To my Centennial Family,
I’m writing a special Postscripts this week because our Christian Education Committee needs help in the best of ways. Our Children’s Sunday Schools and nurseries have enough children in them that we need more volunteers. What a blessing! My hope and prayer is that our number of little ones would only be bolstered in the coming years, too! This means it would be wise for us to have our volunteer base established. I can tell you from experience, the fewer people who volunteer in Children’s Ministries, the more stressful it becomes on those stalwart few. But there’s more to it than adding numbers for the ease of our own stress. As we grow our number of volunteers, it becomes not only less stressful but more beautiful. Why more beautiful? I’ll answer your question with a question:
“Do you the members of Centennial Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church undertake with these parents the covenant responsibility for the Christian nurture of this child?”
It is this question that is asked of the members of Centennial per our denomination’s beliefs from Scripture. To go along with that, our denomination’s Constitution says in the same place, “Because the child who is baptized is thereby marked as belonging to God and welcomed into His household, it is fitting that members of the congregation promise to surround the child with concern and love in Christ.” The call has been made. We need help surrounding our children with concern and love in Christ. Nursery is not a means to kick our youngest members out because they’re loud. May we never think this way! Nursery and the rest of our Children’s Ministries (Children’s Church, and so on) are meant to allow our littlest members to thrive. They thrive in environments that are suited for them. And they also thrive in the love and care of not only their Christian mother and father but their Christian family at Centennial. This is what it means to be a Bible believing Presbyterian. The words covenant community are played out in places like a nursery room! Pray about this, and I’m not addressing women only. Let us all pray about this (men, don’t make me hunt y’all down!). May we seek God’s glory always, but may we seek His glory especially in the care of those smallest and least among us. Blessings this week,
Jeremiah