First, my dream…
15 years ago, I heard the story of a church in Indianapolis that was so committed to blessing unchurched people that it made a daycare its primary focus of operations and made the Sunday worship times secondary on its priority list. Their first staff position other than the founding pastor was the director of their daycare! Their first meeting location was chosen for the needs of the daycare! That others-first focus did two massive things for that church:
- It created a culture in the church that they were first and foremost about loving people well.
- It brought in a revenue stream to the church empowering them to invest even more resources into loving people well.
Some of you might know the church. It’s Heartland Church in four locations around Indy, and it is the church that has helped us financially in huge ways over the past few years including giving us $6000 toward the purchase of the former Filly’s buildings!
As a result, from the moment my family first moved to Lafayette, I was thinking about the possibility for us to do something similar in Lafayette. I have done research, I have created business plans, and I have even on many occasions, attempted to recruit someone to take on the job of being our director.
It has always been an option for us, but it has never been a real option for us for many reasons. Perhaps you recall some of the times it almost was a reality, but something always happened to let us know it wasn’t the right time.
Now, however, I think all that has changed, and I think the time is right for us to make it happen.
- We have a building that is perfectly suited for running a daycare complete with bathrooms specifically for kids, a working kitchen, and locking security doors.
- We have a mortgage that is being financially covered already and won’t be dependent on the income from a daycare freeing us to focus on the ministry of the daycare and not on profits.
- We have a perfect location across from the mall and near local factories to provide childcare services to people who work in those places.
- We have seen the departure of the adult-oriented businesses near us.
- And, we are beginning to build a relationship with the people who live in the neighborhoods around our church, neighborhoods that are predominately lower income and would be blessed by an affordable high quality daycare option.
We are going for it…
So, after quite a bit of prayer and discussion with my team of elders, my wife, and a few potential candidates for the director job, I’m moving us forward into this finally and fully. Here’s what you need to know:
- We are planning to hire a Kidopolis Director who will be in charge of everything Kidopolis, both Sunday programs, weekday programs, and programs targeted toward families with young children. I’m currently interviewing a candidate for the job, but the hiring hasn’t happened yet. If you want to put your own or someone else’s name in the hat for the job of director, send a resume my way.
- Soon, we will start interviewing people to be our daycare workers. Again, I’m looking to receive resumes.
- Once the director is selected, we will relaunch our “Kidopolis.Care” website, start advertising, and begin taking enrollments.
- If everything goes perfectly, we may be able to fully open in September, but more likely, we will have a “soft launch” in the early Fall, open to just a few students, while we iron things out, and then have a full launch a month or two later.
One More Thing…
I wanted to say one more thing at the end of all this to remind you why this effort is important to me. Our church is all about helping people discover life in Christ. But the reality in our world is that too many people are just trying to stay afloat let alone discover a full and fulfilling life. Talking about living a full life with God’s people doesn’t make sense to people living paycheck to paycheck, estranged from their own children, and too busy for a church family.
Something as simple as an excellent, low-cost daycare can be just the thing to bring some “life” back into a family, but beyond that, we are convinced that if these parents are already going to be using the services of a daycare somewhere, it would be best for them to have a daycare that also blesses them spiritually. We aren’t interested in simply providing a low-cost service, we want to provide a high-impact ministry to people who wouldn’t ordinarily come into our building.
I’m getting really excited about the potential this ministry can have, and I want you to get excited right along with me.
Please be praying for this new effort! Pray that God would give us His guidance and His blessing as we step forward into it.