Don't forget the little ones

One of my major mistakes in Youth Ministry was forgetting the little ones.  For the most part a majority of my time was spent with kids aged 12-18+.  It was my “job” title as a Youth Director to spend time with “Youth”.  In my head that meant that I didn’t see the kids until they were 12 and sometimes older depending on the circumstances.   This created a disparity between the kids who were coming up and the ones that I had already established relationships with.

At our church we have a strong children’s ministry that can see upwards of 50 kids on a Sunday morning.  Not once in 6 years did I darken the door of the kids main ministry center and left getting to know them to when they finally made the trek “upstairs” on a Friday night.   If I were to go back and do it again I would make sure to integrate myself more into the kids’ lives at a younger age.  I don’t think it was something that needed to occur on a weekly basis, but getting to know the kids at younger age would have taken things much farther much quicker.

Youth ministry is all about relationship, and relationship takes a lot of work.  By spending a small amount of time with kids who are going to be in your ministry in a year or two, I believe you can accelerate the relationship building which will then allow you to speak into their lives at a much younger age.  Don’t make the same mistake I did and forget the younger ones. 

A couple quick tips:

1. Talk to the Parents – I’ve already wrote an entire blog on this, but talk to the parents of the kid who is coming up to youth in the next couple years.  See where they are at, and how they are dealing with a soon to be teenager.  
2. Spend Time with the Kids – Take a few moments every couple months to just talk with the kids who are in that 10 to 11 age bracket.  They’ll probably surprise you with how they see the world.
3. Work on integration – Growing into adolescence is a hard enough time for a kid without the added pressure of moving into a new group of people.  Make sure you spend some time researching and preparing the transition period for youngest of your group.

Integrating new kids into your ministry can be a difficult process for some.  If you have a healthy kid’s ministry behind you, it is something that will happen every year.  Make sure you develop a plan to work with whoever is charge of the kids and do what you can to help ease the transition between the two different environments.