Warm bodies, check. Clean rooms, check. Organized Curriculum, check. Most of the time, that
is what we think of when we think about the environment to help Sunday ministry leaders
grow. However, if we never step back and craft some new environments for Kids Ministry
Leadership development, we won’t have the team of volunteers we (and our kids) so
desperately need. Here are 4 essential environments you should create to help develop kids
min leaders.

Annual Conferences
Once a year it is essential to cast a grand vision for the ministry and where you are headed
together as a team of kids’ ministry leaders. This is a time to celebrate their accomplishments,
both individually and organizationally, and inspire your leadership to make this next year their
best year of ministry. Every year, we host our Kids S.T.E.P. (service training and encouragement
party) where we gather everyone involved in kids’ ministry and inspire them with thoughtful
gifts, specialized training, and most importantly a customized vision for this next year of
ministry together. You could organize this by theme, but we have found it is best to hone our
leadership where they need the most help. It can be a lot of work, but an annual conference
provides your team with a wider perspective on the ministry that they share together and
inspires your team to know and minister to children together.

Front Doors
Not everyone you meet is ready to jump headlong into kids’ ministry. Most people I talk to
who have never done ministry with children are unsure of what it takes (and whether or not
they might get eaten!) Providing a variety of front door ministries can help deepen your
‘leadership well’ before it runs dry. These ministries can vary from church to church, but are
often based on tasks that you as the leader can easily hand off to someone else. Things like
starting up the rooms with media and music, running a kids check-in kiosk, maintaining a
teacher’s resource area, or helping organize all those items you need for your next special
event. These front door environments are one way to get someone around kids and leaders
who love kids – that is a powerful combination!

Experimental Opportunities
Most of the time the only people who like experimenting are artists and mad scientists, but in
kids min, this environment is essential for allowing God some room to work in His mysterious
ways. I’m not suggesting that you allow the ministry to go off the rails, but crafting an
opportunity to try something new with an untested hypothesis can grow leaders in ways you
never thought possible. The norm for most of my ministry life for the summer mid-week
gatherings has been thematically based, pastoral led, volunteer supported ministry. This year, I
purposely stepped back and put a novice as the main face of our mid-week ministry and I
want to say, God used him greatly! Was it perfect, no. Did he do it the way I would have, no.
Was it as polished and slick as it would have been if I did it, no. However, it worked and kids
grew in the Word and more poignantly, he grew tremendously as a leader. By crafting some
experimental environments, you can allow for some extraordinary (and unexpected) growth.

Mentorship Training
If you only try to train your leaders from a stage or leave all your leadership development to
“on-the-job” training, you will end up always relying on those “seasoned helpers” and find it
hard to grow your next leadership team. The amount of ministry will grow, but your leadership
won’t keep pace and it will eventually stress out your leadership teams. It is important that
you take a mentorship role and set aside time throughout the year to mentor your leadership
personally. Setting up a scheduled time to meet with each of your leaders, hear their needs
and desires, and help guide them to their next level of leadership will help create an
environment of trust and encouragement. Taking time to personally invest in your team and
share your heart with them will help create an environment that reproduces your values into
others.