by Spencer Click/ June 28, 2016
Most children’s ministries across the country have two things in common: they need one more worker and a bigger budget! (If you don’t have those two problems, either your church is a phenomenal exception or your vision is too small—but that’s a different blog post.)
Part of the reason (for the financial piece at least) comes from the challenge of seeing budget money invested in children’s ministry as an investment versus an expense! Church boards have a heavy responsibility to be proper stewards with the finances of the church. Sometimes the necessary expenses associated with kidmin can be seen as a never-ending cycle of spending. Curriculum, snacks, facility maintenance, classroom supplies, on and on and on. There is a continual list of costs associated with children’s ministry, and obviously, kids don’t have a lot of money so they are dependent on adults to cover their “bill.”
Two financial principles which would help church boards see children’s ministry in a different light are:
80% of those that come to Christ do so before they are 17, but few churches place 80% of their budget money into children and youth evangelism. However, if churches look at budget dollars as an investment, a church will get the biggest bang for their buck by investing in children and youth!
I’m not advocating shifting all the money away from adult ministries and outreach—those are very important elements to the life of a church, and there are many adults that turn to Christ later in life. But at what point is the money invested in an adult outreach going to be better invested in kids’ ministry—because the return on the investment is going to be much higher!
Any retirement specialist will tell you that your financial portfolio will be much better for retirement if you start at 20 versus 40—why? The magic of compound interest! The long-term impact of a child coming to Christ pays dividends far longer—it compounds the “payout” of the investment because the life change happens so much earlier!
Casting the vision of funding children’s ministry as an investment (that pays off today, tomorrow, and beyond) rather than just an expense, will help church boards evaluate where the church can have the greatest and longest impact for the kingdom of God
