The Future of Children’s Ministry

November 19, 2010 — 5 Comments

This week an article I submitted to the Future of Children’s Ministry project was released over at www.kidmin360.com. It was a great opportunity to join a group of Kidmin All-Stars as we write, talk, discuss, and dream about the future of ministry to children!  Take some time over at www.kidmin360.com to read all the entries!

The future of Children’s Ministry can be summed up in one word. Robots. I believe that eventually the technological geniuses around the world will create a Children’s Ministry volunteer that will be totally automated to not complain about diaper changes, always show up on time, offer timely encouragement to their children’s pastor, be willing to stay for multiple services, and will accurately teach from the provided curriculum without adding their own strange theological nuances. But as I sit an ponder this development, I’m worried. If they can develop a Children’s Ministry Volunteer Robot, then couldn’t they just develop a Children’s Pastor Robot? Scratch that, now that we know the robot is a bad idea, let’s look into the future for something a little more realistic. Forget that we ever mentioned this robot idea. Seriously, just move along to the next paragraph!

I believe that the future of children’s ministry will be…

Read the FULL ARTICLE here, then come back and leave a comment.  I’d love to know what you think!

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  • http://jillcrew.wordpress.com Jill Crew

    Wow, that was the best article yet on the series. I LOVED the passion and could feel it as I was reading it. I never thought of the future of childrens ministry like that. Wow, I can’t wait to see what the future holds!

    (I thought you were going to say the robot would be wearing a gorilla suit… ha ha)

    • http://www.jonathancliff.com Jonathan Cliff

      You are too kind. I really appreciate your comment, and hope that it inspired you. I know I inspired myself writing it! :)

  • http://jeffmcclung.wordpress.com/ Jeff

    Dude, this was a great article! I think that we really are starting to see the accumulating dividends of the impact that CM has on the whole church. For too long CM was just seen as babysitting and now we’re in the middle of this great time where people are beginning to see that it is more. Thanks for articulating this so well Jonathan.

    I also agree with you about the robot thing. Have we not seen “Terminator”? Nothing good can come from robots, even the cute ones like R2D2 or the annoyingly useless ones like C3PO.

    • http://www.jonathancliff.com Jonathan Cliff

      Robots are to never be trusted. I personally don’t trust my iPhone. I can tell it watches me when I’m sleeping.

      Thanks for the comments! :)