LOGOS Explores New Children’s Ministry Solutions

Today’s world demands new approaches to children’s ministry

The notion that children need love, support, and guidance in order to grow into productive adults and disciples of Jesus Christ is not a new concept. What is new, however, is the degree to which today’s society and culture are all affecting this natural growth process…even threatening it. Factors and conditions such as…

- increasing insensitivity to violence and crude behavior in the culture,

- sexualization of the young in the media and consumer products,

- direct marketing to children,

- changing family structures and life styles, and the barrage of messages and information that besiege
kids - constantly in their connected lives (e.g., cell phones, computers and televisions)

…all seem to make it more difficult for children to grow-up healthy today and in a meaningful relationship with their God.

While conditions may be changing, the fundamental need that children have for connectedness and to be in relationship with supporting adults has not changed. In fact, recent studies have verified that this need is still a critical element in the developmental process. Many churches are discovering that fulfilling this requirement in today’s culture is not such an easy matter. Postmodernism, with its emphasis on relative truth rather than doctrine and personal experience as opposed to established tradition, has rendered many previously successful disciple-making approaches inadequate and not-at-all-compelling to either kids or their parents. New solutions in children’s ministry are needed now if we are to provide the support and guidance that kids really need.

At The LOGOS Ministry, this sense of urgency is leading to action. LOGOS is currently in the midst of a campaign to bring regional leaders in many of the major denominations together to discuss the need for effective children’s ministry and a course of action for solution-making. We have introduced a series of free denominational events, called From Urgency to Action, to highlight the critical needs of children today, to introduce a model for enhancing children’s ministries, and to invite partnership with ministry leaders.

LOGOS is committed to working with churches to develop new ministry methods, techniques, and tools that will work in today’s environment. In fact, our new LOGOS@Home resource provides a flexible framework and set of tools for parents to take an active, even primary, role in supporting the spiritual growth of their children. Already, we are seeing that various church groups, individual ministry leaders, and families are discovering new ways of using LOGOS@Home to meet their unique needs.

We may be living in a new world that challenges us in new ways, but we must never lose sight of a timeless commitment – to raise our children as Christ’s own.