Re: Ideas for Children’s Ministry
Thought I would post a reply to an email enquiry we just got, might make for interesting reading if you are that way inclined! (edited for brevity)
—– Original Message —–
From: D G
To: David Wakerley
Sent: Thu May 15 06:04:47 2008
Subject: Ideas for Children’s ministry
…We are trying to enhance and improve our children’s ministry so we would like to learn more about what you do and seek your wisdom… we want to learn even more so that we can increase, and we know that’s exactly what continues to go on at your church… INCREASE! Are your age groups separated or together and what do you think has worked best for you? Also, how many volunteers do you usually try to have for each service and if you don’t mind me asking, how many payed staff do you have on your children’s team? We would love to learn as much as we can from you! Your ministry is an incredible blessing to churches world wide!
——– Reply ———-
D,
Thanks for your email, I hope I can answer your questions!
Little bit of background: We have two major campuses and 14 extension services (at present) We don’t have permanent facilities here at any venue, except for a couple of ‘nursery’ rooms. So at this point we work with what we have… We separate age groups as much as possible for each campus.
Parenting Rooms 0-12months
Cubbyhouse 1-3 years
The Ark 3-5 years
Funhouse 5 & 6 year olds
All Stars 7,8,9 year olds
Voltage 10,11 year olds
We started Voltage (preteen) ministry this year (10-11 year old) and it has been an incredible momentum builder. A bunch of kids that weren’t really engaged are now LOVING church and building relationships with other kids and
leaders.
We try to break down each age group as much as possible, one of the goals we are working toward right now is to get every child ministered to through small groups, not just on weekends, but that they would know and identify one leader as their KDG (Kids Discipleship Group) leader.
Okay there are 8 services in the City campus on a weekend and 5 at the hills campus (almost 30 services with all extension services), so the number of leaders varies widely depending on the time… (9:30am in the city is large, 7pm Sat is not etc.)
There are 9 people on the kids staff, a bunch more if you include interns etc.
Your ratio of kids to adults is about 14% on a weekend which is great!
Check out http://hillsongkidsbig.com for our curriculum coming soon!
Not sure how helpful all that is, but please email me anytime!
Kind Regards,
David Wakerley
Children’s Pastor - City Campus
Hillsong Church
188 Young St
Waterloo NSW 2017
Australia
Ph: +61 2 9775 3642
