The church nursery is an exciting and vital ministry in the church—a launching pad for nurturing the faith of the next generation. A Sure Foundation: A Philosophy and Curriculum for Ministry to Infants and Toddlers is designed to help you transform your ministry to infants and toddlers into an integral beginning—a place of prayer for young children, a place where they hear foundational Bible stories, and a place where children learn simple truth statements and begin to memorize Scripture as they form their language skills.
A Sure Foundation is divided into four stages.
- The Fragrance of the Knowledge of Christ establishes the philosophy of ministering in infant nurseries and creates an environment centered on prayer for each baby.
- Young toddlers, 18-24 months, are taught four repeating Bible stories and monthly memory verses along with truth statements about God’s character in The Wonders He Has Done.
- The Older Toddler Volume 1 Teacher’s Guide, His Praiseworthy Deeds, reviews the four stories already learned, teaches 24- to 36-month-old toddlers nine more foundational stories and completes the monthly memory verses.
- For toddlers 36 months and up who have not graduated to a preschool class, the Older Toddler Volume 2 Teacher’s Guide, Set Their Hope in God, introduces 16 additional Bible stories with accompanying memory verses for each lesson. If you do not have separate older toddler classrooms, Volume 2 can also be used as a midweek curriculum for older toddlers.
The Nursery Coordinator's Starter Kit includes 4 booklets that are valuable resources to share with the parents in your church:
- Praying for the Next Generation
- Mothers: Disciplers of the Next Generation
- A Father’s Guide to Blessing His Children
- Children and the Worship Service
We recommend this training video to help build a robust, biblical vision for nursery ministry (handout). Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible.
