What is a Children's Pastor?

Have you ever heard that question?

I used to hear it a lot when I first became a children’s pastor in 1979. I was the only full time children’s pastor that I knew of, in the state of Michigan. Today there are literally thousands of CP’s but there still is a lot of misunderstanding of what a children’s pastor is. 

The first job of a children’s pastor is to pastor the children in your local church. You are an extension of your pastor to the children under your care. In other words you are there to help your pastor. If you do not have a good relationship with your pastor you will not be effective as a children’s pastor.

Jesus is the chief shepherd, and the senior pastor is a shepherd under Jesus. Jesus is not physically here on the earth so he gave “gifts unto men”. He gave the gift of pastor to lead the local church just like a shepherd leads his flock.

The pastor cannot reach all age groups effectively so he hired you to help him. You, as the children’s pastor, are an extension of your pastor’s ministry. In other words, you have the same job that your pastor does, but you don’t have the same authority. 

A good example of this is in Deuteronomy when the Lord told Moses to select 70 elders to help him so he wasn’t bearing the “burden of the people alone”.  The 70 elders were doing the same job that Moses was doing but they did not have the same authority. Moses was still in charge.

You job is very similar to your pastor’s job so we can look at what the Bible says to pastors and apply those scriptures to children’s ministry.

1 Peter 5:3 “Don't lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example.” NLT

The word example in webster’s dictionary means “somebody or something worthy of imitation” Are you living a life that you want other people to imitate? There is a huge accountability that comes with pastoring kids because children are so easily influenced.

You are not just a CP at church. Just like being the senior pastor, you are in the gold fish bowl.It’s a 24/7 job.

Another part of this word example is that you need to be present so that your kids and volunteers can see your example. There is a lot of administration that comes with the children’s pastor job, but you are not just an administrator. You are in the people business and people need to see you. They need to see you in the sanctuary too. Don’t spend all your time in children’s church. It’s not a good example.

 We are just getting started. To be continued….