EastCoast:
Day Cares and Pre-schools have killed many a WELS church over the last few years. They are bad news. Even where they are somewhat successful, the “tail” ends up wagging the dog. Schools in general, from “day schools” to colleges are pretty much useless anymore anyway, especially in the church.
***
GJ - Several of us have discussed how a congregation develops a generic "Christian Academy" to gather as many customers as possible. Price competition is fierce, so the pre-school and kindergarteners get subsidized by the members. Day care is regulated so the congregation must fund certain staff members, which allow the pastor's wife and other chosen people to have jobs at the church.
Day care runs the church because their budget dominates all other concerns, and they get touchy about "their space." They may even hide the true costs from the members, but everyone can tell the congregation is bailing out the business, so the general population can have cheap day care.
