Church Hopper

Have you heard of the Mystery Worshipper? Actually you can become one. An official Mystery Worshipper visits a church and takes notes on all aspects of the service - from door greeters to sermon length. One of the churches we visited here in Ft. Myers had a Mystery Worshipper post. I thought the critique was kind of harsh, but I guess they are just being honest.

Since we have been visiting different churches each week in this area, I've been in a position I haven't experienced in a long time. I'm able to get lots of first impressions. And I've discovered that I don't really care if someone meets me at the door with an obligatory handshake or if the church has a particular style or service or music. The things that have matter most to me are
1. The Nursery
2. Someone or some very clearly marked sign pointing out where the nursery is.

We haven't been leaving Annalise in the nursery because she is in a big separation anxiety stage. I've worked enough in the church nursery to know that having a totally inconsolable baby is extremely difficult to deal with. So most of the time, Annalise and I sit with Rob during the music and in the foyer or cry room during the sermon. I love cry rooms. Usually they have volumn knobs and cushiony chairs. Plus Annalise can babble and crawl as much as she wants.

But Caleb loves going to the church nursery. He doesn't seem to mind at all that each week he's among total strangers. For him, it's kids and toys and goldfish crackers.

So some of the churches have had very good nursery security and some of them have such lax systems that I'm very hesitant to leave him there. Some of what I've experienced has give me a lot of ideas to take back to our church in Miami.

I've decided that a good church nursery must have name tags on each and every child. One church we visited had us write Caleb's name on a list and then sent him in with a group of 20+ children with no name tag. They gave me a pager, but I didn't see how they would know who to page if there was an emergency or be sure they didn't give my kid to someone else.

I came up with this sample name tag that I think incorporates the better ideas I've seen at the churches we've visited:



With this system, the parent picks the security code (last Sunday our security code was computer generated and was such an odd string of letters that when they showed someone's code on the screen, I had to dig out my security ticket to check). Plus, the tag includes helpful information that any worker can find - no need to dig out a book or hunt down the team leader. I'm sure there are a few other things that could and should be added. Plus I think this is a system that a church could implement without having to buy a pager system. Even a simple computer system could pull up a special box in the corner of sermon notes to display the security code. (The only church I've been to recently that didn't have a screen was my parents', which actually doesn't have a nursery either!) It would be easy to have little cards to give the parents with the code on them for pick up identification and to have a page of address labels to write names on for diaper bags.

In short, I realize that for most people visiting a church, they aren't dropping off small children, but from the perspective of a mother of small, vulnerable children, I think it's a very welcoming thing to find that a church cares about your child's welfare while you are worshipping.