CEP 08: JANE LLOYD - CAN CHILDREN’S MINISTRY GROW THE CHURCH?

Jun 24

By Dave Mckeown and Nathan Benger

Welcome to Episode: 08 of the Church Explained Podcast. A conversation to help grow your leadership, develop your team and build your church. Your hosts will be Dave Mckeown and Nathan Benger. We will talk about all things leadership with key team players from IKON Church and other guests during each show.

In this episode, we chat with Jane Lloyd who has been heading up the children’s ministry at IKON church for almost 30 years. She shares from her wealth of experience key insights that she believes are needed to help build the church through a thriving children’s ministry.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

David Mckeown 0:00

Welcome to the Church explained podcast a conversation to grow your leadership and build your Church. Today we're excited as we have got a special guest from IKON Church is going to be involved in the podcast. That is Jane Lloyd. And we're going to talk around this idea of can a children's ministry, help grow your Church. I am Dave.

Nathan Benger 0:25

And I'm Nathan. And we're your host on the Church explained podcast and today we're joined on the podcast by Jane Lloyd, who is one of the pastors at IKON little whoop over there. Yeah. And you've been heading up. We were just talking kids ministry for 20 years. Yeah, over 20 years now. Yeah, yeah. Wow. And we were trying to work out exactly what we can't work out. Exactly. It's it's Yeah, memories, failings. Soam who the who the listeners now is always behind the camera. No he should have he should be in front of the camera. He 29. He's 29. And he was in the kids ministry as well. Jane, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, your family leadership, all of that?

Jane Lloyd 1:12

Yeah. Yep. So I'm married to Gavin be married for almost 33 years now. And we've been part of the leadership team at IKON Church for many of those years, actually. And we have four grown up children. So they are all in their 20s. And some of them are married. Did I say there were 4? And, yeah, and all of them. All of them are involved in Church, which is amazing. But also this last year, in fact, during the pandemic, we had our first grandson, called miles Who. Yeah, he's been an absolute joy, especially over the last year. So yeah, he's turned one. And he's is great.

Nathan Benger 2:05

That's amazing. Well, let's get into kind of the topic of children's ministry that grows Church. And why don't you just tell us a little bit about the progression of the children's ministry IKON Church? How did it look when you started? Was that progression look like?

Jane Lloyd 2:20

Yeah. So I mean, when I took over as children's Pastor, I guess there probably was only about a dozen children, I would say, in the children's ministry back then. And so I guess, for many churches, that that's probably quite a common sort of size. But really, I did always have in my heart, I guess, a passion to see it grow. But there was a moment, I guess, I can't remember how many years ago, maybe about 15 16 years ago, when we had a big leadership shift within the Church. And Paul, our lead Pastor, kinda wanted to see a culture change, right, really, and, and at that time, which I guess is what often happens, we had a lot of people leave the Church. And the children's ministry, actually, at one moment, went down to kind of myself, and pretty much my four children. And that was it. And that was quite tough, really. But at that point, I realised I had to get a bit of a fresh perspective on things really. And what I did was I began to kind of do things from a perspective of faith really, and I and I used to prepare as if there were 20 kids in the room. And I really felt God challenged me to see this ministry grow and to see beyond what I could physically see in the room, and just trust in him that he could create a thriving children's ministry within what is now IKON Church. And so, as a Church, we slowly began to grow. And so more people were added, and obviously, families came in. So it gradually started to grow. And there was a moment where I remember Paul saying to me, you know, find the best resources that you can, so that we can create the best that we can for our children's ministry. And really, that was in my heart to that I wanted to provide the best that we could. And even though at that point, we were quite small. But I mean, God has been amazing. And over the years, we've seen it grow and as the Church has grown, to the point now where we have around 50 children's leaders across all our campuses we're seeing families added to the Church all the time. And it's just so exciting now that we are having an impact upon children, families, not just on a Sunday, but also kind of throughout the year where we put events on and we can see, you know, kids coming in from the community as well. So it really has grown really to what I guess what I saw in my heart back then. I'm now seeing actually that's a big thing.

David Mckeown 5:33

Yeah. So , so let's get to another key question, which I think you sort of pulled out a little bit there. But well, we'll put through there as well. Think of some of the key strategies that you've used to build a thriving children's ministry, because like you've said now there's 50 Children's leaders who are helping you along there. So one of the things you said was obviously you operated on faith, I think that's really important to think about that faith gets you to that next level. Yeah, that culture shift then 15 years ago, obviously, that was part of it. But what other strategies have you implemented?

