Second and third graders and their parents look throughout their home for pens, pencils, highlighters, and sticky notes as they prepare to dig into the Bible together at home—along with other families in their church at the same age and stage! This is just one of the ways churches can engage families in the time after their child is baptized and before their child is confirmed. This is what Milestone Ministry is all about.
Milestone Ministry
Milestone Ministry instills Christian values and passing on the faith to the next generation. Milestone Ministry is a wonderful way to connect churches, schools, and homes, giving families tools and resources to use at home.
Each milestone is an opportunity to come alongside families to give them tools and resources to confirm, support, and strengthen them in their faith. Milestones generally include a time of instruction, ideally with both parents and children, a giveaway item, and a worship blessing, where families receive the giveaway item. Milestones aim to draw people to our worship services. I have seen many families come back to church for the first time in a long time because of a milestone worship blessing. Milestones enable these families to hear the Word preached and to receive the Sacrament. If we haven’t seen people in worship for a while, milestones are a way to gently invite them back and encourage them to go deeper in exploring spiritual disciplines at home.
Multiple Milestone Opportunities
Baptism Milestone
This milestone includes a time of instruction where the pastor meets with parents. Families generally receive many gifts when there is a Baptism, so this event easily fits into the milestone concept. Our church gives The Baptism of Your Child - Milestones to each family that has their child baptized in our church.
Infant Faith Chest Milestone
In this milestone, expecting parents and parents of infants and toddlers gather for a time to discuss how to share faith with a child who hasn’t yet learned to talk. If you have gifted craftsmen in your congregation, you can involve them in making wooden chests that can be given to each family participating in the worship blessing. This chest becomes a memory box for the child’s faith journey and can be a place to store baptismal keepsakes. The goal is that families are encouraged to remember their child’s Baptism as they add other faith mementos over the years and as they go through the contents of the chest and reflect regularly.
Consider starting little ones’ faith chests with a special book set, like My Little Blessings & Prayers Collection, which includes a Bible story book, prayer book, and memory book to personalize, or My Gifts from God (Boxed Set of 4), which talks about animals, colors, sounds, and opposites from a Christian perspective.
Learning to Pray Milestone
Preschool age is an exciting time to teach families what prayer is and encourage families with new resources and tools to experiment with. Consider tools like Prayer: Learning How to Talk to God to lay the foundation of why we pray to God. As children grow up, nurture this habit with a prayer book like A Child’s Book of Prayers, which includes dozens of prayers for all sorts of daily-life situations. At my church, each child who participates in this milestone receives a prayer pillow made by our church sewing group.
Exploring the Worship Space
For kindergarten and first grade–aged children and their parents, this milestone seeks to answer questions like “Why does our pastor wear a robe at church?” and “Why do we have an altar at the front of our sanctuary?” At my church, we teach kids and parents about how our sanctuary is set up and the layers of meaning behind each aspect of our worship space. Families get to do a scavenger hunt in the sanctuary, and the kids get to go behind the altar and pulpit and see what our worship space is all about.
My Book About Church is a great way to share the basics of what a church is, what happens within, and why it’s a great place to be—all through simple language and illustrations. Or try Whisper, Whisper, which uses rhyming text, in-sanctuary tips, and engaging illustrations to help young children understand the rituals and routine at church.
Backpack Blessing Milestone
This milestone is for all ages and works well as a worship blessing the weekend before school starts. Many congregations already do something like this, so if you’re looking to start milestones at your church, this is an easy one to incorporate into that framework. All the children at our church receive a keychain for their backpack when they go up to receive a blessing from the pastor.
Bible Presentation Milestone
This milestone is for children who are learning to read and are starting to outgrow a picture Bible or a children’s Bible (generally first through third grade). During the time of instruction, parents get to practice helping their child look up Bible verses in their new Bible. Our church gives the Faith Alive Student Bible to each family as a gift. During the worship blessing, parents take turns passing the microphone to share a Bible verse they’ve chosen for their child and words of blessing they wish to speak over their child as they learn to read the Bible for themselves.
Money Management Milestone
This works well with third and fourth grade families. Parents and children are given an opportunity to discuss key Scripture verses concerning money management and establish some guidelines for giving, saving, and spending. At our church, each child receives a set of “give,” “save,” and “spend” jars. When teaching children about tithing, it’s important to instill in them the idea that everything they have is God’s and that giving to the church is a way of giving back to God.
How to Start Milestones at Your Church
One place to start could be by examining how your church interacts with families during instruction about Baptism and first Communion and tweaking the way you do it to involve parents more. Maybe you could invite confirmation families up front during worship to pray a blessing over them as they begin confirmation instruction for the year. Try to add one or two milestones to your church’s rhythm each year. It’s a process, and it takes time to introduce the concept to a congregation that isn’t already familiar with it. Meeting families where they are during various points of a child’s faith journey to empower parents to help their child grow in faith is such a valuable thing, and Milestone Ministry is one way to go about doing that.
Browse other children’s books for ministry milestones, busy bags, the church nursery, or anywhere else your church supports children’s faith.
