Smart churches know that after-school care is a major issue for working parents, and therefore has major potential as a community outreach strategy. Kids old enough to be home alone, yet young enough to get into trouble or to need help with homework, often benefit from some type of faith-based after-school care these days. More and more churches are stepping in to fill the 3 to 6 p.m. "free time" gap fo rbusy parents.
According to a news release, a new survey of 1,200 teens conducted by JA Worldwide™ (Junior Achievement) shows that nearly one in five (18.1 percent) U.S. students surveyed said they participate in after-school programs at churches, temples and other faith-based facilities. Fewer than one in ten students (8.6 percent) participate in more traditional after-school settings, such as at a YMCA, Boys&Girls Club or similar facility. Most students (58.6 percent) participate in after-school programs at their schools.
These numbers show a solid percentage of kids benefiting from after-school programs at faith-based facilities. Yet others from the After School Alliance indicate that many more children who are not involved in programs would be if they were available or affordable.
Some 87 percent of respondents to a 2005/2006 After School Alliance survey said that there are children in their community who need after school programs and don’t have access to them. Affordability is key for more than half (55 percent) of the programs surveyed, where some three in five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.
All this got me thinking about the Church. Where do such stories leave us but standing squarely in front of an enormous children’s outreach opportunity? If you're interested, take a look at a quick tutorial in starting this type of ministry. However, don’t get confused about what you are actually doing when you engage your church in this sort of work. This is not a mission. It may not even be evangelism, unless you proclaim the gospel to students.
Take a look at what Dr. Thom Rainer has to say about churches that are confused as they describe ministries of this type as missions and evangelism when they are not.
"I'm well aware that when churches offer a soup kitchen, job training, after-school programs or host a ‘downtown mission,’ that this is often called ‘mission work.’ Not so. It is ministry. Missions is evangelism that leads to churches. That is what missionaries do."
While after-school care may not lead to church planting, it will plant seeds. And as anyone who works with children will tell you, kids offer some of the most fertile soil for the gospel.
Read how a group of 12 churches in Mooresville, Ind., came together to transform their community with an after-school program. Then, to quote the wisest Man who ever lived, "Go and do likewise."
