Do children have a place in your church? I know many churches that have youth departments and youth leaders. They are responsible for planning occasional programs for children on weeknights, weekends or on holidays. That is perfectly fine. I’m sure that during those times the children are having a good time and they are being ministered to.

What happens on Sunday morning? How many churches provide children a venue on Sunday morning?

Lets face it. In most towns across the country people have dozens of options to choose from when selecting a church home. Of course, we should all choose a church where the word of God is being effectively taught. However, there are many churches where this happens. Now when people select a church they look for the options and services that the church has to offer.

Children’s ministry is an important option to many people. Is it fair for us to expect any child to sit through the average Sunday service? As much as you love your Sunday service, it has to be at least a little boring for a 10 year old. Sure they may participate and sing along with the music. What about the sermon? I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most pastors aren’t preaching about things that are relevant to 10 year olds on most Sundays.

It is important that we raise generations of believers who love God and know that He cares about them greatly! The last thing we want to do is to raise children to view church as something for adults. Most of all, we don’t want them to feel that God is irrelevant to them.

Any efficiently run organization focuses on the most important things first and everything else falls into place after that. When a church doesn’t have Sunday morning children’s ministries, I am left to make a few assumptions. #1-The church is not being run effectively. #2-The church does not place a high level of importance on children’s ministry. This is assuming that they church has or can manufacture adequate resources to run a ministry for children (meeting space, staff, etc.).

I see churches jump through many different hoops to try to attract new members. The truth is that if any church wants to attract young adult members that will make strong contributions to the ministry, they need to make a strong investment in the children’s ministry. Young intelligent adults look for churches where the entire family can be ministered to.

In my opinion, a church without ministries for children is a church that will not grow.