Caring for our Children at Mars Hill Bellevue

Your child’s walk with God

At Mars Hill Church Bellevue, the Bible, the Word of God, is the ground and guide for educating our children. By the Spirit, we seek to impart the truth of the whole Bible and encourage children to develop a Biblical mindset and a Christian world view.

We want to encourage children to:

Trust in the promises of God

Recognize their sinful state

Respond in repentance and faith in Jesus

Finally, we seek to help children see the hand of God at work in the world, and to recognize and use their spiritual gifts for the good of the body and the world.

It is our desire to come alongside parents in nurturing the faith of their children. Our responsibility is to model and to teach truth in an attitude of frequent prayer.

Classrooms

Nursery:  6-month to 1-year – These babies are cared for close to the sanctuary so parents can easily check in on their young ones.  Our volunteers sooth and pray for the children in their care.  Some services provide a dedicated nursery for children aged 6 months to 1 year, while others combine this age group with Toddler 1.

Toddler 1:  1-year-olds – The Toddler 1 room is open to all children from 1 year through age 2, and is available during all worship services at Mars Hill Bellevue. These kids are encouraged to enjoy time with their peers while we care for them and pray over them.

Toddler 2:  2-year-olds – As your child’s language skills develop and they move up into our Toddler 2, our prayers for them continue. We spend some time having fun, while introducing Biblical truths to them through story time and illustration.

Toddler 3: 3-year-olds – We added a third toddler classroom during the 9 a.m. service fall 2009 to accommodate the growth of that age group during the early service.

Preschool: 4-year-olds – Our pattern of prayer and instruction continues to develop in our Preschool room by building a Biblical vocabulary and helping your child see a great God through Bible stories they can understand. Mars Hill is currently developing a long term and core curriculum. While this is being worked on, we’ll be using a curriculum called Show Me Jesus by Great Commission Publications, starting fall 2009. The material moves through Genesis to Revelation in two years, showing Jesus and the story of salvation as the big idea of the entire Bible.

Primary: 5 to 10-year-olds – Our primary classroom is our most advanced classroom, where children are challenged to study the Word directly, to dig into the implications of the work of Jesus, and to consider how to practically apply all that the Bible teaches. Mars Hill is currently developing a long term and core curriculum. While this is being worked on, we’ll be using a curriculum called Show Me Jesus by Great Commission Publications, starting fall 2009. The material moves through Genesis to Revelation in two years, showing Jesus and the story of salvation as the big idea of the entire Bible.

45 fourth and fifth-grade students – Starting October 2009, we introduced classes for fourth and fifth-graders called “45.” For now, this class is only available at the 11:15 a.m. service.

Worship

Our goal for children’s worship is to engage children through song and movement as they learn to worship.  The Primary and Preschool kids combine together in one room to learn songs about Jesus and sing. We currently have limited set of worship volunteers and are working to develop more.  If you are interested in serving the children through music, please contact Dustin Nickerson.

Each week we’ll be giving children take-home materials called “By the Way.” It’s taken from Deuteronomy 6:7 (“You shall teach [God’s commands] 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.”). The goal of these materials is for you to spend time worshipping together as a family at home, while studying the scriptures with your children. These aren’t mandatory by any means, but we encourage parents to take advantage of them.

Checking in Your Child

The safety and protection of your child is of utmost importance to us. If your child is 4th grade or younger, please escort them to their classroom. At each room, a teacher or room leader will check-in your child and provide you with a pager. After the sermon, you can turn in the pager, pick up your child, and sign them out.

A Safe and Secure Environment

One of our primary goals for Children’s Ministry is to provide a safe and secure place for children to learn and play. We do that through several measures, all of which are meant to keep our ministry secure and provide peace of mind for parents.

1. We use a checklist/pager check-out system.  Each child is signed in at a classroom, and is associated with a pager number (multiple children in the same family will have the same number).  The parents  are given one pager. When you check your children into their classes, the teacher will verify parent’s pager is associated with the child on the classroom checklist. When it is time to pick your children up after the service, you must show the pager to the teacher again and they will match it with the checklist.  The parent will then initial the checklist, and return to worship with their child.
2. Security guards watch over the campus and our Children’s Ministry rooms.  No one without a volunteer or staff badge is allowed in the Children’s Ministry area unless they have a pager.  This includes parents or other family members.  Parents who wish to pick up or visit their kids during service must have a pager.
3. We have a policy that any child or group of children will never be alone with a volunteer, under any circumstance.  There will always be at least two volunteers with a child or classroom at all times – NO EXCEPTIONS.
4. Finally, all of our volunteers and teachers have gone through an application, interview, and training process.  This includes a national background check to provide added security and safety for your children.

Sick Policy

We ask that if your children are sick that you not check them into our Children’s Ministry. This is for the health and safety of the other children in the ministry and our volunteers. If your child has had a fever over 100 degrees in the last 24 hours, any signs of chicken-pox or other contagious virus/bacteria, or diarrhea/vomiting in the last 24 hours, do not check them into the Children’s Ministry.

Volunteering

We are always seeking additional volunteers to love our little ones. Out of love and concern for the children and youth in our care, all of our volunteers go through an application process which includes a background check. Learn how you can get involved as a volunteer on The City, our online community tool.

Nursing Mothers Room

There is a room at the Bellevue campus, open during all worship services, for mothers and their nursing babies. These rooms have comfortable seating and an audio/video feed of the sermon.

Questions?

For the latest information and more details about Children’s Ministry, join the Bellevue CM Parents group on The City. You can also email your questions to Dustin Nickerson.