Sunday School | Jr. Church | Children's Choir | Nursery

Junior Church

During our regular worship service, the children (ages 4-9) meet for Junior Church. They enjoy a lesson from God’s Word by our dedicated teachers and also have crafts and songs.

Matthew 19:14
But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

The Bible continually instructs God’s people to remember His laws, His precepts, His commands.  Deuteronomy 6 connects this with the necessity to diligently teach Biblical truths to our children. Moses even includes a couple promises with this command. He says that if the Israelites would do this faithfully their time in the land would be prolonged and that they would be increased in a mighty way.  This was not just important for God’s people entering the Promised Land. It is just as important for our generation.

At College Park we take the systematic instruction of our children as being extremely important. The children sitting in next Sunday’s Junior Church service will be the pastors, the Sunday school teachers, the Christian parents, the missionaries, and the servants of the decades to come.  They will lead people to Christ.  They will teach the next generation how to pray, how to praise, and how to love.  It is essential that children are encouraged to learn the deep theological truths found both in God’s Word and in the texts of traditional sacred hymns from a young age.

Our church service begins for the children in much the same way as it does for the adults.  The children sing hymns of praise to the Lord from the same hymnals from which their parents sing.  They learn three hymns per month, singing the same three hymns every Sunday of a given month.  At the end of the month they vote on their favorite and then proudly sing it for the congregation during the evening service.

During lesson time, the children are split into two age groups.  The children aged 3-5 learn basic Bible stories and application.  As the children reach elementary age, they move into the 6-9 age group.  Here they learn to think more deeply about the stories they learned at a younger age, and to examine how each one fits into God’s Great Rescue Plan- the redemption of all mankind.   They will start to see the characters as real people, living real lives, in real houses with real families just as they themselves are.  At the same time, the children will look into the Scriptures to learn great truths about God’s character and the doctrines of His church.  They are entrusted with the theology of the Trinity, sin, salvation, sanctification, and the church on a level that they can understand and begin to meditate upon.

Junior Church is concluded with an activity time consisting of a craft or game to further illustrate the day’s lesson.  At the end of the hour, the children will have enjoyed praising the Lord, learning more about His character and His people, expounding their vocabulary with words like “theophany” and “systematic theology,” and using their creativity to illustrate their new knowledge.  They leave excited about what they’ve learned, and ready to tell others about Jesus.

* Among other resources, many of the lessons are derived from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd Jones and Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God by Bruce Ware. On special days, they will hear lessons about great missionaries from throughout church history using the Christian Heroes series produced by YWAM Publishing.