Should we commit to helping out at church? What if the Pastor himself asks us to help out?
Is it wrong not to help out at church? My husband and I were recently asked to teach preschool Sunday School at our church. We both have a lot of experience working with children, with me being a former public school teacher and my husband being in social services. Teaching this class, however, would mean leaving our two children ages 11 and 7 alone upstairs for the service, while my hubby and I are downstairs teaching other people's children Sunday school lessons.
We REALLY enjoy attending service together as a family. We have only been saved for 2 1/2 years and are LOVING learning and growing in the Lord TOGETHER, as a family. My 7 year old still needs help looking things up in her Bible. She attended the Sunday school for her age once and absolutely hated it. She colored and watched a video. Not exactly getting to the meat of the Scripture!
It didn't take more than a second for me to tell my Pastor "NO". I was not mean, or rude, but politely stated our reasons for not having any desire to teach other people's children at this time. I quit my job as a public school teacher so I didn't have to teach other people's children once I had my own. I thank God EVERY single day for giving me the privilege of my family and allowing that to be my first ministry. I protect that and I protect that fiercely!
I think of my babies upstairs alone in the auditorium and them feeling abandoned, maybe sitting by some weirdo (yes, churches have them....), or not being able to locate the Scripture the Pastor is preaching on fast enough and wondering why their mommy and daddy are downstairs with other people's children. No thanks.
I told my Pastor that once my children are grown, I would be more than willing to help out by teaching a class (not so much the nursery though). Thankfully, he totally understood and was very nice about it.
Maybe it's just me, but I often feel like just because I am a stay at home, homeschooling mom, people think I'm available to help out with everything at any given time. It's quite the opposite! I am BUSY these days with my ministry, my family, and I thank God every day for that!
