Children's Ministry

"Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong; rather, it is telling the difference between right and almost right."

- C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

What a great thought. This is why we should spend so much time and energy teaching our children! I pray that our kids will be so saturated with truth that they will be equipped to tell the difference between right and almost right.

"Every member of the covenant community ought to feel every hour of the day that, next to making his/her own calling and election sure, nurturing the next generation is the end for which he/she is kept alive by God. This is our task on earth! Nothing is more important. What a church's covenant children become is what that covenant community will become."

- Louis Berkof

CHILDREN’S MINISTRY

Our Apologetic for a Children's Ministry -

Midway Church has a Children's Ministry because we put a high priority on our responsibility to disciple our covenant children. We believe that our children are entrusted to their families and to the church where God calls their families to worship and serve Him.

God tells the covenant community to "tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and His might, and the wonders that He has done" (Psalm 78:4).

Jesus entrusted the ministry of discipleship to the church when He commissioned His church to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20).

When children are baptized church members take a covenant vow to "undertake the responsibility of assisting the parents in the Christian nurture of this child."

Our prayer is that our children will know Christ and have a growing affection for and commitment to His church, the covenant community, and that they will have a passion to extend His Kingship over all the earth.

Our Approach to Children's Ministry -

We teach our children from a covenant perspective because we want them to have the experience of discovering Jesus on every page of Scripture. When our children see Jesus in all of Scripture, they will gradually see the covenantal framework of Scripture and of life. They will begin to see that our relationship with God is because of His grace in Christ. We teach our children that God bound Himself to His people in a covenant of grace and that His relationship with us is to be mirrored in our relationships with one another. A covenantal perspective teaches our children that their purpose is God's glory and their authority is His Word. It gives our children the foundation for a robust faith and life. It fortifies them with a comprehensive biblical worldview.

We teach God's Word in the context of relationships with redeemed teachers who demonstrate the reality of God's love. The Children's Ministry is one component of the entire Christian education ministry of our church. Our objective is not self-fulfillment. The goal of Christian education is Christocentric. The goal is for our children to trust God and keep His commands.

He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments (Psalm 78:5-7).

Every program and event is designed to work together to help us accomplish this goal. Our prayer is that our children will learn not only individual Bible stories, but that they will begin to see the over-arching story of Scripture so that they will learn to think biblically and live covenantally.

Weekly Discipleship -

Sunday School: This is the foundational teaching time with our children. We use Great Commission Publications curricula which is written from a Reformed and covenantal perspective.

Children's Church: This ministry is for Pre-K and Kindergarten children. The instruction is designed to prepare them to understand and participate in worship.

Sunday Night: These are topical and seasonal studies to supplement our Sunday School ministry. For example, in October we have a missions emphasis to coincide with our church missions conference and studies on the Reformation to coincide with Reformation Day. We study topics such as the armor of God, creation, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the Five Points of Calvinism

Wednesday Night: The emphasis of this program is Scripture and catechism memorization and building community. We follow a year cycled program which includes singing, instruction, small group time, recitation of memory work, and recreation.

Annual Ministries:
Reformation Party
Upward Basketball
Vacation Bible School
July Terrific Tuesdays
Summer Camps

Summer F.U.N. Week

The Midway Children's Ministry is coordinated by a Director of Children's Ministry and is staffed by a host of volunteers who are committed to showing the children Jesus in His Word. Their love for Jesus overflows in their love for the children. Just as Paul called Timothy and Titus his true sons, these volunteers think of our children as their sons and daughters in the faith.

... a little about Children’s Church

The purpose of Children’s Church is to prepare our children for adult worship. This children's service is designed to mirror the adult services at8:30 and 11:00 am. The goal is to prepare the children for the time when they graduate and begin attending worship with the family.

The focus is a deeper study into the material studied during the Sunday school time. Focusing on one central theme for the entire morning will help the kids learn the wonderful lessons that God has given us. The 8:30 and 11:00 Children’s Church program will be dismissed before the preaching to the Kid’s Sanctuary. After the 8:30 service, the children will be taken downstairs to Sunday School. If you do not attend Sunday School and the service runs past 9:30, you will need to pick your child up downstairs in the Sunday School class. After the 11:00 service, children can be picked up in the Kid’s Sanctuary as usual.