One of the hardest aspects of children’s ministry is recruiting volunteers. Well, let me be a bit more specific – recruiting adult volunteers. Every children’s pastor usually has an influx of teenagers and soon to be teenagers wanting to escape the adult service in order to “help” you in the children’s area. But I digress, that is for a whole other article.
The main problem with recruiting adult volunteers usually lies in this fact… most adults are scared of children. Now, I’m not sure if they think the children will bite them, throw things at them, or poop on them, but I know there is a huge fear when being in a room with these miniature human beings.
And so time and time again, many children’s pastors, volunteers, leaders, etc. struggle to gather in adult leaders for the various ministries that fall under the children’s department umbrella. I would just like all of you out there to know that there is no need to be afraid! Kids are one of the easiest groups to work with. The number one reason for this is that 99% of kids trust you first, until you give them a reason not too. This gives you instant credibility and authority. Now it is easy to lose that, but here are some things to help keep control of your classroom, or auditorium of children so they can learn and have a great time at church.
#1: Rules
If you don’t lay out guidelines at the beginning of each program you run, then you can not expect children to read your mind as to how you want them to behave. It is not fair to them to be punished for what you have not explained to them was a boundary. Keep the rules simple and fun while you tell them to your kids before the program begins. The rules we use at Kidtricity are the following:
1 – Listen
2 – Stay in your seat
3 – Use the bathroom, get donuts, get water, all before service
4 – Keep hands and feet to your self
5 – Save candy
Now rules can be fun to go over. I always try to make the kids laugh. When I tell them about rule number three, I might tell them they can save time by drinking right out of the toilet bowl! Of course the kids laugh and yell about how gross that is, but the rule is in place and we had some fun while going over them. Setting up those boundaries at the beginning will help you from explaining it all in the middle of your service.
#2: Competition
Every kid likes competition to some level, and every one in the world likes winning something. So the second key to controlling the chaos is competition. Divide up your group into 2, 3, or 4 groups, depending on the amount of children you have. As you go through your lesson reward points to the teams that are doing well. ALWAYS BE POSITIVE!!! I can not emphasize this enough. Reward teams for behaving. Do not take away points! Kids get enough negativity and punishment throughout the week. We want the kids to want to be at church, so if one team or side is talking a lot and messing around, just stop and praise the team that is doing good and give them points. At Kidtricity, we do something known as “quiet side”. The kids know that when I or any of my leaders say “quiet side” the first team to sit up straight, hands in their lap, and making eye contact gets a random amount of points.
Now when it comes to points, do your best to keep the totals as close as possible. You do not want one team beating the other by a million points each week. Again, we want kids to have fun at church, not leave feeling demoralized week after week. If you’ve noticed a team has been losing every week, find a way to reward them anyway. Competition is a strong resource for controlling the chaos.
#3: Personal Warnings
Let’s face it. You need a system of punishment for those students who just don’t get it. I realize I just talked about not punishing the students and church should be a fun experience for the kids, but there comes a point when one child can hurt other students opportunities to hear what God has for them in that particular service. Your leaders, who should be sitting with the kids, also need some kind of system and authority. Here is our personal warning system and consequences:
Warning #1 – Child is told they have strike 1
Warning #2 – Child is told they have strike 2 and have lost any prize they had earned that day
Warning #3 – Child is told they have strike 3 and are removed from the children’s service and brought to their parents
There are two important points with the personal warning system. The first point is this – try your best not to use this at all, use the point system, reward other students for their good behavior, do all of that first, and then if the child still is not getting it give them a warning. The second point is you can not bluff. If you tell a student strike 3, then you have to follow through. If that child is begging you to stay and they are crying as they apologize, it is too late. If you give in, then your system will never work. Also, a strike 3 should not be given by anyone other than yourself, or another adult leader who will use it as a last resort. Again, do your best to not use this, but also make sure the kids realize it is an option. The worst thing is to have a problem and no way set up to deal with that issue. If the worst happens, and a child needs to be removed, be sure to contact the child and their parents and talk about what happened. Remember, you are responsible for all the students in your care, and there comes a point that if a child is going to be so disruptive as to distract all the other students from hearing from God that service then you need to act.
Here are three techniques to get started with controlling the chaos. Hopefully these will get you started, and never be afraid! Children’s ministry is one of the most rewarding ministries you can be a part of, so don’t let a bunch of kids scare you!
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