RiverKids

Our Vision

The mission of the River includes our smallest members because we believe that Jesus' wonderful promise of giving "life in all its fullness" applies not just to adults -- but also to kids! RiverKids strives to create a fun and safe space for children to get to know God and themselves better as well as develop healthy relationships with other kids. Our hope is to plant a seed of faith that will grow with children and stay relevant for them as they mature. We do this by providing space for them to experience and learn about God in fun and engaging ways

Key Elements of RiverKids include:

• Interactive Story time: We tell stories from the Bible in ways that engage kids on multiple levels and open up their imagination. Storytellers often use beautiful visual aids that can help create experiential learning. Children love the story time and learn a lot that can actually help them in their lives. At the same time, the children see that there is more that the stories tell than they can understand right now. The bible remains exciting for them.

 

• Questions: We welcome and encourage questions from children. Children are invited to share their thoughts and feelings about the stories. We value the process that kids go through to wrestle with important matters of faith so we don't rush to provide pat answers. Rather, we hope to give kids more 'perspectives' than 'answers'. Kids tend to grow out of answers quickly, but are able to use perspectives to deal with deeper questions in their lives as they grow.

 

• Conversational prayer: We regularly open time for kids to talk to God as well as hear back from Him. Our hope is that God will become their Friend -- a Friend who will not only listen with love and concern but who can also speak into their lives in a real way. As they practice conversational prayer in our group settings, children can learn from their teachers and each other to get more comfortable communicating with God.

 

River Family eNewsletter

• Talking to kids about conversational prayer -- Tips on teaching children how to hear from God
• Journey Towards God... with Our Children -- Reflections on our walk of faith as parents
• When Kids ask tough questions about God -- Tips on helping kids navigate difficult questions even as we ourselves wrestle with them

 

RiverKids Advent 2011 Journal here

 

RiverKids Nativity Set 2011 here

 

Listen to Pastor Caroline Park's talk about the philosophy of RiverKids here...

 

Interested in volunteering with Riverkids?  Click here.