Our mission in Children’s Ministry is to see our children growing up to follow Jesus more and more everyday. We believe this happens when children are known by others, shown Jesus and grown in faith. One of the exciting things I get to do with Jo, Suzanna and our volunteer teams is spending time sharing how we have seen children be known, shown and grown, and thanking God for that, as we see the children taking steps to follow Jesus more and more every day.
Here are a few of the known, shown and grown highlights we’ve seen over the past year.
- In our regular week to week of Children’s Ministry, we’ve seen around 25 children coming to SPARK, including a handful of new contacts for this year, as well as around 60 children coming on Sunday mornings (covering the range from Toddlers – Year 8 in High School)
- Toast was relaunched as a Junior Leaders Study time – so we can make sure our Junior Leaders are being known, shown and grown, as they teach the next generation of leaders.
- We took a group of 20 children in Year 3-6 to Square One in November – where they spent great time getting to know one another and our leaders, but also got to hear excellent teaching about how Jesus is rock solid and how to live a rock solid life as a follower of Jesus
- 60 Children came to Vacation Kids Plus in July (our biggest since before Covid!) – where they got to know their fellow crews and their crew leaders and be shown that no matter what happens in life they can trust Jesus. We also implemented a specific Preschool programme, which was great at helping the little ones settle into this big week!
- Taught SRE in 4 local schools – Eastwood Public School, Ermington West Public School, Rydalmere East Public School and Yates Ave Public School. A big thank you to our SRE Teachers for their commitment to seeing the children in their SRE classes be known, shown and grown. I especially want to acknowledge Clare Stretton and Nuriah Lee, who are finishing up as teachers in 2025. Clare has been teaching for 35 years, and Nuriah has been teaching with us for around 3 years. It’s been fantastic having them on our team, and they will be missed!
A few big changes for 2026 coming up:
- Relaunching our two mid-week playgroups on Fridays with It’s Music Time!
- Moving our Sunday 9:30 children’s programmes to start out of the service in their programme, to give more time for children to be known, shown and grown in our programme.
The way to disciple our children and youth is to make sure they are known, shown and grown, so do be praying that we can do that well in our programmes, we can equip parents to do that with their children at home, and our church can be a place where every child, no matter their age, can be known, shown and grown, so that they grow up to follow Jesus more and more every day.
Jason Smith (Children’s Minister), Jo Scott (Assistant Children’s and Youth Worker) & Suzanna O’Chee (Assistant Children’s Worker)