Why Digital Ministry to Kids Matters Now: Reflections for Church Leaders

Dan Wunderlich

When I started building the Family Prayer Podcast, I wasn’t just thinking about families and kids. I was thinking about the Church. Not the programs or Sunday routines, but the living community entrusted with forming disciples in an age when attention is scattered across countless screens.

The more I worked on this project, the more convinced I became that digital ministry for kids isn’t a trend. It’s a responsibility. And it’s one the church can no longer afford to approach cautiously or reactively.

Here are a few reflections that have stuck out as I’ve been dreaming and planing. They are insights I wouldn’t have discovered if I hadn’t spent months writing, recording, and imagining how families might actually use a digital tool like this in real life.

1. Kids’ spiritual formation is now an all-day, everyday environment.

It’s been said that we are the average of the five people with whom we spend the most time. In today’s world, it isn’t just the people we are with in “real life.” The digital voices in our ears or in front of our eyes for hours a day, day after day count too.

Kids absorb stories, ideas, and habits through media just like adults do, but with fewer filters. This means their spiritual formation isn’t only happening in children’s church or during family devotions. It’s happening in backseats, bedrooms, and at breakfast tables.

For leaders, this raises the important truth: the spaces where kids learn have multiplied. We need to show up there too. If we want to shape imaginations, we need to meet people in the places where imagination already lives.

2. Digital content isn’t replacing in-person ministry—it’s scaffolding it.

Wesleyans believe deeply that faith grows through daily practices. We also know that most families don’t feel equipped to do it all themselves. And so, if we want to see the kind of spiritual growth we pray for, we cannot fight the resources designed to help.

No pastor I know would bat an eye at a family using a devotional book. They’re not suspicious that the parents are using the book as alternative to church. So why do so many worry that families are using digital resources to replace church?

Let’s also recognize that we have a chance to shape how families think about these resources. We can pitch with excitement the reality that digital ministry can support what happens in church. When kids hear a theme at church and then encounter it again on a podcast, during the drive to school, or at bedtime, it reinforces meaning. Digital rhythms can help anchor congregational rhythms.

3. Storytelling expands the church’s reach into the imagination.

Mister Rogers knew what he was doing. By situating his show in a fictional neighborhood, that then extended into the Neighborhood of Make Believe, he was able to impart lessons and embody values through relatable stories.

Jesus also knew what he was doing too when he used parables to answer some of the toughest and most pointed questions thrown his way.

Story creates access points that institutional language often can’t.

Kids remember stories. They remember characters. They remember places like lighthouses, bookstores, and neighborhoods.

When leaders use narrative, we give children a story to carry faith with them, rather than a set of instructions to recall. Digital storytelling is not entertainment; it’s discipleship through imagination.

4. Families engage more deeply when the church equips, not assigns.

Parents often feel unprepared to lead spiritual practices, even though they want to. They also do not need an extra assignment to drop onto the daily to-do list. They’re asking for companionship—for the church to come alongside of them in their regular rhythms. Digital ministry meets this need uniquely well. It doesn’t overwhelm parents with expectations; it walks beside them.

For church leaders, this means shifting the goal from “How do we get families to complete this activity?” to “How do we resource parents so they can participate meaningfully with their kids?”

Digital tools can’t do the heart work for them, but they can open the door.

5. Theology must guide our digital presence—not the other way around.

Every aspect of the Family Prayer Podcast, from gratitude practices to the emphasis on daily grace, flows from Wesleyan theology. That clarity helped me avoid the trap of building “content” for its own sake. Church leaders must resist the pressure to chase trends or algorithms.

Instead, we must ask what does our tradition offer that families cannot get anywhere else?

Digital ministry becomes deeply impactful when it grows out of our theological DNA rather than competing in a crowded marketplace of noise.

6. Digital engagement is ministry, not marketing.

One thing I realized during the writing and recording process is that when your goal is spiritual formation, the tone changes. The posture changes. This isn’t about grabbing attention, it’s about offering presence.

Church leaders sometimes fear digital ministry because it feels like branding. And who can blame them? It seems like every influencer and content producer gives away just enough to get you to come back and to buy their products. The Church already has to fight the stereotypes that we’re all about getting people’s money or bait-and-switching.

But when the intention is pastoral, digital tools become extensions of care, not self-promotion.

In practice, that means:

• shorter resources can be more effective than long ones,

• simple structure can be more helpful than elaborate production,

• and a gentle voice can be more formative than polished graphics

Looking Ahead: A Shared Calling

Kids are growing up in a world where their minds and hearts are shaped in countless small moments across each day. As leaders, we can lament that reality, or we can faithfully inhabit it.

My own journey with the Family Prayer Podcast has convinced me that the Church has something unique and necessary that can find its place in the digital world. Grace can show up gently, consistently, and without pressure, in the everyday spaces where kids live and learn.

If we embrace that calling with theological clarity and pastoral imagination, digital ministry won’t dilute the Church’s mission.

It will deepen it.