Emma DaShiell  Children’s Ministry Coordinator Cherry Street Baptist Church, Springfield, Missouri

If your ministry is anything like ours, we are finally taking a brief exhale after the first week of attempting to digitize everything we do. Our entire staff became a production team in a matter of days. With the first week of COVID-19 precautions under our belts, we are now diligently working to figure out what each ministry looks like. Our number one priority is connection. Children’s ministry is no exception. While we absolutely want to stay connected with the kids in our ministry, we have to remember that we also serve their families as well as our volunteer corps. What does this look like during shelter in place orders and social distancing? It looks like a lot of creativity and “out of the box” ideas. I’ve shared below ideas I’m working on for each facet.

• • Kids
• • • Host Zooms with Sunday School classes/groups of children
  • • Sword drills
    • Bible Trivia games
    • Drawing tutorials
    • Read a story
    • Just let them talk to each other
  • • Challenges (send in pictures to post)
  • • Blanket fort challenge
    • Cleanest bedroom challenge
    • Coloring contest (same picture they can all download from your website)
    • Lego challenge
  • • Snail mail
  • • Postagram (app that allows you to mail picture postcards)
    • Notes of encouragement
    • Coloring/Activity pages
    • Chain letters that make their rounds around the class/ministry
  • • At Home Egg Hunt - modifying our original Egg Hunt plans.  Making take home bags that the kids can do and post pictures of.
• • Parents
• • • Provide Bible lessons weekly
  • • Lifeway has released temporarily all 3 of their Sunday School curricula for at home use.  https://curriculum.lifeway.com/#/search
    • Create your own (Be mindful of copyright restrictions)
  • • Family scripture challenge
    • Share family activities on website and Facebook page
    • Check in on each family weekly (utilizing our volunteers to help)
• • Volunteers
• • Ask for their help to stay connected with the kids in their classes and ministries.
  • Host a Zoom prayer meeting for kids in their ministries
  • Develop trainings you can host on Zoom
  • Utilize tools like Ministry Grid for training at their own pace. It is a self-paced, customizable training platform resource from LifeWay. Trainings for almost all aspects of ministry available (Pastoral care, greeting teams, children’s ministry, youth ministry, etc. https://ministrygrid.com/) 
  • Continue to vision cast for when we can all meet again. Using a collaborative google doc or zoom meeting.
  • Take time to write a personal thank you to each of them (you have plenty of time).

I am personally so encouraged by the abundance of resources that have become available whether it’s being able to eat breakfast with otters or listen to worship concerts in artist’s living rooms.  Everyone is trying to offer what they can in attempts to make a difficult time sweeter. While we want to offer every resource possible to our families during this time, remember that we are all trying to figure this out. We still want to figure out how to provide continuity in our ministries like Awana, Good News Club, and Bus Ministry. We are working on this one step at a time.  More than ever, we need each other as resources. What are ways you are staying connected to your kids, families, and volunteers?  

emma@mycsbc.com