The Jr. Church is there to help prepare children for the sanctuary service. It carries a huge weight and burden to build and maintain the activities of the children and the workers assisting in the goal. As such the leadership should have all the attributes of a Pastor:

1 Timothy 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;

4 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;

5 (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

6 Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

7 Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

As such he should have the authority to do the things needed, yes empowered by the church to do the things needed to operate and grow that ministry. So many churches just use the first volunteer that will raise their hand, but that places restrictions of that ministry’s ability to grow. Have someone not trained or not empowered or not paid will mean that what you don’t provide will be the limitation that the ministry has.

Lack of training in Jr. Church

The man you place in charge of the Jr. Church will identify whether the church expects it to be a ministry or a baby sitting service. Even a small church who is serious about seeing children saved, discipled and prepared for the sanctuary service should invest in a qualified minister; or training to prepare a qualified volunteer.

This training should be covered by or through the church and the Pastor should be intimately involved in the Jr. Church until the volunteer is properly prepared to the point that the lack of training will not hinder the ministry.

Example:

I guest preached at a church where, at the end of the service, we offered an invitation. Directing the children to the director of the Jr. Church for salvation I noted that it was 20 min. and we had not seen him come out. I poked my head in the room to see kids that looked bored and a man flipping through pages of the Bible trying to remember what verses he should read.

Afterwards I queried to him to determine that he never really gave the kids an opportunity to make a decision to get saved before… he simply used some papers he found in the internet to occupy the kids till the main service was over.

Lack of resources

I have seen church after church place burdens on the Jr. Church director because the Pastor of the church doesn’t feel that children are worth providing resources for. The Jr. Church should have an operating budget that reflects the size of the program and the potential it has to grow. This includes a salary for the director or Jr. Church Pastor (whichever your church has or uses), monies for proper equipment, incentives, Bibles, songbooks and more.

Remember that a proper Jr. Church is not a baby sitting service, it needs to be set-up and function as close to the sanctuary service as you can; yet geared to the level of the children. This means to make sure that the same resources that the sanctuary service has the Jr. Church has as well.