Every pastor has found the occasion to use the famous quote by Jesus, where He said, “Let the little children come to me and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14) Certainly, Jesus was being very directive to those of us who would lead his Church today.
One of the tragedies
of the Church today is that children’s ministry is so easily neglected.
When budgets are cut, we cut out of the children’s ministry. When we are
looking for staff, we staff first, the choir, then finance office, then the
youth director, then a personal secretary for the pastor and maybe, sometimes
later we hire one of the parents to do a little part-time work for the children’s
programs.
It is so easy to neglect
the children. We would not call it neglect, because we know
there are parents who will take care of the needs or there will be some kindly
grandmother who will teach the third grade Sunday school class. Maybe we can find
someone who will do the children’s sermon. With a lot of persuasion and
arm-twisting we recruit the workers for Vacation Bible-School and the
Children’s Christmas Program. It seems that in the work we do in the church, it
is so easy to put children’s ministry
near the bottom of our priority list. This is ironic because most pastors have
spent a good part of their lives trying their best to be good parents to their
own children and to see that they had a good Christian education.
Most pastors realize that to have young families as
a part of your church, you must have an effective
children’s program. Yet, we as pastors, along with the partnership of
older lay leaders of the local church, often put children’s ministry as our last
priority.
I believe that Jesus’ advice about children is to
the Church today. It’s time for us to change our priorities and make
children’s ministry at the top of the list!
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Make plans to join us now for The Next Generation: Children, Youth and Family Ministries Training Conference at First United Methodist Church Arlington, Texas on October 22-24, 2014. We will feature workshops and keynote topics on the most effective way to minister to children, youth and families. Please invite your laity and leadership staff for this very important event!
