Furnish It and They Will Come

How to create a kid-friendly environment in your church

by Jennifer Schuchmann

Given a choice, most children prefer the local hamburger joint to a fancy five-star restaurant. Why? A fun but safe playground, chairs that are the right size, and bright colors might have something to do with it.

Now take a look around your church. The food you serve your youngsters' souls is more important than any hamburger they will ever eat. But is your children's church environment as attractive and safe as the nearest fast-food chain?

"Many churches today are still trying to do American Bandstand-ministry in an MTV-generation," says Dale Hudson, children's minister at First Baptist Church in Springdale, Arkansas. "The children's area of the church should be unique and designed especially with children in mind."

Hudson knows a lot about environment and its effect on ministry. Since First Baptist built two age-appropriate children's areas, Toon Town for the younger ones and Space Place for the older group, attendance by children has doubled to more than 500 per week, hundreds have been saved, and more than 400 have been baptized, he says (see "Church Meets Disneyland," below).

"The environments we created help capture the kids' attention and draw them into the message we are trying to communicate each week." Hudson says.

Many recently built churches have large multi-use spaces, so it may be hard to create a separate children's area. However, several types of partitions are available to subdivide a large space, like the fellowship hall, into smaller classrooms.

Screenflex offers a unique product that contains 32 feet of flexible partition stored inside a portable cabinet that doubles as a workspace and storage container. No teacher will have to carry materials around in milk crates anymore.

"In seconds you can divide large areas into smaller, semiprivate areas," says Rich Maas, vice president of Screenflex. Decorations can be affixed to the partitions, using staples or tacks, so each room can be personalized. Screenflex offers "no-poke-through" hinges for safety, Maas adds, so that children on one side of the partition can't stick their fingers through to bother children on the other side.

Chuck Topping, president of Curtition, which makes folding walls and accordion partitions, notes several factors to consider when purchasing a partition. First, consider how location affects sound rating. If a partition divides a children's play area from an adult teaching room, a higher sound rating (better soundproofing) may be needed.

Second, churches need to consider whether their building has the required support structure overhead to accommodate a track and hold up the weight of the wall. A folding wall with a high sound rating can weigh as much as 12 pounds per square foot.

You should also pay attention to the covering or "skin" of a partition. Vinyl wears best, and steel skins make the most sense for high-use areas, such as gymnasiums.

If you need a curved divider, consider a curvilinear, lightweight, semi-rigid space divider from Versipanel. Lee Stevenson, president of Versipanel, notes that his space divider is extra safe for children's areas since it has no mechanical parts.

"There is no framework system to trip over, crawl over, or crawl under, and no sharp corners of any kind," he says.

Consider using multiple colors to coordinate with the walls and to help distinguish different areas and age groups. You'll also want to choose a design, usually a multicolored design, that will effectively hide the inevitable juice spills. When choosing carpet colors, consider your audience (children) not their parents, says Hudson. He observes that what kids like may not appeal to adults. Adults may remark, "My, that sure is bright," while their children say, "Wow, this is cool."

"If you walk into a Sunday school class and see a child sitting in a chair swinging his legs, you know that the chair isn't comfortable [for the child]," says Michael Sammons, vice president of sales and marketing for Church Chair Industries. "To prevent squirming, you need a comfortable chair."

Since children's areas are likely to have crafts and food, Sammons suggests choosing molded plastic chairs or two-piece plastic chairs over the traditional upholstered varieties found in the adult areas. Children's seat heights start at 8 inches and go up to 18 inches, the height of an adult chair, says ChurchPlaza's Fitts.

Consider activity tables in novelty shapes for the younger children. "Although there are very few vendors that even make a children's adjustable table with a plywood core and laminate top, that combination would be our first recommendation," Fitts says. "The customer will definitely pay more, but the attributes of wood far exceed particleboard in terms of durability and weight." Midwest Folding Products offers children's adjustable tables with a plywood core and laminate top, and they are available from ChurchPlaza.

