Child dedications

We LOVE children and are here to partner with parents in the spiritual formation and lives of their families.  One way we do that is through Child Dedications.

3 reasons we encourage you to participate in a child dedication

Imago Dei

That is Latin for the “image of God”. It comes from the first chapter of the Bible in Genesis 1:27 where we are reminded that we all have been made in the image of our Creator.  When we dedicate our kids to the Lord, we remind our entire faith community that we are not really trying to raise up “mini-me’s” as a community of parents, guardians, and mentors.  No, what we actually want is “mini-Thee’s” or the “imago Dei” to come shining through.  As we dedicate our kids, we say to God and one another that we want to invite our children into the journey of becoming all that God made them to be.

It Takes a Village

Parenting is a monumental task all by itself.  If you add to that the idea that we desire to help our children become young adults who are passionate about following Jesus on their own, then it becomes a whole new level of difficult.  To this end, we believe that no one stands alone on this journey with Jesus, it takes a village.

Therefore, we use child dedication as one way for us to rally around and support the parenting process. We yearn to be a community that stands together, especially in raising kids and helping them discover God at their pace alongside peers and mentors.

It is worth noting that Jesus was constantly welcoming the little children to himself and having them gather all around him. (Matt 19:14, Mark 10:14) We want to be a community that supports you in your parenting process and child dedication is one of many ways for us to do that. 

Kingdom Values

Having a Kingdom Values mindset means that we remind one another that we want Jesus in the center of everything, especially our kid’s lives.  In the case of a child, we say this on their behalf in faith that one day, they’ll embrace this mindset fully for themselves.  

This is one of the reasons we do child dedications.  We encourage baptism for anyone who is ready to personally make a public proclamation of faith in Jesus.  The symbolism of baptism can be hard for little kids to grasp and we want them to really know and understand what they’re doing when they choose to get baptized.   We encourage all our kids to wait until they have a fuller understanding of what baptism is before they participate.

In the meantime, we want to embrace kids and parents and agree together that these are God’s kids, and that we yearn for him to do God-only things inside their hearts and lives.