Jane Lloyd 6:12

Yeah. So yeah, I mean, faith is, is important. And I think when you when you kind of trust God, for something, whatever that area is, in the life of Church, you've got to receive a vision from God, really. And I would say that vision is a key is key, really, to building something in the way that God wants you to build it. So I would say, you've got to be able to see something before you literally see it. So you got to have that vision. And I would say, a few years ago, as a children's ministry that we spent a little bit of time really talking about around vision and values. I mean, as a Church, we have a vision and values. And I wanted our children's ministry to have the same which fitted into the vision of IKON Church. So we talked about that a little bit, and we came up with a vision and values. Our vision is helping kids to, to know Jesus, and live their best life and well done. And so the values around that were like, We came up with fun friendship, faith. Yeah. So that was easy for us to remember. So it's about having fun building friendship and growing faith. And that's what we want to see in our children, as they, you know, come up through kids ministry, and grow in Church. So vision is crucial. And I think then praying into that vision is so important. And that's where the faith comes in, and you trusting God, to actually resource you with what you haven't got. Because we have a big vision. So, you know, we often say in Church, you know, that we have more vision than we have resources. And the same is true in kids ministry. But I remember, like, there was one particular time where I really needed like, another key person alongside me who had as much passion that I had to see this thing grow. And we didn't have a lot of team at that point. But I really prayed and believe that God would give me somebody and literally within two weeks, a new person came into Church. And within a few weeks, I found out that, that they had a passion for kids ministry. And to cut long story short, they came onto my core team, eventually, and served on that team for many years. So you know, prayer does work, it has changed their lives. And I think you just got to have that faith to believe that God is going to going to do the impossible, what seems impossible at the time. So praying is really crucial. And then I think the third thing I would say, is recruiting the right people. And I would say my experience, which I've learned along the way is that, you know, recruiting the wrong people isn't often not the best case scenario, really. And and I know that often times, you're in a ministry and you just need people who bring the helpyeah. But for kids ministry, it's not it's not necessarily the right thing, just to pull anyone into it, because you really need people that have passion, to see those kids grow and flourish. People that actually like kids is really important. And, you know, we've had we've had people that just, they haven't been in the right place, and I think when you're recruiting for a kid's team, you definitely need to look for those roles. People that that can serve those kids in the best way possible, really, because they deserve to have the best. And so I think recruitment is is a real, real key ingredient to building a successful ministry.

Nathan Benger 10:15

But let's talk about that whole thing around teams as well. And building teams like, you know, even just getting into fundamentals what you do, how often you meet, but also, I know, because of being youth Pastor, we have lots of young people who are in youth who serve. Yeah, the kids ministry, I wonder if you just touch on that as well.

Jane Lloyd 10:36

Yeah. So I mean, to be honest, that has been brilliant. And some of my best leaders are my young leaders. And even we call some of the mini leaders. That's just because obviously, in kids ministry, the whole thing around safeguarding is, is very, very important. So once they get to 16, obviously, they can have a DBS check and everything. So they're fully fledged if you like, but I have I encourage leaders that are younger than that, who may be around youth, but have that desire and that willingness to serve. And some of those have been my best leaders. Because they're so enthusiastic, and their heart is just so willing to serve, and they just do a great job. And I think it's a great, it's a great learning ground as well, being in kids ministry. Because you learn a lot of skills through that. And so yeah, the youth have been key

Nathan Benger 11:40

one of the things I'd add is like getting the young people involved, they see a bigger picture than just the youth or their bubble they see serving. Yeah,

Jane Lloyd 11:47

they do. They do. And I think they see what impact they can have. Because maybe they wouldn't impact an adult in the same way. But actually children, they can have a great impact on on children

David Mckeown 12:02

and quite relatable as well.

Jane Lloyd 12:03

Yeah, that's right, that they're very close to their age, so that into the same kind of things they understand where kids are in their world, which is brilliant. So yeah,

David Mckeown 12:14

let me draw out a little bit more on that. So just thinking of your 50 team, leaders that you have, what's the percentage? This is not a question we've planned, but it just interest what what's the percentage? Do you think of young leaders or mini leaders? You're testing mem Dave. Say roughly, it's probably 50 50. Pretty good, isn't it?

