God has allowed me to serve the Children’s Ministry for 24 years. I have seen, heard, and experienced many things about children’s ministry. Let me share that when God called me at a young age, I wasn’t married, and I didn’t have any children. The only experience I had was taking care of my three siblings as the oldest child. Serving children and becoming a preschool teacher was not in my plans at all. My dream career was in administration or dancing. God definitely had other plans. And when God calls, we obey!

One of the most common things I have heard during my ministry is that “Children are just children. They just need people to take care of the children. They’re babysitters; they don’t need experience or training. In fact, what we need is for the children to be separate from the adults so they can worship without interruption and hear the word of God without noise.” However, Matthew 19:14 says, “But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'”

You see, when people (parents, grandparents, siblings, neighbors) wanted to bring children to Jesus so that he might put His hands on them and pray, the disciples rebuked them. I imagine the disciples telling the children’s families, “Don’t bother the teacher. Jesus teaches, Jesus preaches, Jesus prays for the sick. He has important things to do. He has no time for children.” The disciples also thought that children are “just children.” Why would they need Jesus? You see, Jesus was ministering to adults with needs, illnesses, mental and emotional sicknesses – people with real issues and with real needs. If the adults were broken, sick, and had real issues, we can only imagine what future they offered to their children. These children definitely needed Jesus!

“Let the little children come to me…”
Children are important to Jesus. Because children are important to Jesus, they should be important to us. Children’s ministry isn’t necessary because it’s a great idea to have children separated so Jesus can minister to the adults. Children’s ministry is essential because Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.”

Jesus is interested in children getting to know Him, learning about Him, and, above all, having a relationship with Him. The phrase “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” is an expression Jesus frequently used in his parables to emphasize the importance of paying attention and striving to understand the deeper meaning of what he is saying, especially regarding the Kingdom of God. Jesus was emphasizing the importance of seeing children as important as any other adult Jesus was ministering to.

“Do not hinder them…”
Children’s ministry is NOT a place of babysitting. It is a ministry with PURPOSE. In 2018, my family moved to the Owings Mills area. When I was pregnant with my son Isaac, we started attending a new church in our denomination. I started the children’s ministry from nothing – no chairs, tables, curriculum, and no volunteers. When I requested some resources, I was denied. I was told I needed to raise funds on my own. I asked parents and the congregation to donate tables and chairs, and only a few said yes. So I started raising funds through several channels, but the one that worked the best was yard sales. We bought chairs, tables, toys, and curriculum materials for the children. I asked myself many times, “Why? Why didn’t the church prioritize the children?”

We hinder our children when

  • The church limits or refuses resources and space for the children to learn about Jesus.
  • We consider them as “just children.”
  • We ourselves do not go to Jesus.
  • We fail to foster Christ-centered conversation, teaching at home.
  • We fail to live with integrity.
  • We fail to trust God and hold fast to His promises.
  • We fail to love and forgive like Jesus.

I started recruiting volunteers, training them, and opening classrooms according to age. The ministry was growing and succeeding. To God be the Glory!
BUT In 2018, I was removed from being the Director of the Children’s Ministry because I needed to oversee the middle schoolers. I expressed that I would rather train, teach, and prepare someone else for the middle schoolers. But the director responded, “We don’t need more training sessions and conferences. We just need coloring pages and toys to keep them distracted during the service time.” My heart was broken.

“For to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus includes children in his kingdom. Jesus wants children to spend eternity with him. God simply wants children to learn about Him so that He can be part of their growth and have a relationship with them so that He can help them throughout their lives. This way, no matter the experiences they have in life, they can be safe in God. Children don’t need to be adults or have a mature mind to be able to know the Kingdom of God. It is now – at this moment.

I love reading Psalm 78 when I need to remember why God called me to serve in the Children’s Ministry. It’s a reflection on the history of Israel, written to teach present and future generations about God’s faithfulness, the importance of obedience, and the need to learn from past mistakes. I praise God that I now serve at Bridgeway, where we DO prioritize the children, we disciple them, we share Christ-centered conversation tips with parents, and show them the love and forgiveness of Christ.

Join me in my prayer for the stirring of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of our children so that they will be drawn to make their home in God, “so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands” (Psalm 78:6-7).

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