Mark DeVries - Sustainable Childrens Ministry: From Last-Minute Scrambling to Long-Term Solutions

InterVarsity Press
P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426
ivpress.com

2018 by Ministry Architects

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Pressis the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges, and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

While any stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information may have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

Cover design: Jeff Miller/Faceout Studio
Interior design: Jeanna Wiggins

ISBN 978-0-8308-8847-4 (digital)

ISBN 978-0-8308-4522-4 (print)

This digital document has been produced by Nord Compo.

To those who have made
it their mission to introduce
children to Jesus and his love.
We cant imagine how great
your reward will be!

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.

W e were finishing up our last visit to historic Midtown Church. It had been an incredible eighteen-month journey. The youth ministry had gone through an undeniable transformationthe youth pastor now felt empowered, a full volunteer team was working together with a well-defined vision and goals, and the culture had shifted from chronic negativity to unbridled enthusiasm.

We were sad this would be our last visit. Then Pastor Janet asked an odd question, Can you do this same thing for our childrens ministry?

I paused, uncertain. I knew next to nothing about childrens ministry, and I was pretty sure the rest of our Youth Ministry Architects team was in the very same boat.

She saw my uncertainty and spoke before I could:

Listen, its not really the childrens-ministry-specific work that we need help with. We dont need help with crafts or VBS or getting toys for the nursery. Those are things we have down. What our childrens ministry needs help withand desperatelyis things such as building volunteers; developing a check-in and follow-up process; creating a parent ministry; designing a great communication plan; finding ways to invite more young families into our church; establishing a clear vision, direction, goals, and structurethat kind of thing. Isnt that what you do?

I was still pausing. At that point Youth Ministry Architects was still a young ministry. We had worked with less than one hundred churches, helping them build sustainable youth ministries. Youth ministry was the world I knew and understood.

For my entire adult life, thirty-six years of it anyway, youth ministry had been my focus. Some would even argueI would be one of themthat my first church hired me to do youth ministry way before I was an adult myself. (Some of you who have had the privilege of working alongside a youth minister like me may know exactly what Im talking about!)

Finally, I answered, You know we know next to nothing about childrens ministry?

Right.

And you still want us to work with your childrens ministry?

Right. She was smiling.

And so on the unassailable strength of Pastor Janets smile, Childrens Ministry Architects was born.

Our staff understood how to build sustainable ministry systems. But we also knew that we had to have someone with childrens ministry expertise to join our team, and quickly. Little did we know of an entirely separate story going on in Texas.