When directing a cm that had a director before you – how to add some fun to the ministry

Your Question:

“I am directing a CM that had a CM director before me. How do I add some fun to the entire ministry?

The Issues:

Today’s children, parents, and grandparents view “having fun” as an important part of a CM. If the ministry is too serious, the children will be bored and may express that boredom in discipline challenges or a lack of attention.  If the children don’t like what is happening in the CM, they will make sure their parents or grandparents know about it! This “review” of the CM may result in the family switching to another church.

Scripture Foundation:

“Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth. Serve the LORD with gladness; come into His presence with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and bless His name. For the LORD is good, and His loving devotion endures forever; His faithfulness continues to all generations.”  Psalm 100

Short Answer:

As a CM director, you walk a fine line between “too much fun,” and “too serious” in the CM.  You want the CM team to be passionate about educating and ministering to the children; but you also want them to have fun with the children! Parents and grandparents will usually ask their children two questions when they pick them up from the CM: 1) “Did you have fun?” and 2) “What did you learn?” If the child answers “No,” or “I don’t know” to either one of these questions, the parents or grandparents could be concerned.  If the child had much fun, but didn’t learn anything, that’s a problem!  If the child learned something, but didn’t have fun or didn’t like the experience, that is also a problem!  The “sweet spot” of the CM experience is when a child has fun learning something new!  This “sweet spot” is a goal that is reached through training and supervision.  As the CM director, you need to do all you can, with God’s guidance, to develop a CM team that is focused on a balance of fun and education. This begins with recruiting the right people for your CM team.  The people on your CM team should be people who enjoy having fun, and yet are able to be serious as well. Since you are “inheriting” the current CM team, you may have some on the team who need help in having fun with the children. Maybe they don’t know how to do that, or maybe they think that ministry can’t or shouldn’t be fun! To begin building fun into the CM, ask God to show you who on your current team is a good example of this “balanced approach” between fun and seriousness. This search will require that you step into the rooms and watch the CM team in action.  Once you find one or two people on the team who are able to have fun with the children, ask them if you can use them as examples for the rest of the team. These people may shy away from being examples, so be ready to encourage them.  Once they agree to being used as examples, plan to incorporate their natural talents in upcoming CM team meetings or team training. Once you “shine the light” on these team members who make ministry fun for the children, others on the team will be more apt to incorporate fun into their own lessons.  Making the CM more fun can also be accomplished by having more fun with the CM team apart from the children.  Do all you can to make CM team meetings more fun by adding silly food, silly songs, fun stories and fun social encounters.  If the CM team has fun, they will more naturally add more fun to their lessons. For more ideas, click on the links below.

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