How to Reward your Kids in Kids Ministry

Rewards can be a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you want to get your kids excited to do everything you're asking them to do! On the other hand, you don't want their main motivation for, say, reading their Bible, to be receiving a piece of candy. You have to find a balance, and I believe through my own trial and error, I've come up with a list of ways to ensure that your rewards are engaging, fun, and purposeful for your kids.

1. Make the Rewards Fun

Your rewards should be fun, not lame. This will require knowing your kids a bit and understanding what is relevant in today's world. Kids don't want an EvangeCube or a gospel tract (although some may do!), they want candy, toys, games... you know how it is!

At my church, simple actions get rewarded with simple rewards. For instance, before we begin our Bible Lesson we sing and dance to a song. In order to get the kids up and moving, every other week or so I reward the "best dancer" with a candy prize. I used to do this for kids who completed their Memory Verse for the month, however I have since changed that system. Candy always seemed to have done the trick, and you can find lots of bulk candy bags in cheap on Amazon.

For more complex and, for lack of a better word, important actions, the kids will get rewarded with greater rewards. With the points system that I've implemented in my ministry, kids receive points by bringing their Bibles, inviting friends, good behavior, and completing their Memory Verse for the month. These points then accumulate together with the whole class to earn things like snack-time before game time, craft workshop day, and even Wednesday night at the park. These rewards get the kids SUPER excited for completing their goals.

2. Don't Make it a Competition

In my opinion, the worst thing you can do to your rewards is making it a competition. Maybe this is different for each church, but my ministry would not be able to handle competitive rewards.

At my church, we've implemented a points system that I modeled after classroom rewards that schools might do for a canned food drive. It's pretty simple: the class that brings the most cans wins a pizza party. However, I got to thinking, will my kids be able to handle a competitive rewards system like that? I dreamed of turning each class into a different team with it's own color to increase the team loyalty between classes. 

But then I remembered the last time we did teams. Kids were yelling at kids, brothers were against brothers, it was a free-for-all in the church gymnasium and even the shy kids were getting in on the action.

Immediately, I decided to put everyone on one team. Not only are kids motivated through a unique rewards system, but they also learn the biblical value of church family. We are all on the same team together running the same race towards the same goal!

3. Remind your Kids What is Most Important

And the end of the day, your kids will only be able to catch the vision you cast them. Remind them each week why they are memorizing verses, inviting friends, and bringing their Bibles. Get parents along for the ride by getting them to reinforce these ideals for their children.

Lastly, you have to remind yourself why you're doing this. You want kids to grow and deepen their relationships with Jesus and for them to learn all about the life God has planned for them for His glory.