Children
In
children ministry, we aim to collaborate with parents in reaching and
teaching kids of all ages about God's love. Our goal is for them to know
Him as their Savior and share His love with others. We aspire to
provide every child with God-centered people, programs, and activities
at our church, nurturing their faith development.
The mission of the Children’s Ministries Department at Slidell is to nurture children into a loving, serving relationship with Jesus.
We want to fulfill our mission by developing the following:
- Grace-oriented ministries,
in which all children will experience the unconditional love of Jesus,
find assurance of acceptance and forgiveness, and make a commitment to
Him and develop their faith.
- Inclusive ministries,
in which the volunteers who minister and the children to whom they
minister will be valued and involved regardless of race, color,
language, gender, age, abilities, or socio-economic circumstances;
- Leadership ministries, in which volunteers are empowered, trained, and equipped for effective ministry to children;
- Service-oriented ministries, in which children are given opportunities for hands-on service to people in their neighborhood, city, or church.
- Safe ministries,
We adopt safeguards to protect children from physical, emotional, and
spiritual abuse. We choose volunteers with high spiritual and moral
backgrounds
- Evangelistic ministries,
in which children who are not enfolded in the church family will be
introduced to the love of Jesus through outreach-programs such as:
Vacation Bible Schools, children Sabbath.
Our Philosophy
Children’s
Ministries is about developing the faith of children ages birth to
fourteen. Children’s Ministries looks at the whole child and seeks to
provide multiple ministries that will lead children to Jesus and
disciple them in their daily walk with Him.
The
Bible makes it very clear that children are very special to God. If you
examine what the Bible says about children, you will notice a great
number of perspectives:
- Children are a gift from God. He gives children to parents as special sign of love and personal fulfillment (Deut. 7:13; Ps. 127:3).
- Children are desirable. From creation, God has instructed us to bear children (Gen. 9:7; Deut. 6:3).
- Children bring joy and blessings to adults. God provides many benefits to parents through parenting their children (Num 5:28; Deut. 28:4,11).
- Children need to be taught how to develop a relation with God.
One of our greatest challenges is to pass on our beliefs and
understanding of God to our children (Exod. 12:26,37; Deut. 6:1-7; Prov.
22:6).
- Children are so valuable to God that He commands us to protect them. Parents are to ensure the spiritual and physical security of their children (1 Sam. 20:42; Ezra 8:21).
- God loves children enough to ensure that they receive discipline. (Prov. 3:11-12; 13:24; 19:18; Eph. 6:4).
- God enjoys the nature and personality of children and asks adults to learn from them.
Scripture identifies attributes such as sincerity, humility,
simplicity, and trusting as qualities found in children, and God
treasures these characteristics (Matt. 18:3; 19:14; Phil. 2:15).