Watch this video with Elisa Booker, Pastor for Children and Families.
What is one thing you wish you knew about God as a kid? Think about that for a moment. There are so many ways the church family can love and equip each child to know the big story of God!
Here at Trinity Grace, we seek to guide the kids of our church family into a relationship with Christ, fully accepted and created in the image of God. But we can’t do that alone! We are calling on every adult at Trinity Grace to join us in shaping these young minds and hearts through volunteering, discipleship, and prayer.
Explore below to learn about our vision for TGC Kids, our children’s ministry, and learn how you can get involved this year.
Our Vision for TGC Kids
In the video, Elisa Booker explains the vision of TGC Kids and an invitation for all of us. Simply put, our vision is the same that we hope for everyone in our church family: that we would live full lives of Presence, Formation, and Love. We believe kids are able to have a full spiritual life, and we want to be sure to meet them where they are. We want them to know they are seen, known, and loved.
Presence
Here’s the truth friends: God Loves us and God is with us. You are seen, known, and loved by him. Our goal is to teach our kids to notice His presence in their lives and rest in it. Because when we are present, we can experience His presence. We want every child to feel grounded in the moment and stay connected to God’s love.Formation
An important aspect of formation in a kid’s life is knowing that church is a place for them and will always be a place for them. We want them to learn the language of discipleship (words like grace and mercy, and the nature of God’s kingdom). We want them to understand the tools that they can use to live a full life with Christ (tools like prayer, rest, worship, community, and many others). So formation is an opportunity for all of us to get curious together. We want kids to ask ALL the questions!Love
Jesus makes it very clear that love is the most important spiritual pillar. We want to build a strong foundation for love. We see it in First John: Because God first loved us, we love others. And the greatest commandment in the Gospel of Mark: the way we say it in TGC Kids is… love God and love others. Practically, God has created each one of us in his image to reflect his love in special ways to others and to do good things. We want every child to know they can start doing this today!
How can our vision become a reality?
What does all of this mean — practically — right now?
Sunday gatherings are not the penultimate method of growth in our spiritual lives. And the same goes for kids. The primary way kids will grow to know God’s love and follow the way of Jesus is through the influence of their parents. We believe that parents are the primary disciple-makers for the children of our church.
What are Sundays for?
On Sundays, we have lots of important opportunities to support each family and child. Kids will…
Know they have a place for them at church.
Hear part of God’s story.
Be seen, known, and loved by the church family.
Have fun!
What are the challenges we face on Sundays?
We know it’s a big uphill battle to make our children’s ministry become a reality every single week.
We are all healing, both in our own individual mental health journeys and as a community processing our way through a pandemic.
We have a limited capacity to volunteer our time due to work and home pressures.
We operate in an ever-changing environment. We are a “mobile church” without a 24-7 venue; and we are based in a city that is constantly in flux where people come and go for work and personal reasons.
We only have one worship service on Sundays (at the same time as our kids programming) and it’s important for everyone to have the opportunity to participate in that gathering regularly.
So, here’s how we can meet these challenges:
Realistic Expectations
Simplify Our Structure
Taking Turns
Let’s break down each of those three ideas…
Setting Realistic Expectations
Consider for a moment whether you are a “vision carrier” or a “vision supporter.” Here’s what those terms mean:
Vision Carrier: volunteering on Sundays, teaching, and discipling.
Vision Supporter: interceding in prayer, and advocating for TGC Kids.
You can be either (there’s no correct answer) and it’s important to know what season you are in (it can change over time). Our ministry team is committed to setting realistic expectations for vision carriers and vision supporters in the following ways:
Equipping and Training
We support you to learn how we create a welcoming environment for kids AND hold realistic expectations for ourselves.Efficient Setup and Teardown
We provide a well-organized plan for Sundays to make the most of your time with the kids without draining all your energy in the setup and teardown of the venue.Serving Schedule
We use a once-a-month volunteer schedule so your household commitment is reasonable and maximizes the number of weeks you can participate in the worship service.
Simplify Our Structure
Let’s not overcomplicate things! We can still create a fun, warm, and nurturing environment for kids while keeping things simpler.
For starters, we have simplified our class structure for the 2021-22 school year:
Toddlers (1-2 years old)
Kindies (3-5 years old)
Elementary (Grades 1-5)
And our curriculum is getting streamlined in several ways:
Every class will use a select number of activities that are approachable, easy-to-manage, not messy, and fun.
Our weekly TGC Kids episodes with story and worship will do the heavy lifting to introduce themes, new concepts, life applications, and key questions in an age-specific context.
Our volunteer team will be focused on the most valuable part of the time in the classroom: intentional connection with each child.
Taking Turns
It’s so important that we take time to worship together with other grownups in the Sunday gathering. So we want to offer that to our volunteer team in the most equitable way possible.
We are asking each family to commit to serving once a month. Here’s how that will work:
You have multiple ways you can serve: teaching and discipling in the classroom, managing the welcome desk (check-ins), or training to become a vision carrier leader alongside Elisa Booker.
Two-parent households are welcome to share the load. For example, one parent can serve each month (on behalf of the household), or each parent can rotate every other month.
Single-parent households are welcome to serve monthly or choose to become a substitute teacher.
Households that serve on other volunteer teams at TGC (worship, operations, production, hospitality) can also opt to become a substitute teacher.
When you sign-up to volunteer, we will followup with you to confirm your serving schedule. You will also participate in a short training session (via Zoom). Please note: at this time, all team members are required to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 to protect our children that are not yet inoculated.
Join us in Prayer
Prayer is the most important thing we can do for TGC Kids. We build our entire Sunday experience around prayer. Every week, we begin by interceding for each other and everyone in our gathering. And we incorporate prayer time into every classroom so each child can experience the presence of God.
You’re invited to join our TGC Prayer Cue list with regular prompts for you and your household, and specific prayer requests for our ministry.
Text KIDS to (978) 254-7522 to join.
Looking beyond Sundays
You matter the most! We want to create a rich culture of speaking encouragement and life over each other. We want to bless the parents of our church family as they do the work of discipleship for their kids. And we want to create a shared family language that we can use everyday.
Remember that there is so much grace in parenting (just like in all of your life journey) and that God is always working in your past, present, and future. Thanks for joining your faith as we serve TGC Kids together.
