Church Nursery

Hello!

As some of you might know, I am a pastors wife.  With that role come many, many responsibilities.  I wear many hats and do many different things.  One of those things is being the nursery director.

Being  in charge of the nursery requires a lot more than just babysitting.  It requires making a work schedule every month, making sure the nursery is clean, sanitizing toys, dealing with people, etc, etc, etc.  You get the idea.

I think the nursery is the most overlooked ministry in the church.  It is a thankless job that most people don't give a lot of thought to.  In fact, most church members won't even consider volunteering for the nursery because they see it as babysitting duty.  Well it is but it is much more than that.  We provide a service for families with young children to be able to sit through church without a restless toddler at their side.  They can benefit from listening to the Word of God being taught without worrying about the crying baby on their lap.  It is, in fact, a very important ministry.

I've been the nursery director for three years now.  It wasn't a job I was happy about in the beginning.  I was actually wanting to be a Sunday school teacher but this is the job I was given.  This was the place in the church that needed the most attention.  

When we moved to New Mexico three years ago the church didn't even have a functioning nursery.  I mean, the nursery was there but I don't see how it could function in the state it was in.  There was no schedule.  There were no volunteers.  Moms had to watch their own kids and the room was small, crowded and dirty.  It was in sad shape to say the least.  

The first I did when I took over was scrub, scrub, scrub.  I bought a lot of  Magic Erasers.  I threw away a lot of stuff including the old broken recliner that sat in the corner, which happened to be the only seating in the room.  I threw away a lot of the toys too.  Most of the toys were the free kids meals toys from fast food restaurants or they were big bulky toys that took up a lot of space.  I got rid of most of them.  I bought gliders from FB marketplace and started buying toys from local thrifts which I bought with my own money and of course I cleaned them good once I brought them home. 

Slowly the nursery started looking better and functioning better.  It was a slow process but in small churches everything is a slow process.  I am happy  to say though, that as of August of this year, 2017, we moved into our new nursery that a few of our church members built for us.  It is bigger than our last one and also includes a small bathroom.  It felt so good to move in.  We are enjoying the extra space.

I have learned a lot of things during this whole process.  I hope to share more resources and tips as time allows.  I hope I can help someone else out there who works in the nursery ministry.  And I hope some of you can share your wisdom with me and we can help each other.