LEADING A CHURCH TODDLER GROUP

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For the last year, I’ve had the joy of leading a toddler group at our church along with two friends.

Knowing that others may be wondering how to run or set up a similar group, I offer these few thoughts from my own experience – not because we’ve got it right, but so that you might learn from what’s taken us months to discover (as well as the mistakes we’ve made).

Open about faith

Our group was set up because we wanted to bless families in our city with a safe, joyful environment in which children could play and parents could connect.

From the start, we were also keen to make it a place where our faith could be talked about in an open way with those who wanted to know more.

But here lies a delicate balance: how do we incorporate our faith without ramming it into people’s lives?

Because, after all, families don’t come to these sorts of groups to discuss religion – they come so that their kids will learn how to socialise and get to play with different toys. Parents come to gain some adult company, make new friends, and receive support in their parenting endeavours. They come because to stay in the house all day with a small child can be unbearable.

They don’t come to hear about Jesus. Why would they?

And yet if we believe anything as Christian parents, it’s that God is interested in our parenting, that He longs to refresh us after sleepless nights and comfort us when we feel sad about some aspect of our child’s development or attitude. He longs to wrap His Fatherly arms around us and tell us we’re doing a great job, that our children (and us) bring Him such immeasurable delight, that He knows the sacrifices we make daily for our children – and that He’s hugely glorified by them.

In other words, to try and encourage families using just our own resources can only go so far. Ultimate refreshment, peace – or whatever these families need – comes from God.

Striking a balance

Through hearsay and experience, I know that some church toddler groups make those with no faith feel pressurized and isolated – whilst others tiptoe around their faith, assuming that those who come to their group couldn’t possibly ever want to know about something so stressful and disengaging as the gospel (you know, the one that tells us we’re unconditionally loved and forgiven by the grace of God…), and if they do want to know, well they’ll just work it out for themselves through us being nice to them.

No – from the very start, our leadership team was clear: we wanted the group to be an oasis for families in our city, somewhere they would find acceptance, value, encouragement, peace, joy, hope, love and coffee in unlimited quantities. And, because these things come from God (yep, even coffee), we wanted there to be opportunities for those who were interested in God to find out more.

The families who come along to our group know we’re Christians. To be secretive about this would be deceptive, and deception to those we’re serving would be unthinkably disrespectful.

Interactive Bible story

We start with a sensory/interactive Bible story, which seeks to engage the little ones whilst making our beliefs clear as crystal to the grown-ups. We incorporate songs such as this Creation song (to the tune of ‘This Old Man’) or David and Goliath (to the tune of ‘Miss Polly had a Dolly’).

But those who aren’t interested just rock up later – no sweat. They don’t mind that we’re doing a Bible story, and we don’t mind that they don’t want to hear it. We don’t want to force our beliefs onto people: we don’t need to. God’s pretty good at changing lives.

Lending library

There’s also a lending library for the grown-ups available throughout the morning. I think it’s an incredible resource. We parents often feel a bit brain-dead in these early years of parenthood. We may be off work (temporarily or permanently), and not feeling like our minds are being engaged by anything much.

Free books are a great way to say “Look, we don’t think you’re stupid. We reckon you might be looking for something to get stuck into for you. Go on, take a book and carve out a few minutes of luxurious reading time for yourself. You deserve it!”

Many of the books are to do with marriage and parenting. Some are novels. Quite a few are Christian books. Again, there’s an opportunity to explore faith. But unforced. Jesus didn’t force anyone to believe.

Alpha course

I currently have the privilege of running an Alpha course at our toddler group. It’s something we were praying about for a while, and suddenly everything came together to be able to offer it to our grown-ups this term.

Funnily enough, once we started to advertise, it seemed that quite a few of our grown-ups wanted to do it. What do you know? God actually has a decent sense of timing.

The ongoing question

We are constantly mulling over the question of “How ‘Christian’ do we make the group?”. I think the fact that our regulars include Christians, Atheists, and everything in between suggests we’ve got something right.

Ultimately, our aim is to bless families – not to preach at them. But if we can be a forum in which those who are interested can learn more, then all the better!