What is the future of Children’s Ministry theme designing? Will creative Children’s Ministry decorating still reach families in the future? Do I need to have a full blown “Disneyland” theme to still be effective?

When I began designing and decorating children’s facilities full time I had just resigned as an Associate Pastor after 10 years. In 1999 when I began there was only one church that I was aware of that was using creative theme designs in their facility to reach young families. The front door to this church was through their children and youth ministries. That church today is 14,000 members strong.

Over the years I have seen an explosion of companies rise and some of them fall. Some became huge, designing for mega churches and others remained small while still others have filled out the middle range. In all this time I have watched most all of these companies grow and now decline. I have begun to see a trend unfold just as I thought it would.

In the graph you will see a sharp increase from 2000 through 2006 which I believe was the peak in children’s ministry decorating. Over these first years of infancy many churches wanted the big “wow ka-pow”, over the top, the bigger the better facilities.

I think that fed the initial craze and emphasized the sharp initial growth. Then came an adjustment in thinking. Churches that had the “wow ka-pow” designs began realizing that they had reached some kids with all the money they spent on the designs, but that some of the “wow” had now become “that’s nice”.

I have had some of these children’s pastors tell me that they don’t even use all the stuff they got because the kids are already bored with it. Also, around 2006 I believe that some of these companies did not provide quality service. This cost them some respect and raised integrity issues.

Others realized that they could achieve the same effectiveness of reaching young families by creating themes that were amazing without having to break the bank to do so. From 2006 to present I have seen a decline in the interest and scope of “over the top” children’s ministry decorating. Fewer projects are available, the economy is more stressed, and budgets are tighter. The big money that once was thrown into grandiose facilities is drying up.

So where does that leave us today? Well, without a doubt, I believe children’s ministry decorating is still dollar for dollar the best way to reach young families in your community. In and of itself, it won’t get anyone saved, but it will get more “children in chairs” for you to get saved than just about any other program you have.

In my years of experience I have seen it over and over again. I have said this in quiet circles before and now for the first time I will say it in public. I base my opinion on asking just about every church I have designed the facts about their VBS. How much their VBS budget was, how many kids did they have and how many families do they believe are still attending the church after one year that was a result of VBS.

Sit down if you need to…. I believe without much doubt at all that using that same budget to decorate your children’s ministry with a great theme is more effective at reaching your community and attracting young families and keeping them, than most VBS programs could. Obviously there are other factors involved in retaining young families for a year. But head to head, I believe decorating dollars draw more attention and repeat visits, for a longer period of time, than VBS does in one week.

Ok, so what’s the trend for the future? I don’t believe that children’s ministry decorating is going away. But I do believe that it is adjusting itself to a more balanced level. Meaning, you don’t have to have “Disneyland” to achieve great results at reaching young families through decorating your children’s facility. I think the days of massive facility designs are for the most part in our past. But, great facility designs on a more moderate level have a very bright future.

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