What about the kids?
Sometimes, the desire for group life isn’t enough to make it happen. Actually, it’s never enough. Once you decide to join a group, you have to take the step to inquire about it, find a group you’re interested in, and maybe visit one or two before you jump in.
Having kids presents a whole different set of questions. Can I bring my kids to my Small Group? What will they do? Should I hire a babysitter? Should we hire a babysitter as a group? How can I make it more than just another night of babysitting for them? What can we do to provide them with a Small Group environment?
A lot of us are wrestling with this issue. This Sunday I spoke with a woman who is unsure about bringing her kids to her group. Even though she thinks the Host may be okay with it, she hasn’t brought her kids yet because doesn’t want to burden the group and open the floodgates for other parents. This morning, I had a conversation with Debbie Carroll, BAPC’s Associate Director of Children’s Programming, about a Small Group that may form for neighborhood kids. It’s a great idea for not only providing community and growth for your own kids, but opening up the opportunity for other kids to get to know Christ.
As we’re brainstorming how to best support you as parents and as Small Group members, we’d love to hear from you about your experience with kids in your groups. What challenges have you had? What ideas did you come up with? What worked well? What didn’t work? Please give me a call at 818-788-4200 or email me at jen.hurst@belairpres.org, and let’s come up with some solutions together!
As you’re thinking, here’s another perspective on integrating kids into your Small Group from Discipleship Journal:
Our small group for moms faced a dilemma: What should we do with our kids while we met during the summer?
Our solution: Bring the kids along, and make them the focus of the meeting. We have done this for the last three summers. It has the advantage of providing continuing fellowship for the moms (we would go crazy without some adult conversation), as well as giving a “program” for the kids one morning a week. We get a chance to have some spiritual input into our children’s lives; we also use the gathering as an opportunity to invite our nonChristian friends.
If this sounds appropriate for your group, we offer this advice from our experience.
Divide and conquer.
Don’t let one mom do it all. Rotate the meeting place from house to house. The mother who offers her house should not provide snacks, do the teaching, or plan activities—picking up all those toys before and after the meeting is enough!
Serve suitable snacks.
Forget the herbal tea and scones. Minister to your kids by making the food fun for them.
Teach kid-style.
Keep it simple and short. Use visual aids such as puppets or flannelboards, or act out a story with your children’s dolls and stuffed animals. If your creative juices have run dry by the end of the school year, your Christian bookstore will have materials. You can also search for “children’s ministry resources” on the internet.
Open up.
Parents who would never go to a church will come with their children to a “kids’ thing.” Tell them up front that a Bible story will be part of the program. (And pray!) The children’s story can be an inoffensive way to share the gospel with parents. Several parents who have come to our summer meetings have later visited our Bible studies.
We are always glad to get back to our regular small group at the end of the summer. However, the change of pace refreshes us, keeps us in touch, serves our summer needs, and gives us a chance to reach out to other moms. Last summer, as one mother shared the story of Jesus’ disciples in the boat during the storm—complete with group participation on the wind, rain, thunder, and lightning—another mom, enthralled, commented, “We should do our Bible studies like this!”
Used by permission of Discipleship Journal™. Copyright © 1981-2006, The Navigators. Used by permission of NavPress. All Rights Reserved. To subscribe, visit www.discipleshipjournal.com or call 1-800-877-1811.
Jen Hurst
Associate Director of Small Groups
jen.hurst@belairpres.org
