Nursery Ministry and the Glory of God
In the last week I have been dealing with the Early Childhood Ministry at our church. This is an area that is often overlooked or passed on to the ladies of the church. However, pastors should be aware that the nursery communicates the priorities of the church. Here are some questions I have been asking myself and our volunteers.
- Does our nursery and toddler ministry reflect the love that God has for children?
- Do we pray over these children while they are in our care?
- What can we do to promote an atmosphere that glorifies God?
- Why are Christian men (in general) reluctant to serve among the little ones when Jesus took them in his arms?
- Does our reluctance to serve the needs of others reflect our own spiritual immaturity?
Will The Next Generation Treasure Christ?
4 comments:
Hey Tonny,
I don't have a comment; just a question.
At what age do you think a child is able to come out of the nursery and start into the "regular"(for lack of a better word) CM?
The reason I'm asking is I think this relates to fathering. At what age should a father begin a more intentional teaching/devotional time with a child?
Since I am charged with the oversight of all children's ministry from 0 to 5th grade it is hard for me to draw a hard line. My desire is to move the infant nursery toward ministry along the BBC line of thinking, "The fragrance of Christ." They have prayer, praise music and truth statements they use with the earliest children. Then at the toddler level it becomes more focused on teaching an bible story while maintaining the atmosphere. We are behind the curve on these issues but working to set things in order.
As for a father. Prayer for and with your child is foundational. We used Noel Piper's book "Most of All Jesus Loves Me" really early with our kids. Talking about God never hurts, even if it goes over their head. I would read the scriptures aloud while my children played and we had praise music in their nursery at home. It was a blessing to me even if the effects are actually unknown. Thanks again for the comments.
Sweet Tony
Tony it is hard to comment when your questions pierce my conscience. I'm kinda speechless really. I did help in the nursery a little but some of the men as well as women felt awkward about it. One lady years ago came in and started breastfeeding in front of me. Since then I wondered if I should be in there as I may have made her feel uncomfortable. I don't know but maybe at that age the ladies feel free without us. I don't mean to use that as a cop out though. Perhaps we should take courage and ask the women how they feel about this. I know our church constantly recruits my mother in law. She is really quite the servant. In the morning we split the couples up with 0-3, but mostly it is the women though sometimes the men don't mind.
God bless you and your heart for children. Our childrens ministry has been going well, but I work with the 4-10 age group.
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