Typically meeting agendas throughout our church body do not list children's issues as topics for discussion. Thousands of young children and their families enter over 2100 of our congregations each year through the doors of early childhood centers. Yet this opportunity for significant ministry to young children and their families is often ignored or overlooked. The children and families served by early childhood centers and the leadership within them challenge traditional thinking and practice.
Children are among the powerless - the disenfranchised.
They don't have a voice in decisions hundreds daily - that directly impact their lives for good or for bad. Take for example the decisions to provide substandard wages or to hire part time teachers for the specific purpose of avoiding the provision of benefits. These practices directly impact the quality of childcare. Centers report high rates of staff turnover, with some teachers taking jobs at fast food restaurants where they can receive more than minimum wage. Already well documented, recent studies of brain development have further reinforced the critical importance of the early years of a child s life.