Far too often our Sunday services and weekend experiences become the main focus within our ministries. I can tell you that I have fallen into that mindset and have in the past missed the mark. If we aren’t careful we can push planning for Wednesday nights to the back burner and miss the incredible extra hour and a half of getting to pour into our kids lives and their families lives. 

Here are four ways to make sure that your Preschool Ministry is on point during your Wednesday night service: 

1. The Lesson: Whether you have a certain Wednesday night curriculum you follow or you take Sunday’s lesson and reinforce it with the kids, make sure that during the class there is time set aside for a lesson. It sounds so basic, but it is so important to remember that Wednesday night is not just childcare or babysitting … it is another opportunity to invest. 

For me personally, I love the idea of reinforcing what the kids have learned about during the prior weekend in a different way. It gives them another opportunity to understand and comprehend the lesson. Repetition is the key to learning; repetition is the key to learning; repetition is the key to learning. 

2. Pray and Open the Bible: One of my favorite parts of walking into a preschool ministry is seeing the kids interacting with their teachers and opening up the Bible. It is one of my favorite moments because our leaders are teaching them when they are young the importance of prayer and the Bible in their lives. Before our teachers begin the Bible story, they have one of the preschoolers pick up the Bible and talk about how the Bible is God’s Word. Then they have a child open up the Bible for the teacher to read. The kids are so excited about this, and we often have parents tell us that their preschoolers know what the Bible is.

Find opportunities in the classroom to not only pray together in a group prayer, but to pray for the kids. If a child gets a boo-boo, pray that Jesus will help them. If two kids have a disagreement, include a short prayer as you correct them. 

3. Theme nights for outreach: Wednesday nights are a perfect opportunity for families to invite friends and a perfect opportunity for leaders to encourage visitors to come to a weekend service. On Wednesday nights, we host fun theme nights to make Wednesday special for the kids who come out (cookie night, balloon night, stuffed animal night, etc). During theme nights we tend to have many more visitors because we go out of our way to encourage our parents to invite their friends’ kids to come along. For us, Wednesday nights have become an outreach to our community. We have seen many families start coming on Wednesdays and then start showing up on Sundays! 

4. Appreciate your leaders: We all know that appreciating volunteers is important! So make sure to do special appreciation nights just for your Wednesday night team. Many of the leaders are coming straight from work to serve. Since volunteers may not have a chance to feed themselves and their kids, plan a monthly pizza dinner before your Wednesday night classes for leaders and their kids.  

Bonus: Wednesday nights tend to go past a preschooler’s bedtime. Your preschoolers will get tired towards the end of the evening, especially if your service ends at 8:30 p.m. It is so important to plan for this by servng a low sugar snack earlier in the evening, and by finding a way to create a peaceful environment for dismissal (example: play quiet worship music in the background as kids play with quiet toys). Parents will love you because their kids are going straight home to bed!