As Larry says in his book, there are 168 hours in a week. If a child comes to church on Sunday, they are impacted by the children's ministry for one hour (possibly as much as three hours if they have longer services and/or children's church). One hour out of 168. However, many children only attend church every other week, which means, they are impacted by the children's ministry one hour out of 336 hours.
One hour out of 168 hours was bad enough, but if the average child is only being impacted one hour out of 336 hours, well, it should not surprise any of us to see so many children grow up and leave church.
I'm not saying the one hour can not, "count". I'm not saying the one hour can not make a difference, but the one hour can not be the "basket" where we put all our "eggs" when it comes to the focus of our children's ministry. Yes, I realize most churches also have a mid-week ministry, so let's say most children are impacted by the children's ministry for four hours a week instead of one hour, but really. Four hours out of 168, or worse 336 is still not a lot. It still leaves 164 to 332 hours where children are not being impacted by the Children's Ministry.
Clearly the church can not impact children for 168 hours a week, but families can have this kind of impact. I believe this is why Deuteronomy 6 tells parents and grandparents to pass on a heritage of faith: it is done in the day-in-day-out living of our lives.
So, if we really want to make the most of the "eggs" in our "basket", we need to focus on engaging parents and grandparents. We must equip and encourage them to pass on a heritage of faith. Children's Ministry has to be more than just ministry to children.
I will be looking at this in the coming week.
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