About Quest
Quest Children’s Ministry
Why Quest? Quest Children’s Ministry brings children to the realization that relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is a dynamic adventure in which they come to know God as a person, become the person God intended for them to be, and begin to pursue their place in God’s Kingdom plan.
Knowing God is the greatest adventure of all time. It’s big. It’s unpredictable. It’s risky. It requires all your strength, and it makes you strong. It’s about becoming new, and making the whole universe new.
And the adventure begins now. While children are children.Our message is not “Someday, when you’re a grownup, your relationship with God is gonna be a dynamic adventure.” Our message is, “It already is, and it always will be!”
The river that runs through Quest Children’s Ministry is the River of Relationship.
Our adventure with God is not a solo adventure. God places us in relationship with Himself, and with each other. God is a relational God, and relationship is the context of our adventure.
The river has four main currents:
Prayer; Teaching the Word; Service; and Worship & Celebration. These four will always be present wherever we go, whatever we do in Quest.
Prayer
In prayer we make our requests known to God; we pour out our hearts to Him, and He responds to us. Prayer links us, through God, with our co-adventurers even when theay are far away, and our prayers are effective in helping them. Prayer is vital to our adventure together. We don’t pray for everyone and everything everywhere. Instead, we pray for people and places with whome we have a significant relational connection.
Teaching the Word
God’s Word is given to us to help us know God, and also to help us to become like His Son, Jesus. He uses His Word to transform us as individuals, and also to build us up as the people of God. His Word molds us into a group of courageous adventurers, able to walk the narrow and sometimes difficult paths of our adventure together. We teach applicable truth from th Bible, not just facts about the Bible. We teach to specific, real issues in kids’ lives that need to be influenced by God’s ways. We teach to the life of the body; we don’t teach just to impart rules and regulations.
Service
Jesus Christ, our Lord and our greatest example, came to Earth as a servant. He has left us here to manifest the Kingdom. One of the most important ways we do that is by serving those who have need, both inside and outside our body. Service happens as the body together serves someone with whom it is actively pursuing relationship. We don’t do service at a distance; we make choices to do service relationally.
Worship/Celebration
Part of our adventure is celebrating the goodness and wonder of our God. That is something we do as a whole people. We don’t gather just to relate vertically, me to God and God to me, in separate “island” experiences.
Instead, corporate worship is a big family meeting. It is us relating to God as us, as we enter His presence as a whole people.
What we do with Kids
Nursery
For the first two years of life, we focus on making both the child and the parent’s initial experience at church a positive and safe one. We want to make sure that your child experiences the love of God from the earliest age. For our infants, we seek to provide an atmosphere that is safe and nurturing. We have nursery volunteers who are committed to spending one-on-one time with your infant, showing them God’s love.
Preschool
For our young toddlers, we provide simple Bible stories and songs that teach of God and His Word. Beginning with the preschool age we emphasize learning by play. Our classroom structure is based on learning centers where children learn biblical truth through volunteer-guided activities. During the second hour, we bring preschoolers together for large group worship and celebration, and for teaching the truth of Scripture.
Elementary
For our children in Kindergarten through 5th grades, we offer many exciting programs. On Sunday mornings, Quest is divided into first hour and second hour. First hour is when children spend time larning biblical truths and gaining understanding of how to apply them in their lives. Second hour is the time when children come together and begin to explore what it means to worship God corporately. During this time, children are encouraged to participate and grow in their gifts. Also during this time children are placed into small groups, which work to emphasize the bible learning and to develop relationships among the children.