The mission of the Children’s Ministries Department is to facilitate and coordinate a broadening and deepening of the church’s spiritual nurture of children, our entrusted source of church growth, in order to draw them into a lifelong redemptive friendship with Christ and a commitment to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Five years and a few days ago no one could have predicted that children’s ministries would become a separate department. Before Utrecht, as plans were made to separate the Church Ministries Department into specific departments, it was decided that the Youth Department would include the work for children. At the General Conference session youth directors from around the world foresaw that their workload would double with no extra help provided. Their reluctance sent the issue back to the Constitution and Bylaws Committee with the suggestion that children’s ministries should become a separate department.

On July 4, 1995, children’s ministries became the newest department of the church, the only department in history to be suggested from the floor at a session and then voted into place during that same session. Within a year all but one division of the world field, as well as many unions and conferences, had elected children’s ministries directors. From this abrupt and miraculous beginning, children’s ministries has sought to broaden and deepen the ministry to children, thus ensuring the future of the church.

Focus Areas
Virginia Smith and her secretary, LuWana Kumalae, have worked with division leaders and contract writers, editors, translators, and illustrators to establish a strong foundation for the new department, whose work encompasses the following three emphases:

1. Ministry to Adventist Children. Children today are bombarded with secular influences from media, cyberspace, music, friends, and public school. Each of these also competes with Bible study. The church needs to do more to help parents fill children’s hearts and minds with thoughts of God and His Word. Every local church should provide at least four hours each week of spiritual nurture and religious education for children aged 5 to 14.

The Children’s Ministries Department offers both training courses and inexpensive materials with no royalties or other prohibitive costs. Thousands of seminars are held worldwide for those who work with children. Up-to-date methods of instruction lead to an effective use of the new materials for studying the Bible, denominational history, health, the Spirit of Prophecy, and a variety of other religious education topics. These resources continue to be developed. As they become available they are translated into the languages that are spoken in more than one world division.

CA BURDEN FOR KIDS: General Conference and division leaders gather in 1996 for the first Children’s Ministries World Advisory.

2. Involving Adventist Children in Ministry to Others. The best way to learn is to teach. Furthermore, spiritual growth is greatest in the process of sharing. For this reason it is only logical to involve children in the mission of the church.

Around the world children are making significant contributions to the church’s ministry. Since data collection began in 1996, several thousand baptisms a year have resulted from children’s witness. In addition, they play a significant part in other functions of the church aside from evangelism. Their simple tasks give them a sense of inclusion, that they are necessary and valuable to the life of the church. As a result they are bonded to the adults they work with, and by extension to the church and the Lord.

3. Ministry to Children Outside the Church. In any country of the world the largest unreached group is the children. Currently very little spiritual nurture is offered for children unless someone brings them to the church (for example, to Vacation Bible School once a year). This is beginning to change. At least two divisions now have Bible resources for children on the Internet. The Children’s Ministries Department has prepared radio programs and three sets of basic lessons to be used in any situation in which children have little knowledge of the Bible. In addition, a new branch Sabbath school set will soon be ready. It is a one-year curriculum entitled “My God Is So Great.”

What we do for children is never lost. Not only do Christian love and attention have a profound and lasting impact on their lives, but ripples of influence continually affect their families as well. Many parents who would never respond to advertising for evangelistic meetings will send their children to church programs or allow them to study Bible lessons. Indirectly the parents also receive the Word of God.

Publications
Many divisions of the world struggle with access and cost in order to provide religious educational material for children. To support their efforts, the Department of Children’s Ministries is continually preparing inexpensive resources that can easily be adapted to the local situation. In addition to fortifying the minds of the children themselves, one of the objectives of the department is to interest and educate the adults who work with children. It is rewarding to see this objective being met. For example, Making the Bible a Delight, which introduces Bible study by means of a picture time line, is at least as meaningful and memorable for adults as it is for children. Many people who were intimidated by the nearly 700 pages in The Great Controversy are now learning its message through the book Michael Asks Why.

International Service, 1996-2000
During the past quinquennium the General Conference director has supported the work of each division’s children’s ministries personnel by visits, seminars, and conferences in more than 35 countries.

Serving the Church
The Department of Children’s Ministries is happy to collaborate with other ministries in their activities for children. During the past quinquennium joint projects have been completed with Adventist World Radio, the Ministerial Association, the Ellen G. White Estate, as well as the Communication, Family, and Publishing departments. Other joint projects are in progress.

Children’s ministries in every part of the globe is fulfilling the divine imperative of Malachi 4:5, 6 to make adult-child bonding a major feature of the final message before Christ’s second coming. The ongoing result is that children know they are the church of today. They know God’s grace is theirs. As they grow in wisdom and stature, learning more of God’s Word by knowledge and personal experience, they are equipped to make thoughtful, Spirit-guided decisions now and in years to come, ensuring the future of the church.