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Reassuring Parents: What You Can Do
“Linda” (not her real name) came to pick up her eighteen month old daughter from the church nursery one Sunday. She saw her daughter sitting in a swing watching Barney. The other children in the room were playing or looking at toys on their own while the workers sat in rocking chairs. Linda felt uncomfortable with the situation. Shouldn’t the workers be engaging the children more often? What were they doing in the toddler room? Were they learning anything? She wondered if she should even expect a church’s nursery to have higher standards. How can you as a children’s minister or nursery director help alleviate Linda’s concerns? Encourage Linda to…
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To Pay or Not to Pay, That is the Question
Whether or not to pay nursery workers to work on Sunday mornings is a minor controversy in children’s ministry. Many children’s ministries have volunteers working on Sunday mornings (and many of them struggle with having consistent volunteers). I have worked as both a paid nursery worker and an unpaid volunteer, so I believe I have some perspective from both ends. I’ll briefly review the pros and cons to each approach. The Church Nursery is Staffed by Volunteers Pros One less expense for the church, many are struggling. Gives believers in a local congregation an opportunity to serve in ministry Parents are more likely to know the workers, especially in a…
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VBS in the Nursery? Seriously?
Some find the notion radical. Teach infants? Surely they would understand so little, if anything. Teach one year olds? Their attention span is so short that you couldn’t possibly teach a lesson. Teach wiggly, antsy, two year olds? It’s easier to herd cats. Vacation Bible School (VBS) has a history of being radical. Eliza Hawes (who arguably pioneered the idea of VBS) begin a six-week summer program which included Bible stories, games, verse memorization, nature study, cooking, and sewing for underprivileged children in New York City. Unlike most Vacation Bible Schools held today, Hawes held her program in an unusual location–not in a church, not in a school, not in…
