“Hey Daddy, I have an idea that we can do before school is out.”
It was Wednesday night. My son and I were driving home from church. He is a typical 7-year old, full of big ideas and the energy to make them happen. We had just talked about building a new doghouse over the summer break.
“Ok son, what’s your plan?”
“What if we tried to tell some of our neighbors about Jesus. I could read something from the Bible and you could tell them what it means.”
I paused, not sure what to say. In that moment, I could think of a dozen excuses. Like too many Christians, we do not really know our neighbors. From what we do know, we are not excited about learning more. In fact, the family he wanted to visit is known for their colorful language. What if they slam the door? What will that do to his faith?
I might have believed my excuses, if God had not giving me the same burden. Over the previous week, I had felt a growing conviction to witness to families on my block. How could I say that I love my neighbors, if I had never spoken to them? How could I tell them the sweetest name I know, if I did not even know their names?
“Ok son, we’ll try to go.”
“But when?”
“Maybe tomorrow, after you get home from school.”
“Daddy this is great. It’s just a walk across the street and it’s kind of like we’re being missionaries.”
So, we made our plans, deciding in advance what we would say. He chose John 3:16-17, then packed his Bible in a book bag. He even made some notes to help me explain about Jesus. That night, we said a special prayer for our neighbors.
To my shame, I wanted him to forget about it. But by morning, he was calling this our mission. Over breakfast and on the way to school, he kept plotting. After school, his excitement had only grown.
“Dad, are we still going?”
It was time. As we walked across the street, I put my hope in God. After all, this was his idea and it was up to him to work it out.
I knocked… No answer, but those few steps of obedience had filled me with courage.
“Son, let’s keep going and try the other neighbors.”
Over the next 20 minutes, we visited two apartments next-door to our house. Both ladies we met were church attendees who had already professed faith in Jesus. We have now learned their names and hope to become their friends.
“Hey Daddy, when do you think we can do this again?”
“I think tomorrow will work, we still have a lot of people left to talk to.”
Photo Credit: Flickr
The Desiring God blog has posted an article about helping kids love missions. Their ideas are geared toward families being missions minded with their kids. Here are the ten ways they pointed out. Click through to their website to get more details on each.
- Pray for missionaries.
- Read missionary biographies to your children.
- Supporting missionaries financially as a family
- Find a missionary kid pen pal for your child
- Welcome missionaries into your home.
- Take risks as a family.
- Encourage the traits that missionaries need
- Teach your children to be world Christians.
- Read missionary prayer letters to your children.
- Use missions fact books and resources
Reading this list reminded me how much work I need to do on this emphasis at our church and in my family. Missions is not top of mind in our small town. This year we’re actually doing our first missions emphasis week and we are getting the kids involved as much as we can.
How do you teach children about missions?
If you have a great idea about teaching kids about missions, leave it below this post as a comment. I’d love to hear your feedback.
Creating the nursery schedule at church is one of my least favorite administrative tasks as a children’s minister. The next schedule is due out this week, so I thought I would share how I do it.
6 Steps To Making A Church Nursery Schedule
1. Revise The Old Dates
I’ve moved to a 6-week rotation for our church nursery. I simply open the Word document on my computer and edit the old dates by looking at my calendar. This saves me time because I don’t have to shuffle workers for 5th Sundays. It also makes the commitment level seem more manageable for the volunteers.
2. Review For Special Dates
While I have the calendar out, I look for special dates that will affect the nursery. These might be weeks when we cancel Sunday night church, or when we don’t offer a nursery because of a church-wide dinner.
3. Remove Any Outgoing Volunteers
I keep a master copy of the church nursery schedule in my office. I use it to make notes when workers need to come off, change their service dates, or I have new volunteers to add. It helps to keep these notes in a central location by actually writing them on my copy of the schedule. I just delete these names at first and leave the spots as blanks until the next step.
