Okay, I don't know if this is just a lady making excuses or what (I'm guessing yes!), but I was told that supposedly, our SP "doesn't want his altar workers to EVER serve in the nursery."
Personally, I think she's just trying to weasel out of nursery service, because our pastor knows that we're experiencing a nursery worker shortage and would never tell us that we can't use someone (unless there's a good reason, obviously!!). I definitely plan to ask him if this is true - and if it is, I'll deal with it. I don't think it affects that many people, anyway!
I can see not scheduling them during services when they're scheduled to be at the altar praying with people, but why can't they switch with another worker if that happens on a rare occasion? Or even coordinate the schedules to make sure we're not "double booking" them. These people are only on the nursery schedule one service a month at the most (and we run two services a Sunday!).
Anyone here have that policy...that altar workers are not ever to be scheduled in the nursery? Just curious, lol!!!
PM, Here is the deal at our church. If you have a child in the nursery, you must serve there on a rotation basis(it works out to be once every six months) and attend one training session a year by the CW Leader. Everyone in the church is asked to take a turn, even if they do not have a baby there. It works well for us if everyone remembers to do thier Sunday. Lori
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...... Then they came for the Catholics, and I was a Protestant, so I never said anything. And then, they came for ME, and there was no one left to speak up. Martin Neimoller, German Pastor, WW2
She is trying to weasel out of this. There's no way your pastor would say that. I'm sure it could be coordinated that on the weeks they do altar work, they would not be scheduled for nursery and vice versa.
Amazing how many times the saints will lie to get out of things. It gets tiring, doesn't it?
You know, a former relative of mine actually hid herself in the "nursery ministry" so she would not have to attend the service. She would not be fed, and you know what comes next, don't you? She would sit in those rockers and gossip making everyone believe she was helping the church, when really, she was only making trouble. She spent years going from church to church leaving ruin in her wake......We need to be very careful of this habit as well if we see it going on. I have seen the destruction it can cause, as well as the harm to the Pastors and thier wives.(that's who she normally yaked about) Our nursery director is only in there if someone has skipped out, or if it is her Sunday.
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...... Then they came for the Catholics, and I was a Protestant, so I never said anything. And then, they came for ME, and there was no one left to speak up. Martin Neimoller, German Pastor, WW2
Oh my gosh, are you preaching to the choir or WHAT?
This is one of my pet peeves. I have seen this so many times and it makes me SO mad. Actually we have someone right now who does it. I think there is at least one person in every church who tries it.
I have repeatedly said I don't think nursery workers should be able to to "chat' while they are in there - I think they should be given "ministry assignments" that they have to prove to the CP that they are fulfilling such as -- praying for each child, reading books (even to the little babies) and all kinds of stuff. Of course, "care" (changing diapers, etc.) comes absolutely first but I don't ever think anybody should just be sitting in rockers chatting. Because in my experience, that only leads to trouble.
I used to have a staff wife who would "report" things to her husband all the time that would be said or done and he would come forward with the info and when confronted with, "where is this coming from?" it would often be, "well, it was said to my wife Sunday in the nursery..." and you are thinking WHY are these people even conversing about this? Why aren't they WATCHING THE CHILDREN? And then one thing that frosts my flakes is when they have talked negatively and they do not think this affects the kids. I believe even babies, this does affect. These children shouldn't be exposed to that kind of stuff.
btw, our CP completely agrees with me on this...he and his wife hate it just as much as I do!!! maybe more!!!
Here's another CP who is absolutely NOT in favor of sitting around gossiping on nursery duty (well, gossip is wrong under any circumstance, lol!)...for one thing, the nursery is MINISTRY, not babysitting! Second of all, there are some really sharp toddlers out there who pick up on every single word that is said in front of them. Do we really want our two year-olds going home and repeating church gossip? Seriously...my nephew, at age 2-3, would repeat to me verbatim things that his parents had said in front of him that they didn't think he was "getting."
My nursery coordinator has a degree in early childhood development and two small children (This was the lady who walked into my office on my first day and asked if she could be the nursery coordinator. Talk about a "God thing!"), so she understands that kids even that small can be taught and ministered to.
She has a schedule written on the white board for the toddler nursery workers to follow - complete with praise and worship (they play kids' worship CDs and give the toddlers little musical instruments, pom poms, etc. to jump around with!), a very short Bible story and coloring page to go along with the story, group play time (like playing with Play Dough, etc), and then some free play at the end to give the workers time to clean up faces, change diapers, and straighten up the room.
This is something that takes a little "reminding" from time to time - and I'm still working on a way to change the thinking of the people in our church in regards to their attitude toward the nurseries. This is one of my long-term goals as children's pastor of this church!
Oh, yeah - and P.S. My SP clarified with me that prayer team captains need to not be involved in any other ministry that is happening on Sunday mornings, but that prayer team members can certainly be on a nursery rotation.
SP and PW are starting to get fed up with parents who drop their kids off and won't take a turn helping out. They're starting to draw the line and say, "If you won't serve in here, you can't have your kids here." I'm assuming I'll get a pass once I start having babies, lol!!
