Why Work With An Outside Organization

There are many ways churches can repurpose their buildings throughout the week. My team has worked with ministries across the country to create coffee shops, pickleball courts, childcare centers, and community centers affiliated with their churches.

I love it when this works out because it takes the 6.5 days of the week that their buildings are standing empty and turns that church real estate into an active source of income that fuels the rest of their ministry and attracts hundreds or thousands of people on weekdays who are not currently attending church on Sunday morning. 

If there’s one community-focused initiative like this that is a ministry match made in heaven, though, it has to be childcare.

If your church leaders are considering setting up a childcare program, they’re on the right track. However, hear me when I say that you want to do this the right way. We have watched so many churches try the DIY childcare method with dismal and even disastrous results. This kind of project isn’t a seat-of-the-pants operation. Nor is it something you can tackle by finding someone in your congregation who worked at a childcare center 20 years ago and thinks they can help you figure it out as you go along.

If you want to set up a church childcare center, you need to work with an outside organization. Here’s why.

The Need for Childcare in America

The state of childcare in America has been on the rocks for several years. Before I start throwing statistics at you, I want you to understand something. All childcare organizations operate on a thin margin. You’re working with families with limited incomes and you have high operating expenses. This makes the entire childcare economy fragile — and something like a global pandemic can shatter it to pieces.

That’s why, from February to November of 2020 (i.e., during the early months of the pandemic), the childcare infrastructure collapsed, and nearly 2.2 million women left the labor force. The disruption quickly made keeping kids at home and losing that extra income a worthwhile calculation for millions of families.

Complicating things further, the American Rescue Plan provided $24 billion in childcare support in March of 2021 — only to run out of gas when funding ended on September 30, 2023. Since that funding program ended last year, the future of the childcare sector has looked increasingly grim. One estimate last September suggested that over 70,000 childcare providers could go out of business due to lack of funding, leading to 3.2 million children without childcare.

Even worse, in our interactions with childcare providers, we’ve picked up on the fact that many of the women who left the workforce were teachers. This underscores the miserly salary that educators are operating on and the fact that we are siphoning away the academic stability of future generations.

Yet another factor impacting the need for childcare is the mass exodus that has happened in schools in recent years. Parents have pulled children out of public education en masse to have a greater say in what their kids are hearing, the curriculum they’re using, and the messages they’re exposed to in a childcare or school setting. This has created a need for third-party solutions that align with their beliefs or are, at the least, neutral in their messaging.

Do I need to keep going? 

My point here is that affordable, dependable childcare, which has always been a need, is a particularly poignant necessity at the moment, and churches can play a key role in meeting that need — if they’re willing to invest in this area thoughtfully. 

Church Childcare Should Be a Partnership, Not an Internal Operation

Whenever I’m asked if a church can launch a childcare center on its own, I have an easy answer: this is not a church’s core competency. Would you ask your plumber to frame an addition for you? How about asking an Uber driver to hop into an 18-wheeler for a cross-country haul? Just because these are tasks that are adjacent or related to something they do doesn’t make them a good or even a qualified candidate.

Churches are the same. You may run a junior church program, operate mid-week events for kids, and have a vibrant youth group, but that doesn’t equate to expert and ongoing childcare. Without the right talent and resources, you can’t launch a successful childcare center. I’m not being judgemental here. I’m being realistic.

Don’t fall for what I call “we have a guy” syndrome. Just because someone in your congregation has some kind of relative experience doesn’t mean they can manage something as big and complex as a childcare program.

Unless you have someone with an exceptional collection of skills and experiences to guide the operation, when you take something like child care on internally, you’re going to need to put in all of the extra work that comes from starting from scratch. You’ll be paying the pioneer tax that others have already paid before you. 

You’ll need to come up with things like budgets and contracts. You’ll also lack a vast amount of institutional knowledge. For instance, did you know it’s a good idea to approach childcare with a destination retail mindset if you want it to succeed long-term? Setting up things like a visitor-friendly cafe or a community center can not just attract but retain parents who are using a childcare program.

One more point I’ll make here is that when you partner with a secular company, remember that they have staff who wake up every day with the goal of getting as many people to their site as possible – and they’re paying you as part of that process. That’s a win-win for your ministry. Along with generating income directly through the partnership, the clientele of a childcare program will become familiar with your church and will be more likely to attend if they decide to come on a Sunday morning.

The takeaway here? If you want childcare to work as a church, you need to partner with an outside organization with the knowledge, experience, and goals of an independent and successful childcare organization.

If you’re asking, “But wait, Nathan, who should we partner with?” That’s where Ministry Solutions Group can help.

Working With MSG to Set Up Your Church Childcare

There are many groups that specialize in running childcares — and Ministry Solutions Group already has connections with the best of these. For example, we recently worked with Willow Creek Church in Illinois to help them pass off a limited in-house childcare ministry to a more capable third-party operator. We also connected Chase Oaks Church in Plano, Texas to set up a safe, modern preschool complete with STEAM subjects. The church also provides optional devotionals, chapel services, and invitations to the families for Sunday morning services and service opportunities. It’s like having family ministry six days per week. 

Remember that a quality childcare center also doubles as a natural outreach component for your church. In the case of Chase Oaks, I remember hearing that the church’s community-oriented initiatives were bringing in between 2,500 and 3,000 unique visitors a month to use its facilities. This was because the church wasn’t just communicating with the local community. They were meeting their needs.

If you’re looking for ways to activate your buildings, including in the area of childcare, my team and I would love to talk with you. When you’re ready,  reach out for a free consultation, and together, we can explore your options and see what strategy makes the most sense for your situation. Let’s talk!