The Quiet Ministry

I spoke with Dee Carlson today. 

I called with a simple goal. Our nursery is growing, we need more volunteers, and I wanted a few good lines from someone who serves there. What I got instead was a reminder of how serving in the nursery is a very real ministry. 

The first thing she told me caught me off guard: she didn't sign up for the babies. She signed up for the moms. Dee wanted to meet the young mothers in our church, to be available to them, maybe to mentor a few. The nursery was just where she figured she'd find them.

"Then I fell in love with the babies," she said.

She's had four of her own, so she comes by it honestly. And she told me that every age has something special about it:  some part of a child's development that belongs only to that season. But it's the babies she's drawn to. She loves the way they focus so intently on your eyes.

We talked about the crying. Anyone who's stood in a nursery doorway knows that sound, and knows how it can undo a parent who's already running late. Dee has a tender heart for it. Separation anxiety is real, she said, and it's hard on everybody. So she picks them up, and she holds them, and she prays over them.

And oftentimes, they calm down.

That's the part she kept coming back to. These little ones are hearing the name of Jesus. They're hearing someone pray over them. They are never too young for that.

But it isn't only the babies she's praying for. Dee said you forget what the morning looks like for a parent of young children - you really do forget the chaos of it - right up until they walk through the door. Then it all comes back. So she often prays for them, too.

That hour and a half is a gift to a mom and dad or caregiver who need it. Dee is clear-eyed about this. The ministry is caring for the little ones and caring for the parents of the little ones. You can't separate them.

She's gotten to know young families she never would have met otherwise, because you come to know parents through their children. Some of the babies in her arms, lately, were dedicated just weeks ago, and she talked about how good it feels to actually follow through on the covenant we make as a church to help these parents raise them.

"It takes a village," she said, "The old saying is true, and truer still in the church, because this is exactly what community is supposed to look like."

For that hour and a half, she said, you get to be a surrogate mom.

It's a quiet ministry. But it's an important one.

If you're interested in serving in our nursery, contact Krysta@loveshelbyville.com

And if you'd like to hear about it from someone who is currently serving, reach out to Dee Carlson. She'd love to talk with you.