We believe that it is critical for children to grow up understanding that their life is a part of a bigger story – God’s story – the story we find, from beginning to end, in the Bible. We will therefore invest in teaching our children the truth of that big story, how little stories in the Bible fit into, and point to, the big story and in helping each child to find their own place in the big story.

In finding their own place in the big story we seek to help our children understand that it is firstly about who they are, not about what they do. We will therefore invest in teaching our children about who God says they are, and about what it is to have a relationship with the one who:

• made them;
• came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to make himself known;
• in Jesus, died and rose again to overcome the sin that separates us from Him;
• watches over them;
• speaks;
• hears them; and
• is making everything new.

We will pass on to our children the truth that there is nothing that they can do to earn that relationship – it is a gift of grace - but that it is the most important relationship to invest in each day.

We therefore believe that it is the primary role of parents/carers to help, and model, that everyday investment in relationship with God, and to model being involved in the life of the church. Raising children is one aspect of the great commission – to raise followers of Jesus Christ. We will therefore invest in supporting and equipping those who have been given the responsibility to grow and nurture children - as biological parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, grandparents and carers - to play their part in that great commission.

However, we also believe that the whole church family has a significant role to play alongside them.  We believe that the church is intended by God to be a community of believers who encourage one another, help one another to grow as followers of Jesus, share with each other and make Jesus known in the world. It is from that belief that we call our Sunday morning children’s ministry ‘Junior Church’.  We want to invest in giving our children a solid biblical foundation for life, but also for them to grow up learning what it is to be part of church community. We believe that one way to do that is to grow their own community as they meet together.