Missing the Point in a Big Way

We attend a church of about 90. It's a Wesleyan church in South Bend right across the street from a very large church. But, we absolutely love it. It's the size we have been looking for, especially after spending too much time in borderline mega-churches.

Our kids love it too. There may be only 4 or 5 kids in their Sunday School class, but they don't mind it one bit. Lately, some friends of ours started coming. Marcie comes and brings her two daughters, Tatum and Caylin. They love it too. They had been attending a church but Marcie was disappointed at their lack of attention to kids programs. She brought this to the attention of the pastor and I thought his response was absolutely stunning.

He indicated that, yes, they used to have a kids program before, but it just turned out to be a babysitting club. They decided they would go after the parents first and then bring the kids in. Wow, what a backwards way of thinking. First of all, it's not babysitting if you are teaching unsaved kids about God. Of course, if all you are doing is just babysitting, then that's your own fault. Secondly, I don't know of any kids or youth program anywhere that doesn't have a great deal of kids whose parents do not attend that church. Kids and youth programs can be huge outreach ministries, and its through the kids that you can reach the parents. Sometimes vice versa, but not always.

In the church I grew up in, we had a fabulous Wednesday night program. But I'd say about 95% of the kids that came did not have parents that attended our church regularly (and that number may be conservative). But that didn't matter. We had the kids there, and we reached out to them in a big way. The church my brother attends in Fort Wayne does a huge outreach to youth in the area and probably 99.99% of those kids do not have parents that attend there. Imagine if their leadership decided that they didn't want to just "babysit" anymore? That would never happen but it just outlines how this other church in South Bend totally missed the point.

How sad that a church is basically writing off such a vital ministry. By the way, how did Marcie get interested in coming to our church? Our dinky little church put on a fabulous Vacation Bible School that her kids still talk about and that really impressed Marcie. She was surprised just how much the church cared about the kids. I'm so glad I attend a church that does indeed care about the little ones.