095: 5 Keys To Lead Children’s Ministry Well In Small Churches | with Sara Vojtaske

If you’re involved in ministry to kids, join today’s conversation with small church ministry leader, Sara Vojtaske, as she shares her most important tips to leading well.

Sara shares 5 critical elements not only to keep your passion alive but to increase your impact too. 

Listen in to hear Sarah’s wisdom including:

• The importance of simplifying
• Ways to maintain excellence, including showing up prepared
• Ideas to create incredible atmosphere even in a multi-purpose space
• Tips to build great relationships with children, parents, and volunteers
• The critical need for training and who to include

Connect with Sara Vojtaske:
https://www.joelsvision.com/

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Transcript

Laurie Acker: 0:01

Hey, this is Laurie Acker. Welcome to the small church ministry podcast. Hey, welcome back to another episode of the small church ministry podcast. So on this podcast, we take a look at creative solutions and ideas and strategies that work all about small churches. And one thing that we believe with our entire whole hearts is that small church ministry is not less, but it is different. And this particular podcast episode, we're gonna be talking about how children's ministry is different in small churches, for super special guests with us today. Sarah tosic who is the children's director at abundant life Pentecostal church out in central Wisconsin. She also runs a website and does training and creates resources for children's ministry as well. We will let you know how to get a hold of her at the end of the podcast and throughout. But without further ado, let me just bring Sarah on with us. Um, Sarah, how is the weather right now out in central Wisconsin?

Unknown: 1:07

Actually, it's been pretty warm, kind of like everywhere else this morning was a little nicer. But we have the nine, which is not quite normal for Wisconsin all the time. But yes, it's pretty nice.

Laurie Acker: 1:18

Sweet. So a warm summer I'm in Tucson so it is blazing hot here everyday in the summer, but come visit in Wisconsin when it's paired. I mean, in in the winter when it's paradise. So it's beautiful here so Okay, so we're talking about children's ministry, Sarah and I had a lot of fun talking ahead of time about what really to talk about, because there's so much to talk about in children's ministry. And what we want to zone in on today is whether you have a lot of kids, a few kids, no kids, one Sunday school teacher, a whole team of people or not, that the vision of children's ministry goes beyond Sunday school. So many times in small churches, when we're talking about children's ministry, especially if the numbers are smaller, we have this limited vision that that your children's ministry is based on or mostly what is happening in that Sunday school room. And I was so excited to talk to Sarah about how children's ministry goes way beyond that Sunday school classroom. So Sarah, why were you excited to talk about this topic?

Unknown: 2:16

I think part of it's because I started out as a children's minister, actually, when I was 18 years old. And our church was pretty small at the time. And it was pretty much like, I just jumped in and had to learn it myself. I didn't have any training, I didn't have anybody holding my hand and teaching me. I started the department. Pretty much there was Sunday school going on. But I started the department with children's church and added kept adding and learning things and then became the director. But I think that it's just so important for us to share our knowledge with others, because I don't want everybody to have to go through all the same steps that I had to go through and learn it all on my own. And the sharing this, it's a it's really close to my heart, I guess because it is hard when you're in a small church, and you feel like you're alone. But there's so many different things that you can do to bring passion and excitement into the ministry, even when you're by yourself.

Laurie Acker: 3:12

Okay, so I love it so much, especially and by the way, love your story. I know, it's on your website at Jules vision.com. And it was so just, I just felt like I was getting to know you just hearing about your story of how you fell into it or stepped into it or, you know, kind of took a risk really, to start heading up children's ministry. But that is a common story in small churches, like we call them accidental leaders, like I'm willing, I'll do it. But I have no training, I'm willing, but I'm not sure what to do. And so today on this episode, we want to go beyond content and Sunday school curriculum. Because we've talked about that in past episodes. We've talked about behavior issues, and all that and really to talk about a bigger vision for children's ministry. Because it's not just what happens in the classroom. And for me, especially in small churches, I think about that person that just has the kids in mind during worship, during the potluck, during, you know, the outreach event, when there's a missions event happening, somebody who's just like watching out for the kids thinking, Oh, what, what can we do for the kids during this not always about adding one more thing? Like we're not about building these huge, big programs that like, you know, we're going to be stretching our already stretched volunteers. But even just having the kids in mind when we do these, you know, all age events. I think that has a huge impact. Do you agree with me on that, Sarah?

