December 16, 2011

SHARING CHRIST, FEEDING LAMBS

The Good Shepherd's Little Lambs Preschool is seven years young.  We are located across the street from Concordia Lutheran School in Tacoma, WA.  Our mission is to serve our community and church families with a quality Christ-centered educational experience.  We hope to prepare our students with basic Bible knowledge and offer an opportunity for each child to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in addition to social and learning skills. 

Most of our preschool students come from families who claim no church home.  We encourage our students and families to feel comfortable in our church with "Jesus Time" being done once a week by Pastor Dan and Leggo Lamb, the puppet.  Our preschool also attempts to invite our families to church through a unique ministry challenge to our congregational members.  We have set up opportunities throughout the year for our church and preschool families to meet in social settings, purposely scheduled to piggyback when we have our late afternoon Sunday chapel led by one of our Pastors.  We invite all our families to come together and get to know one another during our "Sunday Sundaes", "Tea & Talk", and our "Hotdogs & Happiness".  The students enjoy seeing each other outside the classroom and the congregational members enjoy seeing the young smiling faces of those who begin spontaneously dancing around chairs as their parents talk and hopefully establish friendships that will open doors to honest conversations of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  From there invitations to our church can be extended by a person who actually has taken the time to meet our preschool families.  What we have found is the personal connection of a congregational member doing the inviting that really impacts the parents.  Our preschool families are also invited to our weekly services through our parent handbook, monthly newsletters, special printed invitations for special services, and our own voices.

Our preschool has become a unifying factor for our aging congregation and has helped our congregation stretch to meet the needs of younger families.  The real blessing in that is the fact that our congregation has really stepped up to support our preschool in prayers as well as donations.  Our preschool, even though small, (16 students currently) has the benefit of a beautiful playground and two good sized classrooms with age appropriate furniture and decorations.  God has truly blessed both our preschool and our church through the ministry of children.

We pray, our preschool families, especially the students, leave our preschool with a positive sense of belonging to Christ Jesus.  One of our goals is to show parents how important a Christian education can be in the life of a child and share Concordia Lutheran School as the next step in their child's formal and Christian education.

Northwest District End Statement

The Northwest District strengthens congregations and workers to reach the lost, disciple the saved, and reflect the love of Christ to all people.