Having a strong kids ministry plays such an important part in ensuring the strength and longevity of your church. A strong kids ministry, however, doesn’t necessarily mean having the most exciting games, having the best praise and worship, or even having the greatest teaching curriculum. The strength of your kids ministry is ultimately dependent on the strength of your team – those leaders that are investing their lives into the children.

Here are a three ways to strengthen your team:

1. Consistently communicate vision

Be intentional about consistently communicating to your team the vision of your church as well as the heart of your Senior Pastor and how your kids ministry fits within your broader church vision. A big vision inspires and attracts people, compelling people to come on board.

Communicate the vision in such a way so that people can see how they fit and understand how they can contribute. Personalise the vision for them. By doing this, your team will take ownership of the vision and help move it forward. Consistently communicating the vision will also keep your team focused on doing and fighting for what really matters.

2. Position people in their strength zone

Do you know what your team members are passionate about and what they are good at? Start by building relationships with the people on your team and getting to know them personally – what are their dreams, their passion and their strengths?

Finding out what peoples’ gifts and talents are is a crucial element to strengthening your team. Place people in their strength zone. Position people in the areas where they will be at their best and be able to flourish the most.

This doesn’t happen accidentally. It starts with you, as a leader, being intentional about developing relationships with your team and getting to know who they are.

3. Invest into the individuals in your team

After establishing relationship, invest into the individual people on your team. Speak into their future, support them in their dreams, and pray for them. Pastor them and disciple them. Have a coffee with them and see how they’re going.

The people on your team are actual people, with actual lives, who have made an actual sacrifice to help build the church. Do what you can do to honor them and to help them on their journey. Remember they are more valuable than the tasks they do.

At the end of the day, the effectiveness of your kid’s ministry is not based on the skillfulness of the preacher or the songs you’re singing, although they are certainly important. Your kid’s ministry will ultimately only be as strong as your team.

Do what you can to ensure that your kids ministry team is healthy, so that together with your team you can build the church, and help children to encounter Jesus for themselves.

Nathan

This thought was originally shared during a Kids Ministry training session hosted by Nathan Mclean and our Hillsong Kids team during our ‘Online Open Week’ in February 2016. Online Open Week is your opportunity to receive impartation and training direct from the Hillsong team through live webinars.

If you would like to watch the full recording or find out more about future events from the Hillsong Leadership Network, click below.