Jane Lloyd 12:41

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then when we do our events, of course, and I encourage whoever in the Church, I mean, I encourage a lot of people to just get involved and serve on those because we need big teams. And, and that's when I find that, you know, I'm pulling more of those young people in, because they've obviously got the time. Yeah, and holidays and stuff like that. To give. Yeah, so it's really

David Mckeown 13:08

and you mentioned there Jane a little bit about this idea of recruiting the right people. Do you have any simple things you do to recruit the right person? Well,

Jane Lloyd 13:24

I guess a lot of that has come through youth involvement. So that's quite kind of organic, really, it just kind of happens. And other than that, you know, sometimes I'm looking for the right sort of person, you might ask the question of a person if you know that they've got kind of background, in working with children. They can be ideal people, teachers, anyone in education, that sort of thing. But actually, what you often find is they don't want to do it, because that's the nine to five Monday to Friday job. They don't want to do that on a Sunday, which I get I get I mean, I'm a teacher myself. But I've always been passionate. I mean, Church is my number one passion, I guess, anyway. Well, yeah, and I mean, leadership, so that that would make sense really. But being a teacher, I suppose. That birthed in me a passion. Yeah. For kids and young people. So I've always had that passion, but that's not necessarily what happens with you know, those who are in education. Yeah. And come into the Church. So you can't necessarily rely on that. And, you know, we'll always try and put it out there that that, you know, these are the areas in Church life where you can serve, you know, if you're interested in kids ministry, you know, come and see us come forward. So I guess we haven't had a lot of difficulty in recruiting in late later, more recent years. Yeah. And as we did at the Start. Yeah, because I guess it is more organic. Now how people nice flow through there. Yeah. Yeah. Which is good.

Nathan Benger 15:09

Yeah. You mentioned earlier about, obviously, the church's vision, and your, you know, kind of children's ministry vision and you know, not being separate. And then it also you just mentioned a comment where our lead Pastor Paul had come to you and say, Hey, like, go out, find the best resources. So kind of the question is, how does that children's ministry fit into the vision of the Church? How do you make that fit into the vision of the Church?

Jane Lloyd 15:37

Yeah. So I mean, our church's vision is all about human flourishing. So that that crosses all generations. And for me, I think it's really important that Church should always be about the generations coming together. And one verse that I always love, to go to, and and i think is key for us is Psalm 145, verse four, which says, Let every generation tell its children of your mighty acts, let them proclaim Your power. And so you know, to me, throughout history, throughout the Bible, God has always instructed his people to pass on this good news to the next generation, to our children, to our children's children. And so I feel that we have a responsibility as the Church to do that, and that we should always see that we are leaving a legacy to the next generation that's coming forward. Often we say that our children are the leaders of tomorrow, which is true. But I also think that they're the leaders of today, because actually, they are influencing their peers, and the people in their world, in their own right. And I also feel strongly that our kids need to see themselves as members of God's family that they have a part to play, whatever age or stage they're at, they have a part to play. I think the kids in our Church do feel that they are part of the family that they are welcome. Yeah, that they're welcome in our services, that they feel comfortable in our services. And I think that's really, really crucial. I always go back also to the story of Jesus, where he is telling the disciples off for pushing the children away. Yeah. And yet Jesus says, No, we welcome these children. And, and he, in that moment, he welcomed them, he honoured them. And he caused the disciples to see the importance in that moment of how their faith needs to be nurtured. So their faith and their trust in Him, Jesus, it's so important that that is nurtured. And I think we have a responsibility as a Church to do that. Yeah, definitely.

David Mckeown 17:58

Great. Yeah. Hey, guys, question here for you. But a bit cheeky question. I have to say, Dave ask the tough question. So the question is, do you think children's ministry can grow the Church or pause for a second for dramatic? Or is it a pool of resources that can be used in Sunday services? is a bit of a double question, can it build the Church? If all the energy is going to children's Church or ministry? Are you depleting Sunday services? Here we go Church explained podcast is this is the one here, this is the we're in the tough subject here. Somebody's got to answer.

