You're actually a kids minister...

Next week the holidays I'm on continue and I'll be missing the first week of a school term. In turn, I'll have to skip some of the duties I normally do and have delegated others.

As I thought about my usual week, which the first week of term normally is, I'll need to make arrangements for four scripture infants/primary lessons, the primary aged kid's club, youth group and Sunday morning children's activities.

But, looking at these face-to-face activities, I noticed an interesting trend.

I spend the majority of my active ministry time with children, not teens. Usually,  children see me "doing the dance" at a ratio of 3:1 compared to their elders.

Is this usual?

Is it routine for youth ministers to actually spend a predominant chunk of their face-time with those prepubescent?

I tend to think so, mainly due to scripture, because there are many more school-based ministry opportunities, spread across a wide area. Whereas, similar windows of opportunity can be open for teens, they tend to be tightly contested due to fewer public high schools and employed scripture teachers.

So... Is this a bad thing? Not really.

You have the fantastic opportunity to develop relationships with kids before they reach their teens.

But, it's the untold secret of people with my job and something, I suggest, would come as a surprise to those writing up the title of many youth ministry job descriptions...