“But Jesus called them to him, saying, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.’”
Jesus teaches us to pay attention to children for two reasons:
They are little image-bearing humans, worthy of dignity and membership in God's kingdom
They are often way better at faith in Jesus than we are.
As adults who want to follow Christ, we need to bring our children to Jesus so we can learn from them. That means kids ministry is vital for both kids and adults.
At Citizens, we prioritize our kids in three ways:
1) On Sundays, children learn and have fun at Citi-Kids.
CitiKids is a children's class offered during the worship service for kids younger than 10-years old. We have a separate group for students fourth through eighth grade. Every Sunday, we strive to lead our kids to Jesus with love, play, and creativity in a safe environment.
Our families have been working through Meeting with Jesus, a one-year daily bible reading plan for kids. While it’s not expected that students have read that week, the lesson is typically taken from one of those stories. Activities are designed to help the story come alive—when learning about the Pharisees’ impossible rule-making, we played Twister; to better understand the Parable of the Soils, we collected good, rocky, thorny, and sandy soil and planted some seeds.
We have a lot of fun and hope your child will join us. Please read our "What Your Child Can Expect" questions so you can prepare your son or daughter to enjoy CitiKids. Feel free to also send us a message to let us know you're coming and if there are special ways we can help your child feel safe and loved.
2) In CITIZENS COMMUNITIES, children are INVITED AND ENGAGED.
At Citizens, our kids are treated like members of our small groups. While children benefit from age-appropriate instruction on Sundays, they also need to experience life and relationship with the wider church family. Kids profit from seeing adults pray, laugh and cry together. At Citizens, kids eat, play and serve alongside adults as much as possible. Including children can be challenging and messy (literally!), but we believe church shouldn't just be something "my parents do while I play."
3) In the home, parents are equipped to "be disciples who make disciples" (of their children).
The most formative influence on a child's potential faith will be the faith of her parents. We can't give our children what we don't have ourselves. They will not believe in grace if we do not parent with grace. At Citizens, we encourage every parent to be an active part of Citizens Communities. In these relationships, parents confess their failures, remember the gospel, and are challenged to hold fast to Christ through the impossible task of parenting. As Mom and Dad grow in Christ, the gospel will be shared and experienced more at home.
Citizens Communities are also the place where parents swap stories and strategies (and parenting fails). We share how we are teaching our children the grammar of faith through the Bible, the New City Catechism, the Lords Prayer, etc. As mentioned above, our Sunday curriculum follows the at-home resource that helps kids begin to develop a Bible reading habit. This can be a great aid to busy families, and helps kids better remember and understand the stories from Sunday.