Hello Pastors & Ministry Leaders:

It’s a blustery day here in Minnesota, but God is good all the time! J

Question for you: How does your church (worship leaders, announcements, and Kids ministry) approach kids entering into the worship center for service with their parents?

            Is it allowed? Not allowed?

            Do you have parent/child rooms with the service broadcasted? One-way windows?

            How do you deliver the news about young ones going into service or not?

            What happens if a little one makes it into the service, but then is disruptive?

            How would a new person learn about your “rule”?

            Who communicates the rules and from where? In announcements? First Impressions? Staff? Kids Staff? Kids Ministry volunteers?

Due to acoustics in our worship centers and as our church grows with new people, we are having quite a few [significant] disruptions from little ones in our worship services. We’re working through how to educate, announce, and transition through this. Of course, I want all the little ones in our Kid-O-Deo program and not in service, so I am looking to support the other staff members by gleaning information.

Thanks so much and God Bless Your Monday! J

Kristine,

About a month ago, our church moved into a new building. The seating in our adult auditorium went from 180 degrees (normal boxed shape room with a stage along one wall) in our old facility to 220 degrees (semi-round seating) around the stage. This means that any disruption affects the entire auditorium. Because of this, we started a few rules when we moved in. 1) ALL children 1^st grade and under must attend children’s ministry programming. 2) You can’t enter the auditorium after the teaching begins. 3) If you leave during the teaching you cannot reenter until the teaching is over.

In regards to the kids in service, here’s how we’ve enforced the rules.

• If parents insist in their kids attending the adult service they are allowed to attend our overflow auditorium which is a live feed into the main auditorium.
• We use our Host Team at the doors of the auditorium and they direct families to our children’s ministry environments. The information is also in our bulletin and at each of our guest services kiosks.
• The most effective way we “announced” the new rule was during our first services in the building. At the appointed time during the teaching we had all of our ushers stand up and start moving around the auditorium. It was a huge distraction and everyone got the reason behind the rule.

Peace,