Do Western short-term missions teams easily draw crowds of children? Yes! A few days of kids ministry will produce lots of heart-warming photos to show back home.

However, too often such ministries actually short-circuit the process of discipling children. It’s time to rethink our strategy.

Tears streamed down the face of the Indian children’s worker. She had just finished leading what had appeared to be a very successful VBS program in this spiritually needy area of central India. The children seemed to love it.

“Did something in the program go poorly?” Gordon West, founder and director of KidZ at Heart, inquired.

“Oh, no,” she said as she wiped her tears. “It was all fine.”

“Then what’s wrong?” Gordon probed gently. He was aware that a generous US donor had invested thousands of dollars to purchase the VBS supplies and then ship them all the way from the US to India. It had been an exciting week of children’s ministry.

“If I had only had the money they spent on all of these materials,” she explained, “we could have reached a hundred times as many children.”

A hundred times more impact? That statement put the previous week of exhilarating ministry in a different perspective for Gordon. And this wasn’t the first time that he had heard a similar story. He was reminded of the church in Uganda which was using donated American Sunday school curriculum. Each week the teaching activity called for construction paper, a resource not available in Uganda at that time, as well as worksheets and take-home pages. So every quarter the Ugandan leaders solicited $1,000 from a different Western church. The money was needed to purchase, ship, and then pay high import duties on the stipulated construction paper and curriculum guides. How many children were in the program? Just 35.

Experiences like these forced Gordon to reconsider: “Are our well-intentioned efforts handicapping rather than helping children’s ministry around the world?” His understanding of missions ministry to children was shifting.

But it was the honesty of a pastor in Latvia that sealed Gordon’s decision to take a radically different course in training church teams for international children’s ministry. That Latvian pastor looked Gordon in the eye and said, “Please tell your American friends not to send us another VBS team. We don’t need to see what children’s ministry you can do in one week. We need to learn what we can do for 52 weeks.”

Consider some crucial paradigm shifts

More than one-third of the Majority World’s population is under the age of 15. Therefore, strategic ministry to children must be a priority for every Western church serious about making a global impact. But how you fulfill your role in the process can actually set children’s ministry back in these regions, lose the next generation, and discourage teachers and parents. Or a shift in your approach could enable you to empower a new wave of disciplers who will mentor vast numbers of children in nations around the globe.

Which of these shifts does your church need to make?

Shift from teaching children to multiplying teachers

Two foundational missions principles often get lost in children’s ministry: All of our missions efforts need to be reproducible and locally sustainable. The only way our passion to win global children will meet these criteria is if we stop teaching the children and instead teach teachers, or even better, teach trainers of teachers.

Gordon puts it this way: “Children’s missions efforts can’t focus on how many children respond in programs we run overseas. Rather, our success must hinge on helping godly adults to live in daily, long-term relationships with children—children who, as a result, are discipled to know and be like Jesus.”

Shift from sending teens to sending teaching experts

Many churches send youth overseas to teach children. Sometimes the rationale is that teenagers can develop leadership skills while working with children who don’t require the teaching standards we expect back home. And these Majority World children may love having the attention of Western teenagers.

But what is the local teachers’ perspective? First, they feel upstaged by splashy Western teaching aids like puppets and costumes. Second, there is the humiliation of appearing inferior to the “wow factor” of these visitors likely only half their age.

Instead, Western churches need to consider sending their most proficient teachers and teacher-trainers to focus not on children but on equipping local teachers. Experienced teachers will be respected by national leaders, and local teachers will be eager to learn from them.

These trainers must teach principles, not share programming. Programming is always cultural. When local leaders are empowered to choose, their programs will always look very different than our Western ones.

Shift from short-term to long-term impact focus

Typically Majority World children love a Western VBS or other children’s program. They are entertained by colorful visuals and things like puppets they have never seen before. They love the novelty of using craft resources unknown in their country.

But what happens when the exciting Western teachers leave? The children look at their parents and regular teachers as unexciting and second rate. Such a program creates disrespect for local leaders and disappointment with local programming. None of us would want to be the local believer who has to teach the week after the American team leaves. Even if some of the resources are left behind, few local programs can maintain the glamour and excitement the foreign team brought.

Shift from taking curricula abroad to assisting local leaders to develop their own

Western children’s curricula are full of illustrations, teaching methods, and cultural references that don’t fit most boys and girls in the developing world. For example, stories describing going to the mall, using computers, or expecting expensive Christmas presents are incomprehensible to them. Can’t  local teachers just adapt these materials? No. Even experienced Western teachers often fail to adapt curricula well.

Meanwhile, many global children need to learn of Jesus while living in a context of poverty, war, persecution, and other trauma that is literally foreign to Western curricula. That means even the choice of which biblical stories to include will often be different when prayerfully chosen for children in a specific region.

Ours or Theirs?

Gordon West of KidZ at Heart describes a recent two-day, teacher training event in Moldova:

Day 1 went well as the American team presented teaching concepts. On day 2, instead of sharing a curriculum, they challenged the 30 young Moldovan leaders to come up with their own theme and program. The local leaders struggled. It was so hard and messy that it was downright painful for the Westerns to watch. And the end result was not what the training team would have chosen.

But it was fully owned by those Moldovan teachers! They learned by doing. They developed confidence. And they improved as they went. On days 3-5 those leaders successfully implemented their own plans with real children from their own country.

Steps to shift your church’s approach to global children’s ministry

Talk to your field partners

The national church leaders where you serve may affirm your bringing a Western children’s program to their church. There may be multiple reasons:

• They may be relieved that you come and run a program that doesn’t require any planning or organization on their part.
• They may feel as if a Western program gives them prestige in their community.
• They may be afraid that if they say “no,” you will withdraw funding or other resources they sorely need.
• They may just be too polite to tell you they don’t want it. Almost always they will consider you the “expert” who should not be questioned.

None of these reasons is a valid rationale for your running their children’s program for them. Shift the conversation by asking them to describe their teachers, or potential teachers:

1. What is the vision of these teachers, and what are they already doing?
2. What foundation do they have in understanding biblical truth?
3. What kind of training have they had in basic teaching principles?
4. What curriculum and resources are they using?
5. What other training do they wish they had?
6. How do church leaders believe their children’s ministry could exponentially expand in impact?

Develop better options for your youth teams

1. Your youth leaders may see the overseas VBS trip as a great training tool for their teenagers. Discipling your teens is a shared goal, but help them understand the reasons why this type of missions trip does not benefit the receiving churches.
2. Brainstorm with them alternate models of global ministry. For instance, your teens might work alongside and under nationals running a children’s program such as a sports camp. Emphasize the importance of deferring to the local leaders and staff, even if the Western team members have more experience.

Talk to your children’s ministry leader(s)

1. If your team leaders are experienced children’s workers, discuss the multiplication benefits of teaching teachers rather than teaching children. While recognizing and respecting their educational expertise, help them grasp the negative implications of exporting overseas their Western children’s ministry model and resources.
2. Explain that the local teachers they mentor will develop materials and programs that may not match their Western expectations. New teachers will need time to grow in their roles. Western teachers must realize that local leaders’ approaches almost always work better in their context.
3. Challenge them to get training for themselves and/or for their whole team from an organization like KidZ at Heart. Designate funds from the missions budget for this strategic training.