Children & Youth Ministries
NURSERY CARE & CHILDREN’S MINISTRY
Babies up through 3 years
Are welcome to stay in worship OR to drop in and out of our Nursery as needed during Sunday mornings. It is found in the secure Children’s Wing, near Contemporary Worship, and is open 9:15 am –11:45 am. Our nursery is staffed by a paid professional with safety training, and a volunteer rotation. Our volunteers are loving, capable teenage helpers developing caregiving skills.
Our primary nursery room is set up for babies and younger toddlers, but an adjoining room has more room to roam, for older toddlers. Nursery staff are connected to our Safety team via walkie-talkie. If they go outside to play or explore, Safety Team will know just where they are.
Children from 4 years – 5th grade
Have programming both during worship and after, to give them both the experience of communal worship and age-leveled lessons/ engagement.
Families begin worship together, in either room, and children ages 4 years through 3rd grade are invited out of the room (with adults) at sermon time, to go into a Children’s Hour. This time is broken down into a shorter lesson, communion, and Sunday School crafts and games.
Meanwhile, 4th and 5th graders stay in worship and are invited into their Sunday School class just after worship.
Families pick up all children from the Children’s Wing at 11:30 AM. Younger elementary ages will be combined at this point, in a large room of activity centers called The Children’s Chapel.
Elementary Children
Children from 4 years through 3rd grade will already be engaged in programming when worship ends; they stay in Children’s Hour until 11:30.
(If a child didn’t leave worship with adult leaders half-way through, they can join in afterwards, by finding their age leveled classroom in the children’s wing: Pre-K, Kindergarten & 1st grades are together; 2nd-3rd grades together; 4th-5th grades together.)
Forth and fifth graders go into Sunday School right after worship, starting by 10:45.
Families pick up all children in the Children’s Wing at 11:30 AM.
We meet upstairs (above the gym) in the Christian Life Center.
YOUTH MINISTRY
Middle School and High School Sunday School classes meet from 10:45 – 11:30 am in designated youth rooms in the Christian Life Center. This group is often combined if smaller numbers attend. It’s led by a rotation of invested adults who have theological training and also LOVE teenage conversation! Sometimes, a single lesson is introduced and conversation is split into age groups. Most lessons are topical and real-life application.
On Sunday evenings during the school year, we hold combined Youth Group gatherings in the Life Center. We include a meal, almost always some action, and a circle of conversation. Friends are always welcomed, as circles can easily expand!
Every month or so, we try to take Youth Group off campus, into host homes. We also support our youth in attending Disciples Crossing retreat weekends (fall and winter) and summer camps, in Athens, TX.