Good to Great Children’s Ministry
Children’s ministry is sometimes the stepchild of the church. Observations from a Facebook group on resources for children’s ministry show complaints of low budgets, scarce resources of all kinds, including lack of volunteers, and lack of dedicated spaces in buildings. Of course, this is not true for all churches. Many of the large churches make a concerted effort to ensure children and youth are well cared for with ample budgets and beautiful spaces.
A visit to Saddleback’s Church Hong Kong location painted a picture of a children’s ministry that was first and foremost in the mind of its leaders. Pastor Stephen Lee proudly displayed the care taken in developing spaces for its smallest members and also a space for special needs children. From Saddleback’s Church Hong Kong website, one can link to a specific website for kids simply called, http://www.saddlebackkids.com/ which links back to the main church in California. The Saddleback Kids ministry motto is, “CONNECTING KIDS TO GOD AND TO OTHERS. (Saddleback.com n.d.)” Everything for the children in the organization is simple, well laid out, and easy to access. This ministry displays what a great children’s ministry can look like.
Good to Great by Jim Collins shows what it takes to distinguish good organizations and businesses from great ones. Collins lists a five-level hierarchy pyramid which explains why some organizations reach greatness (Collins 2001, 20). The first level is the “Highly Capable Individual” that makes productive contributions; level 2 is the “Contributing Team Member” that effectively works with others in a group setting; level 3 is the “Competent Manager” that organizes people and resources; level 4 is the “Effective Leader” who catalyzes commitment to a clear and compelling vision; level 5 is the “Executive” who builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will (Collins 2001, 20). All five levels are needed to go from good to great and Collins believes that level 5 leaders embody all five layers of the pyramid (Collins 2001, 21). Collins identifies a duality of characteristics present in level 5 leaders: modest and willful, humble and fearless (Collins 2001, 22). It seems to me that Saddleback’s leader in Hong Kong exhibited these same features. Pastor Stephen Lee was very modest about being the Pastor of the church in Hong Kong, describing himself as the Monday through Friday Pastor. He believed Rick Warren to be the pastor, which is very modest considering that Pastor Lee was already very successful in his own right. Pastor Lee was also very willful in deciding how every detail of the church was designed for maximum comfort and convenience for those seeking to worship with the church. As to fearless, the Saddleback Hong Kong website mentions a commitment to Local peace addressing issues of homelessness and human trafficking stating on its website,
Local PEACE provides the opportunity to demonstrate God’s love through a variety of outreach ministries in areas such as homelessness, human trafficking, mentoring, military/veterans, the elderly, those incarcerated, as well as many others (Saddleback Church 2019).
Finally, the leaders of Saddleback display humility by realizing that the goal is not self-promotion but promoting God and a relationship with Jesus Christ for the youngest members of its community of faith. The curriculum used by the church is clearly displayed on the website; the parents know what their children are learning and what to expect (Saddleback.com n.d.).
Although many small churches do not have the budget of a Saddleback Mega-Church, a church may also be missing some of the leadership levels, such as a clear vision of the Effective leader and the Executive level leader as shown in the higher levels of Collins pyramid. Collins provides a diagnostic tool in his leadership model that can help churches identify what is missing in its leadership. Pastor Stephen Lee of Saddleback Hong Kong shows us greatness is possible even when ministering to the smallest disciple.
References
Collins, Jim. Good to Great. New York: HaperCollins Publisher, 2001.
Saddleback Church. Saddleback Ministries – Local Peace. 2019. https://saddleback.com/connect/ministry/local-peace/hong-kong (accessed September 13, 2019).
Saddleback.com. Saddleback Kids. n.d. http://www.saddlebackkids.com/ (accessed September 13, 2019).
About the Author
Mary Mims
I am a licensed and ordained Baptist minister and have worked with the children and youth for the last seven years. I have resided in the Washington, DC area for the last 30 years, but I am originally from Michigan. I am also bi-vocational and work at the US Patent and Trademark Office in the Scientific Library.5 responses to “Good to Great Children’s Ministry”
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Thank you Mary for reminding us about the Hong Kong Saddleback church which stood out in their organizational capabilities and their level attention to details in giving the members a great experience in church. Pastor Stephen Lee has a business background and I personally related the high standards of organization and attention to details to his background but he also talked about being in Peter Drucker mentorship program and his commitment to excellence.
Mary, I love your focus on children and reminding us of Pastor Stephen Lee. If we as church leaders could just recognize that discipleship truly starts with the youngest member and would create a focus of “womb to tomb” people development I wonder if it would change the current research statistics regarding young adults leaving the Church?
Tammy, I think it could help if we could see the need to focus more resources on the children and youth and demand the same level of leadership in children’s ministry as we do in other ministries in the church.
Mary,
Thanks so much for providing your perception and context of children’s ministry. I wonder how Collins leadership dynamics would fit or be useful with a local children’s ministry context? Thanks again for your thoughts and your post!
Thank you, Mary, for such a great piece connecting to Saddleback church in Hong Kong. What a reminder and connection to Collins write-up. It is amazing how you have connected so well the model of the church in Hong Kong and the pastor with the Good to Great leadership model Collins is raising up. I am impressed, Mary.