Unknown: 4:35

Absolutely. I think that it's really all about changing the way we think about events even you know, because if we're not in charge of the event, we can easily sit back and enjoy the event. But if we keep the children in the forefront of our mind, spending time with them, taking time to just even know their name, because you know, if you forget their names and you just walk by by them, or they, they tend to feel like they're not important to you. And so then they're like, you're, you're the person that they can only see in the Sunday school room, or in the children's church room or wherever the area is. But if you take time outside of that, that's when they feel really important. And then they feel a part of the church because they are next upcoming generation.

Laurie Acker: 5:21

Yeah, and the reality is, less kids will enter your Sunday school room than you will have an opportunity to connect with. And I think we miss those opportunities all the time. You know, we have family events, we have people bringing grandchildren, we have some outreach things, maybe we're involved in something in the community. And if our whole focus is on teaching Sunday school, I think we're missing a huge population, huge opportunity, just to be light in children's lives that might actually lead them to Sunday school someday.

Unknown: 5:51

For sure, and even just the simple connections, you know, I know that people talk about sending postcards, and you know, when when it's their birthday, or when they miss or something like that those things are? And those are very important. But how about even you know, there's a lot of little cards out now that are just encouragement cards. They're like the business card size? How about even having, you know, kind of a stash of those in your purse or in your pocket that you can hand to one sign it and say I love you and hand it to one. At any time. It doesn't have to be something you mail, you know, or think ahead. It could be something while you're there.

Laurie Acker: 6:27

Yeah, yeah, well, I know you have a heart for sharing and training and helping to equip people. And as we just dive into today's topic, I'm going to set you free to share some of your points that you came with, because it's so important. But as we dive into this, for anyone who's listening, whether you are the Sunday school teacher, or you just love kids, or maybe you're in a totally different area of ministry, and you're just listening out of curiosity, I just want to say the things that happen in small churches, like every single person has an influence on those kids. Because the child walks in and just gets a one look from someone, you know, like one look of, you know, disregard, or minimizing or, Oh, my gosh, you're an annoyance, like that has an impact on children. So I just think the things that you're sharing, Sarah, the things that you do share the things that we talked about ahead of time. I think this goes beyond just the director of children's ministry as well. And I think we all can learn about this. But as Sarah talks about departments and directors, and you know, children's ministry leaders, I just want to broaden that out because some of us don't have children's departments. But we all have people who love kids and want to do better. So Sarah, give us your most important things until ministry leadership.

Unknown: 7:40

All right, so I was going to just share an acronym that I had come up with, with some important steps in working in children's ministry. Now this doesn't, these are by far, not the only five things. But this, these are five important things. And so the acronym we're gonna go with is directing smart SMA RT, and I just wanted to share a few of these things with you. And you can apply these to your situation. However, that fits best with you, whether you're a Sunday school teacher, whether you're a nursery worker, whether you're the actual director, I think applying these will really help you stay passionate about children passionate about the ministry. And that's one of the things that I find as a director is how do we keep our passion for this, because I've actually been in children's ministry for 28 years now. And, you know, sometimes you get tired, and you feel like that's what you've been doing forever. But we have to keep our passion. And there's, there's some steps that you have to go through to keep that. And these are some of the things that I think really help keep your passion with working with children. So the acronym SMART, starting with s simplify. I think that sometimes we get overwhelmed, especially when we see these big churches, and we see all the lighting, we see all the amazing costumes and characters and all the fancy things that they have. And it can get kind of frustrating because you feel like I can never reach that. But the thing that I've learned is simplifying so that I don't get overwhelmed, take the things that I can do, don't stay in a rut. So add something new whether it's in your classroom, bringing a special disco light ball to bring a fun atmosphere, it can be anything like that, that's little that can still bring excitement to your room and the kids will love. Now, everybody has a different space, you might have a shared space. You might have your own room, you might have a large room, a tiny room, do what you can with the two children or the 20 children that you have, and work closely with watching and learning from these big churches, but implementing the things that will work for you and keeping it simple enough that it works for you.

Laurie Acker: 9:58

curriculums can count I have to say, Yeah, I have to say that when you say simplify, but don't stay in a rut, I think that is huge. Because a lot of times when we're talking about smaller spaces, and we talk about simple, people think boring or less. And I think we can be simple and add really fun stuff. Because even like when we think about, what do we do with kids at an intergenerational potluck, I know for some people, they're like, oh, my gosh, we don't have water for a water slip, we don't have any for a waterslide. Or we can't do this, or I don't have anybody lead activities, it doesn't have to be that they could literally just have a little splash pad for themselves. Or there could just be coloring sheets, or there can be simple, simple that keeps us passionate and excited. So I love that you said that. Okay, I know I kind of interrupted your thought there. Go ahead and go into curriculum, I think you were about to talk about that.

