Ministry Vision: Redemption Kids
In order to accomplish our mission of “glorifying God through the fulfillment of
the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment”, Redemption Bible
Chapel St. Thomas is committed to ensuring that people of all ages receive and are
blessed by Purposeful Discipleship (one of our 6 key attributes). While it is our firm
conviction that a child’s primary disciplers are his or her parents, we believe that the
church also has a key role to play in supporting, supplementing, and resourcing our
parents’ efforts to disciple their children. As a result, Redemption Kids strives to
partner with parents in establishing a foundation of biblical truth, Christian habits,
Christ-centred relationships, and a Great-Commission mindset in each child.
Redemption St. Thomas’ elders have prayerfully come to a full consensus on the
essential form and function we believe the Lord wants our Kids Ministry to have going
forward. Our vision for Kids Ministry is as follows:
• Passionately guided by and aiming to fulfill the church’s mission, vision, and key
attributes
• A Sunday-morning Redemption Kids “service” custom-made for the discipleship
of our church’s children in light of our mission, vision, key attributes, and the other
particulars of the vision for Kids Ministry outlined here
• Intentional investment in discipling and resourcing parents so that they can better
disciple their children
• Connecting the parents of our Kids Ministry kids with one another so that they can
mutually support, encourage, edify, and correct one another as they strive to
disciple their children
• A curriculum and/or teaching plan that ensures children learn the biblical storyline,
what the gospel is, God’s attributes, their identity and purpose in God’s universe,
and the core doctrines of the Christian faith (note: this list is meant as a minimum
standard for a child’s time in Kids Ministry)
• Regular inclusion of all school-aged children in the main worship service
(somewhere in the once-a-month or once-every-other-month range)
• Children joining the rest of the church for baptism services (strongly preferred), and
communion services (preferred)
• Promoting a church culture where all adults welcome, value, encourage, and invite
children into the broader life and mission of the church
• All children regularly praying out loud with and for others
• Children participating in the missional activities of the church wherever they can
• All children regularly discussing spiritual things with adults and with one another
• Facilitating the establishment of a loving, personal, role-model relationship with at
least one Christian adult in the church for each child (other than their parents)
• Empowering parents to move their children from Kids Ministry into the main
service if they think they’re ready before the end of our Kids Ministry programming
(Grade 5), and planning out Purposeful Discipleship in Kids Ministry with this
“flexible exit” in mind
We openly acknowledge that the vision outlined above goes well beyond what
is possible in the short-term with a Director hired to work 1 day a week, but we share
it anyways to cast a comprehensive vision for where we are hoping the Lord will
eventually take this ministry. We fully expect to discuss and decide with the
successful candidate which features will be implemented immediately, and which will
wait until a later date and/or until we are able to hire the Director for additional time
each week.