Overview
All children are encouraged to participate in Sunday worship, but we do offer childcare for children age 5 and under, at the parents’ discretion.
Check In & Check Out
Check-in opens at 9:45am just outside the downstairs Minneapolis Room. Limited spots are available on a first-come first-served basis based upon our volunteer to child ratio.
Parents should aim to pick their children up from childcare immediately following the close of the worship gathering.
Program
Ages 3-5 will play with toys, gather for Bible time, draw, read, and play some more.
Ages 0-3 will do much of the same, though the Bible time is more informal as volunteers read to children one-on-one or in small groups.
Bathrooms
Parents will receive a text message if their child needs a diaper change or needs to go to the bathroom.
If a parent indicates that their child can go to the bathroom on their own, two of our volunteers will walk that child to the bathroom, but not go in with them.
Volunteers
Only members of our church who’ve (1) passed a background check, (2) completed MinistrySafe training, and (3) passed our Personal Conduct Questionnaire can serve in childcare.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Children begin their time playing with toys, reading books, or drawing. Partway through, toys are picked up and snacks are handed out while a volunteer leads the Bible story, catechism question, and prayer time.
-
Our usual snack is half a graham cracker. We also have Pamela’s gluten-free honey grahams.
-
We use Hydrogen Peroxide spray after every session.
Questions about childcare?
Need more details?
We love it when children join in on Sunday morning worship.
It blesses us all to hear the voices of little children raised in song to their big God, and serves as a weekly reminder of our own need to remain ever-childlike before him (Matthew 18:3-4). Children, in this way, serve our church as we see and hear them throughout our time gathered in worship.
We also believe that children benefit immensely from joining the church in worship. Sure, they may not understand all that’s going on; they may get antsy, or just be bored.
But they’ll also get to sing, confess their sins, hear the preaching of God’s word, and receive the Great Commission, all alongside the gathered people of God — many of whom have known and loved the Lord for longer than they’ve been alive! For more on this, read John Piper’s helpful article.
Making it easier
One way we’ve sought to make it easier for children to join us in worship is by offering Sunday Kids Packets. These four-page packets are available with crayons on the welcome tables and feature coloring options, fill-in-the-blank memory verses, word-find puzzles, and more.
Some kids go through multiple packets each Sunday. Others bring their own coloring books, quiet fidgets, snacks, or picture books.
In addition to these in-sanctuary options, we keep our upstairs Summit Room available for children who need to get up and move around a bit during the service. In the Summit Room, you’ll find more coloring options, books, toys, and a livestream video of the service.
It might seem like a lot to juggle on a Sunday, but we believe that it’s worth the effort.