Children's Ministry During COVID-19

Looking for ways to encourage and equip children and their families during this time? Wondering how to help parents and caregivers talk to kids about crises like coronavirus? You'll find a wide variety of excellent ideas below. 

Flexible Children's Ministry Curriculum:

• One kid or many kids. In person or virtual. One age group or a range of ages. Dwell Flex is a simple curriculum that works with all those possibilities. Explore God’s big story with kids in any setting.

Resources for Calming Anxiety and Fear:

• Visit the National Child Traumatic Stress Network for excellent general information on trauma in children and for services available in the U.S. to assist traumatized children.
• The Presbyterian Church (USA) provides a helpful resource page on Mental Health for Parents, Kids, and Families

• Encourage parents with this reminder about the impact of a simple faith practice: Maybe What We Need Most Right Now is a Bedtime Song.

• Helping Children With Scary News (by The Jesus Storybook author Sally Lloyd-Jones) and Talking to Kids About Coronavirus (from the folks at Kids Corner) provide helpful tips for conversations rooted in hope. 

• Breath Prayers for Anxious Times provides simple suggestions for how to use the ancient practice of meditative prayers during times of anxiety. Helpful for all ages.  

• Shepherding the Children of Your Church in Difficult Times provides pastors with ideas for how to shepherd the littlest sheep in your congregations.  

• Responding to Repeated Questions is a helpful post for parents with children at home or those who are providing care for a person with an intellectual disability or dementia.

Faith-Forming Activities Families Can Do While at Home Together: 

• This idea for A Wonderful Way to Help Families Form Faith at Home This Fall involves blessing families with a gift bag that will be as fun for you to pack as it is for them to receive. 

• How the Practice of Gratitude Transformed My Family’s Weekly Sabbath Practice. Share this post as a way to encourage and equip families to receive God’s gift of rest and renewal each week.

Resources for Family Bible Reading and Prayer: 

• Faith5 is a great way for families to have faith conversations and focus on God. For specific details about each step to share with families, click here.   

• Everyday Family Faith and God’s Big Story cards are two faith-forming resources that are small enough to send to families in the mail--and they can use them long after the virus is gone. 

• Encourage families to have ongoing conversations with God by using the ideas for prayer in 5 Ways to Pray with Kids.

• 5 Ways to Retell a Bible Story with Kids contains five ideas that can be used with any Bible story.      

• If your church is a Dwell Digital subscriber, check out this post for the ways you can share Dwell Digital sessions with parents. CRC churches, you can now access Dwell Digital for free!

Resources for Engaging Children in Worship

• The posts COVID-19 and Including Kids in Online Worship (Part 1) and (Part 2) are filled with practical ideas your church can use.

•  5 Terrific Tips to Telling God's Story with Children During Online Worship provides fresh ideas for sharing children's messages during worship.

Lent and Holy Week Ideas

• Engage all ages in observing Lent, in community and at home, with this collection of Lenten resources from the Family Faith Formation Toolkit.

• Celebrate Holy Week at home with God’s Big Easter Story, a free, downloadable resource from Dwell at Home. (And did we mention you can color it?) Families can read one devotion each day of Holy Week or combine readings over a few days.

Planning for the Future

• The post How Your Children’s Ministry Can Emerge Stronger and Better After COVID-19 includes helpful guiding questions
• The podcast Children's Ministry in Time of Crisis and the webinar Children's Ministry: Reflection Toward Innovation are wonderful sources of information as you plan for the future.
• Faith Formation Ministries hosted more than 75 children’s ministry leaders and volunteers for an online roundtable discussion on what it might look like to return to face-to-face ministry in a COVID-19 world. You can view our conversation here.  
• Reopening Children's Ministry in a COVID-19 World is a resource to help you ask the right questions as you plan for reopening your in-person children’s ministry.

Ongoing Support 

• If you're part of the CRC, Mimi Larson, the Faith Formation Ministries’ Children’s Ministry Catalyzer is available to provide you with children’s ministry support. Email Mimi at [email protected]. 
• The CRC Children’s Ministry Leaders Facebook page is another wonderful resource and a great way to connect with others in similar roles.