Since the month of October we've been involved in a change in how we do our weekend ministry that involves both children and parents. It's a simple change, but one that can easily be misinterpreted. We're asking parents of children ages 6 weeks through 4th grade to drop their kids off in our super-cool, way-fun Uhambo Children's ministry for all weekend services. Our reason? It's quite simple. We believe this is the best way for kids to learn about Jesus at NHC, and we also believe it creates a better environment for adults to learn about Jesus too.
Here's the good news - 1) Uhambo participation is WAY UP and our kids are loving it! 2) The distractions in our adult services are WAY DOWN!
However, some have misunderstood the policy and our motives behind it. So, I'm posting two re-runs today and tomorrow. These posts are the original posts announcing this change just a few months ago. Here's #1...
What? No Kids In Church?
I grew up in church. Most of you have heard me talk about it. Some of it is funny, some of it isn’t. The part that isn’t funny is that I remember how boring it was most of the time. I remember my parents bringing notepaper so I could play tic-tac-toe, making airplanes out of the church bulletin and how I couldn’t wait to get outside to play in the church yard until we finally headed for home. And I know from conversations with some other NHC’ers that they have similar memories.
Unfortunately for many of us, it led to us bailing out on church. I personally couldn’t wait to bail out as soon as I left home for college. I saw the church as irrelevant, out of touch and basically a waste of my time. I still believed in Jesus, but I just couldn’t stand to sit in church any longer, so I was out of there.
Thank God I made it back, but many don’t. It’s a story we hear over and over at NHC. “I bailed out on church when I left home and now I’m 35 and my life is a mess. Is there a way for me to come back?” Thank God for his grace and mercy, but wouldn’t it be better if we’d never bailed out to begin with?
So how do we work against that in a positive way? At NHC we have developed a Pro Kids policy that we’re rolling out in the next few weeks. It’s comprised of two parts.
Part 1 – Have An Absolutely Rockin’ Kid’s Ministry
We talk a lot about being relevant at NHC, in fact, it’s one of our values. So when it comes to our kids we want them to have an experience in an environment that is relevant to them. We want them to learn about Jesus in a way that they can understand and relates to their world. Most of all, we want to partner with parents in teaching their kids about God’s love and God’s word.
To that end we have invested lots of time, money and energy in creating the children’s spaces, providing the best staff available and equipping them with what they need to communicate the gospel to our kids. Our goal is very simple – make it fun so they’ll want to come back and help them to understand that Jesus loves them and wants to be their friend.
Personally (and I have one grandkid who just graduated out of Uhambo and one who’s still in it) I think we’re doing a great job with kids. Our kid’s pastor, Cathy Heitzenrater, and her team are knocking it out of the park every Sunday, and it’s just getting stronger every week. (Props to Cathy and the Uhambo gang!)
Part 2 – Ask Parents To Leave The Kids In Uhambo
This is where it might seem a little controversial. We are going to ask all parents to leave their kids, 4th grade and under, in Uhambo. Over the next few weeks, our Welcome Team will be asking parents to drop off their kids, rather than bring them into the auditorium.
This will do 3 things:
1) It will help ensure that our kids aren’t bored out of their gourds
2) It will cut down on distractions in the service (more on this tomorrow)
3) It will free up parents to really concentrate on the service (most parents will thank us for this!)
Now this is where the critics will kick in…
• We want to worship as a family
Fine. You have Monday through Friday to do that. Honestly, that’s where your kids will learn more about worship from you than anywhere else. If you’re not living a worship lifestyle on Monday through Friday, but you show up here on Saturday night or Sunday morning with both hands in the air, you’re just teaching your kids what a hypocrite looks like.
So if you want to worship as a family, try having a family Bible study at home. Pray with your kids at home. Make sure you live your faith in front of your kids Monday through Friday.
• My second grader gets more out of the main service
Do you seriously believe that? They can’t possibly understand the issues we deal with, not to mention the fact that sometimes we talk about things that are inappropriate for young ears.
• I’m not sure that my kids will be safe
Because the safety of ALL of our kids is imperative to us, we have invested in a state of the art check-in system to ensure that no one but the parents who dropped the kids off will be the ones to pick them up. We also have a way to page parents during the service if a child becomes sick or gets injured. And we have a security team to make sure that only those who are authorized can enter the children’s ministry area.
Speaking of authorization, we don’t just let anyone volunteer to work with our kids. They are interviewed and must submit themselves to a criminal background check. If you don’t do the background check, you don’t work with our children.
• You just don’t like kids
WE LOVE KIDS!! We love them enough to want them in the best environment for them.
Bottom line – we want the best for both our kids and our parents. It’s a Pro Kids policy! More tomorrow…
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