How do you get parents more involved in children's ministry?
How do you respond to a person who drops their child off in the nursery and then goes HOME, not to worship but HOME????
How do you get parents to volunteer in SS when adult SS is going on at the same time, even if they only need to volunteer once or twice a semester?
How do you get parents to stay occasionally on Wednesday nights to help out at a Midweek program instead of saying, "yeah, but this is the only time I can get things done"?
How do we show well meaning people that CM is important for more reasons than just because they raise adult numbers in worship and because they are the "future" (nevermind the present)?
Maybe I'm too idealistic. Maybe it's because my parents were children's ministers and PTA members and youth group helpers and roomparents and choir parents and..." I dunno.
I'm blessed with a load of great volunteers who come every week and who juggle hundreds of volunteer responsibilities from teaching, leading childrens' choirs, handbells, shepherding, decorating and even baking cookies! But those people are the parents of a handful of kids. Where are the other 85%?
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3 comments:
I know what you mean. I have always had a hard time getting volunteers and it has always been my feeling that parents should be at the front of the line to volunteer (ok, there's no line). I also resent this idea that children are the bait to get the parents to come, because they are the important members.
I have had some success at convincing the church that children's ministry is important. Get the kids in front of the adults once in awhile, presenting something, like what they have learned. we have done this a couple of times. After the first time things really changed. The pastors started talking about the importance of children in the service. The kids are occasionally called to the front to pray for others. Then I was asked to preach once and, boy, did I give it to them. The children are the most important members of the kingdom, today, not in the future.
Just recently I had 2 people volunteer in the space of a week. that has never happened. Nether one is a parent. but both are quality people so I am happy with that.
Oh do I hear and understand and agree with your frustration - all of it! What to do? I think we all know the logistical answers, a lot of the stuff that Kellie suggested, the stuff we read on blogs and in kids min magazines and leadership books. But more and more I am convinced that it is God who does the heart work - all we do is ask and call on His behalf. Maybe it's the easy way out to be "all spiritual" but we can run ourselves ragged with marketing ploys, clever recruiting campaigns, endless striving to have attractive programs. It comforts me to know that it all rests in God's great big capable hands!
When I was a parent with 5 little kids SS was during service. Volunteering and teaching Sunday school, sometimes more than I went to service, I have to say that most of the people who volunteered where parents who loved kids anyway. They were people who would probably be working with kids whether they were parent volunteers or not. Some of them did it just to be involved with the things their kids were doing. Some left it to other people just because they needed a break.
Parents are used to dropping off kids. "I'm not a teacher." "I have other more important work to do." "I need a window of time when I can get things done. My house is a mess." The list goes on and the needs may be legitimate.
Do parents have legitimate needs that the community can meet? Do they have social wounds that need healing? Do people (parents and not) have legitimate reasons why they don't volunteer that we can address? Or do we need to change the way they think about children and ministering to children? If so what are the thoughts and ideas that need to change? How do we do we attack that with love and respect?
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