4. Fill The Empty Spots
Then I find workers to serve in the blanks on my schedule. I should probably write more in depth about finding volunteers, but for now here are a few time saving tips. How do I get volunteers for church nursery?
- Identify and recruit new nursery workers before you need them. While drafting the new schedule, I often think of potential volunteers to add to my recruiting list. Why not contact these people in before you’re in a pinch?
- Use a church nursery job description or volunteer handbook to set clear expectations. Having clear communication up front helps you avoid nursery burnout.
- When I can’t fill all the nursery spots I will just write “Volunteer Needed” and send it out anyway. This lets usually results in a wave of new workers. Seeing the specific need in the bulletin is much more powerful than sending out a generic appeal for help. In cases where I still don’t have workers, I call the on my substitute list.
5. Pray For The Volunteer List
Why not take 10 minutes to pray for the nursery roster while it’s top of mind? Pray that God will bless them for their service. Ask for protection for their health so they don’t call in sick. Mention each volunteer by name. Then expand your prayer to include the hours of ministry represented on the list. Ask God to call out new volunteers with a heart to love and serve the little ones. Don’t waste this opportunity for specific prayer.
6. Encourage The Workers
Send encouragement with the nursery schedule mailing. I always like to send notes of encouragement to the volunteers included in their nursery schedule. This can be a great way to remind them how important their ministry is to the church.
- Send a handwritten thank you note. Just something simple to say, “I’m glad God has your in our church and I’ve prayed for you this morning. May God bless you.”
- Send an encouraging article. You can find some that I’ve written at the bottom of this page under “related articles.”
Some More Time Saving Tips
- Keep a list of volunteers on call. These can regular volunteers who are willing to take an occasional second shift, or others who can only work on occasion.
- Send the schedule in several different formats. We put it in the church worship folder (Sunday bulletin) 2 weeks at a time, post it around the church, and I mail ever people their own copy of the 6-week schedule. Some churches like to do reminder calls, but this is overkill in most small churches. If your congregation is tech savvy, you can email the church nursery schedule as well.
- Use a one-page format (or smaller) and alter paper colors each month. Most of our schedules end up on people’s refrigerators, so I try to keep it as fridge-friendly as possible.
- Put your contact number on the schedule. This gives people easy access when they need to make a change to their nursery commitment.
What Do You Think?
If you’ve found this article helpful, please leave a comment below to let me know. You can also ask a follow up question or share your own thoughts. Some of the best tips on this website come from readers, so don’t be shy. Click here to leave a comment.
My Other Articles About Church Nursery
It won’t be long before the official information on the 2009 VBS themes. I just got an email from Gospel Light publishers about their 2009 theme titled “Gospel Light’s Son Rock Kids Camp.”
They are looking for feedback on their marketing headline and have set up an online survey. You will be entered in a drawing (and their mailing list) when you give your opinion. I can’t wait to see the new bible school curriculum when it rolls out.
Click here to take the Gospel Light VBS 2009 survey.
One of my goals for this site is to interact more with other children’s ministry bloggers. To make that happen, I’ve made three major upgrades to my website, just for you.
- Children’s Ministry Blog Aggregation: I’ve added a new page that lists a massive blogroll and the latest posts from every children’s ministry blogge I know. To date I’ve found 40 blogs for this list. This page is linked in my main navigation menu, so feel free to link that page directly from your blog. If you’re name is not on the list email me at TonyKummer@gmail.com
- Comment Luv Plugin: This little tool pulls the latest post from your website’s RSS feed and automatically adds it as a signature in your comment. This gives readers another chance to discover your blog.
- Top Commentator Plugin: This script takes the top 7 comment writers from the blog over the last 30 days and gives them an automatic link in the sidebar. These links do pass Google PageRank and will drive some traffic to your blogs. So, join the conversation.
My hope is to generate more reader engagement and community. Remember it’s us children’s ministry types that are always preaching learner participation. Continue reading →
