Looking for a ministry that will help you reach out to your community? A child care program could be the answer for your church.
SHREVEPORT – Looking for a ministry that will help you reach out to your community? A child care program could be the answer for your church. Becky Estes saw that opportunity here at Willow Point Baptist more than 20 years ago and pounced. Again. Making a third go of it after beginning two daycare centers elsewhere proved to be just as rewarding, she said.
According to a Louisiana report, Investing in the Child Care Industry –www.dss.state.la.us/Documents/OFS/Investing_In_The_Chi1.pdf – published in 2005, almost 60 percent of families in the state with children under age six have both parents in the workforce. Translation: more than 2.5 million families in the state may need child care. Yet the state has a mere 1,762 licensed child care facilities, each of which is capable of serving about 45 children, depending on staffing and space.
The need for more quality child care options seems apparent.
Louisiana Baptist churches respond to this need with a variety of ministries.
Mothers Day Out programs are designed to give the mother of a preschooler a few hours respite. Some churches do this once a week or once a month. Pineville Park Baptist in Pineville does it four days a week.
Daycare centers are places where children receive care for as many as 12 hours a day, five days a week. The Message did not find any church that was providing care without any instruction.
Preschools are places where children for up to 12 hours a day receive age-appropriate instruction as well as care. Each church-connected preschool the Message looked at included a spiritual component.
Quality child care can produce enormous benefits, especially for low-income families. According to the same report, “[T]he greatest benefits from [full-time, high-quality, year-round, full-day preschool from infancy through age 5] were from increased earnings of the mothers as well as the earnings of the children after entering the workforce. A cost-benefit analysis has shown that there was a return of $3.78 for each dollar invested in the program.”
But those are just the economical and intellectual benefits of operating a daycare.
Imagine the possibilities for spiritual benefits. A church operating a daycare center is in a unique position to provide sound Christian education to children at a time in their lives when they are most open to the gospel, as well as many other influences.
“It’s the only church connection so many kids ever have,” Estes said, explaining the impact a Christian-based daycare can have on a child’s life. “I think it’s a wonderful ministry. It’s also a way to reach people if you keep up with your daycare parents and the needs that they have; it’s the way a church a can minister to them.”
“[The daycare center] was successful in the fact that children were exposed to scripture and Jesus,” said Becky’s husband, Cliff, who was pastor at Willow Point at the time. “It’s not necessary that you get an influx of members because of it. The purpose was to provide those children with a biblical base in life that they might not get at home or in schools.
“You could ask kids if they went to church on Sunday,” he continued, remembering how some children in the daycare were confused by the question. “Some would answer, ‘no, you weren’t open,’” revealing that they didn’t know about church on Sundays. “That gives you an indication that they did not have a whole lot of spiritual influence in their lives other than what they got from us.”
Opening a daycare center or preschool can be time-consuming and costly, to say the least, Becky said. But even a small church can succeed, if the need is apparent and plenty of time is given to planning.
“At the first church, 30 years ago, there were no organized daycares in that town,” Estes said, indicating that size really doesn’t matter when it came to operating a daycare center. “The church was small. I guess we had a couple of hundred in Sunday school. But it was something that was needed, so it was successful.”
Regardless of size, however, the church must certainly be supportive of the idea, Pastor Cliff said.
“As a whole, [Willow Point] was very receptive,” he said. “We made it clear that the church might have to sustain [the daycare center] for awhile until it got on its feet.”