Kids’ Ministry is Great!

In our increasingly-professionalised world, we now employ people to do many of the things that we once did, ourselves—from mowing lawns to walking our dogs.

There are good reasons why we engage the services of others, but as we have become wealthier, we now value our time so highly that we spend money to deliver us with more leisure.

In the church context, we now employ some specialists to do ministry where we once relied on volunteers to serve in different practical ways.

One way that this has changed is in the area of youth and children’s ministry: where we once had a young adult parishioner volunteer to coordinate the youth, or a mum or dad to be the Sunday School Superintendent, we now encourage people to invest in specialised ministry training so that they can deliver specialised ministry to children and youth in our churches and schools.

This comes at a cost, but it also brings a benefit, for in the same way that we rightly require our school teachers to train in the skills of child and adolescent education, we now are training some specialised ministers to be knowledgable in the Bible as well as skilled in teaching young people in their specific ages and stages of life.

We have been thankful to God for our partnership with Youthworks College, and we delight in how Brad has benefited from his theological and ministry education that he now uses to invest deeply in our teenagers.

God willing, we hope to also welcome a specialist children’s minister to help us disciple and evangelise children in our village, valley and region.

May the Lord grant us wisdom as we consider this option for our staff team, and may he provide the right person to join our church and to help us teach and pastor our youngest people, for his glory.

JODIE McNEILL