What, in God’s Name, is going on around here? (Pt. 2)

When it comes to children and youth ministries in our church, the consensus seems to be the more the merrier. We love seeing our children in church. We love seeing their smiling faces. We love hearing the noises they make when they’re here. We love watching them learn and grow and we love sharing the love of Christ with each and every one of them.

I was asked this morning for solid numbers for how many children we have in the congregation…or potentially have within our faith family. I responded to this individual, but thought you, too, might like to know. For several years now I’ve kept a roster of sorts for all the children who are members of this church through their own professions of faith as well as those who are still too young for that important step, but are here somewhat regularly with family members. Here’s how our numbers break down…

• We have 8 children who are nursery or pre-school aged children.
• We have 16 children in the elementary school age range.
• We have 6 Middle Schoolers.
• We have 15 High Schoolers (7 of whom will graduate in the spring.)

These are our realistic numbers, though you will not ever see even the majority of them all here on any given Sunday…which is completely normal given the program crammed lives our kids lead these days.

Statistically it takes 5 adults (not counting parents and grandparents) to invest an interest in the faith formation of every child if we are to have ANY chance at keeping these kids involved in the church into their adult years. Churches value strong leadership to lead and guide her people. Dare we say our very life depends on it?!? Our clergy, elders, deacons, moderators, officers, Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, all of us, need to be individuals deeply rooted in our faith if we are to be effective leaders and guides for our children and youth. Our children and youth need to be present and active in as many aspects of the church’s ministries in order to become deeply rooted in our faith.

If we take seriously that 5:1 ratio we need approximately 225 individuals in the congregation intimately involved in building relationships with our children and youth…the ones you aren’t related to. Granted, most adults can build relationships with more than one youth at a time, so we can cut that number down a bit…but if we cut it in half we are still at 113 (we won’t be slicing anyone into halves). 113 individuals in our church should be (1) talking to (2) sharing with (3) asking questions of and (4) getting to know all our children and youth. How many of these 45 kids do you know details about? How many of these 45 kids can you call out by name? How many of these kids are you reaching out to when they aren’t here? How many of these kids are you celebrating with when there is an accomplishment in their lives? How many of these kids do you greet with a smile on a Sunday morning?

These are the kinds of things we continually question of ourselves and pray to God for guidance on because these kids are incredibly important to us.

Blessings,
Tracy