Where do children and teens fit into this new church? This question came up several times in our meeting last Sunday and it is one of the places of hesitancy for most of the people with families who are considering a church plant. I say that to let you know that if you are worrying about this, you are NOT alone!

In this post, I want to give you a few things to think about from our perspective and invite you to converse about what the answer to this question might be in our church plant.

Traditionally, the modern evangelical movement has segregated age groups into different ministries. We actually take a separate approach. Our hope is that we will find the tenuous balance between ministering to our children and teens in a appropriate and meaningfully way while at the same time including them in the core of the community. Oftentimes, church becomes about adults in the middle of the life cycle (30-55) and ministries to others, such as children and teens ministries (as well as retired/elderly), become supportive to the main ministry emphasis of the church. Our hope is that as we integrate children into the life of the community, and making our services and life events open to the inclusion of families that we will be able to engage our children in their spiritual life, while teaching them that they are important in the family of God.

As a CCDA focused church we appreciate the focus that they have on ministering to the young members of the community. John Perkins has said over and over again, that if you want to see community change, you must begin with children. He also says that this is a multi-year commitment. We want to be committed to community development, and because of this we must recognize that children are a major agent of transformation in our community.

We also desire to support children’s parents as the primary educator and spiritual leader in a child’s life. Engaging family systems (where intact) and becoming surrogate families where they are not, is important and we want to strengthen not only our children but the family systems they are included in. This happens through active community involvement of childern interacting with their parents and other adults, and adults interacting with children and recognizing the importance of their role in the spiritual development of their children.

Those are some of my thoughts on the subject and I’m sure that they are not complete. Please use this opportunity to interact and express your feelings on the topic. It is an important one to our church.

Josh

Beginning January 13 we will be meeting as a new church community for weekly times of worship, as well as planning and developing our new church together.  More details to come!   Please be thinking about when you would like to meet – Sunday mornings? Sunday evenings? Other times?   

Also, one of the first activities of our new church will be the task of naming ourselves.  We have deliberately held off of choosing a name so that our community could do this together.  So please get your creative juices flowing and start thinking about a great name for our new church! 

Check out information about our Advent celebrations on the Advent page above.

This evening we had a great meeting discussing the idea of a new church community. It was great to hear everyone’s voice in this, and we’re looking forward to cultivating this community.

During our time this evening we asked everyone to pose a question that they might have about this new church. While we want this to be a community that is okay with asking questions without necessarily having answers, we also want to offer this blog as a point of conversation for the questions posed tonight. Over the next couple of weeks, Karlene and I will be blogging on the questions that we had tonight, and we would invite you all to join in on what you would see the answers to the question be. We’ll of course post our thoughts on the topic, but the point is to provide this space as a place where the community can be heard and find answers together. I hope you will participate in this!

Thanks to everyone who made it this evening! As mentioned we will be meeting during advent for brief advent experiences, which will provide opportunities to consider the coming of Christ together. We look forward to seeing you at these times!

We’re looking forward to our first get-together for those who would like to learn more and meet others who are interested in this new church plant.  Please come and bring your questions and ideas. We’re excited and looking forward to being with you all tomorrow!

Welcome! We’ve set up this site so that we can communicate thoughts about our vision for a new church plant, and so that interested people can communicate with us and each other their thoughts and visions as well.  We hope you’ll join the conversation!

A good place to start is the “About Us” page, followed by “Values & Mission.”

Eventually this church plant will have a name and it’s own great website.  But for now we hope this blog will do.  Please feel free to ask questions, make comments, observations, and to add your own ideas. You are welcome here!

Josh and Karlene