Unknown: 10:48

Just that that just the curriculum can be overwhelming, because I remember when I didn't have a lot of helpers, and we were trying to do children's church, and children's church. You know, a lot of times when you buy a curriculum for children's church, you have the lesson, you have a skit with five people in it, you have a puppet program, you have an object lesson that has a whole bunch of supplies, you have to gather, and it is very, very overwhelming. And what I have learned through working with very few helpers to working with plenty of helpers, it doesn't matter how many helpers you have, it can still be overwhelming. So you have to simplify it to fit what you can handle. But whatever you do, do it with excellence. Because you should not just throw something together and call it good enough, even though you only have a few children, present to them with excellence. Make sure you know what you're doing. Make sure it's clear, make sure you're prepared. But simplify, cut out the things that are too much for you. And just do the few things with excellence. And that's one thing that I have really tried to teach our staff because preparation is key. It doesn't matter how many children you're working with. It's key because children, they can see right through it. If you're going to grab something at the last minute and try to present it. They know that you weren't prepared. They know that you didn't put time in to it. So then they feel that they're not important enough. That's kind of a snowball effect. And

Laurie Acker: 12:15

when we keep it simple, when we keep it simple, we can prepare better, because it doesn't take as long. You know, I just love what you're saying. And it sounded like you were almost getting ready to lead into your second point as you were talking about doing things with excellence. Yes,

Unknown: 13:00

maintaining excellence. And so, you know, we see all this Disney stuff. And I've heard you mentioned Mr. Rogers. So that came to mind because he has all this huge, amazing stuff. And Mr. Rogers is very simple. But if you present something like Mr. Rogers, but present it with excellence, you will keep the children's attention just as much as Disney. But it must be done with excellence. And I think that's so important and, and having to do with volunteers, we'll kind of get into this at the end of this quickly. But it doesn't matter if it's just you or if you have a helper, make sure your helper knows what's expected and that they're prepared as well. So they can do their part with excellence, whether it's just gathering supplies, or whether it's helping with the teaching. And that when you are presenting with excellence that brings excitement and joy into your classroom. And the kids feel that. And that really makes it Yeah, for sure. And the next one, the letter A is atmosphere, I have learned that even with sharing spaces, so if you have a small building, and you're sharing, you're using the Family Center, I was there at one point, we use the family center, so we had to set up and take down use Find kid friendly stuff so that it still looks like it's their space. So what I mean by that is have freestanding things that you can put into place and then remove foam board that you can get just at Walmart, you can make just about anything with that you can make props and signs we've made spaceships and rockets and, you know, just simple things that you can put together and just set in place and then remove, bring in colors, you know, like balloons, you could have balloons scattered around. beach balls, having those as a fun activity as kids walk into the room. And upbeat kids music when they walk in. It should be an exciting place. It shouldn't be something that they walk into. And it's all quiet. Oh hi kids. So you know it should be upbeat. And so they feel this excitement and expectation as they walk into the room. Think about it. When you walk into a room. You already decide whether you like it or not by just looking at the atmosphere when you step into that place. So keep that atmosphere joyful and exciting. And it doesn't matter if it's a small room a big room a shared space or not. You can do that with small props and things that you set up yourself that you bring in and then remove Uh,

Laurie Acker: 15:31

you know, what we're really talking about is, is showing kids that we prioritize them like prioritizing children. And I think as you're talking about, you know, smart, you know, simplifying things, maintaining excellence. Now we're getting into atmosphere, all of these elements, like if we can, I guess, like, integrate them into everything we do in all the different ministry areas for kids, like we're really showing that we prioritize them. And by the way, I love that you're talking about atmosphere, because I'm really big on that God gave us five senses, like, and our sight and our hearing and our smell, and our tastes, and our touch is so important. And atmosphere can be done so incredibly cheap. In children's ministry, like when you mentioned a colored light, for vacation Bible school, I found this just a disco light, it was like, I think it was 20 bucks for two of them. And we put it in the hallway. And I can't even tell you how special they felt. And it wasn't, you know, 10 days of, you know, making decorations. It was just, it was one hallway. And it made such a difference. And I think even at our worship services are, you know, all church events and stuff, considering having something set up, where there is some atmosphere, there is some like, they knew I was coming. You know, like when you talked about having a free standing kind of display or something. That's amazing, because there are a lot of shared spaces and goodness can't wait to like up level our fellowship polls just a little bit.

