What is “children’s ministry”?

Here’s how we define children’s ministry:

Partnering with parents to guide kids toward a HEART for God.

There are three elements to this definition:

Partnering with parents:

Parents are designed to be and usually are the primary influence in a child’s spiritual formation. Therefore, if we are not intentionally partnering with you, then most of what we do is fairly irrelevant in the spiritual life of the child. Children’s ministry is family ministry; family ministry is children’s ministry and we try to forge an effective partnership.

To Guide Kids:

In the end, both you as the parent and those of us in the church, are guides and we need to do all we can to influence children in their faith – and what we do (or don’t do) most definitely influences them – but all of us have a free will to choose, and one day all of us do.

Toward A HEART for God:

Ultimately, spiritual formation is about the heart. It is mentioned hundreds of times and in many different contexts throughout the Bible. In proverbs 4:23, we are told: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.’ The “heart” (in scripture) generally encompasses our thinking, our will and our emotions.  We want the hearts of our kids to lean toward God in all areas of their life so that everything they do is influenced “toward God”.