Griggs Kids Purpose & Vision Overview

Purpose

Our philosophy for kids ministry is ”A church within a church.”

Simply put, we want Sunday morning for all ages to focus on sharing the Gospel, building community, and growing in our understanding of God.

We don’t want the kids ministry to just be a “childcare service.” We want it to be a safe, fun environment where children can learn about the Gospel at age-appropriate levels, while their parents are able to focus on worship and instruction during their service upstairs. 

We want to accomplish our philosophy by focusing on three main categories: Safety, Curriculum, and Connection.

Safety

1. We have a check-in system to make sure every child is accounted for. The sticker they get has their name, any important medical notes the parents want added, and a parent contact number. 

2. We also have all volunteers background checked. Volunteers must have a conversation with the children’s directors before they begin serving to ensure the volunteers feel are equipped for their role and feel comfortable enough to begin

3. We have service leads every Sunday who lead the pre-meeting with our classroom volunteers. They also run the check-in system and assist the classrooms if anything comes up (i.e. a child needs to go to the restroom, the room needs more waters, someone gets hurt, ect). 

4. There is a simple first-aid kit in every classroom and a robust kit at the check-in station with the service leads. Carter and Julia Henderson (directors) are CPR, AED, and Epi-pen certified to step in a room if necessary. 

Curriculum

1. We use the The Gospel Project curriculum from Lifeway. It’s broken down into 12 volumesthat begin at the creation story and work their way through the whole Bible. There are 13 lessons per volume.

2.This program is gospel centric and has a “Christ Connection” that goes along with every lesson to show the students how the Old Testament and New Testament are connected. 

3. We practice one scripture passage and catechism for a whole month to help lessons really sink into the students memory.   

4.All students do a review coloring page during class and then get companion activity pages that go along with that weeks lesson to complete at home with their parents.

Connection

1. We want to make sure we are connecting with the kids and showing them genuine Christlike love, by encouraging them, teaching scripture, and getting to know each of them on a personal level. We want them to know we listen to them and are genuinely interested in their likes, dislikes, hobbies, ect (i.e. Marin only drinks grape kool-aid, Lucas LOVES cars, Johnny needs to be held for a couple mins when mom first leaves, ect.). 

2. We want to make sure we are connecting with the parents. We need to check in with them and see how they are doing, give them encouragement, and see in what ways the church can help them. It may be getting them connected with other families in the same season or with people who have some wisdom because they’re on the other side of toddler tantrums, pre-teen years, ect. 

3. We want to connect with the volunteers. We want to make sure volunteers feel confident about what they're teaching and how the classroom should run. We want to pray with them and make sure they know that Children's ministry can be difficult at times. We want to make sure volunteers feel comfortable sharing the wins and the hard parts of their classroom. We also want to take a genuine interest in our volunteer’s lives and know how we can be supporting them personally as well.