Epiphany Episcopal Church – Reimagining Preschool Ministry

VEREP
Aug 2
4 min read

Epiphany Episcopal Church, Oak Hill, VA preschool ministry redevelopment. — Epiphany Episcopal Church, Oak Hill, VA

In 2024, Epiphany Episcopal Church in Oak Hill (Herndon) undertook a thoughtful process to reimagine its preschool ministry.

Facing declining enrollment, staffing challenges, and financial strain, the parish engaged in structured discernment with outside support.

The result was a new model for preschool partnership that strengthened the parish’s finances, maintained its ministry identity, and fostered meaningful connections with preschool families.

Case Study written by Rev. Dina Widlake, Epiphany Episcopal Church, Oak Hill, VA

Introduction

In 2024, we at Epiphany Episcopal Church, Oak Hill (Herndon) reimagined our preschool ministry. This ministry is important to the parish’s identity. Yet, we lacked a common clarity about what it meant for it to be ministry. We were finding it increasingly challenging to finance the ministry, to find people from the parish to participate in the ministry, and as a single-priest parish, we could not provide the most supportive oversight and management of the ministry. We may not be the only parish that has had this experience, and we want to share how we reimagined and now have a stronger preschool ministry for our parish.

Background

In February 2022, when mutual discernment brought me to Epiphany Episcopal Church to serve as rector, we were still coming out of COVID. The preschool staff and its director were exhausted. Two months into my rectorship, the preschool director announced her retirement. I was able to hire a new preschool director having posted the position, interviewed multiple candidates, and prepared the foundation for new teachers to be hired. About half of the staff of the preschool retired with the preschool director.

Enrollment had been trending down, and the pandemic seemed to be accelerating that trend. After the 2023-2024 school year, the preschool director resigned, having found a similar position closer to her home.

I began the process of hiring a new preschool director and was approached by an outside, privately-owned preschool to rent our space. Initially, I declined because I had started the new director’s search and I wanted to keep a good relationship with the church across the street where this preschool operated. Then, I heard that the lease for the preschool at the neighboring church was up and its renewal was unclear. That, with the continuing trend in lower enrollments across the region, I reached back out to the owner.

Discernment

Do We Have Resources to Discern This Well?

What became clear was we needed support and advice for this discernment. No one in our congregation or staff had deep enough experience with preschools, nor the time to ask all the necessary pertinent questions and explore the answers.

I had a connection to someone who had worked with churches through this exact discernment. We clearly defined the scope of each engagement. The first engagement was an assessment of the situation. The second, if needed, we determined additional support through the process. We set a price for each engagement and the vestry approved each one.

How Do We Keep the Preschool as a Ministry?

First and most critical was how we would keep the preschool as a ministry of the church. No clear criteria existed about what it meant to the parish that the preschool was a ministry. It was an oft-repeated sentiment with the staff and vestry, despite our struggle to get parishioners involved on the church’s preschool board or in other ways with the preschool.

Since my arrival at Epiphany, we could not generate cross-over connections between the preschool families and the parishioner families either. What we did offer was chapel time integrated as part of the preschool program, with clergy spending time with the preschoolers every other week. We made that offering a necessary part of the deal.

The private preschool interested in renting our space was secular but open to collaboration. Working with our consultant, we developed an approach: chapel time would be offered to families who wished to participate, focusing on spiritual care through themes like kindness, courage, hope, love, and the goodness of the world.

What Should Rental Income Be?

Our church-run preschool paid $1,500 per month toward utilities and was considering reducing that contribution by half. We lacked experience in setting a fair rental rate. Our consultant provided guidance, resources for calculating rent, and confirmed with the diocese that our property tax-exempt status would remain unchanged.

How Do We Handle Communications?

Our consultant also helped us anticipate and manage communications to parishioners, preschool families, and staff. We timed announcements to align with messaging to incoming preschool families.

Outcome

With the vestry’s support, we moved forward with closing our church-run preschool and welcoming the new preschool tenant. The transition was smooth, and a year later it is a mutual, life-giving relationship between the preschool and the parish.

In addition to nearly doubling revenue (a 200% increase), we began to see new connections between parish members and preschool families. Preschool families contributed to our feeding ministries, one family joined the church, and two children from another preschool family are being baptized this summer—all through their connection with chapel.