Text Box: Mountain View Kids’ Ministry Text Box: A Letter to Families about Intentional Family Worship Services Text Box: The rewards of the whole church being able to express worship with one heart and voice are well worth persevering for!  Just as an earthly father takes delight in his family eating at the same table, imagine how our heavenly Father feels when  he sees all his children, young and old, joining together as one in Family Worship!  Where there is unity, God commands the blessing!

Text Box:   Text Box: Worship is an important part of Children’s Ministry and we are introducing more and more worship opportunities for our children.  Our priorities for Mountain View Kids’ Ministry include partnering with parents and providing opportunities for families to worship together.  When children worship, as a part of the whole congregation, there are benefits. The goals of Intentional Family Worship Services are: To lead the whole congregation into a meaningful corporate worship experience—an environment for all generations to be together in worship, fellowship, and learning; To encourage each person, young and old, to participate meaningfully and reverently in worship; To train children to learn important spiritual disciplines during the service and to learn the meaning of worship; To enable the congregation to experience a corporate expression of worship, so that each member, particularly the child, will enjoy a sense of belonging to the gathered people of God; and To provide to our volunteer Children’s Church Staff an opportunity to worship as a whole at least one Sunday per month.  

Text Box: Our Plan: We are suggesting that each first Sunday of the month, beginning May 6th, become our “Intentional Family Worship Service”.  Rather than leaving for Children’s Church, our 1st through 6th Graders will remain in services as a part of the congregation.   There will still be separate Children’s Church and Nursery for children ages birth through Preschool and Kindergarten.   we plan to: · Educate children on what worship and the foundations of their faith are during our weekly programming; · Have ushers and everyone make a point of welcoming children during the Intentional Family Worship Service; · Include at least one hymn or song that children can easily sing or learn; · Include children’s concerns during prayer times and/or the sermon; · Design bulletin inserts explaining different aspects or our services, i.e., Communion, Baby Dedications, Prayer, etc, as a tool for parents to lead their children in discovering what we believe and why we believe it; · Encourage kids’ participation as much as possible:  offering, hand out bulletins, assist in welcoming people, read short passages, etc; and

Text Box: Dear Families: Text Box: · Provide opportunities for children to go to the altar for the sole purpose of praying to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior.   What You Can Do: · Tell children why it is important for them to attend worship services; · Get children to visit the bathroom before they go to the Sanctuary; · Ask children to sit with their family during the Intentional Family Worship Services.  Families may want to “adopt” children who may be visiting without their family; · Encourage children to listen for something in the service to ask you a question about afterwards; · Share a hymnal or point out the screen for the child during music; · Ask children to actively participate in worship, music, prayer, etc.; · Help the child locate the Scripture reading in their Bible; · Provide us with your input and suggestions; and · Save this brochure to explain Intentional Family Worship to your child.