Preparing kids for their future is an important lesson for every adult who has influence on a child’s life—including the Church. Whether we help kids grow as Jesus did (as shown in Luke 2:52) or help them explore the world around them, we must help guide the children who come through our doors. One great opportunity we have is to prepare our church kids to be involved and engaged in ministry now so they will learn to love to serve the rest of their lives.

Do you remember the parable of the servants and the talents in Matthew 25:14-30? Three servants were each entrusted with different quantities of gold before the master departed on a long trip. Upon the master’s arrival, the first servant doubled his original five bags of gold and presented the master with 10 bags. The second servant gave his master four bags of gold instead of the original two, while the last servant presented the same single bag, proud that he did not lose it. The point of this parable is to use what we are given and use it well.

Six questions that will help you evaluate your leadership training and leadership appreciation: What is something our team should celebrate this week? What is an area within our ministry that needs to be molded and tweaked? What is a responsibility I have or am doing that I need to train and equip someone else to do and begin letting go of? Which child or family within our kids’ ministry can we be there for EXTRA this week? Who was a life saver this week and went above and beyond? What is one reason I still love working in kids’ ministry?

As leaders in children’s ministry, we know the significance of our job. We have the opportunity to teach kids about Christ. What could be better than that? Yet in the middle of the week-to-week preparations, we can get so focused on the details that we forget the bigger picture. Our job is not simply to ensure our 4s class has a teacher this Sunday—our job is to nurture the spiritual development of kids.

My favorite element of Tru Fire is that it sets kids up with the tools they need to take hold of their faith. Lots of curricula are more interested in raising up good kids, but Tru Fire looks to train a generation of godly kids. Tru Fire helps kids interact with God’s Word, and it teaches kids to go to God with their burdens and to work things out in prayer.

How can we as leaders ensure we are constantly investing in growing the leaders who are on our team? That is a question Children’s Pastor Heather Marble asks herself every week. Her article shows three methods she has found that made a huge impact on her kids’ ministry team.