Equipping kids as leaders begins with making space for them to serve. Giving opportunity for children to lead also means you as a leader have to become vulnerable. As desperate as those of us in children’s ministry are for help, we are sometimes our own worst enemy when it comes to giving up control and trusting others to oversee responsibilities. That apprehension is multiplied when we think of giving responsibility to children. 

When I started in Kidmin, volunteers, as always, were in short supply, yet a challenge was posed to me to “raise up a team.” I took that statement literally and imagined investing time into a generation of children to produce adult leaders that fully grasped the heartbeat of what I felt God was calling us to do. 

We began by giving our upper-elementary students leadership roles in our Pre-K classes. They do a great job with high energy songs with motions, playing with the children, setting up snacks, running media, helping with crafts, and even cleaning up. There have been times that they have even assisted in teaching a portion of the lesson and doing puppetry. Our upper-elementary students are just old enough that our preschool children respect them, yet young enough to be able to crawl on the floor, jump around, and play. 

Once our upper-elementary leaders are promoted to our Jr. High ministry, we give them the opportunity to begin leading in our elementary class. At this point they begin helping in the same way as they did in Pre-K, just on a larger scale. 

Our leadership program has been successful over the years producing quality young adults who know exactly what we expect. We have been challenged over the past year to provide an opportunity for our kindergarten through third-grade students to begin their leadership journey. The first step we offer is to be a part of our prayer team. Each week’s prayer requests are sent via text message to their parents’ phone, and they reply to let us know that they have prayed about the need. It has been successful so far with a lot of very positive feedback from parents! 

The next phase of our new leadership program will teach children how to share their faith and study the Bible. Our goal is to use these leaders on Sundays and Wednesdays as a prayer team during our services. 

I had a very encouraging moment after a Wednesday night service when two of our upper-elementary leaders presented me with a binder entitled “Our Future.” In it they had laid out their plan for their kids ministry! They had developed a name, rules, mission statement, T-shirt design, programming ideas, schedule, and had even listed their goals! Those little moments further reinforce the fact that we as Kidmin leaders are responsible to help cultivate the gifts within our kids.