Written by Annalies Brander
Ideally, all families connected with our early childhood program or Lutheran elementary school (LES) would be actively involved not only in the school, but in the church and community as well. Often, church attendance and retention in the LES beyond early childhood tends to fall short. These are areas that we can seek to change. Maria Ginés (2017) researched outreach to families connected to early childhood ministry and noted that, “in the 2010/2011 school year, 320 children were baptized . . . after involvement with a Wisconsin Ev. Lutheran Synod (WELS) early childhood program” (p. 8). While these numbers may sound exciting, Ginés explained that, “the child baptisms represent about 3% of enrolled young children” (p. 8), meaning there’s still plenty of work to do in connecting children and families with Jesus.
Shamelessly Share Jesus With Your Families
Michelle Dobberstein (2020) described how she “shamelessly” shares Jesus with her students’ families. “After every class period, at pick up, without fear or trepidation, I shared with families a recap of our Jesus lesson and a tip of how to talk to their little one about the lesson, song, or application to their lives” (Dobberstein, p. 21). Every family and staff member needs to be nurtured and supported in God’s Word so that they can shamelessly share the gospel message and their positive experience with their friends and family. When families are encouraged through and involved in the church, they can be guided to recognize the importance of a Christian education. When a family values Christian education, it’s more likely they will keep their child in the LES when they finish with the early childhood ministry (ECM) program, which promotes the LES naturally.
Families don’t automatically become involved in church and school. It is a privilege in the ministry of a pastor or teacher to foster relationships with the families, enabling us to encourage the participation of the family in church and school activities.
Changing the Way the ECM Approaches Outreach
Changing the way an early childhood ministry approaches outreach takes time. “Change is a process through which people and organizations move as they gradually learn, come to understand, and become skilled and competent in the use of new ways” (Hall & Hord, 2015, p. 11). It is the job of change leaders to set up an environment that makes increased outreach intentional. As teachers, we go to conferences and hear wonderful ideas that sound inspiring, but then we may not implement these ideas. It is easy to fall back on old habits when we get caught up in the everyday hustle of teaching, correcting, planning, and trying to find time to relax with our families.
A change leader seeks to facilitate the way teachers approach outreach. This could involve having all the teachers attend an outreach workshop together, followed by a debrief immediately after the workshop where the teachers can collaborate and decide how to implement the outreach strategies they learned. It would be important at the debrief to define goals and timelines for actions with a specific date for evaluation.
Building a Shared Outreach Vision
Church and school leadership teams can collaborate on building a shared outreach vision. Connecting the church and early childhood ministries requires intentional coordination. Once the church and school team have worked to create a climate focused on outreach, they will want to target certain people to assist. I would target the members who are already heavily involved in outreach to connect with newer families.
Change can be intimidating to approach. It can be helpful to brainstorm potential issues so that we can be prepared to address them. For example, teachers might be concerned about the extra workload of planning events connecting the church and school ministries as they already feel drained from their regular work. A possible solution would be to plan time and support for teachers. For example, if your ECM is planning to have a family night with a goal of building foundational relationships, you could bring in a teacher or director who has experience planning these events to help guide the teachers/planning team through the event.
Blessings of Outreach
While increased enrollment in the LES and increased church membership would be a huge blessing for churches, the bigger blessing is in the lives of each of these families. We all want to see these families involved in ministries, but more important is to see these families in heaven.
Annalies Brander (’18) serves as an early childhood teacher at St. Paul-Wonewoc WI. She is also enrolled in MLC’s Master of Science in Educational Administration program – early childhood director emphasis.
References
Dobberstein, M. K. (2020). Completing the circle of gospel ministry [Master’s thesis, Martin Luther College]. https://mlc-wels.edu/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2020/08/Dobberstein-Field_Project-final.pdf
Ginés, M. A. (2017). WELS early childhood outreach: An investigation of program strategies [Master’s thesis, Martin Luther College]. https://mlc-wels.edu/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2017/08/GinesMariaA_Thesis.pdf
Hall, G. E., & Hord, S. M. (2015). Implementing change: Patterns, principles, and potholes. Pearson Education, Inc.