Parents
Children
Our Vision for Children
As with everything we do at Moorlands, the Bible is at the very heart of our children’s ministry. It is a great privilege to have families and children in our church and it is a joy to serve and pray for them. Our aim is that children might be taught and built up in God’s word, discipled and equipped as part of the church family, and that by God’s grace they may ‘grow up into him...that is Christ’ (Ephesians 4:15).
The Bible lays upon Christian parents the responsibility under God for bringing up their children in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). Church-based children’s ministry primarily aims to reinforce and strengthen parents’ teaching of their own children, not to replace it. For that reason we encourage parents to actively use our children’s programme as a welcome extension to their own teaching at home.
In addition, the church is the extended family of all its members, with the mutual responsibility to encourage and support each other in the Christian life. To this end we seek to do all we can to nurture children in the word of God, to help them to integrate into church life, and to welcome, support and teach children from families who are not part of our church.
Grub Groups
Grub Groups (Growing Up In The Bible) seek both to support parents by teaching children about Jesus and to help children love sundays by providing good fun Bible teaching times.
Grub Groups meet during part of our regular Sunday morning church meetings. They provide a teaching programme across three age groups: Baby Grubs (0-3 year-olds), Preschool - Year 3 and Years 4-6.
Our great desire is to make sure that the Bible is well taught to every age group that is part of our church. This means that it will be:
- taught by godly and well-trained leaders
- taught at an age appropriate level
- taught in an environment that is both conducive to learning and enjoyable
Our hope and prayer for our children is that they will be following Christ and we want to do everything we can for them as a church to see them grow in spiritual maturity. This can only happen when they themselves are regularly and seriously engaged with God’s word.
This means that we will be careful to avoid some of the common alternatives to children’s and youth ministry which are not driven by the Bible, but by entertainment or youth culture, or those which tend to separate children from the church family, rather than integrate them into it. If we want fruit that will last we need to actively disciple our children and help them to grow up in the Bible.
In addition, just as with our adult ‘Real Food’ groups, Grub Groups aim to provide children with a supportive Christian peer group and opportunities to invite non-Christian friends to hear the good news of Jesus. Each term every Grub Group has a social.
Children and Church
We passionately believe that children are not just ‘the church of tomorrow’ but are also the church of today. Therefore our desire is for them to learn to love meeting with God’s people and for them to become integrated into the church family as much as possible.
There is much that parents can do here. Our attitude to church will rub off on our children and one of the most valuable legacies we can give to our children is a godly love for other Christians and a lifetime commitment to church. As parents we don’t just want children to feel part of church - we want church to be the highlight of their week.
This is re-enforced by the fact that children of all ages stay in for the first part of the Sunday meeting. Not only does this help them to get used to meeting together around God’s word, but seeing their parents’ and others’ example of listening to God’s word, praying, confessing their sin, singing and enjoying meeting with God’s people has a powerful effect on them.
At some point children must make the transition from Sunday Grub Groups to joining the adults in church for the whole meeting. And so we want to prepare children for this time. For this reason all children stay in for a whole meeting once a term, to listen to the adult Bible teaching. This will prepare the children both for the next stage and to make the adjustment to the adult meetings when they and their parents are ready.
Young People
Our Vision for Young People
As with everything we do at Moorlands, the Bible is at the very heart of our young people’s ministry. It is a great privilege to have families and young people in our church and it is a joy to serve and pray for them. Our aim is that young people might be taught and built up in God’s word, rooted in Christ and strengthened to keep Christ Jesus as Lord.
In our young people’s programme we seek to support parents in their responsibility under God for bringing up their young people in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). We encourage parents to consider our young people’s programme as an extension to their own teaching at home. We seek to do all we can to nurture young people in the word of God, to help them to integrate into church life, and to welcome, support and teach young people from families who are not part of our church.
To this end we centre our youth programme on teaching the truths of the Bible clearly and applying it to the lives of our young people. Our youth leaders strive to be godly and receive ongoing training to explain God’s word in an accessible and enjoyable way. They strive to encourage the young people in word and action to serve Jesus as their Lord. We pray that our young people will grow up in our church family and that they might be equipped for a lifetime of serving and living for Christ.
Real Food Micro
Real Food Micro is our programme for school years 7-9. We aim to enable our young people to live for Jesus and to provide a place for them to invite their friends to hear the gospel in a friendly environment.
On Wednesdays after school at 3:30pm we all meet together at the Dumbarton Road Building for an hour and half of toast, hot chocolate, crazy games and Real Food - some fun time studying the Bible together. We also have a few socials each term. Micro is an easy place for our young people to bring friends to hear something of the good news about Jesus every week and each term we have one specifically evangelistic event to help encourage our young people as they invite their friends.
Child Protection
We operate all our activities in accordance with our rigorous Child Protection Policy and everyone involved in young people’s ministry is screened via the Criminal Records Bureau. A copy of the Child Protection policy is available here.
