Children’s ministry of pentecostal and charismatic congregations in mangaung township: a practical theological investigation

Children’s Ministry of Pentecostal congregations in Mangaung Township faces many challenges that include a lack and/or inadequate infrastructure and shortage of trained personnel, especially regarding how to work with children. Children’s ministry is a collaborative effort between parents, teachers, children and congregations. In this collaborative effort, parents are the primary role players and must be recognized as such. However, all these stakeholders have to work in tandem for the ministry to achieve its desired outcomes. The thrust of the study was to determine the challenges of volunteer workers/teachers regarding children’s ministry, the understanding of the pastors regarding the ministry, the current practices of children’s ministry, the role of different stakeholders in the ministry and what would be the requirements for an effective children’s ministry. The study was both a theoretical and empirical study. Relevant literature was studied to understand the roles of different stakeholders or role players in children’s ministry and normative practices of congregations. It used qualitative research study. It also used empirical methods that included participatory action research methodologies to collect data. Observations and reflections on the practices of children’s ministry were done, as well as indepth interviews with ministry teachers and pastors of the congregations. Focus group interviews with parents augmented this. The ATLAS.Ti 2023 software package was used to analyze the data. The study made the following main findings: the ministry challenges are a lack of resources, mainly in the form of buildings/facilities, a shortage of teachers and a lack of support by the parents. The practices of the ministry are singing, teaching the Word of God, memory of verses, drama, sketches and plays. It thus made the following recommendations to improve it: first, there must be a vision and mission for the ministry and provide a budget to support the vision and mission. Second, recruit, train and retain teachers. Third, invite parents to the ministry, theologically ground them to understand their responsibility, and train, equip and support them with materials. Fourth, build relationships with them. Fifth, the children should be given an opportunity to make inputs regarding the running of the ministry and also to serve both in the ministry and congregation. Congregations should be intergenerational. Moreover, the ministry ought to be taken seriously by the leadership of the congregations and the parents. This could be achieved by appointing a person with a certain level of authority in the congregation to oversee the activities of the ministry.