Unknown: 17:03

Yes, for sure. So I think that that and even you mentioned our senses. So even with smell, you know, I have heard and we have not pursued this, but I have heard somebody that had a specific plugin or something that they used in their children's area, so that as they created these memories with these children, that scent was always with them. So when they smelled them, they brought them back. So I thought that was kind of interesting, too.

Laurie Acker: 17:30

Yeah, so sweet. There's so much to learn about sensory things and everything that we're you know, just kind of hitting the little tip of but I think it's so important occasion or at all.

Unknown: 17:39

And, you know, atmosphere, I think, you know, when you have shared spaces, when you have smaller groups, you might have special needs children, and you don't have a special room for them with special staff and all of that. We have had that before. And so what we always did was we had a few sensory items that were put away only for when those children were there. So we would assign maybe a youth a teenager that could be a helper that day would sit with them. We had one special needs child that could he act sounded like and acted like he did not hear a word we said. But every time we had a review question, he knew the answer. And it was exactly right. So you know, prepare ahead for them have just a couple of things, sensory items that they can play with during the service. And it does not interrupt with the other children. Let the other children No, no, no, that was just for them. And you can do this and pay attention with this this in this way. So don't worry about that. Because we were asked that before. Well, how do you keep the other kids from getting those things? Well, you just teach them. So it works. Yeah, for sure. That was atmosphere as well. Our relationships, the relationships is so so very important in a few on a few levels. First of all, as children's staff and as the director if you are the director, with your pastor, knowing your pastor's heart and vision for the church, because the children's department needs to go along with the vision of the church. It's not just its own department. And so I think you know, it's very important to meet with your pastor, is he focusing on Unity this year? Is he focusing on discipleship, soul winning, no matter which way he is focusing, your children's department can focus and teach in that same direction. Also relationship with other staff and teachers, you know, you're setting the example if you're the director, and showing love and acceptance in unity in front of the kids, because they pick up on that they pick up on any awkward feelings or anxiety between adults. And let's face it in the homes that are around the world. Now, a lot of the kids are dealing with relationship problems at home with their parents. And they don't need to see that from us. So as teachers and staff, we need to make sure that we really show good relationships and work on those relationships between each other. It's very important. And then of course, we had mentioned this little at the beginning relationship with the children. Build your relationships with them outside of your classroom. Don't leave it just there. Like Laurie mentioned, every every event that you go to take time with those children, spend time with them, show them that you love them, even if it's just a simple hug and say how did your week go? It can be very simple, but you'll find that those kids will seek for you when they when they're struggling. thing and when they become teenagers, they'll you'll find that those will be ones that will come back to you looking for you, because they know that you love them. And also, if you get to the point where I'm at, those children are coming back as your staff. So, yeah, relationships with them when they're little, and then that will just grow. And it will be a wonderful thing. The last one is t. And this is very important, no matter what your job is. But this is training, training for yourself, you know, like you're doing here by listening to the podcast, training and learning, we can never learn all there is to learn. And we can learn. We else's experience. I love going online and searching out different people that are doing training, whether it's videos, or podcasts and courses you can take, there's so many options. But then if you're a director, training your staff, one of the things that I've heard a lot from people is how do you find volunteers? And how do you keep volunteers, this has been one of the biggest things that I've been asked all the time. There's a few things that I think obviously your church body is different than my church body, you know, everybody's search is different. But one thing I've learned is don't put an age age limit on it or an age minimum, you have to at some point, we start with girls, once they're in youth, they can help out once a month, but we don't want them to miss their own class. So we rotate them through it, of course, depends on how your church is set up. But we do use teenagers. And you would be surprised how they step up to the challenge. When you give them major things to do. We have even given two genders an entire day to plan which is children's church and our situation. So that's about an hour plus long of curriculum, and they plan it themselves. And so you'd be surprised, and then an age maximum. Some of those grandmas and grandpas are the best staff because they love children. Don't put you know, if you just need someone to sit with their children. And while you're teaching, those are some of the best staff volunteers that you can get. So don't, don't think that you can't pull someone in as and rotate them through. But the biggest thing with your staff and with your helpers, even if they're teenagers, are clear expectations. That's how you keep them. Because if they don't know what they're expected to do, they don't know what their job is, and they feel useless or bored. That's when you lose them. So clearly explain to them what you want them to do, what you expect from them, and how you need them. Of course, showing them gratitude is very important and making them feel special. But if they know what they're needed for and they're not bored, then you'll find that your volunteers will stay a whole lot longer. And if you can, you know get together once in a while, whether it's monthly, however, in excuse me talk about the process of where you're going for that month, and maybe it's a quarter, once a quarter, make your plans together, get everybody on the same board, on the same board, which it's even nursery, actually, we include the nursery workers with our meetings. And so you know, you can get everybody going in the same direction with the same purpose. And that's when you can work well together and your ministry will grow. So that's the smart, simplify, maintain excellence, atmosphere, relationships and training. So I hope that was helpful for you guys.

