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Children’s Ministries
Do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. —Ephesians 6:4
Our Philosophy of Education for Children
Here at OFRBC we have made significant changes in our approach to
ministering to children in the past several years.
- We recognize and
promote the parent's role in the spiritual training and leadership
of their children.
- The children are with their parents during the first half of the Sunday morning worship service, participating and observing their parents worshipping. [Learn more]
- The parents are encouraged to teach their children basic Biblical truths at home, using a study guide in question and answer format.
- The same study guide is used during the pastor's time with the children in the morning service, to reinforce what is being taught at home.
- Each Sunday the same study question is used in Sunday School, the children's bulletin, the pastor's time and the children's church, in an attempt to reinforce the material and provide continuity through out the morning.
- Our Sunday School classes cover the entire Bible through
Bible stories.
- Preschool covers the Old Testament
- K5-6th grade covers the New Testament
- Our children's church time uses a curriculum from
Bethlehem
Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota (John Piper's church).
- This school year we covered the attributes of God, and a new study will begin with the school year.
- During the summer, we are teaching K5-6th grade how to use the Bible—learning to find verses in the Bible, to understand how it is organized, etc.
With this in mind, we have taken a different approach to Vacation Bible School this year. As we saw children memorize questions and answers from the discipleship study guide, we realized that they were getting a very solid Biblical foundation that they will remember into adulthood.
The study guide covers these topics.
Our children are growing up in a world where these basic topics are out in the media daily. They are relevant to the discussions and issues related to evolution, challenges to the deity of Christ, and how to view Christianity in a world where we are challenged to consider that all religions have their place and are of equal value.
Considering these things, has given us great passion for our approach to VBS. Understanding that it will be an outreach event, there could easily be children who have little background in the Bible, and for whom Biblical training is sporadic and incomplete. At the very least, all educated persons should know basically what the Bible teaches, if only to be able to discuss and consider current relevant issues intelligently. So, rather than teach a series of four or five isolated Bible stories, we are taking more of a survey approach—a walk through the Bible in four evenings couched in a beach theme that the children will enjoy.
- We will use flannel graph and many visuals to make the teaching easy to understand.
- We are writing our own material, incorporating the study guide questions and using some resources from CEF and the Betty Lukens guide for flannel graph.
- Evenings one and two are based on the Old Testament, and three and four on the New Testament.
- The lessons answer these basic questions.
- Who made me?
- What is God like?
- Who is Jesus?
- Why did Jesus have to die?
- The children will be challenged to memorize a Bible verse for each day, relevant to the question of the day.
In all this, we intend to build on our beach theme each year as we continue to offer Vacation Bible School on a yearly basis once again.
If you would like to use your gifts in the children’s ministry, there is definitely a place for you. For more info: Contact Us
