How Christmas Services Promote Growth in Children’s Ministry
As your children’s ministry plans for the upcoming Christmas season, consider inviting kids to participate in a Christmas program! This volunteer opportunity for children serves as a church-wide outreach event, engages kids during the Christmas service, increases family involvement, and promotes children’s ministry growth. A few great ways to involve children in a Christmas program include:
- Holding a nativity service.
- Leading a kid’s choir/bell choir.
- Putting on a Christmas holiday play.
Building Stronger Community Connections
Christmas services that kids are involved in help to build a stronger community connection. Parents are looking for ways for their children to be a part of the church. Often, a Christmas program with kid participants shows visitors that there is a children’s ministry at your church and that they are a valued part of its community.
Connect Outside the Church
Christmas services are also great opportunities for families to invite friends to church. These friends will see how their children could also be involved and may begin attending after the holiday season. Big events like Christmas services are an excellent way to invite the community to your church and allow families to see what it would be like to attend there. A few great ways to get the word out and invite your local community at Christmastime are,
- Mailing flyers.
- Posting announcements at local businesses or libraries.
- Sharing the event on social media platforms.
Connect Within the Church
Christmas services also help build connections within the church. It’s beneficial for the congregation to see children’s involvement and creates opportunities for multiple generations to serve together and get to know one another. Valuing children’s participation this way sends a very important message that kids are an important part of the church. Community building within the church helps to bridge the gap between multiple generations. A Christmas service is an excellent way to unite the church and open doors for multigenerational small groups, service projects within the church community, and church unity.
Engaging Kids with Faith Through Holiday Traditions
Kid engagement is crucial to the success of a Christmas service. When children have to sit for an extended period, staying engaged in the service can be difficult. Some great ways to involve kids during a Christmas service are to sing Christmas songs, invite them to stand, and prepare an object lesson that gets their attention and makes the lesson more interesting.
These are excellent ways to keep kids interested during a Christmas service, but the best way to ensure their engagement is to include them! When kids have a part to play in the church’s holiday traditions, it gives them something to look forward to, makes the service more memorable and exciting, and, in turn, there is less time they will have to sit still. Parents will thank you for it because not only will their child be less antsy in the pews, but they will also have the chance to see them perform up front and have plenty of photo opportunities!
7 Ways to Keep Kids Engaged for the Rest of the Service
Even after kids have finished their part of the Christmas program and returned to their seats, there are more ways you can engage them during the remainder of the service. Here are a few ideas that might help:
- Provide Christmas activity packets and crayons.
- Pass around jingle bells during the music worship.
- Create a sermon geared towards all ages with more congregational participation.
- Show an entertaining video or Christmas skit.
- Hand out battery candles for kids to hold during the worship.
- Ask for a few kid volunteers to come up to help with a demonstration.
- Invite several families to go up front to read scripture together.
Consider how your church can involve everyone of all ages to participate in your holiday traditions so that there is something for everyone and a chance to serve one another.
Increased Volunteer and Family Involvement
A broader scope of congregation involvement creates a place for everyone to serve and be a part of the church family. Christmas services provide church-family engagement. These programs allow kids to volunteer, parents to get involved in the planning and implementation, and help children ministry leaders make connections with new volunteers. When parents begin helping with events like Christmas programs, it gives them a way to serve, meet other parents, and form connections in the church. There is nothing like the season of Christmas to bring people together!
You could include parents in the Christmas service by asking volunteers to help with a children’s choir, building a stage set, creating costumes or scenery, aiding in childcare, volunteering in the kitchen for after-service refreshments, and more. When families get involved and serve in the church, they begin to have a purpose and are much more likely to continue to attend or become members over time.
Once volunteers get a taste of what it is like to help in the church, it can become contagious! You might even have them coming to you to ask how they can get more involved or serve again next year. This is a great segway to invite participants to volunteer in children’s ministry more regularly.
A Gateway to Year-Round Ministry Growth
Have you ever found getting enough volunteers to help in children’s ministry difficult? Events like Christmas are beautiful opportunities to make connections with new potential volunteers. Any significant event throughout the year can serve this purpose well. Parents love to bring their kids to family events because there is something there for every age in their family. Other significant large events your church could host are an Easter program, a summer picnic, and a fall festival. Hosting events throughout the year promotes church unity and gets more people involved in the church family.
Volunteers who help with these events are great people to reach out to and invite to participate in regular service opportunities such as volunteering to teach, lead games, or lead a small group in children’s ministry. During these events, take some time to engage in conversations with new family visitors and new volunteers. Exchange contact information or gather information from the event so you can invite families to more events and share volunteer opportunities for them and their children.
Boost Your Volunteer & Church Growth
Christmas services promote growth in children’s ministry in many ways. They can become a gateway to year-round ministry growth as families attend a Christmas program or see what it’s like to serve up front or behind the scenes. Children who enjoy being a part of the Christmas service will be much more likely to want to serve again and become more involved in the weekly Sunday children’s ministry. A Christmas program with kid involvement is a great way for kids to meet one another, make friends, learn about Jesus, and get a taste of what it is like to be part of the church family.
