As I write this post, I can already hear the responses being formulated, mainly quoting 1 Timothy 5:18, ” For the Scripture says: Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain, and “The worker is worthy of his wages.”” (CSB)
I am in no way saying that children’s ministry leaders should not be compensated, but I wonder if this trend has hurt children’s ministry. So this post is to generate discussion and simply to share my thoughts and observations.
When I was younger, I had a burden, a passion, a calling to reach children with the Gospel. I did not get “tricked” in to serving, nor did I “fall into it”. I was led there and entered it willingly. In fact, as people would “discourage” me from focusing on children’s ministry, I could not walk away from it.
I served in the small church where I grew up, moving on to a medium sized church with about 600 people. As I served in that church, I began to lead the Awana ministry which had over 100 children and over 30 volunteers serving under my leadership. I did this as a volunteer while I worked a full-time “secular” job. There was a time when I considered seeking full-time children’s ministry and how awesome it would be to have the time to focus all day on reaching children, but that door never opened. The door that did open was helping that church plant a church across the state line where I would help lay the foundation for a strong children’s ministry with a few small families and about 10 children.
After a few years, it was suggested that “the staff” receive a small compensation for serving. While I would have enjoyed receiving compensation, I questioned why it was being offered. The church was not going to get anything more than I was already doing as a volunteer, but it was decided to offer a small compensation. I was now getting paid to run a ministry that was 1/5 the size of a ministry that I ran effectively as a volunteer! My ministry was now a job.
My ministry was now a job.
That is what I am seeing in children’s ministry. Increasingly I am hearing people speak of going to their job (i.e. their office in the church), what their supervisor expects of them, etc. The interview process for the job often looks like the vetting process for a major corporation making sure that the new hire is a good fit for the organization often taking several months. People seeking employment as a Children’s Director/Pastor move from one denomination to another with seemingly little thought about the church’s theological and doctrinal beliefs.
Consequently, if ministry is viewed as a job, then how we measure success changes. We begin to measure success by the number of children who attend an event, or how many participate and do the motions to the songs. We seek visible, job verifying, evidence that our position is needed and effective. Maybe that is why so many are upset when families opt not to attend an event that we plan, because our numbers decrease and we may not be seen as effective. We may see our position in jeopardy. To counter that, we may focus on more fun events and less Biblical teaching in order to draw the numbers sought by our supervisors. Like a salesman needs to meet their sales quotas.
When we view ministry as an occupation, then we can lose focus on why we do what we do. Yes we all want to reach more children, but when we view our current opportunity as a stepping stone to something bigger, there is a problem. If we view full-time paid children’s ministry leaders as “better” or more successful than volunteer ministry leaders, there is a problem.
Churches have begun to lament because they can not find someone to hire to run their children’s ministry. This could be because they are seeking someone for a part time position to move to an area where they have to find a job to compliment that position. It could be because church’s are seeking experience and degrees to fill a position. It could be because churches have stopped looking at capable people in their own membership because they want the “professional”. Have churches stopped equipping people to serve so they must look elsewhere to find someone to serve? Churches now seem to be seeking to fill an open job.
As churches seek vocational children’s ministry leaders, I fear that we begin to minimize the people willing to serve as volunteers.
Potential volunteers may be minimized
A generation ago, when the vocational children’s minister was rare, volunteers led roles as the Christian Education Director, Sunday School Director, etc. Now that we have made children’s ministry a profession, many of these people who might have led and served before now may sit on the sidelines. The church begins to look to the professional to disciple their children and what are the professionals doing? They are telling parents that it is their responsibility to disciple their child, not the professional that is being paid, but also that they (the parents) are failing in their discipleship of their children. After we lament at how poorly parents disciple their own children, we then ask them to help disciple the many children in the church by volunteering. Doesn’t this seem counter-intuitive? Shouldn’t we be encouraging parents, and not criticizing them – especially if they are our “volunteer pool”? A generation ago we did not lament the parents involvement, the church walked alongside them to help disciple the parent and their children. Parents and adults were willing to serve to reach the next generation, and now we have the hired hand to lead them so they sit back and let the professional do their job.
When our church considered paying people to serve in the nursery because we struggled to get volunteers, I pushed back against it because I believed, and had testimonies of others, that it would begin to discourage others from serving without compensation when the person next to them was being paid for the same task. The church opted not to seek paid nursery workers and now we have several adults who willingly serve in the nursery.
Are we discouraging people from serving when there are vocational people leading, especially in a small church?
We can also minimize volunteers when we make serving extremely easy for them by prepping and providing everything they need. Curriculum providers are now marketing their resources as no-prep or low-prep while we lament that volunteers are not putting in time to prepare. Why should they when things are made so easy?
A generation ago, volunteer teachers would take the time to study and prepare to be sure that they were well prepared to teach. As they prepared, they also learned but some have minimized their expectations because after all, they are volunteers and are not getting paid for their time. Seek to equip those serving, and not minimize them with low expectations because they are volunteering.
Doctrine can become secondary
I know people who have moved from a Southern Baptist Church to a Presbyterian Church, from a non-denominational church (leaning toward Baptist beliefs) to a Methodist church, etc. I know people who serve in denominational churches but do not teach those denominational beliefs.
