Written by Michelle Dobberstein

Early Childhood Ministries (ECM) provide a natural way for churches to share the gospel with children and families. Families seeking early childhood education come for a quality education and end up receiving so much more. They learn about Jesus and his love.

Experience reveals that many churches do not capitalize on this ministry opportunity as well as they might. According to statistics for the Wisconsin Ev. Lutheran Synod (WELS) Commission on Lutheran Schools (CLS), in 2016/2017, of those who had a connection with an ECM: 372 children were baptized, 67 adults were baptized, 701 adults attended a Bible information class, and 302 adults were confirmed. Praise the Lord for these great blessings! However, those statistics came from 27% of ECMs in the synod. These 27% often have two things in common: a high level of pastoral involvement and a specific outreach strategy. If gospel outreach is the goal for the other 73% of ECMs, a change in their approach may be necessary.

Relationships are important in gospel ministry. Ideally, every early childhood family grows to know and build a relationship with the director/principal and teachers, and with the pastor and staff minister as well. A checklist provided in the WELS Outreach Strategies for Early Childhood Ministries reads as follows:

Pastor (staff minister) and principal involvement: The pastor and principal (if connected with an LES) are intentionally available on a regular basis to build relationships with families in a friendly, natural way. It really ties in with building relationships. This section focuses on the pastor/staff minister (and principal) intentionally being available and visible as much as possible so that the families can get to know him. This relationship can help open the door to sharing the gospel with the children and their families.

The checklist continues to give concrete examples of what building relationships looks like and fosters a mindset that early childhood ministry is a ministry arm of the congregation and not just an arm of the school. The checklist guidelines helps ensure the pastor or staff minister’s efforts result in gospel opportunities rather than time wasters.

Developing a specific outreach strategy often requires planned change in policies and practices. The church’s entire leadership team (pastor, staff minister, principal, early childhood director, church leadership) should be involved. An effective strategy involves the entire team intentionally introducing Jesus to children and families and guiding them to a deeper relationship with him. Each individual will own a specific part of this faith-building process while the whole team works on improving trust, communication, and processes.

Below is a sample of what such a strategic outreach plan might look like:

Once an outreach strategy is accepted and owned by everyone, the team can use these questions to evaluate the plan’s effectiveness:

• Are the strategic plans in place and actually being carried out?
• Are more families being connected to our church?
• Are the families more familiar with the pastor/staff minister?

While salvation only comes to people by God’s grace, a planned outreach strategy, utilizing both early childhood teachers and the church’s ministry team, provides an intentional structure for sharing Jesus’ love. In successful strategies, each team member knows and understands their role in introducing, integrating, and assimilating new families to the church. In the end, I pray we as a WELS team ask, “What are we going to do with all these people?”

Michelle Dobberstein (’01) is the early childhood director for Immanuel Lutheran School in New London, Wisconsin. She is also an MLC graduate student pursuing an MS in Educational Administration with an early childhood director emphasis.

We’d like to hear from you!

• What does your ministerial staff do to build relationships with your EC families?
• What strategies have you thought about trying, but have yet to implement?
• What strategies have you tried that have not worked like you thought they would?