What about Childcare?

If you've been involved in any kind of small group ministry before, where you are asking people to open up their homes and have people over to participate in bible studies, the question always comes up, "What about the kids?" If you have a church like ours which is predominantly made up of thirty-somethings with young children, it will definitely pose an issue. We knew that we had to come up with something that would help to overcome the obstacle to getting involved as a leader or a participant. We decided to create a night at the church for life groups with children 5th grade and younger. While the groups meet, children's ministry is provided. This night is not promoted and is not the "Married Couples Ministry." It is simply an option for those married couples groups with kids who choose to meet at the church. These are the only life groups that meet on the church campus. all others happen in homes. During our Married Couples Connecting Point event, couples with young children were identified on their name tag with an orange sticker. This turned out to be a great identifier, and helped couples gravitate toward people in their same stage of life. Some Married Couple leaders were trying to form groups that didn't include small children, so it gave them an easy way to find those who were empty nesters, or didn't have children yet. In the end, we had six groups who decided to be involved on Sunday nights. The groups who meet at the church all study the same thing at the same time. We meet together at the beginning of every meeting, and then split into our groups for discussion and prayer. So far it has worked great. We'll have our first challenge when we add more groups in March. But now I don't cringe whenever somebody asks the question, "What about Childcare?"