A few nights ago we had our first official Baby Dedication service for Elevation Church. We’ve had a couple of other dedications as a part of services but this is our first full-blown “Baby Dedication.”Â

The whole idea of baby dedication is a little odd when you first hear of it. I’m sure for most people they get images of Catholic christening ceremonies. That is not what this is.

Baby dedication isn’t even really the right name for the purpose of the service. In truth a baby dedication is more for parents than anyone else.Â

It’s a moment for parents to publicly declare their intention to raise a child up in a family that is pursuing God. It’s not a statement of belief or perfection as parents but an indication of intent.

The trick to these kind of services is to make sure it’s an event worth the time and effort of the families involved while being careful to make the length bearable for the small children included.Â

One of the ways we’ve been able to do this is by saying “no.� We’ve had to say no to some really good ideas. The knee jerk reaction for any specialized service is to produce ideas that don’t fit into a regular worship service. But for a service like this we’ve had to make sure only the great ideas make it through the filter. As a matter of fact, we’ve even said no to some great ideas.

Baby dedication isn’t a time to show off how creative your team is. This is a time to create a personal experience for a family. And there in lies the most difficult task of a service like this. Our goal is to create an experience for multiple families while giving each individual family a feeling as though this night was tailor-made for them. Â

Here’s how we chose to give our families a personal experience.

• Each family was introduced on stage to light a candle.
• A picture of the individual child was displayed on a screen when introduced.
• Families were seated at a table with prayer partners who were people personally selected by each family.
• We included a personal prayer time for families near the end of the service.
• A photographer was on location to take pictures of each family.Â

As our church grows it will become more difficult to provide personal experiences for individuals or families. That’s where the creativity has to flow.

Phillip McCart, Family Pastor

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One of the most overwhelming tasks for me when I first started as a
Children’s Pastor was to figure out what I needed to purchase (and where to
purchase it)! We’ve compiled a basic list below of equipment and supplies
we found helpful to buy before launching our first service. The lists are
broken into three age categories: babies & toddlers, pre-school, and school
age children. I hope this helps you as you begin the process of preparing
for the children.

Click here to download the E-KIDZ SUPPLY/ EQUIPMENT LIST

Heather Bishop - Children’s Pastor

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At Elevation Church, we encourage people to get involved in 4 main ways and we call these the 4G’s: Groups, Giving, Gifts, and Growth.

As a Children’s Pastor, I know that in order for the children in E-Kidz to fully understand the vision of why we exist as a church, they need to be given the opportunity to get involved just like the adults do. I realized that we were offering opportunities in E-kidz for the children to participate in all of the 4G’s except Gifts. Each week, we were putting children in consistent small groups with other kids in the same grade (Groups), letting them give of their resources through collecting an offering (Giving), and encouraging them to invite their friends to church (Growth). We hadn’t really provided any opportunities for children to be using their gifts on a regular basis at Elevation.

A few months ago, we decided to offer an opportunity for any child in grades 3-5 to get involved at Elevation by serving. We wanted the children in E-Kidz to have the opportunity to participate in the exciting move of God that is taking place at our church and to be able to make an impact on the kids and families in the city of Charlotte.

This is how it works: We created a new service team called Kidz ‘N Motion and invited any child in grades 3-5 to participate. We had a brief training meeting at our church office where we met with these children and their parents to describe what the children would be doing. Each child received a special blue t-shirt with a Kidz ‘N Motion logo on it to wear while they serve. The children were given the opportunity to volunteer during one worship service at least 2 times per month to help greet and welcome new families on Sunday mornings. Each child volunteer was trained to stand with the adult greeters at the First Time Guest podium and help new families sign in using our information card. The child volunteer’s goal was to talk to the new visitors and make them feel comfortable and excited about being able to experience E-Kidz for the first time.

After the visitor was checked in, the child volunteer escorts them to their appropriate class. After they have escorted the new child and family, they return to the First Time Guest podium and write the child a friendly postcard that will be sent in the mail the following week. In this way, the children at Elevation have truly begun to feel like they too are a vital part of this movement of seeing people who are “far from God� become filled with life in Christ. In addition, the children in Kidz ‘N Motion are also given other opportunities to serve in Community Outreach Projects throughout Charlotte. These outreach projects are the same ones that our adults are involved with on a regular basis.

It has been so wonderful to see the kids at Elevation feel truly connected to the vision and mission of our church: to see “people far from God filled with life in Christ.�

Heather Bishop, Children’s Pastor

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…and giving a BOLD invitation!

During my first year as a Children’s Pastor, I hesitated to give an invitation and ask children to respond to the gospel. I know that may seem odd, but I honestly think it was because I was paralyzed by fear. You are probably thinking, “Fear? Why would a Children’s Pastor be afraid to give an invitation for kids to accept Christ?�

Honestly, we shared the gospel with children on a pretty regular basis in E-Kidz, but it wasn’t until one year after our church launched that I actually gave an invitation to respond! I was afraid that some of the children might be too young, feared negative parents’ responses, and I worried that not all the kids would make a sincere decision for Christ.

Pastor Furtick and I were talking one day and he really challenged me on this concept. He said, “You know what, Heather, I felt the same way about giving an invitation to people. I worried that people would accept Christ, but that it wouldn’t be sincere.�

Pastor Furtick reminded me of the parable in Matthew 13 about the wheat and the weeds. Both weeds and wheat grew in this farmer’s field, and a servant asked the farmer, “Do you want us to go ahead and pull the weeds up?� The man replied, “No, because while you are pulling up the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.� (verses 28-29) Basically, God revealed the truth that He will sort out the weeds from the wheat, and all I need to do is to be obedient by planting the seed in children’s lives.

On Easter Sunday, April 8th 2007, I was obedient to God and decided to give a powerful invitation to all the children in Kindergarten through 5th grade in E-Kidz for the first time. We used a powerful presentation that I got from Fellowship Church in Dallas, Texas. The script included three live actors, as well as 2 powerful worship songs. I found the script, as well as several small group activities, on creativepastors.com. It was an amazing day! The children were so attentive during the presentation of the gospel, and the Holy Spirit was incredibly present in the room while we shared with the kids. 28 children ended up receiving Christ as their Savior at our Central Campus, and 25 children received Christ at our Union Campus! 54 children gave their lives to Christ that day in E-Kidz, and I was blown away!

So, how about you? What is holding you back from sharing the gospel with the kids in your children’s ministry and giving them a chance to respond? Over 50% of all Christians accepted Christ as their Savior before the age of 18. That blows my mind! 50%! God is all about children receiving Him! “Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.� Matthew 18:5

Heather Bishop - Children’s Pastor

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