"Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.'"
Matthew 19:14 NRSCE
Jacqueline Marie | Sept. 13, 2023
September, for many parishes, means the fall kick-off for ministries, including those for children and youth. Children’s ministries goes right to the heart of one of Divine Renovation’s Three Keys: the primacy of evangelization.
Laura O’Rourke has been leading the children’s ministry at Saint Benedict Parish in Halifax, Canada for the past seven years. Over this time, Sunday morning programs have grown to over 100 children between the two Masses. SBP Kids also offers weeknight programming and summer outreaches.
A parish’s ability to evangelize hinges on inclusion. When families do not find a place for their children to belong in church it often means the adults are excluded too. Laura states “you are limiting who you can evangelize to if you don’t provide something for kids.” She continues, a parish needs to ask itself, “who are we trying to reach? And what are their barriers for coming? And how can we mitigate that? And children’s ministry is a big one.”
At Saint Benedict, the focus on children’s ministry means, “the parents could be newcomers to the city, or recent Alpha attendees, but once they come to Mass, they find their whole family is welcomed.”
"New families will be deciding: do we belong here? And how important is it for those kids to feel like they have a place they can fit in, like they have a place they want to go?”
Sunday morning children’s ministries are often the first place at a parish for children to feel a sense of belonging. As one newcomer told a priest at SBP, “it’s so easy to come, because my kids ask to come.” Finding a place to thrive not only forms their faith but also serves as a catalyst for their parents to attend. Laura explains, “having something like that is going to help your evangelization move to the next step — to discipleship, and worship, and growth, and community.”
One of the ages she prioritizes is the middle school years, running a preteen group called “Encounter” for grades 4, 5, and 6. Laura explains why this age is so crucial: “part of their developmental identity is being shaped; they identify with where they belong.” It also means if they don’t feel that church has a place for them specifically, that’s the age when they start to disengage. Laura states, at this phase “families are building their lives around their kids’ schedules;” however, too often “church is not part of it.”
“I am super passionate about this age. If you have something for this age they are going to really connect, they are going to start to form their communities, they are going to start to identify as kids who follow Jesus or go to Church, and their families are going to follow suit.”
Encounter has been a “massive win” with the high school youth group seeing growth this year from the high influx of kids matriculating from Encounter into the next age bracket. “It shows that these kids…have been connected with enough to stay rooted in Church and keep coming back.”
This summer SBP also ran a Vacation Bible School on the five Sunday afternoons in July. “It’s an outreach” Laura explains, “you don’t have to go to Church to come to VBS.” This year, SBP had a “record number of VBS attenders… a huge win all around.”
More than just engaging the attendees, the VBS also involved many volunteers in the parish (for instance, the men’s ministry group served the 200 attendees and their family’s lunch before VBS each week).
Many of these volunteers were youth. “I’m finally able to see the impact of longevity and the desire to serve” within the youth. Laura notes why this is so important: “kids who serve in ministry are more likely to hold onto their faith into adulthood.” This year the VBS “essentially doubled the number of youth who volunteered…From grades 7-12 (in the parish) every kid knew someone who had experienced VBS or had an experience with it themselves and they wanted to be there” to serve.
Laura has found that children’s ministries is evangelization for both the parents and kids. It removes barriers for adults to engage accessibly with the parish when their children are welcomed, and children’s hearts are opened to encountering Jesus’ love for them.
As one parent mentioned while dropping their child off for Encounter: “They had a hard day, but they really wanted to come here – thank you for having this.”
Belonging matters; regardless of age.
One week, a new grade five boy attended Encounter, the middle school youth group. His 14 year old sister accompanied him and immediately asked Laura, “Do you need any help?” She joined in and helped. The next week at Encounter the leaders asked the children, “when have you seen it be hard to hold onto faith?” The little boy raised his hand and said, it had been hard to have faith when his family had to wait for a long-time, without success, to immigrate to Canada (from the Philippines). He said, then his parents, “prayed the rosary every day and then we made it!” Laura asked, “when did you come?” “Last week” he replied. The siblings had literally come to Encounter on their first day in Canada. “These ministries’ played such an important role in those kids lives during such a tumultuous time for them – it gave them somewhere they could land.”
One week, a new grade five boy attended Encounter, the middle school youth group. His 14 year old sister accompanied him and immediately asked Laura, “Do you need any help?” She joined in and helped. The next week at Encounter the leaders asked the children, “when have you seen it be hard to hold onto faith?” The little boy raised his hand and said, it had been hard to have faith when his family had to wait for a long-time, without success, to immigrate to Canada (from the Philippines). He said, then his parents, “prayed the rosary every day and then we made it!” Laura asked, “when did you come?” “Last week” he replied. The siblings had literally come to Encounter on their first day in Canada. “These ministries’ played such an important role in those kids lives during such a tumultuous time for them – it gave them somewhere they could land.”
