Why I Love Serving in the Church Nursery
Jessalyn Hutto
I’ve had the privilege of serving regularly in our church’s nursery since its establishment over ten years ago. That’s ten years of playing with delightful toddlers, of rocking crying babies to sleep, of reading Bible stories and enthusiastically singing Bible songs, of pretending to be various animals God has created, and of wiping many, many noses and bottoms.
Children age out of our church’s worship service nursery at 4 years old, so it’s been a while since our family has needed to make use of it. In fact, my youngest who is 11 now serves alongside me caring for the little ones of our church!
This brings me to the point of this note. Why do I keep serving in the nursery of our church even though my kids have aged out? Not only that, but why do I love serving in the nursery? Below you will find seven reasons why, and some of them may surprise you.
There is always a need.
Ok, this one isn’t surprising at all, so let’s just get it out of the way. If you have been a member of a church for any length of time, chances are you will hear about the desperate need there is for nursery volunteers. Even in a small church like ours, the need has always been great. Why is this?
Well, for one, we Christians are big on having lots of children to the glory of God, so the number of kids in our congregation tends to substantially outnumber adults. But on a more practical level, you simply need a whole lot of volunteers to safely staff the various classrooms a church offers in a way that doesn’t overwork your volunteers.
Our church only offers two nursery classes during the worship service (a babies class and a toddler class). With the amount of kids in those two classes, we need a bare minimum of five to six volunteers every Sunday for the sake of our children’s safety and our volunteers’ sanity. A solid six every Sunday would be absolutely terrific!
Doesn’t sound like a lot, does it?
But here’s the thing. Our church elders are also rightly committed to two principles that make staffing the church nursery a bit more challenging:
First, a single worship service. This means there is no serving in the nursery for one service and then attending a second worship service.
Second, they are committed to making sure the members of our church are not missing out on the means of grace available to them in the worship service on a regular basis. Their desire is to have members serving in the nursery—and thus pulled out of the worship service—no more than one Sunday every five to six weeks.
If you add those numbers up (or multiply?) it means that for our little church to continually offer a worship service nursery for just ages zero to three, we need between 25-30 volunteers who are able to serve on a regular rotation. That is no small endeavor—especially when you take into account that a third of your volunteers are likely going to rotate in and out on a regular basis as they… well… have more precious babies to fill the nursery!
All of this to say, there has never—ever—been a time when our church didn’t desperately need more nursery volunteers and I honestly can’t see a future where that doesn’t continue to be the case. Even as we have grown over the years and gained more volunteers, the need hasn’t been alleviated because with that growth comes the gift of… more children to care for.
For this reason, I love serving in the church nursery. It is a real, tangible need that I can fill. And by faithfully being a part of the rotation, it means that the rotation can get bigger and the young families of our church can be served well while also making sure that everyone is getting to participate in the worship service as often as possible.
There’s no need to wonder “How can I serve the Lord and his church with my gifts and talents?” when you are an able bodied woman like myself who loves children. The answer (at least one super obvious one) is: by serving in the church nursery.
Friendships bloom there.
This may sound crazy, but if you want to make friends in your church, serve in the nursery! At our church you aren’t always paired up with the same people for your service days, so while there may be Sundays when you get to spend that extra time with your good friends there are other Sundays when you have the opportunity to spend that hour and a half getting to know women you previously didn’t know very well at all! A lot of ground can be covered conversationally by two women as they move toddlers from story time to snack time to play dough time. Serving with other members of the church is a gift. I love having this opportunity to catch up on people’s lives, to laugh together at the adorable antics of the children we are caring for, and to simply bond and deepen our friendship through shared service to the Lord.
It blesses young mothers.
Since my earliest days as a Christian, the concept of intentional, sacrificial, biblical discipleship was instilled within me by those who discipled me. Pouring into those who come after you is a biblical imperative and something I endeavor to live out through my relationships with the younger women of our church.
I view serving in the nursery as a key component of this intentional discipleship. Why? Because I know how desperately we all need the means of grace available to us in the Sunday morning worship service and I know how often young moms (and dads for that matter) have to miss out on them as they lovingly care for their little ones. Giving these moms the gift of getting to listen more closely to the Word of God as it is explained through the sermon or to be able to be present to partake of communion with the rest of the body brings joy to my heart because I know it will do them spiritual good. This is why our church offers a nursery and why I love to be one of the volunteers that makes it possible.
I get to know the children.
As a church grows and families grow, the names and personalities of the littlest members of the body can become hard to keep track of. When you serve in the nursery year after year after year, you develop relationships with the children of your church that produce dividends outside of the classroom walls.
I enjoy being able to greet children by name when they walk through the church doors. I am grateful to be able to converse with their parents about the joys and struggles they are going through, knowing exactly who they are talking about. I love that children are already familiar with me when their moms come over for coffee or their families come over for dinner. It’s a simple way to lovingly deepen my connection with the church as a whole, beginning with the littlest of its members.
It is an easy way to serve the body.
Nursery duty in our church isn’t “children’s church.” It is very low pressure and all the materials needed for the morning are provided by the church and ready to go when you get there. For this reason, serving in the nursery is a very simple way to serve the body that simply requires me to show up ready to have fun. I serve in many areas of ministry within our church and most of them require quite a bit of preparation and time outside of the actual event. This is one area of service I can easily say yes to because it doesn’t require either.
It can be hard sometimes.
On the other hand, it can be stressful at times and require quite a bit of energy and “spirit.” Some days are easier than others in the nursery, but in reality, the hard days are their own blessing.
We are called to sacrifice for one another and sacrifice doesn’t mean ease. Sometimes it means sweating, or trying desperately to calm multiple children who are dealing with attachment issues all at once, or getting covered in a crying baby’s snot. As a mom of older kids and teens who is beginning to forget what it is like to care day in and day out for little ones, I am grateful for this opportunity to be pushed outside of my now very comfortable comfort zone. Which actually brings me back to the idea that serving in the nursery benefits my ability to disciple younger moms. It is good to not get too far removed from the struggles these dear sisters are dealing with on a regular basis.
There are so many other reasons why I love serving in the nursery of our church. I don’t even have time to go into the way the nursery serving in the nursery makes it easier for unbelievers or new believers to come to church and hear the gospel. Serving in the nursery is actually a small, but very really way I am able to participate in the Great Commission.
So what is my goal in writing this note? My goal is hopefully to inspire others to have a bigger picture for what is often viewed as a very undesirable area of service in the church. Nursery duty tends to get a bad rap. Perhaps this is because it is a perennial need in the church, or perhaps because it is often done in a corridor of the church that many members never even walk down, or perhaps it’s because volunteers often get overworked due to a shortage of people willing to serve. Whatever the reasons, I hope that in some small way, I have shown that serving in the nursery doesn’t just bless the church as a whole, it can also truly bless you as Christ’s disciple.