Examining the Blessings and Challenges of Christian Early Childhood Ministries

“In the beginning,” God created families. But, in the culture of American families today, the care of young children is often placed in the hands of an alternate caregiver.

In 1989, 80 percent of all early childhood programs were housed in churches. Today, church-based programs range between 17 percent and 40 percent, depending on the state. This decline is often attributed to rules and regulations that govern programs and that vary by state.

Without basic health and safety guidelines in today’s society, however, young children could be placed in inadequate settings -- some of which might even put them at risk. Knowledge of upcoming changes in the rules and regulations offer programs an opportunity to prepare for the changes without being caught off guard.

Most churches that provide early care and education programs offer these services to implement the mission and ministry of the church -- to reach, disciple and minister to others in Christ’s name. In the past, implementing these programs was done by church members, moms and grandmothers; with brain research conducted in the mid-‘90s, however, have come new interests and challenges.

Research Affecting Legislation

Currently, for instance, we know that a child’s brain grows very fast in the first five years of life. According to the Families and Work Institute, a newborn starts out with about 100 billion neutrons and 50 trillion connections. By the time a child is 3 years old, 1,000 trillion connections are made. In the preschool years, the brain produces twice as many connections as it will eventually need, and by the age of 20, only 500 trillion connections are left.

It’s during the preschool years that the foundation for how a child feels, thinks and relates to others is established. The ways our brains are “wired” depends partly on genes, and partly on the kinds of early stimulation we experience. Many kinds of experience affect how a young brain is wired, but none are more important than early care and nurturing.

Research also indicates that young children need experiences using all five senses to maximize the connections and assure that connections are made in multiple lobes of the brain. This experiential learning -- using multiple areas of the brain -- creates connections for comprehension and simple rote memory, which is stored only in the frontal lobe.

A heightened interest in this research has caught the ears of governors and legislators throughout the nation. Only nine states aren’t presently funding some type of pre-kindergarten initiative. Tougher rules and regulations are presenting preschool/early childhood programs with new challenges. Accreditation, director’s credentials, entry-level teaching credentials, performance standards and approved curricula are new buzz words in early care and education programs.

For Christian programs, these concepts offer both challenge and opportunity. The challenges come as we work to attain newly required training and credentials as they make their way from state to state. Laws that require higher standards -- such as lower pupil-to-teacher ratios, group size and square footage, along with training requirements -- affect the operating budgets of our programs. States that require approved curricula might present some of the greatest challenges, as few Christian curricula correlate with research and developmentally appropriate learning activities.

The Challenges (in Detail)

How can we prepare to meet the challenges we will be facing in the next few years? Beginning now might be the key to success. Here are some ways we can prepare.

1. Teachers and directors can start by carefully selecting early childhood/child development college-credit courses that can be applied to an entry-level credential, such as the Child Development Associate (CDA) or the Christian Child Development Education Credential (CCDE). These courses will also count toward an AA/AS or BA/BS in early childhood or child development education. Attend only training and conferences that offer Continuing Education Units (C.E.U.s) from a college or nationally recognized source such as IACET. Many college credit courses are offered online from state educational institutions and provide excellent training.

2. Begin looking at your facilities. Do you need to make adjustments which will allow at least 35 square feet per child? Is your pupil-teacher ratio in line with recommended standards of:

• 1 teacher : 4 infants
• 1 teacher: 10 3-year-olds
• 1 teacher: 6 toddlers
• 1 teacher: 12 4-year-olds 
• 1 teacher: 8 2-year-olds
• 1 teacher: 15 5-year-olds

Does your room size provide for these class sizes or, at the most, double the size to remain under the maximum group size? By making adjustments now, you'll be ready as these recommendations become law. You'll also have moved toward nation accreditation standards like those of NAC (National Accreditation Commission), ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International, ACTS (Association of Christian Teachers and Schools),or UMAP (United Methodist Association of Preschools).

3. The challenge of an approved Christian curriculum requires a different type of preparation. It requires an investment in time and prayer as you diligently search for a curriculum which meets or exceeds your state’s performance standards. While there are many good secular curricula that can be used, very few Christian curricula have been cross-referenced with the National Goals Panel Standards, states’ performance standards, or current research. At the present time, only WEE Learn, published by LifeWay Christian Resources, is known to the author to meet this criteria.

Finding and using curricula which meet these standards offers your program the ability to interweave faith and values through an integrated approach. This approach is fundamental to meeting the criteria identified by research for synapses (connections) in multiple areas of the brain.

The Mission - The Blessing

While wondering if continuing our programs is worth preparing for the coming challenges, we need to weigh the challenges against what we're accomplishing. In Florida alone, more than 40,000 4-year-olds hear God made them special, that He loves them very much, and has a special plan for their life, because they attend a Christian weekday program. This is just one age group and does not include infants, toddlers, 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds. Nor does this number include children in kindergarten or some type of program for school-age children.

Based on these statistics, hundreds of thousands of young children hear about the Lord and see Him through loving, kind early care educators each day. Are we willing to give these up?

In Philippians 3:14, NIV Paul encourages us to Press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us, heavenward in Christ Jesus. Dr. James Dobson has said that we're presently in a battle for the hearts and minds of the children, and to the winner go the spoils. Staying in the race is essential to winning the spoils. In this case, the spoils are young children. What better reason could there be for working diligently towards higher standards?

As Christian early childhood programs, we must work to not only meet the standards, but to set the standards. Through our reputation in the community as a high-quality program, our community comes to trust us with their most precious possession: their children. That trust often leads them to confide in us their personal needs and challenges. As we meet their needs, they often come to ask about our faith in the Lord. As they come to trust us, they often decide to trust Jesus and come to know Him as their personal Savior.

The Ministry – The Blessing

Just as the mission is an ongoing effort, so too is ministry. It's an opportunity to minister to broken families, families in need, families in crisis, and many others in difficult circumstances. Sometimes a ministry is needed to help families better understand financial management. Sometimes a clothes closet or food band needs to be started to serve these and other families in the community. Sometimes a short course on “The Children of Divorce” or “Single Again” can offer hope to a single parent and give the encouragement needed to make it through dark days.

There are countless opportunities for ministry through our early care and education programs. The decision to meet the challenges or ignore them remains in the hands of church leaders and early childhood program directors.

In some states, we'll have more time than in others. Today, through parent-choice, Florida programs can actually teach children the moral and spiritual values of our faith in the state-sponsored pre-K programs. In Georgia -- the other state to offer pre-K to all 4-year-olds -- Christian programs can't teach their faith.

This is a growing trend. Ask God to open the doors of heaven and pour out a blessing on the children, families, staff and church involved in your early childhood ministry. Ask Him to lead you in a way that honors Him and one that reaches out and blesses your community. Remember that The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Shouldn’t that be our hands, spreading God’s love for these children and their families?

Ellen McKinley is the president of the Child Development Education Alliance (CDEA), a professional organization for early-care educators in Christian settings. Reach her by calling 904.278.9737 or by e-mail at kids@cdealliance.org. Visit the CDEA website for more information: www.cdealliance.org.