9 questions that children’s ministries must ask themselves: State of the Church in Singapore 2025 Study

What does success in children’s ministry (CM) look like?

How do you raise, train and care for staff and volunteers?  

After surveying 20 Pastors and 18 CM leaders, the State of the Church (SOTC) in Singapore 2025: The Church and Children highlights questions such as these for churches to consider as they seek to disciple their young.

The results of the SOTC study were released last Saturday (January 17) at the National Children’s Ministry Dedication Service, which was organised by Kidmin Singapore and held at Covenant Evangelical Free Church (Bukit Panjang).

 An annual collaborative effort between Biblical Graduate School of Theology, Singapore Bible College, Trinity Theological College and Salt&Light, the first State of the Church study was launched in 2022 when the Church was emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, the study focused on specific age groups: young adults in 2023 and seniors in 2024.

On why they chose to study children in 2025, the authors stated in the report: “We reasoned that in an increasingly aged society, with a total fertility rate of less than 1.0, church children’s ministries will experience pressure from there being fewer children.”

Given this backdrop, what then should churches be concerned about? The study also asks a fundamental question: Are our children demographic weight or future critical? 

Conducted on a small scale, data was collected from July to October 2025 across 20 churches via online surveys. 

The findings offer a snapshot of various issues that children’s ministries face and encourage churches to reflect on their own children’s ministries. These are also accompanied by written responses shared by Pastors and CM practitioners.

Presented in the form of questions, here are nine points raised by the SOTC report.

1. What is the makeup of the children in your church?

Out of the 15,404 regular attendees represented by the 20 churches in the study, 2,043 (or 13.3%) were children aged 12 and below. That works out to around 1 out of every 7.5 people in the congregation.

Reflecting on the report’s findings, Ps Norman Ng, Senior Pastor of 3:16 Church, said this percentage closely mirrors the resident population in Singapore (citizens and permanent residents), of which 13.6% are aged 14 and below.

“In other words, our churches are ageing at roughly the same pace as the nation. As followers of Jesus, this should give us pause.”

The data also indicates that smaller churches often have a lower proportion of children.

While the percentage of children in the church ranged from 4.5% to 21.9% across the 20 churches, small churches (those with fewer than 100 regular attendees) tended to have a smaller percentage.

As such, ageing churches with few children are likely to face a crisis of continuity.

“Without intentional focus on raising the next generation, long-term sustainability beyond the current generation becomes uncertain,” said Ps Norman, who is also the Strategic Coordinator for LoveSingapore’s Winning the Children thrust.

“On the surface, churches in Singapore often appear very healthy. We are home to vibrant megachurches, impressive cathedrals and global conferences. Yet, the reality is that most churches in Singapore are small to medium-sized congregations.

“Pastoring such a church myself, I know how every member, including every child, is precious. Children are not an optional demographic; they are inherently valuable and essential for succession and renewal. If we ignore the declining presence of children today, we will feel the consequences sooner than we expect.”

Source: State of the Church in Singapore 2025

Another issue to consider is that churches in Singapore are primarily serving the children of their current members. Of the 2,043 children, only 156 (7.6% of children) came from unchurched families.

Reminding churches that there is hope even though Singapore faces a greying population, Sammi Si-Hoe, Head of Children’s Ministry at Scripture Union Singapore, said: “With a Christian population of about 18% in Singapore, there is still margin for growth in Christianity.

“If we could see an increase of children in the church beyond the average demographic of children in Singapore, the future of the Singapore Church could still have a positive outlook.

“As such, not only is discipling the children from the families within church important, evangelising the children beyond church walls becomes pertinent.”

Underscoring the importance of the 4-14 window, where research has found that the majority of people who accept Christ do so between the ages of 4 and 14, she added: “Hence, there is the impetus to reach children in ways that are contemporary to their generation yet firmly rooted in biblical truth.”

2. What is success in children’s ministry to you?

Of the 20 Lead Pastors, 13 responded to the question on CM mission, vision and objectives, with most of them (10 out of 13) sharing an answer around the theme of “Relationship with God and Discipleship”.

Closely related was the theme of “Biblical Knowledge and Christian Character” (9 out of 13 responses). Another popular theme (7 out of 13 responses) was “Evangelism and Outreach”.

Both Lead Pastors and CM leaders also defined success as fundamentally transformational, with the focus being on the child’s personal relationship with Jesus as well as observable character change.

Source: State of the Church in Singapore 2025

Responding to the report, Elvin and Esther Foong, Founders and Principal Trainers at Kidmin Singapore, said: “It is encouraging that both Lead Pastors and CM leaders identify discipleship and transformation towards Christlikeness as key measures of ministry success.

