Parent to Parent
It’s not only up to church staff and volunteers to reach non-churched families.
As a parent, it is possible, even likely, that you have more contact than children’s ministry leaders with the parents of kids who attend your church or Awana Club. For those children whose parents are far from a relationship with Christ, you might actually be their primary point of contact.
Your kids might be in the same class, on the same soccer team, or you might be neighbors. Your church’s leaders don’t have that kind of natural access or opportunity to build relationships with those families.
A couple years ago, I was leading a group of sixth grade girls on Sunday mornings. All the girls lived close to one another and attended the same school. One of the girls started inviting her neighbor, Brittany, to our church. Brittany lived with her grandmother due to heartbreaking circumstances, had no experience with church previously, but quickly started attending regularly. Her grandma would drop her off and pick her up each Sunday morning.
One week Brittany walked in with another girl from the group, apparently her grandma was sick so she had gotten a ride with this girl’s family. Throughout that year, the parents of the girls in my group made sure that if Brittany wanted to come to church and her grandma couldn’t give her a ride they would get Brittany to church. A couple of those parents started to get to know Brittany’s grandma as they picked up or dropped off and took a few minutes to check in.
The next year, when the girls where in seventh grade, the parents from the group started encouraging their daughters to invite Brittany to activities outside of church and, as always, the parents made sure Brittany always had rides to those activities. They continued to slowly get to know Brittany’s grandma. One of the parents invited Brittany’s grandma to our church’s Christmas service and she came.
By the end of the year, the grandma was attending church regularly. She had been moved by how our church loved her granddaughter and the experience Brittany was having with Jesus and our church. But, truth be told, if the parents from our group had not reached out she would not have started attending. Without parents building a bridge, she would have been fine continuing to drop off without ever coming in.
As the group leader I had limited contact with Brittany’s grandma the first year Brittany started attending our church. I tried reaching out but I didn’t have natural, everyday types of access to her. The parents from the group did run into her around the neighborhood, at school functions and athletic events. Their interactions at those times built trust and made it more likely that Brittany’s grandmother would feel comfortable exploring faith at our church.
Take-It-Home Challenge: Are there any kids in your Awana club or Sunday services whose families don’t have a relationship with Christ? Do you have any overlap with those parents outside of church? Could you be intentional in cultivating a relationship with them this year? You have a unique chance to show the love of Jesus by building a bridge to that non-churched family.
