3 Ideas for Raising Kid Leaders in Your Children’s Ministry

Are you raising leaders in your children’s ministry? Most formal leadership training doesn’t even begin before the age of 25, when corporations provide staff with assessments, coaching, and training. Helping your kids grow as leaders will prepare them for the world, give them tools to help others, and grow stronger in a team. Here are some ideas that you can use to help raise leaders for God today.

3 Ideas for Raising Kid Leaders in Your Children’s Ministry

1. Servant Leadership

It’s crucial to remember the fact that Jesus was a servant leader. The leaders you raise should be willing to get involved and help others. Encourage team building by giving kids a service project and letting them figure out how to do it. Allow them to come up with a plan and figure out the steps to make a difference. Later, you can start challenging your kids to come up with their own service project ideas. This helps them start looking for ways they can make a difference every day.

2. Talents and Gifts

We want kids to know that God made them uniquely. Leadership training can get that point across. Kids learn what their spiritual gifts, hidden talents, and special abilities are in order to think about how they can use them in a team setting. When you teach your kids how to be leaders, they also learn to see other people’s skills and abilities. This helps kids work together as a team—not only at church, but at school and in sports. By doing a quick search online, you can find hundreds of self-tests that kids can use to find their leadership styles. But if you spend a lot of time with them, you may already know what talents they have. Give kids responsibilities around the church. Have the artistic ones create signs and flyers for upcoming events. Let the actors come up with a skit to start Sunday school. Let kids lead in areas they enjoy.

3. Tips and Tricks

Little things you do while working with your kids can help develop their leadership skills. A quick tip: Mix age levels and genders. Younger kids will look up to older kids as examples, and the mixed-gender group will match what they see in the real world. Also, any time you can step back and let kids take the lead, either by having them lead the discussion or taking an active role in praise, that gives them more time to take ownership of their faith growth.

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