Why Should the Youth Pastor Care About the Children's Ministry?

Who cares about your Children's Ministry? Of course you do, your volunteers do, parents and grandparents of children care . . . today I'm sharing some reasons for the Youth Pastor to care about the Children's Ministry. Consider the following -

• According to the Barna Group - "When it comes to church engagement,  those who attended Sunday school or other religious programs as children or as teens were much more likely than those without such experiences to attend church and to have an active faith as adults. For instance, among those who frequently attended such programs as a child, 50% said they attended a worship service in the last week, which is slightly higher than the national average and well ahead of those who rarely or never attended children’s programs. Among those who frequently attended religious programs as teenagers, 58% said they had attended a worship service in the last week. In comparison, less frequent participation as a teenager correlated with less frequent adult participation."
• "The highest proportion of unchurched adults was found among those who had never attended as children or teenagers. Weekly activity as a child and weekly or monthly activity as a teen were connected with the lowest levels of disconnection from church attendance."
• "Individuals who recalled frequent religious attendance as a child were less likely to have changed central faith views than were those who attended less often. For example, among those who frequently attended religious programs as a child, only 22% had significantly changed their faith views from their childhood faith." 
• "The current Barna study indicates nearly half of all Americans who accept Jesus Christ as their Savior do so before reaching the age of 13 (43%), and two out of three born again Christians (64%) made a commitment to Christ before their 18th birthday. One out of eight born again people (13%) made their profession of faith while 18 to 21 years old. Less than one out of every four born again Christians (23%) embraced Christ after their twenty-first birthday."

• Most youth pastors are parents of young children, so as a parent he should care very much about the Children's Ministry.
• The teens he works with in the youth ministry were previously part of the Children's Ministry - if the Children's Ministry has not been effective, it greatly affects what he will be able to do in the Youth Ministry.
• If the Children's Ministry was not effective, the youth pastor will have to have a "salvage ministry" as he tries to pull these teens back in to the church.
• if the Children's Ministry was effective, the youth pastor will be able to help these teens grow in their walk and will be able to involve them in tremendous outreach ministry opportunities.

In many churches the youth pastor has to oversee the Children's Ministry as well, but his main "focus" is the Youth Ministry. The Children's Ministry has to matter Ministry he will have.