Building Children’s Ministry Buy-In With Key Families

This post was written by Crystal Mazzuca, an INCM Blog Team member.

Your ministry is amazing! You are passionate and dedicated, and you pour out your enthusiasm week after week, month after month, year after year!

And yet, sometimes it can feel like you’re the only one who is totally sold out and bought into the mission of reaching kids for Jesus. 

So how can we build buy-in for our ministries so we have a team around our kids and meet the actual needs of our communities?

The secret isn’t more of you. 

The secret is building buy-in with key families in your ministries.

Here are four steps to building children’s ministry buy-in with key families so your ministry will grow:

Identify Key Families

The first step is to identify your key families and parents.

These are more than just the families that are super involved in everything (though they are often those types of people). These are the families that you see showing up early and staying late. They have smiles on their faces and joy in their hearts.

You will find them lingering in the lobby, catching up with old friends and making new ones. Often they are the ones bringing new kids to check in.

They are the first to sign up for events and are more than happy to serve.

When you think about buy-in, they are already sold.

Encourage Key Families

Once you have identified key families and parents, go out of your way to encourage them. 

Take them out for coffee. Invite them over for dinner. Join them for playdates in the park.

Speak to the amazing joy you see in them and the blessings you see through them. Don’t just compliment their dedication and service. 

Speak to the Christ-likeness you see in the way they live their lives and lead their families. They don’t do what they do in order to be praised – but it goes a long way to know that their faithfulness is both seen and appreciated.

Empower Key Families

It’s one thing for your church to hear from you about your heart and vision for your ministry. 

It’s a totally different thing to hear it from people that are already bought in and impacted by your ministry. 

As you are intentional about building relationships with your key families, give them an opportunity to share their thoughts, feelings, opinions, and ideas. Take to heart what they have to say.

As you give them a voice in your ministry, their buy-in will grow even stronger. More than that, they will feel encouraged and empowered to share with others why they are so sold out. 

Their vision and enthusiasm are contagious and will inspire others to plug into what they are a part of.

Equip Key Families

As you invite key families and parents into the discussions of your ministry, give them opportunities to be leaders and recruiters. 

Let them be a part of your welcome team, social media team, decorating team – whatever team matches their passion. 

As people who are both in your ministry and leading in your ministry, others will see the value of being all-in and want to be a part of things. 

When they have suggestions and great ideas, give them the space and resources they need to bring them to life. 

Be their supporter and their cheerleader. And appreciate them on the regular. (Here are 3 easy ways to invest in volunteers that won’t break the bank.)

Conclusion

Key families and parents already carry with them a natural magnetism.

You want to be building children’s ministry buy-in with key families to create a community that takes ownership of the ministry that is vital to the future of the church.

When you intentionally invest in and build relationships with them through encouragement, empowering, and equipping, you will see more and more families gravitating toward them and what they are a part of. 

Not only will you see more families buy into your ministry, but you will also see families growing in their faith and in their connection with the church. 

And what a blessing that will be!

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