Children are the Church of today, not just the Church of tomorrow! It’s important for us to recognize that God has His hand upon our kids’ lives now, and He desires to use them to minister to others today.
When we think of releasing kids into ministry opportunities, it can feel like a risk because we don’t always know how they will react or perform. However, there are some simple opportunities we can create to help kids gain experience doing ministry in safe and protected environments. These opportunities will help them develop skills and gain confidence.
Here are 10 simple ministry opportunities you can provide to kids:
1. Form a Greeting Team: Kids can be quickly trained to join the greeting team in your children’s ministry. Children will be pulled out of their comfort zone as they learn to relate with others. Additionally, it’s encouraging for new visitors to connect with friendly children when they first arrive.
2. Call on Kids to Pray: Create opportunities where kids can pray for others in the service. It’s easy to call on kids to open the service in prayer or to pray for the missions emphasis. These small moments can have a major impact in building confidence and calling in the child.
3. Get Kids to Share Their Story: Teach kids a simple way to share the good news of Jesus and to share their testimony. Then pair kids up so they can practice sharing the gospel message with each other. Each week in kids service, bring a child to the front, sit them on a chair, and have the other kids ask them questions.
4. Start a Missions Fundraiser: We must teach kids that ministry is more than what we do in the church building. Encouraging kids to raise money for missions is a great way to stretch them. This ministry opportunity helps children because they can quickly see the fruits of their ministry labor.
5. Visit a Nursing Home: You can’t go wrong taking kids to a nursing home because the residents love having guests visit. Kids can go to sing songs or to just deliver cards and cookies.
6. Create Gifts for Teachers: Take time on a Sunday morning for children to create a gift and write a card for their schoolteacher. This is a great way to show kids that ministry happens in our everyday lives through simple acts of kindness.
7. Involve them in the Adult Service: One of the most formative ministry opportunities we can give to children is to create space for them to do ministry in the adult service. Include kids in your video announcements, let them take up a “change/coin” offering, let them sing, do a drama, or just read a passage of Scripture.
8. Host a Family Missions Trip: This is a fantastic way for families to engage in ministry together. It’s important that parents recognize their children’s calling and see them engage in ministry. There are tons of opportunities for this in the US and abroad.
9. Start a “Timothy Team”: Identify kids in your ministry who have a passion for leadership and ministry. Create spaces for them to serve weekly with the worship and sound teams.
10. Kids Takeover Kids Church: Take a Sunday where you turn over your children’s services to the kids! Break up the service and give the different segments to different teams. This could include teaching, object lessons, missions activity, worship, offering, games, and even small groups. Kids will never grow in their abilities if we never give them opportunities!
