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10 Myths About a Church Nursery

Nurseries are magical places. grandmotherly types get to rock babies and workers get to dole out Cheerios® and Goldfish® Crackers by the truckload. Yet, new volunteers still get intimidated by the church nursery. Fear not! For Behold! I give you 10 myths about a church nursery.

Cartoon of two babies. One says, "It's not so bad here, kid. The snacks are great, they have decent background music and the rattles are to die for."
I drew this in the early days of my cartooning career.

I first wrote this humorous list in a time before COVID. Since the pandemic, volunteering in nurseries has dropped off dramatically in churches across the United States. Yes, churches are still waiting for volunteers to come back.

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Servant Leadership

We hear the term servant leadership batted around in all kinds of businesses. Investopedia has a thorough article on what it is, the pros and cons, and when it is effective.

When I originally drew this cartoon, I thought of how a dog is a willing companion and servant. Then I wondered how a cat would react to such behavior.

Cartoon of a dog and cat. The cat says, "My, my, my! You dogs excel at servant leadership."

This may be have been false advertising. My dog was definitely not much of a servant. In fact, there were some days, I swear I could get our cat to do more for the common good than our dog. Besides, if you had to put one of them in mortal combat, I’m sure the cat would have come out victorious.

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Meaning of Life

The last couple of years have been challenging, haven’t they? World events have caused us to pause and wonder what is the point of it all. What is the meaning of life?

Cartoon of a guru chiding a mountain climber. The gurus says, "The meaning of life? Haven't you ever heard of a dictionary?"

Sometimes, life’s deepest questions have the most obvious answers. Maybe it isn’t the answer you’re looking for, but it’s there just the same.

The meaning of life has bugged people for years. A dictionary I picked up says life is, “The property of plants and animals that distinguishes them from inorganic matter.” That helps a lot!

Dictionary.com has four definitions. The fourth one made me pause and think.

4. a corresponding state, existence, or principle of existence conceived of as belonging to the soul: eternal life.

There is something about humans that makes us long for something more than the short span of life we have on this planet. at the very least, we want our lives to mean something after we are gone. We hope that people remember us when we are gone.

Except for one, my great-grandparents were gone by the time I was born. I have hazy memories of one of my great-grandmothers. The rest have lived only in the stories my mother and father told me.

My children know even less of their great-great-grandparents. They were fortunate to know five of their great-grandparents before they passed away. Each generation knows precious little of the one that went before.

We like to believe our descendants would know us a hundred years from now. But will they? What is the meaning of it all? As I get older, Ecclesiastes has a stronger message to me than what I would like. Is it all just meaningless? Do any of us have a true legacy?

The True Meaning of Life

What are we here for? Who will remember us when we are gone? What is our why while we are here on earth? Collecting money and things is meaningless. Going places is meaningless to anyone else unless we help someone along the way.

I’ve discovered life has meaning when you love unselfishly and serve unashamedly. Selfishness just saps the life right out of a person! An act of kindness goes a long way to building a legacy.

Editor’s Note: I originally published this blog on October 6, 2015. I revamped and updated it for timeliness and comprehensiveness.

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cartoon family gag cartoon single panel cartoon webcomic

Cartoon: Act your Age

Whoever first gave the advice to act your age had no clue what they were talking about. I have seen mature seven-year-olds and immature seventy-year-olds. Who really sets up how someone should act at a certain age anyway?

Cartoon of an old man talking to a boy. The man says, "Anyone who tells you to act your age is a booger head!"

Generally, when someone gives this advice, they are telling the person to stop acting silly. Either that or a person is failing to take responsibility for their actions. There is a big difference between being childish and childlike.

Childishness and Responsibility

When I worked for an Arizona call center, I found it remarkable when young women would complain that their boyfriends or husbands were home all day playing video games while they worked. I believe that sort of immaturity has to be addressed with tough love. Any able-bodied person should work in whatever way they are able to.

That said, I knew how it felt to look for work and not find something that complimented my abilities. Here I was a guy with a graduate degree and working in a call center. Before that, I had worked at a grocery to pay bills while I looked for something that aligned with my skills.

I knew the responsible thing to do was work in some way while I found something better. Every adult can do something while they work to improve their situation. Video games and surfing the web do not count.

On the contrary, workers can be quite immature too. This article on bad habits that make you look immature at work is helpful. Gossiping and being unhelpful are two key bad qualities. Let’s be professional when we’re on the job!

Childish vs. Childlike

To be creative, we need to be childlike. A sense of wonder combined with playfulness and a willingness to look at things differently is essential. We all need to be a little childlike to embrace change and encourage innovation.

Also, to have fun, we need to be a little childlike. The best times on vacation is when adults let go with their kids and have a blast. That is why the commercials when kids are acting like adults while the parents are being silly are so effective.

This Advice can be quite subjective. I have often wondered if I’ve given the correct advice to my kids. What is the correct advice anyway? Yelling “Boogerhead!” and running away rarely works. How would I know? Don’t ask.

Editor’s Note: I originally published this blog on October 6, 2015. I revamped and updated it for timeliness and comprehensiveness.

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children's ministry cartoons

Cartoon: Old Curriculum

Change can be hard in churches and in children’s ministry. I remember one church that had some old curriculum dating back ten years or more. One of the teachers was comfortable with it and had no desire to update or refresh the lessons.

This led to the following cartoon idea:

Cartoon of two women with scrolls

Truths are timeless. But cultural references can get stale quickly. If you have a curriculum that references pet rocks, mimeographs, or George Beverly Shea, your lessons probably need to be updated.

That isn’t to say new is always better. Many churches are on tight budgets. Plus, lessons of the past can have a solid track record that the new curriculum can’t compete with. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it, right?

Publishers and Old Curriculum

That said, I sympathize with publishing houses. After all, It is very difficult to keep a business going when past lessons work just fine. Is it the teacher’s problem that a publishing house needs to keep the lights on? No, but we lose something special when we lose a publisher due to economics.

I’ve been on the side of the teacher’s desk and the publisher’s. I’ve come to realize we need each other. Without innovation coming from publishers, we begin to lose our effectiveness to reach new generations. And without affordable options, teachers have to find ways to cut costs without losing their ability to reach kids.

In other words, Kids haven’t changed over the years, but culture sure has! What may have grabbed a child’s attention in the 1970s won’t do so now. Technology has grown and our attention spans have shrunk. We need to keep teaching timeless truths but do so in a dialect that speaks to today’s culture.

I drew this cartoon for Kidzmatter Magazine.

Editor’s Note: I originally published this blog on October 6, 2015. I revamped and updated it for timeliness and comprehensiveness.