Note: This church is in the planning stage. Contact us!
Children are to be welcomed into the presence of Jesus. He instructed us to let the little ones come to Him and to suffer them. We want to include children in church life as much as possible. They can learn to pray for and minister to others. They can learn to worship the lord in all of the modes of expression that we use (with real praise and worship songs, not just "fun" music). They can be filled with the Holy Spirit and be used to perform miracles. We want them to grow up experiencing as much of the fullness of life in body of Christ as possible!
As such, we will use these guiding principles in planning the children's ministry of our church:
1) When possible, we allow for and encourage families to keep their kids with them during praise and worship and ministry times.
2) When possible, we do not discourage families who want to have their kids present during teaching or discussion times.
3) When possible, we will use the times when the children are not with the adults to encourage them to experience true praise, worship, ministry and/or biblical teaching in their class.
4) We will strive to put in place and enforce safety policies of the highest caliber when it comes to children.
Our current norm in the larger congregational meetings is to provide a children's service option for children 5-12 during times of preaching and keep them in the main service during times of praise and worship and during many of the ministry times. A nursery option will be provided for the entire service for ages 0-4. These classes are available for parents to put their kids in, but we welcome kids of all ages to stay in the service at all times, if the parents so desire. Only if a child becomes very disruptive would a parent need to temporarily take the child out of the service to allow him or her to calm down.
In the cell groups, there are several situations for kids that will be made available (check the schedule for what to expect with a specific group). The first point to note is that all of the groups are "family" groups; Kids are allowed and welcomed into any group on our schedule (unless otherwise noted on the schedule). Some of our groups require that kids be with the parents in the meeting, as there is not an alternative kid's meeting. Again, very disruptive children may be temporarily taken by a parent to another room in the home where the meeting is taking place. Other groups will provide a separate room where kids may either play or be engaged in their own cell type meeting. These groups will generally still encourage kids that are 5 and up to be present during many of the worship and ministry times of the adult group.
Whether in congregational gatherings or in our home cell groups, we will have certain policies in place to ensure the safety of your children and, also, that no opportunities arise for untrue accusations to be brought against our adult workers. The current policies are stated below.
1) No child shall at any time be alone with an adult (other than the parent/guardian) on the premises where our meetings take place.
2) No group of children in a classroom will be left with only one adult worker. In congregational meetings, there will always be at least three workers assigned to a class in case any worker should need to briefly leave the room. In the cell groups, if two workers are present and one needs to leave the room, she will call someone in the main group to temporarily step in.
3) Workers will not take children into a restroom. If an unoccupied single-person restroom is available immediately adjacent to the classroom, then the child may use it by himself. Otherwise, the parent will be summoned to take the child to the restroom. A parent may express the wish to always be called when their child needs to go to the restroom and that will be honored.
4) Workers will only change diapers if the parent has given permission. Diapers will only be changed by female workers. If permission was not obtained, the parent will be called if a diaper needs to be changed.
5) We will encourage moms in the church to be the primary classroom workers. We feel this emphasis will enhance overall safety for our children. We will use hired babysitters when needed to ensure there are enough workers in a classroom and will use only females for this purpose.
6) All scheduled volunteer workers in the congregational classrooms and hired babysitters for either congregational or cell groups will need to undergo a background check and interview with the pastor.