Teacher Workdays: Certainly an Opportunity for Ministry

I’m sure many of you have experienced the challenges working parents face when their children are out of school for teacher workdays, snow days, inclement weather, or even holidays. The children are excited to be out of school, but mom and dad often struggle to find childcare. This presents a wonderful opportunity for churches to step up and minister to these families.

I’ve had several ideas for how to help in this situation, but as of yet, we at our church don’t have anything in place to assist parents on teacher workdays.

Recently, my friend Tom Robinson, a faithful servant and elder in his local church, shared an idea his church is planning to implement. Like you, I’m always looking for innovative ideas, so I asked Tom to share their plans at The Grove Church in Fitzgerald, GA.

At a recent session meeting (we call our council or board a “session”—a holdover from Presbyterian days), one of our members shared an idea that God had inspired in her: an idea to help families and children. The idea was to staff and accommodate 20–30 children on teacher workdays, when teachers report to work but their children don’t. We would initially target this benefit to educators with children in kindergarten through fifth grade. On those days, we would run the program like a mini, one-day Vacation Bible School—teaching Bible lessons, singing songs, providing sack lunches, and more.

This will cost us something, but not enough to justify charging fees. Additionally, in the case of extreme weather when teachers are required to report to work but their children aren’t, we’ll also be open. Our church has many older members but not enough young families, so by offering this ministry, we hope to attract families who might explore our church as a potential home.

We have other ideas in the works, but we hope this one takes off first and allows Jesus to use us to bless others.

Tommy Robinson - Elder, The Grove – A Bible Church, Fitzgerald, GA

What do you think? Is this something you could implement as well? If you have ideas to help address this community challenge, feel free to share what your church and ministry are doing.

Email us your ideas and thoughts at https://pschurchleadership.com/contact

I would love to hear from you.

Pastor Scott Moore / Believers Church of Statesboro / 09-11-24