What to Expect on Sundays for Kids

We love kids. Because of this, we know how important it is for the church to provide a safe and fun place for them during worship. We have faithful followers of Jesus teaching our kids lessons from a Gospel-centered curriculum and Kids Team volunteers praying for/with every child that comes through our doors.

We currently have five different rooms for the Rock Hill Kids ministry:

• Infants (Blue Room): Birth – 24 Months
• Toddlers (Green Room): 2 – 3 Years
• Preschool (Yellow Room): 3 – 5 Years
• Lower Elementary (Purple Room): Kindergarten – 2nd Grade
• Upper Elementary (Orange Room): 3rd – 5th Grade

Sunday Morning Check-In and Check-Out Process

We ask that every Sunday morning (before the service, if possible) you check in your children at the Rock Hill Kids check-in desk. The check-in volunteer will ask for your children’s names and ages and then hand you check-in labels to fill out and place on your child. (Please be sure to write your phone number next to your name in case we need to contact you during the service.) Please place the larger of the two labels on the child and keep the section with the security code with you. You will need that in order to pick up your child at the end of the service.

In addition to handing you labels, the check-in volunteer will ask you if you would like to fill out a family directory form. This enables us to enter your information into our electronic church database that we use for our electronic check-in system. The electronic check-in system helps speed up the check-in process for our members and regular attenders. You do not need to fill out the family directory form, but it is helpful from an administrative standpoint if you plan on joining us again (which we would love!). Once a family directory form has been filled out, it is entered into the electronic church database by a staff member during the following week, so that your information is in the system for the following Sunday. At that point, when you check-in, the volunteer will only need to ask for your children’s names in order to print labels that include the children’s names, their security codes, their rooms, and special instructions/allergy information.

After checking your children in to Rock Hill Kids, the check-in volunteer (or another Kids Team volunteer) will bring you and your children to their classrooms and introduce you to their teachers.

Infants and toddlers can be dropped off in their rooms as early as fifteen minutes before the service begins. Kids who are in Preschool-5^th Grade participate in the first part of the service with you. They will be dismissed to their teacher (who will be holding up their room signs at the back of the sanctuary) right before the fellowship break. The teachers will bring them downstairs to their rooms and be responsible for them for the rest of the service.

After the service, please head downstairs to pick up your child. Remember that you will need the matching label that was given to you by the check-in volunteer before the Kids Team volunteer will release your kids.

Please note that each of our Kids Team volunteers has been screened with a background check and been approved to volunteer by a church elder or staff member. There are always at least two adults in the Infants and Toddlers Rooms and all rooms either have a window or half-door to ensure safety. We go to these measures so that you may know that your kids are in good hands when they come to Rock Hill.

Structure and Curriculum

Every Sunday, we incorporate time for worship, the story of the day, snack, Scripture memory (one passage per month), prayer, and crafts and/or games.

All our classes are taught from the The Gospel Project for Kids curriculum from LifeWay. Each of these age groups focuses on the same story and Scripture memory passage so that brothers and sisters in different classes are still learning the same content. You can find out more about this curriculum by visiting www.gospelproject.com/kids.

Philosophy of Ministry

The Bible teaches us that children are not an inconvenience, but a blessing and a legacy. They are a valuable part of the church of Jesus Christ and we consider it a great privilege to partner with you in training them to become followers of Jesus. We choose our language very carefully when we say that we desire to partner with you.

In the Hebrew, Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is called the Shema. It is what every good Hebrew child would have had to memorize at a young age. In it is the greatest commandment, to love the Lord your God with your all your heart, soul, and might.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

As we see in this text, the primary responsibility of instructing children in the law of God fell to the parents. They were to systematically (planned times) and spontaneously teach their kids what it meant to love God and obey His commandments. We believe that this responsibility is still one of the great joys and challenges of being a parent and that to abdicate your primary responsibility to the church is detrimental to your life and joy as well as your child’s. The greatest gift you can give to your child in spiritual instruction is to be growing in your own walk with Jesus Christ. As you model this in everyday life, and instruct them at key times (dinner time, bedtime, or a special time of family devotions), your children will pick up the story of the Bible and what it means to follow Jesus. In light of this, we are committed to coming alongside of you, but not replacing you. This means that while we have some kid’s programming, our main goal is to empower you to disciple and instruct your children.