Disciple Kids

Our mission is to make disciples of children who love Jesus, know the Word, pray, and serve others.

Disciple Kids Curriculum

Sunday school teaching at large has remained trapped in moralism. Instead of teaching Bible stories in the context of the whole Bible story, many curricula aim at enforcing good behavior. Bible characters are studied as models for telling children to be good or as warnings not to be bad. Sunday school has neglected to teach the way of salvation from the Bible.

At Garwood Church, we believe that to teach the Bible story, we must present the Savior. From Genesis to Revelation, the “Show me Jesus” (Great Commission Publications, GPC) curriculum present Jesus Christ as the Revealer of the Father in the OT and the Savior of his people in the NT. Children are pointed to Jesus to know and trust him.

Our Disciple Kids Classroom

  • We provide a Nursing Mom's Room for your privacy. It can be accessed through the main church hallway and located towards the rest of the Children’s rooms. Here, you can enjoy comfortable rocking chairs and a live video feed of the worship service so you don't miss a thing!

  • The Nursery at Garwood Church is designed to provide a safe, loving, fun, and comfortable environment for your child. Our Nursery, in addition to playtime, includes biblical teachings of the Gospel and Jesus, as our Savior.

  • DK Class 1 explores the Bible from creation to the early church—with lots of creative activities that reinforce the lessons and engage imaginations.

  • DK Class 2 explores the life of Jesus, through a study of his miracles and teachings. Our goal is that children will see Christ as they open the Scriptures in their own.

  • DK Class 3 explores the life of Jesus through a balance of Bible stories, teaching, and interactive discovery. DK Class 3 stays in service on the 4th and 5th Sundays of the month, in order to listen and to grow spiritually from a regular Sunday morning sermon.

How do we disciple children?

Every quarter our Disciple Kids classes focus a particular habit/fruit of disciples, using the acronym SPOT. During the first ten minutes of each class, our volunteers engage children into the meaning of the quarterly habit through songs, lessons, and opportunities to live out these habits daily life,home, and at church. This is followed by the lesson for the Sunday.

For instance, using SPOT (P - praying together, during the winter quarter), our children will start to learn to pray at the beginning of classes and receive instruction on how to add prayer to their life. In this way, they are learning to “pray together” and that prayer is a mark of followers of Jesus.

Security and Staff

We believe in the value of having our covenant children with us in worship. Every age is welcome to participate in worship on Sunday morning with their families as part of our covenant community. However, if you’d like your child to learn biblical truths with our Disciple Kids ministry, we ask that you register your child at the registration table, at the entrance of the sanctuary. Children will receive a name badge and you will receive a slip for pickup.

On your first visit, we recommend arriving a few minutes early as we will get contact information for each child joining us. This information is entered into our database to help maintain our secure check-in system. If you’d like to expedite the process, register your child on button below prior to visiting.

You can also download the Church Center app and set up a profile from home. You can then check your children into class before you even leave home! A QR code will be provided for quick use at the kiosk to print security tags when you arrive.

Lastly, Garwood Church volunteers undergo background screening. We also train our team through a rigorous safety manual for purposes of keeping every child safe.

First time here?

  • Children stay during the musical worship portion of our service (the beginning 25-30 minutes of our service) and are sent to their classrooms after our pastoral prayer. You can learn more about our Sunday services, by clicking here.

  • We love having your kids in class. However, we understand that it can be a little scary trying something for the first time. So we are prepared to work with you if your little one is feeling a little shy or overwhelmed. We want the kids and you to have a positive experience at Garwood Church. If your little one would like to stay with you in service, they are welcome too. We are a multigenerational church and we love having our kids in service with us.

  • If you would a tour of the classrooms, feel free to contact Denise Cicchella, Children’s Discipleship Director. Contact her at hello@garwoodchurch.org or stop say hello when you come in.

  • During our pastoral prayer we encourage children to come to the front the sanctuary. Your child does not have to participate, we just wanted to let you know.

  • After praying, we guide children to the back of the sanctuary, where their teacher (holding a sign for their classroom number) will greet them and lead them to their classrooms. This allows for parents to stay in the sanctuary during our fellowship break before the sermon.