Laurie Acker: 24:21

So helpful. I'm like taking mad notes while you're talking like I'm doing the interview, and I'm taking notes while you're talking. Because there's so much great stuff that's shared here. And I think when we get our vision beyond, we just need to run a Sunday school or teach a Sunday school or my job is that when we can really, I think just get the vision that this is about like relationships and prioritizing these little ones, you know, whether they're two or five or 12. But when we can let them know their prioritize, because we're going to we're going to not just work hard for them and prepare lessons but that we're going to love you too. You know, we're going to create spaces where you feel prioritized, where you can see that we did this for you. Where we're building relationships, and I love the whole training up process. And Sarah, you. I think this was in your story. You were pretty young when you started helping in a children's church or children's Sunday school, right?

Unknown: 25:21

Yes. When I was a young teenager, I don't remember the years exactly, but my mom was doing children's search, and I was helping her in back Then children's church was a lot different than it's become now. But that got me started with creating a space and a place for children to have their own level of a worship service. And so when we filter in search, we don't just do kids the songs, you know, we we do actual worship songs and and include them, teach them and train them to have a worship experience. And so I think that's really important.

Laurie Acker: 25:59

You know, I love the phrase that you just shared, creating a space a place and a space. Is that what you said, creating a? I don't remember if you remember, okay, well, maybe we'll Yeah, well, anyway, you said something like creating a space and a place for kids like to experience, you know, God for worship, for teaching. And I think if we could keep that in mind, with everything we do in our churches, you know, one of the blessings of being small as is we really can't care about everybody who comes in. And so to think about the places in your church, you know, the activities or you know, the different things going on, like where kids really do feel seen and heard, and somebody has considered, you know, what they need and what will help them learn and grasp it, versus let's just do everything we're doing. And then we've got a Sunday School happening on the side. Like, I just love the vision for just like, let's getting a little broader about the ministry that happens. Yes, inside Sunday school, but also in all the other places outside. Right. Sarah, thank you so much for being with us today. I'm just so grateful just to meet you to know you. And just to have you just share so much of your wisdom for all the years of children's ministry. If people want to get a hold of you, how do they find you?

Unknown: 27:13

You can go to Jill's vision.com. And the reason behind that name is because Joel's vision about God's Spirit being poured out upon the children as well. And so that's my vision. And my goal that this isn't just for adults. This is for children to know the Lord and to have a relationship with Him. And so Joe's vision.com is my website. I'm also on Facebook at Sarah. Fantastic. Actually, my maiden name is in there as well. Sara swindler, potassic. But you can find me on Facebook, and then email is Jules vision@gmail.com. So all of that is we will make

Laurie Acker: 27:48

sure to we'll make sure to drop your links below for sure so that people can connect with you. But we're so I'm just grateful to have you as part of our community. So thanks for spending time on here with me today.

Unknown: 27:59

It was a lot of fun. Thank you so much.

Laurie Acker: 28:02

Yeah, you're welcome. I'm so fun. You all is just such a delight to connect with so many amazing people and small churches all around the globe. Like I know I've said this before, but it is it's the joy of this ministry is brushing shoulders, meeting people hearing sharing together, so many amazing people who are just, I don't know, working with God, where they're at in their in their churches. So I'm so grateful that you were here listening with us today. And please put something into action. You know, whatever you learn whatever you do, just put it into action because we really are called to be light in the world. And not just in our ministry role or in our spot, you know, where we have committed to showing up to do this event or something like that. But just living and being a light in the world, because that's what we're called to do. All right, you all until next week, be light