The Children’s Ministry Commission has aimed to follow the strategic vision for the church this year to be both inwardly strong and outwardly focused. A host of programs were developed to concentrate on both of these aspects of spiritual development for the young people of our church. A few of these will be discussed in more detail.

Our Sunday program is designed to develop young disciples for Christ. A biblically based program using the large group teaching and worship time starts off the Sunday morning programs (this differs for Sunday evening in that children worship with their parents for approximately 20 minutes in the evening service). Following the group lesson, children break into small groups with kids their own age and spend time discussing the lesson, praying and seeking how they might apply what they have learned in the week to come. After the small group time the large group reconvenes for a game that helps reinforce the lesson. This Sunday program gives our children grounding in the Word and provides them with Christian fellowship.

We had a very successful Vacation Bible School in 2007. In line with the upcoming campus development project, we used the theme “Building for Jesus” to get children in the construction mode. We reached out to our community, inviting families from the nursery school as well as the Village and surrounding areas. Vacation Bible School at The Village church is also a great opportunity to give adults, youth and children in the church a chance to serve. Over 75 volunteers from adult team leaders to youth counselors in training came together to make it a fantastic event. In addition, some of the children had a part in preparing and performing skits for the group each day.

In addition to VBS as an outreach tool the Children’s Ministry Commission tried a new program this year, an outreach program for families in the community. The “Kick-Off Christmas at the Village” was an evening event with crafts, games, food (in the form of several variations of chili provided by different groups and commissions of the church) and entertainment for families of all ages. Children had the opportunity to choose from a wide array of crafts related to Christmas and the Advent season. The success of this program has led us to plan a similar event for Easter of 2008.

These are just a few examples of the many ways The Village Church Children’s Ministries Staff and commission members have worked to develop children who are inwardly strong as they discover and develop a relationship with Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and outwardly focused as we all strive to bring the Good News to a lost world. Our goal is to continue in this work in a creative way to continue to reach children both in our church and the broader community.

Respectfully submitted,
Nina Lovejoy, Chair