Making Your Church Kid and Family Friendly
By Ann A. Michel

The start of the school year is a great time to roll out the welcome mat for families and children. The following tips come from the Lewis Center's 50 Ways to Build Strength: Caring for Children.

1. Make your space child friendly. Nursery and classrooms should be clean, safe, sanitary, and visually appealing to children and their parents.
   
   
2. Host seminars on parenting. Have a Sunday morning class focused on family concerns.
   
   
3. Give gifts to expectant moms and new babies.
   
   
4. Sponsor a parents' night out.
   
   
5. Provide childcare for all church events. Make it fun and enriching.
   
   
6. Give pagers to parents who leave children in the nursery. Or use the parents' cell phones, reminding them to set their phones to vibrate.
   
   
7. If children''s sermons are incorporated in worship, make sure they are consistently presented creatively.
   
   
8. Include at least one hymn every Sunday that children love and can sing with the congregation.
   
   
9. Involve children in helping with worship.
   
   
10. Have children serve alongside their parents as greeters and ushers.
    
    
11. Give younger children entering worship a small activity packet with crayons and other items.
    
    
12. Print a booklet for parents to use in explaining elements of worship to their children.
    
    

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