“This aligns with KidminSG’s 2024 survey of 120 practitioners, where an emphasis on spiritual formation emerged as the strongest indicator of ministry vitality. Nevertheless, future studies should explore how effective churches have been in achieving these aims.”

Both of them were concerned that only 65% of Lead Pastors articulated a clear mission or vision for CM. In that case, do the CM leaders and volunteers know what the ministry is working towards?

Finally, the report also looked at what kind of activities children’s ministries were spending the most time on (see Table 2).

Raising a point for churches to consider, Elvin and Esther said that one notable omission in reported practices is intentional reflection.

“While teaching and application are rightly emphasised, insufficient space is often given for children to wrestle with Scripture and allow God’s Word to take root in their hearts.

“When lessons are rushed, the outcome can unintentionally prioritise information transfer over deep conviction and transformation, thus running counter to the stated goal of discipleship.”

3. How do you raise, train and care for children’s ministry staff and volunteers?

Looking at the CM demographics from their study sample, the report’s authors expressed the following: “We wonder if this is sufficient to raise the generation well.”

The 20 churches had a total of 24 dedicated full-time CM staff, with a range of 0 to 6 and a mean of 1.2 staff serving in each local church. Seven (35%) of the churches did not have any full-time dedicated CM staff.

Taking into account the total number of children in the churches’ CMs (2,043), this would mean an average of 85 children for each full-time staff.

Churches also had a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 250 CM staff and volunteers, with a mean of 60.4 regular attendees serving in CM. The total number of CM staff and volunteers was 906 – only 6% of the aggregated church size.

Source: State of the Church in Singapore 2025

Sharing his views, Ps Howard Kuay of Changi Baptist Church said one aspect of the report that stood out to him was the lack of male representation.

The report found that the average church had a mean of 22.6% of their staff or volunteers being male.

“In my experience, this lack of male presence is not because men do not care about children, but many struggle to see CM as a place where they belong or are needed,” he observed.

Ps Howard posed this question to churches: Is there an unspoken gender bias in how we view children’s discipleship?

“As both a father and a Pastor, I wonder what this communicates to our children, especially our boys, about faith, leadership and discipleship.

“Perhaps this is less a problem to be solved and more an invitation for churches to gently re-imagine children’s ministry as a shared responsibility rather than a specialised corner.”

Under this section, the report also looked at areas such as the length of service of CM volunteers, requirements for being a CM volunteer, and how churches equip and care for the well-being of CM volunteers.

One finding was that only around half of churches (53%) provided formal training or mentorship for CM volunteers.

Commenting on how churches assess and recruit volunteers, Ps Howard said: “Like many Pastors, I want those who serve our children to be spiritually mature, trustworthy and committed.

“At the same time, as a parent, I am aware that knowing church life well does not always translate into knowing children well. Children need adults who understand their world, their fears, their questions and their ways of learning.”

He also asked: “I wonder whether we place high expectations at the point of entry, but offer limited support once people step in?

“Are our requirements and equipping practices adequate, or might they unintentionally discourage willing individuals who could grow into excellent children’s ministers with the right support?”

4. What are the pain points of your children’s ministry?

“Manpower and Team Capacity” was most frequently cited by both Lead Pastors and CM leaders as core pain points.

There is a need for more people to step up and serve, a general shortage of CM teachers and the problem of workers serving in multiple ministries.

The other top pain points can also be found in Table 4.

Source: State of the Church in Singapore 2025

It is worth taking note of the second most highlighted issue: “Parent Partnership and Expectations”, where parents were perceived to “delegate” or “outsource” the spiritual development of children to the church, viewing CM as an “enrichment programme”.

Sharing the lessons that she has gleaned from the study and her organisation’s work with families, Delia Ng, CEO of Focus on the Family (Focus) Singapore, proposed that what is needed is a posture shift from being consumers to contributors.

“To raise children who love God and love people, our children must see faith modelled in tangible ways by parents who are committed to go beyond discussions of the Christian faith, but to also demonstrate a life on-mission.

“This may be seen in lifestyle shifts such as making time to serve and build God’s house, fostering a family culture that proactively befriends unchurched families. When children see their parents doing this, they learn that Christianity is not a Sunday ritual but a daily worship.”

To help children see faith in action, families could serve together in outreach projects (eg, adopt a block with regular visits, prayer walks), or invite a classmate’s family or neighbour to join a meal to build personal relationships.

5. How are you preparing children to respond to contemporary issues?

Lead Pastors also weighed in on the cultural trends or issues that they felt needed to be addressed in CM.

The top four themes are listed in Table 5 below.

Five (25%) of the Pastors indicated NIL concerning teaching on contemporary issues.

The report also found that most churches that taught their children about responding to contemporary issues only did so once or twice (8 churches) in the past 12 months.

