost. When I’m uncomfortable with an activity or craft in a lesson, I go surfing and find great substitutes and even entire lessons.
Here are just a few of the sites I frequent:
Flex your muscles. Try something new, if it doesn’t work, don’t use it again. Kids are very forgiving and quickly forget lessons that flop. Ask for help and don’t reinvent the wheel. Remember to love on your volunteers, they’re the heart of your ministry.
add comment