Childrens' Ministries

The following is a reprint of the article I wrote for the latest Travelogue, Sojourn Community Church's bi-monthly journal. I thought it would be interesting for Sojourners who missed it, but also for people of other communities, simply as food for thought. There are many different models for conducting kids' ministries. Here is one:

It is no overstatement to say that the future of Sojourn is the children of Sojourn. The children’s ministry started five years ago with a few kids, and now serves fifty to sixty kids each week at Sojourn Gathered.

“Given that we are a young congregation, even if we didn’t have a lot of new families getting involved, we’d see a ton of new kids coming into the church within the next few years,” Teaching Pastor-Elder Daniel Montgomery said in a recent interview. “We’re a ‘baby factory’ right now. And since so many new people have been coming to Sojourn as well, we knew we needed to make more room for kids, which is one of the main reasons we purchased the new building.”

Sojourn’s philosophy of children’s ministry represents a paradigm shift from the contemporary church model -- exchanging what can be called a church-based ministry for a family-based ministry. Ben Freudenburh and Rick Lawrence, authors of “The Family Friendly Church,” state “Parents are the primary Christian educators in the church, and the family is the God-ordained institution for building faith in young people and for passing faith on from one generation to the next.” In practice, this means a shift in church philosophy from conducting ministry to managing ministry -- partnering with parents, training and equipping them as they raise their children to know Christ.

Sojourn’s family vision statement says, “We must recognize that the church is not a business, but a family. It is a household of households. We are called to build up our families, not our church structures or programs.”

This distinction is critical, according to Montgomery, who said “There is a myth that says ‘all kids need is a nuclear family.’ But down through the centuries the Church has always understood that it takes a community, an extended family of believers all operating as a larger family, praying for each other, watching each other’s kids, supporting them and helping them grow and learn to live out the Gospel in every day life.”

“Children are not a problem,” Montgomery continued, “they’re an opportunity. No one is more formable than a child. This is why we have to teach them from the start -- to integrate them into the family of God and instill in them the same values that we instill in each other. Sojourn is about Gospel-transformation, and that begins with our kids embracing the Gospel, not assuming they understand it. It begins with loving Louisville, teaching the kids to love their neighborhood, friends and local institutions. It begins with teaching them true humility, which has a radical impact on the way they see themselves -- that they are made in the image of God, but yet the world doesn’t revolve around them. And it begins with prayer -- kids, parents, ministers praying together.”

There is a specific plan in place for working through this philosophy, a plan that can be further implemented as quickly as Sojourn’s partners can support and do the work of this vital ministry. It includes visits by the Elders to each family with children in the congregation, and extends to conference teaching sessions, panel discussion events, and an expectant parents’ mentoring model.

It is also a flexible plan, a work-in-progress, as stated in the Sojourn family vision statement:
“It is the desire of the Elders to extract a vision more than to cast one. We recognize that there will be a need for the investment of intelligent and sacrificial effort to create what we believe to be this kind of biblical vision here at Sojourn. Our hope is to learn from Scriptures, from each other, from other communities of faith, and from other leaders in the field.”

Specific things to look forward to as Sojourn moves to its new location include an indoor playground and an art studio -- places where children can be nurtured and taught to embrace a creative environment. Many of the features of the new building will be designed with a multi-generational philosophy in mind, features like the art gallery, music venue, community outreach ministries -- things that children will be encouraged to participate in, working alongside adults rather than being segregated into a “church within a church.”

“How you get them is how you’ll keep them,” Montgomery explains. As to whether Sojourn will have a youth group when the many young children begin entering their teenage years, he says “It depends on what you mean. We’re not going to be about ‘pie-in-the-face’ kinds of entertainment. Not that we’re against fun things, but we don’t want ministries that are driven by games, watered-down teaching, and the trappings of consumerism.”

There are two ways for everyone at Sojourn to bring the vision for a thriving children’s ministry to fruition. The first is to embrace the paradigm shift by understanding that the home is where it all begins, not the church. “Spirituality in the home is very messy,” Montgomery said. “Children need to see parents living out the Gospel, but they also need to understand that we all fall short -- to know that Mommy and Daddy are sinners but Jesus makes us clean.”

The second way is to pray that more people will catch the vision and take up the work needed in this area of church ministry, and to consider becoming involved yourself. “We are looking for leaders to pick up this vision and work it,” Montgomery said. This involves everything from mentoring, encouraging, staffing the Sunday school classes, and using the organizational skills necessary to implement the vision. “Many people at Sojourn have said ‘I wish we had more older Christians here to mentor us.’ We need to realize that we can be those older, wiser Christians for the next generation. We need to be those older, wiser Christians.”

For more information on how you can get involved in the Sojourn Children’s Ministry, contact Rob Plummer at rplummer@sbts.edu


Recommended reading: “Romancing Your Child’s Heart” by Monte Swan and David Biebel
“Sacred Parenting” Gary L. Thomas
“Shepherding Your Child’s Heart” Ted Tripp