First Lutheran Church offers a nursery for children under age 5. The First Evangelical Lutheran Church nursery is run by two paid staff members.  It is our goal to have one of these staff members in the nursery every time it is open.  Our staff members are required to be CPR and First Aid certified.

     We also seek the help of volunteers.  We most often look for parents to help in our nursery, but we encourage anyone with child care experience to help in  the nursery.  Our church’s S.A.F.E. policy requires that we have two S.A.F.E certified people in our nursery at all times, and our volunteers make that possible.  We encourage our volunteers to seek CPR and/or First Aid training.

     The nursery is restricted to ages 5 years and under.  If the special need should arise for care of older children, they will require a separate space and attendant.  This would be the ideal situation for use of the north room of the nursery space.  However, this older group should still be restricted to ages 6 years to 10 years.  These age limits will help to ensure safety in the nursery and allow the attendant for each age group to be more attentive to the task at hand.  Ages over 5 years old should only be considered for nursery care under rare and special circumstances.

      We also encourage parents to take their children to worship whenever possible, instead of using the nursery.  Dr. Patrick Keifert, Professor of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary, suggests that children learn the ritual of liturgical worship better before the age of 12. 

"We learn ritual competence by age 12 (around the time of puberty) or we don't learn it. Sunday morning worship is crucial to learning Christian ritual competence."

"Good liturgy doesn't require the ability to read. Good liturgy uses the senses of taste, touch, smell, sight, hearing, movement, etc."

from lecture at Keifert seminar, Luther Seminary, October 1991

"Did you know that the most important factor in a child's participation in the church as an adult is directly related to participation at public worship? Recent studies show attendance in public worship is far more important that attendance in Sunday School."

Keifert, Worship and Evangelism: A Pastoral Handbook, p. 28