Yes I understand that denominationalism seems to be on the decline and that denominations do not save people, but I struggle with individuals who can move so easily from one denomination to another with such varying theological and doctrinal beliefs for the purpose of a job. How can ministry leaders teach theology and doctrine to the children when they do not hold strong convictions about them. How can we disciple children, and others, to be strong in the faith, to defend their beliefs, when we as leaders jump from one set of beliefs to another for a job?
When we step into a leadership position in a church, then we are saying that we embrace and agree with the doctrine/theology of the church, or denomination. If we do not, then there is a tension, a disunity, from the start which is destined to bring conflict.
Another way that conflict builds is when someone knows that it is time to leave. They sincerely believe that God is saying that their time there is over, yet they seek to leave on their terms, holding on to the job until they can find a new one becasue they need the income. When management (senior leadership) learns of their plans, then they may be asked to leave their position early which then creates hurt. A “spiritual” decision (following God) becomes a business decision when we hold on to a position for the income in lieu of following God’s leading and leaving.
The Big Question…
We talk about the importance of children’s ministry. The big question is, does the person leading children’s ministry need to be compensated in order for the church to have an emphasis on children’s ministry?
If you look at the many children’s ministry Facebook groups, then you would think that the answer is yes.
If you truly believe that the answer is yes, then you have just minimized many people who serve as volunteers giving their all to reach children. You minimize me and say that there was not an emphasis on children’s ministry as I led an Awana club of over 100 children as a volunteer. You minimize the small churches that simply do not have the funds to pay their senior pastor, their only pastor, let alone another staff position.
Now I need to add a disclaimer again. There are times that a paid vocational children’s director/pastor is needed and acceptable. I am not diminishing the vocational position. There are also many in vocational ministry that are not doing it “for the check”. Their heart is to reach children and the vocational position is one way in which God has opened a door for them to reach children with the Gospel.
The question really is if the role of a children’s director/pastor has been mandated to be a vocational position and no longer a volunteer position, especially in a small or medium church; then can a church have a strong focus on children’s ministry even if the children’s director/pastor is not paid?
A couple of years ago a respected children’s ministry leader posted this, “Although volunteers work without pay, they do it to receive something – no one does things for no reason. What are your volunteers receiving?”
This statement re-enforces that vocational people do it for compensation, but what troubled me more was that the statement implies that volunteers serve to receive something. I pushed back on this notion because I serve as a volunteer not to receive, but to give. What I receive is a byproduct because I give and not the reason that I serve. Isn’t a desire to serve God because of what He has done for us sufficient to want to serve, to give, or does one always have to expect something in return? Is the message we are sending that we should always expect to receive something material for serving God? I sure hope not.
So let us consider these questions….
Does the desire to have a paid “professional” position cause us to bypass the members in the church who may serve well as leaders?
Does having a paid person in place, especially in a smaller church, hurt the recruiting of volunteers since there may be an attitude of “that’s what we are paying you to do”?
Does having a volunteer oversee children’s ministry indicate that a church does not take children’s ministry seriously?
Has the emphasis on vocational ministry harmed children’s ministry?
Great article. I agree with you 100%.
Bill, I tend to agree with a lot of what you are saying. I hesitate to agree with all full time vocational Children’s Pastors as not being needed. I think churches that are over 600 and have 100++ kids and 80-90 volunteers need to have someone who can organize, encourage and carry the weight of The ministry (often as much or more than the senior pastor). I do believe that it takes someone who is trained and has experience to carry that our especially if there are over 200 kids and 130-150 volunteers….But there is some consideration to your points even with larger churches. Can we train a team volunteers to be all the roles a Children’s Pastor takes on? I believe it could…and be effective but it would take someone pouring into that team consistently. BTW generous compensation is a good motivator!
Doug,
I agree that as a church grows that a full time vocational pastor is probably needed to organize the ministry. That is why I tried to note that I was not dismissing, nor diminishing, the role of a full time vocational children’s pastor. What I see are churches seeking to hire someone part time, or even full-time and struggling when I wonder why they have not equipped someone in the church to lead (and I realize that some churches may have tried but the people are unwilling).
And yes if a church takes care of the pastor (in whatever role, lead, children’s, youth, etc – if the church is able), then the pastor can better focus on the ministry.
Hi Bill. You make some great points in this article. Regarding your question: Does the desire to have a paid “professional” position cause us to bypass the members in the church who may serve well as leaders?
To me, the factors surround the purpose and intent of the church leadership. If team members are being “replaced” by a professional, that sends a very different message than saying, “we need someone to provide leadership, training, and accountability where we’ve identified a gap that needs to be filled”.
When staff is running programs on Sundays and not training volunteers to take a leadership role, then we have a problem. I’ve been a part of both big and small churches and I’ve seen this where accountability is not provided to staff and they’re allowed to make their own choices good or bad with no accountability. To me, the best mix is a leader who is responsible but uses servant leadership to build up and give ownership away to the volunteer team. I’ve always loved the idea of “working yourself out of a job.”
I agree, a lot has to do with personal motivation. My hope would be that when leadership sees the need for a “professional” (paid staff) that they might look inward to someone already leading, but I realize that in some churches there are not people willing to step up into that role and the church must look outside of its doors.
Whether paid or volunteer, we should always be seeking to “work ourselves out of a job”. A sign of a good leader is when they can be absent and ministry still runs effectively. That shows that they are equipping others for the work of the ministry.