If you want to know the air temperature, read a thermometer. Wondering if you have enough gas for your commute? Check the fuel gauge. Has cutting out carbohydrates worked? The scale won’t lie. Measurements and standards provide us with an objective method to examine something and determine how much change has occurred. Even in church work. This article focuses on a reliable tool to help children’s ministries see their effectiveness.
It’s a simple tool; just look at the children. So that’s what we’ll do—look at some real kids. The challenge, though, is to determine exactly what to look for. Well-behaved? Nope—that’s not the answer because it can be temporary. Attendance? No, it’s too dependent on parents—kids can’t drive themselves to church. Ability to recite scripture? Nice start, but short term memory doesn’t always last. Changed lives? Now you’re talking!
Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” In ministry, we want to look at our kids and see changes that should accompany new creations. What does this change look like? That’s one big question. And there are five answers.
The Great Commandment, Matthew 23:37, guides us toward what should be seen: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” In other words, full devotion to Him—a concept that is simple to say, but not as simple to see. This very real challenge to identify full devotion in a person’s life prompted the creation of indicators called the 5G’s—Grace, Growth, Groups, Gifts, and Good Stewardship.
In this article and in two future articles, we’ll examine what each of the 5G’s looks like in real children because kid-sized full devotion is what really counts in children’s ministry. Of course other indicators might exist—the important point here is the value of having something that you deliberately watch. To that end, if you look at the children in your ministry and see the 5G’s in action, then you have a reliable gauge to determine your ministry’s effectiveness.
So we’ll look at the stories of children that highlight one G at a time, beginning with the G that serves as a prerequisite for the others. Additional stories and the other four Gs will follow in articles to come.
Grace
Romans 3:23-24 says “Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” So ministry effectiveness becomes apparent when you see kids accept God’s gift by giving their lives to Christ.
But don’t stop looking, because another side of grace exists. God expects Christ followers to become His priests and to tell others about Him (1 Peter 2:9). So this G is seen in kids who accept grace and then go on to share it with friends and family—quite a beautiful picture.
One evening at bedtime, five-year-old Erica asked her dad, “What does heaven look like?” They shared imaginative ideas for a while, until she asked, “How do you get there?” Dad briefly explained the salvation plan using kid-friendly words, including references to aspects of God and salvation that she had already learned at church.
In her mind, Erica decided that the opportunity to have a relationship with Jesus was just too good to pass up. So she admitted to God in a prayer that she was sorry for the wrong things she does. She then told Him that she believed Jesus agreed to be in trouble for her when He died on the cross, and that she wanted to follow Jesus the rest of her life. News of her decision thrilled people in the ministry she attends. And this grace story gets better.
Erica began to wonder about her buddy Lisa. She knew how great it felt to have a relationship with Jesus, and to know that she would go to heaven one day. She wanted her best friend to feel the same thing. Because the thought “What about Lisa?” kept going through her mind, eventually she made it her mission to find out. She decided to start with someone who generally knows everything—mom.
“Do you think Lisa has Jesus in her heart?” Erica asked.
“I don’t know,” said mom. “That’s something only Lisa and God know for sure.”
The next day the two girls spent time together after school. As they chatted and played pretend with dolls, Erica’s mother heard her daughter ask a matter-of-fact question: “Lisa, do you have Jesus in your heart?”
“I don’t know,” replied Lisa. “Maybe?”
Because Lisa’s response wasn’t a definitive “Yes,” Erica decided to invite her friend to church. “We’ll have fun together and she can learn about Jesus,” Erica told her parents. “You know, she really needs to be sure about Jesus.”
Application Questions
The grace G is easy to notice in Erica—confidence in her own salvation along with a heart for others to know Jesus that results in action. Your ministry can determine how well it’s impacting this G in kids by answering two questions.
1. Do kids in your ministry give their lives to Jesus Christ? This happens when you:
- Regularly present the salvation plan and give kids a chance to respond. Kids should experience creative, relevant gospel presentations—which translates into a non-negotiable demand to place on your curriculum.
- Include time for children to make a decision and pray to start a relationship with Jesus, versus simply presenting information for kids to learn.
- Coach adults on how to share their testimony and the basics of salvation in a child-sensitive manner.
When these elements are in place, develop the discipline of counting each life-changing decision so that you know if effectiveness is rising or falling.
2. Do kids in your ministry invite non-churched friends to church? You can catalyze the invitation process by challenging your Christian kids to list their non-Christian friends by name. Follow this exercise by asking children to think about ways they might use to reach people on their lists. Erica’s story shows that evangelism, or sharing the gift of grace, starts with kids who have hearts to find out if their friends are sure about Jesus.
If you answered “yes” to the two questions above, then you have seen this G in action while looking at your children. However, if you answered “maybe,” then your new priority is to make it a “yes.” Ministries with a desire to be effective—for the sake of kids like Lisa—must regularly see God’s grace accepted and shared.
Susan Shadid is the Director of Training for Promiseland, the children’s ministry at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois.
David Staal, senior editor of Today’s Children’s Ministry, serves as the president of Kids Hope USA, a national non-profit organization that partners local churches with elementary schools to provide mentors for at-risk students. Prior to this assignment, David led Promiseland, the children’s ministry at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois. David is the author of Words Kids Need to Hear (2008) and lives in Grand Haven, MI, with his wife Becky, son Scott, and daughter Erin.
Copyright © 2005 Promiseland.