Ministry with Children in Church
Before you begin choosing curriculum, calling teachers, and preparing classrooms, let me invite you to step back and consider the many ways in which your congregation ministers to children and to the ways in which children minister to your congregation.
Faith development happens in classrooms, but also in worship, in fellowship, celebration and in play.
The tools below are designed to foster conversation among your congregation about ministry with children and families. Spending time as a whole parish community, envisioning and recommitting yourself to your children's ministries, will lay the foundation for a robust Sunday school program—and make faithful and joyful disciples of the adults and children who will learn together.
Children's Charter (PDF Document)
This study guide, the fruit of seven years of collaboration among Episcopal educators nationwide, is designed to engage a whole congregation deeply in Christ's mandate. Its study of Jesus' interactions with children leads the church to conclude that children are central in the life of the church. As congregations work with the vision and goals of the Children's Charter for the Church, they find that teams of local congregations begin sharing ideas, advocacy, and ministry; that Christian educators work with child advocates in new ways; and the whole worshipping community becomes committed to accepting children as full participants in the body of Christ.
Authority of Generations (PDF Document)
This is a worshipful process for congregational program development which invites all ages—including children—to participate in decision-making. Designed as an alternative structure for a congregational committee meeting, it can also be used for vestry meetings and by program groups and ministry teams.
Awake My Soul (PDF Document)
This resource grew out of the 1998 National Conference on Children's Ministries. The first section is an introduction of some theological assumptions and tools for the design of liturgy as well as the full inclusion of all in the community of faith. The second is a collection of prayers, readings, and litanies developed for the 1998 National Conference on Children's Ministries, which may be useful to you in your own worship planning.
Choosing How to Choose (PDF Document)
Logos Productions offers a simple process for selecting curriculum based on the specific needs of your church. Designed to help choose and adapt Logos curricula, the last three pages, "Weighing Curriculum Alternatives", is well structured and easily adaptable. (Note that the Department for Faith Formation has not evaluated and, consequently, cannot recommend the Logos Productions curricula to which this document refers. We commend this document for its process, not its product.)
"Since the beginning of Christianity, and long before Sunday schools were established, children were nurtured in their faith formation. They came to know God and learned to be ministers of the Gospel, even as children. This model of Christian nurture reflects the ancient approach to child rearing in which a whole community took upon the task of initiating children into its customs, beliefs and way of life."
From "Implementing a Children's Charter for the Church"
For the last 200 years the predominant model of children's ministries has been the Sunday school. Its original purpose was to provide a setting for literacy and then to use that opportunity to help children know about the Bible. If you were to invite members of your own congregation to share their best childhood experiences of church, you would probably hear dozens of memories of beloved Bible stories and the teachers who told them. Sunday school can be a wonderful way to develop and nurture faithful children. But it is not the only way.