1. Have a Baby Parade
Parade Ideas - During the worship service(s), have the parents of each baby in your nursery carry infants or walk with toddlers in a Baby Parade.  Add some additional excitement by encouraging toddlers’ parents to bring their children’s favorite riding toys.  Infants may be pushed in their strollers.  The riding toys and strollers may be decorated with colorful balloons and streamers.

Enhance the Experience - If you have the technical capabilities, consider having the families go one at a time. Display a photo with the baby’s name on the screen (using PowerPoint or some other presentation software).  Create a questionnaire for parents to fill out prior to the parade with cute and funny questions to be read as their children pass across the front of the sanctuary.

Present a Gift – At the conclusion of the questionnaire presentation about the infant or toddler, take the opportunity to present each family with a special gift.

2. Make a Video or PowerPoint Presentation
Utilize the digital photos you took this month. Create a fun video or PowerPoint presentation to feature the babies, their families, and the workers in your nursery. Ideally, the photos will show babies (and adults) laughing, crying, making silly faces, etc. Use kid-friendly worship songs for background music.

3. Schedule a Baby Dedication or Baptism
If possible, plan a baby dedication or baptism for the worship service on Baby Day. People of all ages love to be part of a dedication or baptism for children.  Encourage the senior pastor to include the children’s pastor or children’s ministries director in the ceremony.  The children’s pastor or children’s director is one of the most influential individuals in the child’s early stages of spiritual development. Including the children’s pastor in the dedication or baptism helps to communicate this to the entire church family. 

4. Host a Dinner
Host a dinner for the nursery families. Decorate the room with the A Special Connection! theme. For centerpieces, fill colorful balloons with helium. Tie together two or three balloons per table and weight the balloons with a small bag of after-dinner mints for the parents.

5. Plan a Nursery Shower
Prepare a list of items needed for the nursery. Prepare an announcement of the event with the words “A Special Connection!” Write the names of the needed items on them.  Distribute the information to the congregation, or prepare a display where an item to donate may be selected.  Have baskets placed near the display to collect the donated items.

6. Pray for Families with Babies
In preparation for Baby Day, hold a prayer service designed for people to pray for families with babies and small children. Direct them to pray for the baby’s future acceptance of Jesus as Savior and right choices for college, employment, and marriage.

On the day you celebrate Baby Day, encourage people in your congregation to “adopt” a family with a baby and commit to pray for that family throughout the coming year. Take photos of the babies and their families present at your church on Baby Day. Then, attach each photo to a note card, and print the parents’ and babies’ names on the cards. If the families give permission, include contact information on the card. Let people who participate make a covenant to pray for that family.

7. Host a Workshop focused on the Discipleship of Children
Use Baby Day to emphasize the extreme importance of children’s discipleship. Encourage parents, grandparents, or any member of your church to take part in an extended focus on discipleship of children.  The following are suggested resources. An added bonus is that these resources are also included for various Church Lay Training Certificates. For more information about CLT certificate requirements go to www.discipleshipplace.org.

• Too Small To Be Ignored – Dr. Wess Stafford 
Visit www.compassion.com for information on this book.

• Children Matter – Stonehouse, May, Posterski & Cannell.
Order through NPH, Item # 080-282-2282

• Raising Kids To Extraordinary Faith – Debbie Salter Goodwin.
Order through NPH, Item # 9780834123915

• Camp Gramma: Putting Down Spiritual Stakes For Your Grandchildren – Judi Braddy.  Order through NPH, Item    #9780834123731

• Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions – George Barna.
Order through NPH, Item # 083-073-2934

8. Do a Service Project
Provide an opportunity for your church to participate in a service project for the community. There are several charity organizations designed to help babies and children in need. Penny Zeller’s 77 Ways Your Family Can Make A Difference offers suggestions for acts of service to families.  Order through NPH, Item #978-0-8341-2370-0