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A female children's ministry director sits in a meeting with church leaders to make sure her ministry is in alignment.
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5-Point Guide to Check Your Ministry’s Alignment to the Church

If your ministry isn’t in alignment with your church, you’re going to hit some big potholes along the way…

Do you feel as though your church is going in a direction that interferes with your children’s ministry goals? Perhaps it’s your ministry that’s actually out of alignment.

Are you willing to do what it takes to correct these issues? This five-point diagnostic guide will help you keep your ministry pointed in the right direction.

Alignment Check 1. Check for Mission Drift

Your children’s ministry’s mission needs to complement your church’s mission. A mission statement explains “why” your congregation decided to do church together.

Set your ministry’s mission statement next to your church’s mission statement. Look at the wording of your church’s mission statement. Is your mission statement worded in a way that would help a prospective volunteer understand that your ministry exists to support what your church at large is about?

To ensure that your mission statement is closely aligned with your church’s, consider borrowing usable words and phrases from your church’s mission statement. If your church calls a disciple, a “fully devoted follower of Christ,” then write about wanting to “grow children into fully devoted followers of Christ” or “equipping parents to raise fully devoted followers of Christ.”

If your church doesn’t have a mission statement, show your children’s ministry mission statement to your senior pastor for review. Let your pastor know that you want to create a children’s ministry that supports the efforts of the Big Church. Follow up by asking if the mission statement needs the approval of any governing bodies before you unroll it to all your volunteers.

If your church has a mission statement and your ministry doesn’t, then form one with your team that supports the efforts of the whole church. As you train your volunteers in your mission statement, highlight how your ministry’s mission contributes to your church’s aims. Your volunteers will be energized when they realize they’re joining a movement much bigger than themselves.

Alignment Check 2. Diagnose Common Core Values

Core values describe how a ministry goes about its business. For example, a church with a core value of “creativity” will emphasize programs such as drama and music in its worship service. An enforced core value of “excellence” should result in staff and volunteers who crisply execute their roles.

Approach your senior leadership to see what core values your church has adopted. Take these core values to your children’s ministry team and discuss what your ministry would look like if these values were the

most important qualities that your ministry pursued. Evaluate what types of training you’d need to equip your team to embody these values.

If your church hasn’t developed an articulate set of core values, don’t fret! Your church does have core values; it just hasn’t identified them yet. To find your church’s core values, interview a large segment of your congregation with these two questions: “What attracted you to our church?” and “Why do you keep coming back?” You’ll quickly identify four or five qualities that define your congregation. Your job is to make sure these qualities define your ministry as well.

Don’t be afraid to have a few extra core values that define how your children’s ministry should be done.  Children’s ministry generally pays more attention to educational and developmental concerns in children.

Alignment Check 3. Map the Same Pathway

Many churches use a tool called a ministry pathway for their church members to monitor their progress along their spiritual journeys. Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, is famous for its baseball-diamond metaphor. Saddleback’s members know what the church expects of them. Their task is to “run the bases” by
attending certain courses that equip them spiritually. Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, prescribes a seven-step pathway. A person begins by visiting the church and moves toward serving in meaningful ministry.

Think of a ministry pathway in educational terms. Develop 12 manageable tasks to accomplish-one for each grade. Discipleship is a lifelong journey. By providing milestones along the way, your church can keep its disciples from becoming overwhelmed.

Check to see if your church has a ministry pathway. If so, consider creating a kid-friendly version to help your kids understand spiritual growth. Grace Baptist Church in Erie, Pennsylvania, uses a Three Bridge pathway. Every adult is responsible to build a bridge to God (transformation), a bridge to the world (evangelism), and a bridge to the church (mobilization). Our children’s ministry is currently reorganizing its services and programs in a way that helps children understand that it’s their job to also build these three bridges in their lives.

Alignment Check 4. Listen for Similar Music

Out of the thousands of Christian songs that’ve been sung over the course of 2,000 years, your church has chosen several dozen of those songs that reflect its culture. These songs have the power to evoke deep emotional responses within people. Some songs remind your congregation of times of victory. Teardrops stain the pages of hymns sung to comfort during the mourning of a loved one now in heaven. These songs forge the culture of your church. Do these songs shape your kids’ faith at all?

By sharing common songs with the adult ministry, you can help your kids and volunteers feel unified with Big Church. Your children can enter the worship service and have some sense of mastery over what’s going on in the worship center. New volunteers can enter your ministry without everything being totally new to them.

Whether you align your worship ministry by adding a few hymns or adult praise and worship songs, make the music kid-friendly. You can find kids’ worship CDs filled with hymns that crank up the bass and drums. Alignment is a good thing. However, don’t prioritize alignment over being learner-based. Turning children’s church into an adult worship service is counterproductive. Work for just enough commonality so that it’s noticeable.

Alignment Check 5. Build a Reflective Infrastructure

Every church has some form of a constitution that outlines how decisions get made. The constitution prescribes how people should organize themselves into the groups needed to get the job done. Some churches organize in boards and committees, while other churches prefer to organize around teams. What’s the difference between boards, committees, and teams?

Many churches that were established more than 25 years ago use the board system. The church delegates major functions of the church to several committees. These committees report to one central board for accountability. The board model values strong checks and balances, formalized procedures, and task orientation. What the board system gains in stability and accountability, it loses in speed and efficiency.

Younger churches tend to use a team model to shape their organization. The team model biases toward speed, flexibility, and community. The model acknowledges the relational needs of its members and attempts to meet some of them.

Do your organizational flow charts mirror the infrastructure of the Big Church? Attempting to operate a team-oriented ministry in a board-driven church could create the perception that the children’s ministry operates impulsively without discipline. Attempting to operate your children’s ministry with the formality of the board system in a team-driven church will create the impression that children’s ministry is slow, rigid, and unresponsive.

By aligning your children’s ministry with the organizational culture of your church, you’ll promote a harmonious environment because you use a common process. This builds trust, which, by the way, comes in handy during budget season.


Larry Shallenberger is a children’s minister in Erie, Pennsylvania, and the author of Instant Puppet Skits: Big Hairy Issues Kids Face (Group Publishing, Inc.). 

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