I recognize that in the vast readership of this blog, I have people involved in so many different forms of ministry. I try to write with that in mind. But, for the past few days, I have felt an urgency to do something that I rarely do. I want to target just a small portion of the readership … those in leadership positions in the church and, to be even more specific, those giving leadership to and/or ministering in the church nursery,
Before I go any further, let give this disclaimer. I know that I haven’t personally been to your church or spent time in your church nursery during a service. That’s a given. But, with that established, I can with little reservation guarantee that those working in your church nursery want to reflect our Father’s heart to these precious babies, right? The decor in the nursery is bright and colorful. The cribs and rocking chairs are up-to-code. Background checks have been run on each person working in the nursery. The cabinets are packed with diapers, cleaning supplies, and air-fresheners. Everything is 100% set to take care of these precious little angels … or is it?
From what I have just described, your nursery is a second-to-none, loving child care facility. But (here’s the reason for this blog post) God wants His Church to be more than a child care facility. Our Father truly wants this to be a nursery MINISTRY. I won’t write paragraphs to tell you what you already know to be true about the world and homes that many of your babies live in. I will suffice to say that in many cases, your time with the baby is their only, only, only opportunity to receive life-giving, spirit-changing ministry each week. Ministering to babies is not an afterthought in God’s mind. Babies aren’t to be excluded from the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit!
Here are two important ingredients in having an anointed, Holy Spirit empowered ministry to babies. In EVERY service, those ministering in our nursery would hold a baby in their arms and …
1. Pray over each individual baby. Because the needs go far beyond what you know or can imagine, as you pray, pray with your understanding AND in the Spirit. (Romans 8:26-27, 1 Corinthians 14:15) Your prayer “has great power and wonderful results”. (James 5:16, New Living Translation).
2. Speak a biblical blessing. While Vickie and I were children’s pastors in South Florida, our incredible nursery ministry coordinator, Elsie Wilson, came up with a powerful way to minister to our babies. She created a list of biblical blessings to be spoken over our babies each service. To help our Master Teachers and volunteers, each blessing was printed using large, colorful fonts on individual sheets of paper, laminated, and then posted on our nursery walls. Each week, a different reality from God’s Word is to be spoken over the babies. Here is a list of Elsie’s 36 suggested blessings. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
I know that you will agree that our babies are too, too important to only have great care each service. They must also have a powerful, destiny-establishing, anointed ministry! I would ask you to print this blog post and/or forward a link of this blog to those MINISTERING in your nursery MINISTRY!
