Last Saturday I took my car for a scheduled service and tune-up. I was reminded by the service manager at the dealership that it was time to come and bring the car. When I arrived, he pulled the service history up on his computer. He was immediately brought to speed on the history of the car and what needed work.
A few days later I had lunch with a children’s pastor in my area. He asked me if I kept spiritual history files on the kids in my ministry. It’s something he’d be thinking about doing. Gulp. I answered with a no.
A spiritual history file - what a great idea! If the service manager at the car dealership knows the history of my car shouldn’t I know the SPIRITUAL history of the kids in my church?
How well do you know the kids in your ministry? I’m not talking about their names or their favorite candy. I’m talking about their walk with the Lord. Have they been saved? What about baptized? Are they involved in Sunday School or small groups? Are they making progress in their faith?
If you keep spiritual history files on the kids in your church, I’d love to hear how you do it. Post a comment and tell us your system and how it is helping your ministry.
You’ve hit on a great topic. Truthfully, I think it’s reckless if we do not know this kind of stuff. Truthfully, shouldn’t we be pastoring our kids toward spiritual growth? If they haven’t received Christ, shouldn’t we follow up and explore that. Or if they have received Christ, shouldn’t we at least know “why” they haven’t been baptized? Same goes for those in small groups and so on. Honestly, I think we get so busy keeping the programs going, that we stop paying attention to the individual ministry that comes with pastoring.
If you’re running under 150 or so kids, you can probably keep up with all this information on an excel sheet or even an access database. Our church uses Fellowship One. We can mark events like salvation, baptism or re commitments. In addition, we can run attendance reports for services or small groups. You can even add confidential notes that document stuff the kids are experiencing. Other database programs can be set up to record the same information and at a variety of costs. These kind of metrics should be at our finger tips on a regular basis.
I am from Planetkids, Planetshakers church, down under here in Australia.
How we run/keep “files” so to speak is through our pods/small groups/leaders. It’d be crazy to expect the kids pastor to be able to follow up every single child every single week and compile that single-handedly.
Our pod leaders contact their kids, split up in age group and by boys/girls once a fortnight by call/mail. In addition, every Sunday, there will be a designated pod time. They will immediately be aware if their child has made a decision, a rededication decision, etc… and this will be recorded in their pastoral care reports each fortnight, including whether the child has been coming on a Sunday.
This then gets updated in the database, put on our rolls. We also have team leader reports which the room leaders complete each week. This will note any decisions made, any testimonies, prayer requests, etc…
All these get compiled by our amazing volunteers in the office for our awesome kids pastors to bring into the executive meeting each week.
Kenny - you nailed it. This info needs to be at our finger tips to make us effective pastors to kids.
Jean - it’s cool to hear how you guys are going at it. Amazing volunteers can really make this process work - that’s cool to hear. Say hi to Rob for me!
Ryan
Our small group leaders really invest in the lives of their kids and it is the goal that they follow them for many years. Our small group leaders keep tabs per say on what is happening spiritually with each of their kids. It really takes a dedicated team, but if the vision is cast, it can happen! It is happening in our small corner!!! Good luck
This comment was emailed to me:
ACS or other church systems can help you keep track of some of these things. Our ACS system lists the date kids were baptized and also keeps records of attendance on Sundays. I think it may have the ability to keep track of attendance for other groups as well, but we usually do this manually by program.
I also keep a running list of every child who is a regular attender in my church. I pray for the kids who are Kindergarten through 6th grade by name at least once per week for salvation. Once they have accepted Christ as their Savior, I note that, and continue to pray and follow up with them until they are baptized. After they are baptized, I note that on my list and begin to pray for their growth in Christ. I also have a list of preschoolers, though I don’t pray for them by name as often. When you are praying for them on a regular basis it is much easier to keep up with their spiritual needs and levels. You just know them better and are aware if they are attending discipleship classes, Sunday school, children’s church, and other events.
I do like the idea of having this recorded in a way that would make it easier for someone coming behind me to know where our kids are spiritually. It would be great to pass that information on to the youth minister as well when kids move up. Great idea.
Sharon Warner
Minister to Preschool/Children
FBC Ruston, LA
Great reminder of our responsibility in discipleship. When I first started in ministry at a small church and had only about 25 kids, I kept an index card box with a record for each kid. I icluded notes about things that were special needs or situations in their lives, ie divorced parents, health issues. Very simple but better than nothing. With today’s technology surely we can find an effective way to get this important info recorded! Thanks!
Tremendous idea! Thank you.