Reader Question: Children in Ministry Protocols
January 4, 2010 by Lakita
Filed under From the Mailroom
A reader asked:
Hey Kita, I wanted to ask you - I am the servant leader of the liturgical dance ministry of the youth. Our rehersals are 1 hour. We recently received a younger praise dancer (she is 4 yrs old), the mom has been been taking me for a baby sitter. Do you have a format that you use for children and youth in your ministry? -V.
V,
Yes I have protocol established, but what is more important than what the protocol may say is that it is supported by your Pastor and communicated to those in the ministry (when dealing with children that includes the parents). While not a necessity, I prefer written guidelines. These can be objectively referred to without the appearance of bias. When you say the mother is taking you for a baby-sitter….what does that mean? She is picking the child up late? Does the child want to participate? Behavioral problems? All of these are contingencies that can be addressed in a ministry guideline.
I have some more information on this in Starting a Dance Ministry part 2 (The Practical) and Starting a Dance Ministry part 3 (The Administrative). I will also include a sample ministry guideline in the Starting a Dance Ministry E-book that I hope to release later this month. If you want to receive more information about that, you can subscribe for the email alert using the button below:
What about you? Have you faced a similiar situation in ministry? Do you have additional advice for V? Leave your comment below!
Posted by Lakita Fane
Lakita Fane serves as the founder of Paneh Praise Dance & Mime Ministry. Find out more about her or follow her on Twitter (@Paneh).
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V, I feel you!! My first thought is "Hold on Old Solider" LOL!
One of the things we have done with our children's mime team is simply require parental participation in order for the child to be involved. In fact, a parent or guardian must be in the building while rehearsal is taking place. They don't have to sit in the room but the must be reachable in case they need to provide their own special brand of "TLC" when necessary. (i.e behavior challenges) For some children, the parent needs to be in the room. For some the parent didn't need to be in the room at first but we later determined that they did need to be there. All evaluations are done on a case by case basis because no mater the age, children are at different development levels and the home environments are different so it is hard to make blanket rules because the "blanket" doesn't fit every situation.
The parents understand they are not leading and directing but observing so they can help their children rehearse at home in-between our set days. This process helped reveal that one small child really didn't have the aptitude to be a part of the team yet (4 years old) even though their brother (6 years old) is involved. Mommy saw the attention span was too short and she pulled the child herself and we'll re-evaluate later.
We have not done an extensive manual for the children yet but we typically have meetings and/or keep the parents connected through email. (for thise not physically in the room during rehearsal. If something is not working, we pull the parents back in and have a meeting with them and their child to see if we can find suitable solutions.
I think being firm and making sure the parents understand that at the end of the day we want to glorify God with our service and we have a standard to uphold has helpped minimize some of the challeges.