Families, Children's, and Youth Ministry

OUR VISION

"Partnering with parents to raise children in the gospel,
that they might know, love, and live for Jesus Christ,
as part of his church and on his mission,
by God’s grace and for His glory."

Children's Ministry on SUNDAY

Our Sunday morning services begin and end with everyone together as we sing, pray, and read God’s Word, because children belong in our church family! We encourage parents to help their children participate when we gather for corporate worship.

Just before the sermon, parents can leave their children at our Kids and Tots Bible sessions:

City Kids: 4-12 year olds (primary school children)

City Tots: 2-4 year olds (preschool children)

We welcome parents with little ones to stay in the sermon (with noise and wriggles too!), or 0-2 year olds can join City Tots accompanied by a parent/guardian.

After the sermon, parents collect their children and return to the main gathering for everyone to worship together again. We ask that parents assume responsibility for their children at this point, staying with their children during tea and coffee time.

Children in the service rationale

What happens in City Kids and Tots?

Quite simply, children learn the Bible, like their parents do in the sermon. Our aim is to faithfully teach the Bible in Christ-centred, engaging and memorable ways, so that children might come to know, love, and live for Jesus. As well as teaching God’s Word in City Kids, we sing, pray, learn memory verses, make crafts, do activities and have small-group discussions, all to help our children understand who God is, what He has done, and how that changes them.

In our children’s and toddlers’ programmes, we are journeying through the whole Bible, showing how it tells one big story about our great God and His great rescue plan through Jesus. At other times during the year, our children are taught the same book as the sermon series, so that the whole family learns God’s Word together.

Please complete a parental registration form before bringing your child to City Kids.

Parental Registration Form

City Teens

City Teens currently takes place every other Sunday after the service for around 35 minutes. City Teens is for 12-15 year olds (6th Class primary school to 3rd Year secondary school, if the 6th class child has already moved from City Kids into the sermon).

Through small-group discussion, City Teens aims to help the young people process and apply what they've heard from God's Word. City Teens also allows young people to build relationships with one another, and with older believers who can encourage, challenge and model faith to them.

Who are the leaders?

Whilst the primary responsibility is with parents to disciple their children, we seek to support and complement that teaching each Sunday morning, and to provide the children with other godly role models. Our children’s leaders are followers of Jesus who are committed members of City Church Dublin.

As well as regular children’s ministry training, all leaders are Garda vetted (background checked), trained in child safeguarding procedures, and have supplied references for their suitability. Parents can be confident that their children will be safe with us.

Child Safeguarding Policies

During the week

Our families, children’s and youth ministry are developing areas of our church life. We desire that our life together would reflect Christ’s diverse, intergenerational family.

We seek to support and resource parents as they disciple their children, particularly through the ministry of our Families Worker.

We encourage parents to fully participate in church life - through church membership, community groups, 1 to 1 discipleship relationships, and corporate prayer. Some of the ways that parents can involve their children in church life is by living in community, serving the body, and practising hospitality.

See the link below for resources and ideas to help with family discipleship.

Families Blog

Baptism

At City we exercise a charitable generosity on the issue of baptism. We encourage members to know their own mind on the issue and to that end have written this position paper. Parents may wish to either baptise their infants or have a time of thanksgiving within the Sunday service. We can accommodate either.

Please speak to an Elder for more information.

Baptism Position Paper

Our Priorities

We have 6 priorities for families, children’s and youth ministry

Scripture alone is necessary and sufficient for knowing God’s salvation and growing in Christlikeness, so we aim to minister to parents, young people, and children with God’s Word. We want to teach children the whole Bible, showing God’s unfolding story of redemption. That means we are committed to teaching across the Biblical genres - not just narrative, but the epistles, wisdom literature, poetry and prophets too. Teaching God’s Word happens in family worship times, and in our Sunday Bible sessions.

Children and young people always need the gospel for all of life, so we aim to continually point to who Jesus is and all he has won in his life, death, and resurrection as we teach the Bible. We also want to speak the gospel into moments of sin, suffering and struggles, and to train parents and care-givers to do the same in those teachable moments. We desire to foster a culture of grace in our church, children’s spaces, and families.

Rather than seeking behaviour modification or knowledge accumulation, we know that God’s Spirit transforms whole lives by the gospel. We aim to see minds taught, hearts stirred, and hands moved to action as we teach, illustrate and apply Scripture, both in church and in the home. Moreover, discipleship happens in the context of community, so we aim to foster rich intergenerational relationships where faith is modelled to the next generation.

Across Scripture children are considered part of God’s redeemed people; they can trust in Jesus and have his Spirit. Research also shows that young people are more likely to continue following Christ after school if they were genuinely included in whole church life in childhood. So we aim to welcome and include all ages in our church gatherings, provide opportunities for intergenerational ministry, and encourage parents to participate and involve their children in our life together.