Jane Lloyd 18:41

well, for all the reasons that I've just stated. Of course, children's ministry can grow the Church. Yeah. You know, children are the next generation. And so like, if we forgot about them, if we left them to the sidelines, where would the Church be in 10 years? You know, that's what you got to ask yourself. So of course, they are. children's ministry is key in building and growing the Church. And, and I believe, obviously, that the Church should invest heavily into our kids and our youth as well. You know, and I'm so thankful that IKON Church has, over the years always invested heavily into our kids and our young people. And I think that's amazing. Nathan said earlier, but Sam, who is behind the camera, at the moment, is a leader in our Church. He's come through kids ministry, and we can say that actually about a few of our leaders currently, yeah, that they started in kids ministry, they've gone through youth. They're now leaders in the Church. So you know, if we if we leave that as something on the sidelines, I think you're not going to see that development of faith. And, you know, we want to, we want to see our kids stay plugged into Church. Yeah. And sadly, so often, you know, if kids get turned off of Church, especially as they get into their teens, you know, we lose them, we lose a whole generation. And so we are I know, as a Church, so invested and keen to see our kids stay in Church, develop the faith, see their faith grow, go on, to become leaders go on to serve in different ways in the life of Church. And so those years are so key, really. And there is a statistic out there that says that, you know, many out there some where well, I know Nathan would know this statistic and I did know this statistic. Well, I know that there's like, Oh, my gosh,

Nathan Benger 20:57

is that the statistic where it's become a Christian? 86% of people become a Christian before the age of 25. Yeah. And of that 86%. And these Evangelical Alliance UK statistics 85% become a Christian before the age of 18.

Jane Lloyd 21:16

Yes, that's. So we have Yeah, we have this window of time. Yeah. Which I think is so influential. Yeah. And our kids, you know, Jesus talked about having a childlike faith. And that's why because our hearts are tender when we're young. And we're more responsive to the gospel, which, you know, isn't brainwashing is just that our hearts are tender. And we're much more willing to accept the gospel then, when we've got through those years. And we formed our own opinions, and we're more resistant to hearing the good news. So so.

Nathan Benger 21:58

So if you drop in Yeah, actually, because obviously, we talked about current children becoming leaders, but also we've done lots of community events where kids have come to it from the community, or from the surrounding areas. And then families have come into Church because of that.

Jane Lloyd 22:17

Yeah. Yes. So obviously, and I think that goes back to investing, because we have invested heavily into kids work. We've been able to put on events throughout the year. Some of them are one off sort of Christmas, Easter, your traditional kind of events, but then we've run a holiday club in the summer for a week. And we've done that over a period of a number of years. And it started off small again, but now we're seeing like over 200 children who will come to that event in the summer. And yeah, because we've done that. And we've grown, I guess, our integrity within the community. That's a big idea. Yeah. I think because because people have to trust you, don't they? And I think we've built that up over a number of years, to the point where we have an awful lot of children come to that,

Nathan Benger 23:18

because the the percentage actually, if we went on percentages that over, I would say over 50% would be from the community.

Jane Lloyd 23:26

Yeah, definitely. Oh, yeah. Way, probably way over that actually. Yeah, definitely. And, and families love their kids to come year on year. So we've, we've built great connections with our families in the community. And and through that some have come to Church, but it's it's provided that link and that connection, at least. And that ongoing sort of conversation, I guess. And so that has been really brilliant. And made the Church more accessible, I think, to you know, our families in the community.

David Mckeown 24:04

I think one of the things that comes out to me like just listening to the story, and I'll say I know some of the story, but I think one of the things comes out is that progression over time. Yeah. So it didn't suddenly you didn't suddenly turn up and have an amazing, large kids ministry. But it's taking time to build Yeah. And also just pull out that idea of that integrity. I think that's key, actually, you know, like in a community and a time and a setting. You know, where you've got integrity with people, then I see people will return again and again and again. But that takes time to build. You and your team. Yeah, I've clearly done over time. I I think that's a great takeaway, even for people listening today. People watching, you know, it's all about integrity. Yeah. You know, do the people in our communities trust us? Yeah. Because if not, they're not going to come. Yeah, but they've got to see and I think that's a great concept. I really Yeah,

Nathan Benger 25:00

no really good. So, well, let's let's, let's stick on the holiday club. Cuz you mentioned that. Yeah. How, like, let's How would you successfully? How would you run a successful holiday club?

