Make Kids Ministry Fun!
This past week we wrapped up our annual Adventure Camp at our church. What a great week it was! The kids just had a blast and, truth be told, so did the volunteers. It sure is a lot of hard work, and everyone is worn out by the end of the week, but there is no doubt that it is all worth it.
Our Adventure Camp had some really unique features this year. We rented a trailer full of bouncy houses, which was a huge hit. Our theme was time travel, and we had a wacky looking time machine built specifically for the event. It was really cool how we had pre-filmed a bunch of scenes with the time machine that we used during the week as “surveillance”, so it looked like we were able to watch the time travelers in “real time”. We had loud and catchy dance music, courtesy some awesome DVD’s from Hillsongs for kids. My personal favourite was letting the kids destroy a car by launching softballs at it using a catapult. Fun stuff!
We are trying hard as a church to live out the principle that kids ministry should be fun. Certainly, you need to have solid Bible teaching (we had that too, with costumes and games woven in) and there needs to be a degree of seriousness. But there is nothing that kills a kids ministry like being boring. Isn’t it weird how every parent encourages their child to have fun, but then once we step into the doors of a church, it can become all about being quiet and behaving ourselves?
Sure, obedience and respect are important things to teach. That’s why it’s even more important to have an outlet for kids in church settings – a place and time where they are encouraged to be loud and have fun. Kids, like adults, can learn a lot through fun and humour. That’s why the Bible says that “all good things come from above”, and almost anyone agrees that fun and humour are good things. They are gifts from God. We should use them to help kids learn about Jesus and experience God’s love.
It’s exciting to me when kids want to go to church. It makes me thrilled when they look forward to participating in kids ministry stuff. I think that’s the way it ought to be. I want that for my kids, and I want it for other people’s kids too.
Friends, lets not take ourselves too seriously. It’s easy as an adult to lose our sense of humour. After all, we are all dealing with adult problems that are very real and very difficult. But for the sake of the kids, let’s make a conscious effort to put aside all that junk and be goofy once in a while. Let kids enjoy being kids and have some clean, safe fun, even in church. It seems like the perfect place to me.
Canadian Bible Guy 
Hey there! I really admire the kid ministry principles you implement in your church and it looks like they are having a blast! In our inner city kids ministry, we use a lot of the same model! Respect God’s house, love each other, but we love on them and have tons of fun learning about Jesus! I love this line in your post:Isn’t it weird how every parent encourages their child to have fun, but then once we step into the doors of a church, it can become all about being quiet and behaving ourselves? Amen to that!
-Tasha, The Bridge Chicago
Love this post. Kids ministry should be fun! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!