Many Preschool Ministry Volunteers may be hearing about Baby Dedication at New Life Fellowship. But you may not know how Baby Dedication connects to you as a Preschool Ministry Small Group Leader, Nursery caretaker, or Greeter.
Baby Dedication is actually one of the first and best places to connect with parents and families at New Life Fellowship. If they haven't already been in one of our environments yet (Nursery, Giraffe's or Elephant Rooms) they will be after this class! What an opportunity for you as a New Life Kids Volunteer (YELLOW) to reach out and connect with the parents (RED) of kids who are or will be in your classroom one day. This simple action of introducing your self, talking about what fun things we do and teach at New Life Kids can have long term impact on this family and their sweet little one (ORANGE)!
"So how do I even start to partner with parents at this level?" You ask... Great question!
Be in The Know
Learn about what Baby Dedication is and what it is NOT. And learn about the process parents go through to dedicate their child at New Life.What it is and What it is Not
- Baby Dedication is NOT infant baptism.
- Baby Dedication is a time where we dedicate not only babies but parents too. Families and friends gather together (1) as a time of commitment where they decided together, with family and friends, to parent their child intentionally and (2) to dedicate their child to the Lord as a symbol of receiving God's blessing over their child (3) as a time to celebrate and share with the people who love them and love their baby.
What Parents Do
I. The First Step for parents is to listen to three parenting talks online and complete a homework assignment.Here are the materials we give to parents: (Have a listen yourself)
Download Homework Cards (PDF)
II. The Second Step is for parents to attend our Baby Dedication Class. You're welcome to sit in one
Sunday. You can ask a parent,
- How was the Baby Dedication Class for you?
- If there is one thing you walked away with from the class what would it be?
III. Finally, Parents invite their friends and family to the Family Baptism Celebration. Here we dedicate the
children and pray for them and their parents. We enjoy light refreshments and eat cake too!
We invite and encourage not only staff to attend but volunteers too. It's the absolute BEST time to meet
new families and welcome them into the New Life Kids Family.
If you've never been to a New Life Baby Dedication, it goes a little like this:
Make plans to join us at the next Baby Dedication Celebration!
Meet the little ones and jump start that partnership with their parents too!
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