Thoughts on Children’s Ministry (part 7)

If redirecting doesn’t work, try taking the child aside later and honestly asking him/her what is going on in his/her life. Make sure that you really “hear” what the child is saying.

If you try everything positive in your arsenal and nothing works, take them to sit next to their parent in the main service (at an appropriate time during your service). Tell the parent that you would like for their child to have the opportunity to experience church with the parent for the next two weeks. Make this as positive of an experience as you can. (If you have to talk with the parents… but ONLY the main children’s pastor or leader should do the talking. Let the parents know the situation in the most positive way that you can. If necessary, wait until after the service to speak with the parents.)

*This may be the only opportunity that these children have to experience Jesus. You don’t know if you’ll ever see the child in one of your services again. There are so many bad experiences that children have to deal with…make sure that you and your team are providing good experiences. You represent Jesus to them. No matter how difficult a child is, you can put up with anything for a couple of hours!