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| Melanie Smollen, Project Manager |
Routines can be a great comfort to
us. There is familiarity in the procedure of our worship services – we know
when to stand, when to sit, when to sing along, and when to show our
appreciation to a speaker. We even become familiar with our church family and
work to make our congregation a place where we are truly comfortable. These
routines become so ingrained that we don’t feel a need to spell out every
little detail of the service in the bulletin because, of course, we all know
how our church works.
Several months ago, a mother of four
visited a church on behalf of Faith Perceptions. As many do, this particular
church holds a “gathering of children” time when children are welcomed to the
front of the church for a special message and then they leave the main
sanctuary for children’s church that lasts the remainder of the service. This
woman, familiar and comfortable with other children’s ministries, allowed hers to participate. The
service ended, the congregation went their many ways, and this woman was alone.
Without her child.
Any parent who has been separated
from their child – no matter how brief the time – can understand that panic
that creeps in. It happens in supermarkets, clothing stores, playgrounds, and any
other place where children and their parents go. One blink and they’re behind a
tree or hiding in the coat rack or have wandered down the next aisle.
Fortunately, this story has a happy
ending. The woman wandered around until she eventually found the room where her
child was waiting to meet her. It took more than a blink; it took her more than
ten minutes to find her child. There were no signs directing her to the room,
no information in the
bulletin stating where the children were gathering, nothing on the about the
children’s ministry she had viewed on the website before visiting the church, and no one
offered to help her as she searched.
Whether you have a children’s
ministry that works like this church or one that is far more robust, we all are
guilty of omissions like these – after all, we’ve been doing it our way for
years. The location of the children’s room was a detail that everyone knew and
they had likely forgotten that newcomers don’t have the same long experience
and so they don’t have the same perceptions.
Consider how your programs work – are you losing track of what’s
important?
Talk with parents who have school
and pre-school aged children and they’ll tell you just how important child
security has become. Schools must take every precaution to ensure that they do
not release a child to an unauthorized adult. Evil abounds and children’s
ministries that are caught unawares risk endangering children that have been
entrusted to them. That was not the case here, but I’d understand if various
scenarios were occurring to this mother as she searched. She eventually reached
a happy conclusion, sure, but she’ll not soon forget how this experience made
her feel.
Is your church reaching out to new
people? Are you encouraging friends and strangers alike to worship with you?
Great! Put yourself in their shoes: What part of your routine isn’t obvious to
someone outside of your church? What can your church do to make them truly
comfortable?
P.S. The sermon that morning was
about the hopes and dreams we have for our children.
Stay tuned for Part II of this blog…
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