Blog
Is Your Church Dying?
One sign of a dying church is that they don’t have a kids’ ministry.
It’s not rocket science.
If your church is not reaching kids, it’s dying a slow death.
I am continually surprised by how many churches either don’t have a kids’ ministry or run it poorly. Sometimes the leaders will say things like, “We used to have a kids’ ministry, but all the kids have grown up and moved on.” When I look around the congregation, everybody is over 50. This is the picture of a dying church.
I’m not trying to be mean, but I’m not going to lie. I am challenging you to do something about it.
Several years ago, Deb and I accepted the pastorate of a small congregation in Sarnia. The church had just been through a split, and there were only 25 people left. There were a few kids, but no babies. When we saw their church nursery, we understood why there were no babies.
The nursery was literally full of junk and hadn’t been used in years. Their carpet was old, and there was mouse poop everywhere.
Debbie and I spent a month cleaning up the nursery. We filled three dumpsters with trash, replaced the carpet, painted the walls, and bought some new cribs and new toys. It was beautiful.
We thought that people would be happy, but they got mad at us. “Why are you working so hard on the nursery when we don’t have any babies?”
“If we don’t have a clean nursery, we are not going to have any babies.”
Vision and work always precede people.
If I want to see kids coming to my church, then I need to be prepared for them. I need to have a fun, clean room and prepare a life-changing message – even if it’s just for one kid. If I don’t make the effort, then I’m raising the white flag and giving up.
Sometimes pastors will ask me, “What can we do if we don’t have any kids?”
I have two suggestions:
- Find one person in your congregation who has a passion for kids. Surely if you have 50 people in your church, there is at least one person who cares about the next generation. It starts with one person – then spend some money to get that person trained to run an effective kids’ ministry. The best way to do that is to send them to a Kidmin Conference.
- Go after the kids in your community. When was the last time you did VBS or a Backyard Bible Club? When was the last time you did an outreach event in your community to bring kids to your church? Sometimes pastors will say to me, “We used to do those things, but they don’t work anymore.” My response is, “Maybe you need to change what you are saying.”
Reaching kids isn’t cheap or easy, but it sure beats dying.
The Bible says it like this,
“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.”
Maybe you don’t have any kids left in your church, but you still have a choice.
My advice to you: Choose life and go after the kids.