Also, check warranties. Particleboard tables often have a one-year or five-year warranty, while a table with a plywood core may have a ten-year warranty.

For preschool children and those in the first years of elementary school, Fitts recommends using adjustable tables with heights ranging from 17 to 22 inches. Older children can use standard adjustable tables with heights ranging from 22 to 29 inches or a basic folding table. Choose tabletops in attractive colors that can both enhance the aesthetics of a classroom and separate different age or interest groups, Fitts advises.

McCourt Manufacturing makes activity tables with adjustable legs in height ranges from 15 to 22 inches to 22 to 31 inches. McCourt's tables come in five colors or wood grains, and a variety of shapes are available—rectangle, round, kidney, flower, clover, horseshoe, and trapezoid.

Mity-Lite also makes children's tables. In April the company introduced a line of MityBrite tables, available in bright blue, green, red, and multicolored models. These adjustable plastic tables with steel folding legs are lightweight and easy to clean, says Mity-Lite's Stephanni Hicken. They also feature a wood core and a 12-year warranty. Matching chairs are available, making any room fun for children.

Safety and convenience are also two good reasons to consider a communications system that allows you to quickly find parents whose children are in the nursery. JTECH Communications offers several types of silent paging systems that allow parents to enjoy services with the peace of mind that they can be contacted in case of a problem. Saddleback Community Church in Mission Viejo, California, currently uses more than 500 pagers on a typical Sunday.

"The PeopleAlert system from JTECH features a desktop transmitter with numeric entry keys, while the SmartAlert system features a transmitter capable of supporting wireless push-button devices or pc text messaging," says Marion Raymundo, marketing communications manager for JTECH. Vibrating, numeric, and alphanumeric pagers are available.

"The prices for these systems vary depending on the number and type of pagers needed. Our average system runs between $2,500 and $3,000," Raymundo says.

Finally, exciting extras will enhance your children's church environment.

"Children in your community have PlayStations, cable TV with cartoons 24 hours a day, Disney World, Chuck E. Cheese, the Internet, and a host of other things," Hudson says. "Beige walls, flannelgraph, and overhead transparencies are not going to make the cut with them." For this visual generation, children's ministries should make use of VCRs, PowerPoint presentations, and other technologies, he says.

All to say, then, that while the children's area may not be at the top of your church budget, it is often the first place new families visit on Sunday mornings. And a welcoming children's area attracts not only children but also their parents. As you build your children's ministry, you're building your entire church body.

Jennifer Schuchmann (jschuchmann@mindspring.com) is a management consultant living in Marietta, Georgia.

Barry, not yet a Christian, didn't really need the work, but his love for children drew him to the project. He accepted Hudson's offer. And as he worked at the church, God's love worked on him. Barry and his wife became Christians and were baptized in November 1999, the same month the new worship spaces opened.

There are two children's areas, each age-specific.

"I believe it is very important to have age-appropriate environments for today's children," Hudson says. "Today's pre-teens are a world apart from a kindergartner or a first grader. We have recognized the needs of each age and tried to create a unique, appropriate environment for them."

Toon Town is for first through third graders. Entering the room is like entering a different world, full of animation, 26-foot-tall buildings, puppet stages, lights, bright colors, and video games. The room has pipes that blow out confetti, a water tower bucket that overflows and pours bubbles down on the kids, a prize booth, a firehouse with a hammer that rings a big bell, cars that honk and flash their headlights, an oversized working stoplight, and a tv shop with glowing neon wires and moving satellite dishes.

"It is almost like going on a ride at Disneyland," Hudson says.

The Space Place, with its outer space theme, was designed to appeal to fourth and fifth graders. It features cutting-edge video games, a giant space painting, disco lights, and lots of posters of Christian musicians.

"It is an environment that our preteens feel comfortable in," he says.

With additional information from John W. Kennedy's article "Toon Time," which appeared in Christianity Today, June 12, 2000

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