Growing in Grace
You’ve likely heard the old proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” While we believe the responsibility of raising and discipling children in the gospel is the responsibility of Christian parents, we also value the role of the church family in teaching the story of redemption and modeling the life of kingdom citizens.
We recognize that God’s Spirit must open the eyes and hearts of our youth, but we also believe that it is through God’s word that He brings life. So it is in the planting and watering of the gospel seed that we seek to be servants through which God grants belief (1 Corinthians 3.5-9); and it is in the reiteration of Christ’s atoning work that childlike faith blossoms and matures, so that our purpose to present believers mature in Christ can ring true for young and old alike.
Through CornerstoneKIDS many parents within our church family get the opportunity to teach and apply gospel truths to our children. This allows parents to hone their understanding and communication of the redemption story, and it allows the children opportunity to build relationships with other parents, further uniting our church family. Through CornerstoneKIDS we also hope to encourage our many young families in the building of gospel-centered homes.
How does this work itself out on a Sunday morning? Ages 2-12* spend the Sunday School hour in classes learning the story of redemption, memorizing Scripture, singing songs, and other age-appropriate activities. During our corporate worship, this age group spends the first 15-20 minutes gathered with the church body. We believe it's important for individual families - and our church family as a whole - to experience worship together and raise up the younger generation to understand our worship traditions. They are then dismissed to their own time together, where our ministry teams (parents!) unpack the gospel for them through songs, prayer, art, and Bible lessons.
*We currently use the teaching tools of Desiring God. Classes are broken up into 2-3, 4-7 and 8-12 year olds.