Four churches did so three or four times, and three churches did so more than four times.

Source: State of the Church in Singapore 2025

“In a world where there are many cultural narratives competing for children’s impressionable minds, it is critical that we are proactive to not only disciple them in biblical truth but also partner with them to win their peers,” said Delia.

Pointing out that Christian parents can also play an important role in discipling their children, she acknowledged that some may find it challenging to engage in conversations about the application of the Word.

To help parents practise faith conversations at home, she suggests these practical ways:

• Combined services: Instead of neatly segmenting the church congregation, services can be designed to create opportunities for parents to try facilitating reflection and devotionals on the spot (eg, short object lessons).
• Primers: Going beyond conversation starters, simple guides can also be created for parents with various perspective and examples on contemporary topics.

“While curriculum and resources are helpful, parents would benefit from gaining confidence to have faith conversations,” she said.

6. How are you discipling the church to disciple the children?

The idea of children’s discipleship being a shared responsibility of the church was also highlighted in the report.

Lead Pastors were asked how CM collaborated with other ministries in the church. The youth ministry emerged as the top answer, with 15 Pastors (75%) mentioning the need for a smooth transition of the Primary 6 children into youth ministry.

Family Life or Parenting Ministry was also discussed, where the focus was on equipping parents for children’s discipleship or spiritual formation.

These were the areas in which churches were currently partnering with parents.

Source: State of the Church in Singapore 2025

Recommending that churches look at how they can direct linear growth pathways into a cyclical process, Delia of Focus Singapore said: “While emphasis is placed on ensuring smooth transition from children’s ministry to youth ministry, there is value to promote cyclical renewal where opportunities are given for older youths to return to serve in children’s ministry and outreach.”

Some practical ways to promote intergenerational impact include:

• Junior volunteers: Establish roles for older teens to assist in children’s camps, worship, activities or small group discussions.
• Community outreach: Older youths and tertiary students can be involved in reading groups, creative arts or sports clubs to reach unchurched children in the community.

7. How is your church leadership involved in and supporting the children’s ministry?

While the study found that Lead Pastors met with CM leaders to discuss CM-related issues an average of 4.5 times over 12 months, CM representation at their church’s top-decision making body was still somewhat limited.

Only 9 out of 20 (45%) churches had CM represented in the pastoral or staff team, and only 8 out of 20 (40%) Pastors indicated that CM was represented in the top decision-making body of the church.

Nonetheless, CM leaders perceived the support given to them by church leadership to be good, giving an average 4.1 on a 5-point scale, which amounted to “Good Support”.

Source: State of the Church in Singapore 2025

Lead Pastors also said that they stressed the importance of CM to the wider church congregation.

 Out of 16 responses:

• 10 Pastors said they regularly emphasised CM through the pulpit.
• 9 indicated that they held special services (eg inter-generational services, children’s Sunday, CM weekend) or that the children were present at all Holy Communion Sundays.
• 7 Pastors mentioned involving the children in ministry service (eg ushering, corporate worship) or in providing visibility to the ministry by having the CM leader share annually at the main service.

Finally, the report concludes with two issues that church leadership may want to pay more attention to in their CMs.

8. How safe are the children in your children’s ministry?

When CM leaders were asked to share what child protection policies they had in place, only 14 CM leaders responded.

Out of these, only 9 (50% of total) indicated detailed policies and measures in place. In addition, only 5 CMs (28%) had a code of conduct, with relevant training (or briefing) provided.

Other measures included supervision and vetting of CM teachers and volunteers, and the provision of security and forms.

Source: State of the Church in Singapore 2025

9. How inclusive is your ministry for children with special needs?

CM leaders were also asked to share how their churches made provisions to include children with special needs, or children who require additional support due to disabilities or learning differences.

Most of these were in the form of training for CM teachers and volunteers, parent-driven communication and partnership, and customised in-class support and accommodation.

Eight CM leaders (44%) indicated no provision for children with special needs.

Source: State of the Church in Singapore 2025

Urging churches to reflect on how they view children, Ps Norman asked: “Do we value children the way Jesus values them?”

In Jesus’ day, children were also often overlooked and undervalued, he recalled. And yet Jesus welcomed them, blessed them and repeatedly used them as examples for His disciples.

Referring to the Chinese word for crisis (危机), which is made up of two characters that mean crisis and opportunity, Ps Norman elaborated: “This aptly describes the moment we are in: The crisis of an ageing church; the opportunity is to course-correct by recognising the value of children and prioritise winning them.

“The Lord desires His churches to be filled with children. There are many children today who are searching for a good Father. We have the privilege of bringing them home, so they may know what God’s family feels like. Let the little children come to Jesus!”

View the full SOTC report here.

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