2016 Ministry Plan
Family Ministry

The mission of our family ministry is to partner with families in raising children to love Jesus and embrace the stories of our faith. As a church, we seek to provide a safe space for parents and children to ask questions and grow as Christians and families.

In 2015, we will began the year with a visioning session for parents and family ministry leaders to determine how we would like to see children and families grow and develop from the time children are born until they move into the youth group. A pedagogy team, made up of church members with backgrounds in early childhood education, has taken the information presented in the visioning session and began to develop a curriculum and learning contract to drive the ministry going forward.

2016 will continue to see the implementation of new curriculum, including revamping the children's worship time to be more age appropriate, and a new class for 3rd through 5th graders. With 2015 being a year of visioning, 2016 will be marked by evaluation and continued implementation of the vision set in place over the previous year. The Children and Family ministry will also seek to incorporate the priorities from the church's overall discernment process.

2016 Goals

I. Growth of Younger Populations:

The Family and Youth ministries will collaborate to host at least three parent's day/night outs at least three hours in length that would be open to the community.
Host at least four pre-school playdates during the summer, with a goal of 8 children in attendance.
Host at least three "field trips" for elementary schoolers with a goal of 10 children in attendance at each.
Convene a summit focused on younger members in order to dream about future ministry possibilities. This will take place early in 2016, with a goal of 30 in attendance and two new groups forming out of this meeting.
Host Easter Egg Hunt in March, with a goal of at least 20 children attending who are not regular members of Broadway.
Host Trunk or Treat style Fall Festival in October as an intergenerational event open to the community, with a goal of at least 30 children from outside the church in attendance.

II. Ministry Outside the Walls of the church:

Convene monthly hands-on mission projects for children and families, with goal of at least five families in participation at each.
At least three of theses projects will be cross-area (youth, older adults, young adults without children, etc.).
At least one of these projects will be with other area churches.

III. Greater Diversity:

Host one mission project with children of our partner African-American churches.
Invite groups from St. Stephen and Burnett Avenue to join our children on passport trip this summer.

IV. Maintaining Traditions and Values:

Emphasis on scripture memorization and Bible fluency, with different goals for each age group set by each Sunday School class.
Continue implementation and evaluation of new Sunday School curriculum to provide Bible centered, age appropriate lessons for each class.
Equip teachers and other ministry leaders with resources to teach effectively, providing age-appropriate teaching tools.
Host a family oriented Vacation Bible School with a heavy missions emphasis. Goal will be the have at least 15 families participate
Take a group of at least three 3rd-5th graders to PASSPORTkids! summer camp to help the children become closer to God and other children their age.
Host Children's Sabbath during worship in October to give children opportunity to lead in worship.
Host Discipleship Class for 3rd through 5th graders in the spring to help the children learn how grow closer to Jesus and live a more Christian lifestyle as they begin to make their own choices.
Provide tangible resources at least once a quarter for parents to continue spiritual education at home.

In addition to these overarching goals, we seek to nurture children and family's spiritual development through these ongoing activities and goals associated with each:

I. Sunday School:

Increase regular attendance by 5%.
Sunday School teachers to reach out to children by postcard when they have missed three or more Sundays in a row and on birthdays.
Redecorate elementary Sunday School area to make area more inviting and engaging.

II. Children's Worship:

Develop and implement curriculum to replace Godly Play for pre-schoolers.
Develop and implement curriculum to replace Children's Worship for elementary schoolers.
During the summer, when children are combined, Children's Worship will be an abbreviated worship service to help all children learn the elements of worship.
Increase number of volunteers for worship care so that parents can sit together more often during worship.

III. Children's Choir:

Goals and updates for Children's Choir can be found in the music and worship ministry plan.