Jane Lloyd 25:17

Yeah. So obviously, we have done it for a number of years. And we started small, I think if you were thinking about starting something like that. And, obviously, you, you want to find a resource that suits you, I guess, and there are good resources out there. So there are things that can help you start up. I can think of a couple straightaway, which would be scripture union do provide a complete resource that you could just follow. And that makes it easy for you and your team. We have used that in the past, we've used another resource called elevate, which is an American resource, because the media is good on that. And what we tend to do now is we come up with an idea ourselves. We usually link it to a Disney film or something like that. But that has worked really well. Yeah. Because straightaway, you've got a connection with kids in the community. Because everybody's seen Disney, or whatever. And so that's your hook, really. And so if you can build a programme around a good idea that links was something that connects with kids, then you're on to a win straight away. They love turning up dressed, dressed up. They can bring all this stuff with, that's just the leaders. Yeah, well, yeah, that's the leaders too so we will have fun. And then it's about kind of, I guess, you obviously need a team. And then you build a programme that's going to suit that team. And I guess the number of kids that, that you might have that come. And then I would say use your team to their strengths. So think about who who are your people that are good at MC-ing being upfront, who were your creatives who can, you know, make things look great? Yeah, amazing. Who can, you know, come up with the crafts or the fun activities that the kids are going to really enjoy? Who are your

Nathan Benger 27:32

I'll just kind of jump in there. Sorry. Because I think that's an important thing in the fact of like, Who's creative who can make it look great? Because when they come in on holiday club week, it doesn't look like Church? No, it doesn't at all. And I think that's an important thing. Especially you know, somebody, you know, you've got a Church building. I'm turning up to Church. Yeah. And yet it's kitted out. Yeah, I think that's

Jane Lloyd 27:56

Yeah, I think that blows people away that they didn't expect it to look like that. Or feel like that. You know, people have been amazed at the team, the number of people on Team serving, and I will guess, the young team as a young team, and they can't understand sometimes why people would give up so much time, yeah, to put this on for their kids. And that's amazed people. So I think, you know, from an outsider looking in, I guess, if you put on something that is high quality, that you've spared no expense, really, although obviously, there is a budget, yeah. But you're kind of spared no expense, you're given up all this time. You're making an environment that is safe, fun, friendly, loving, you know, people are blown away by that from an outsider looking in. So I think, yeah, you can do it. I mean, we started small. And we had just the idea and the vision to do it. To put something on, we've always maintained that we wouldn't make it expensive that it would be accessible for families, although you want you want to give it value. And I have had to change that over the years just to put more value on it. Yeah. But you want to make it so that it's affordable, compared to maybe something else that they might take their kids to. But yeah, we started with a small team and we just gradually built it up really over time. And and then the other thing I would say is if you can encourage other people from Church to get involved, just to do little jobs for you, you know, just so that's another body in the room really. Then I think it's also a great way of getting the Church behind your vision as well and get them serving Get them mobilised. Yeah. So it's, it's it's good from that aspect too. Yeah.

David Mckeown 30:06

So listen, Jane its been fantastic. Lots of great content that we're gonna another couple of questions we just want to finish on. One is this. Howcan Church leaders? Like they're Listen to this. How can Church leaders maybe a senior leader, senior Pastor, how can they support their children's leaders? as what would what would you recommend? So I have written? Oh, come on. No,

Jane Lloyd 30:37

that was a question that you had, wasn't it? And I thought about that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, sorry. I think that they should have a vested interest in actually what goes on behind the doors of your children's ministry. Because so often kids ministry is in a room somewhere that can't be seen or heard, obviously. And nobody really gets to see that during the Church service, because we're all doing other things. But I think if you can have a vested interest in actually what happens behind those doors, that's, that's one thing that you can do, I think, give recognition to children's leaders, because the other thing is that they are often hidden away and not seen. And I think to give recognition to those people who left school, you know, they've taken time they've prepared stuff for your kids. So, you know, actually honouring what they've done, I think is an important thing. It makes them feel valued, as well as ministry leaders, because Because actually, we are ministering to the kids. It's not just a babysitting venue or a job that they do, but that actually ministering to those kids. So I think that's another thing that you can do. And of course, we've talked a lot about this, but making financial investment into that ministry i think is vitally important just to make it the best that it can possibly be.

Nathan Benger 32:17

Great answers. Yeah, really good. Really good. Well, that's it for our episode. The Church explained podcast want to thank Jane, for being with us, and talking around this whole thing of children's ministry that grows a Church and if you head over to ikon.church/open there are loads of children's resources on there that Jane and the team have put together, that you can use for your children's ministry. Want to thank you for listening. And please rate review, subscribe wherever you're consuming this content, and we look forward to seeing you next time on the Church explained podcast.