FAMILY MINISTRY PHILOSOPHY

*Each previous element of philosophy persists throughout the Family Ministry Program (e.g.- safety and security is ALWAYS a philosophy of ours from 0 to 18 years of age)

0-2 year olds (Nursery Wing): Safety and Security
  • Our mission with our 0-2’s is to keep them safe, secure, happy, and healthy so families can engage in corporate worship with peace of mind

3-5 year olds (Pre+K): Rhythm of Discipleship
  • Adding to the previous element of philosophy (safety and security) we create an expectation that when kids come to Northside they will experience learning about God regularly. This make the understanding of and participation in discipleship a norm.

1st-5th Grade (Elementary): Critical Spiritual Disciplines
  • As children have been developing a rhythm of discipleship we begin to add complexity and depth to that learning in the elementary years. We focus on four primary or “critical” spiritual disciplines. They are as follows:

  1. PRAYER: Each week we not only pray but we discuss and teach about what prayer is and what the Bible tells us about it. This gives our children a very capable ability to speak and engage their Lord regularly with strong understanding.
  2. WORSHIP: We host live worship weekly but we again teach about what it means to worship and why we do it. For the Pre+K kids we distill this into a simple phrase “Keeping God #1”. For our elementary kids we teach about how the world and distractions trick us into putting other things before God. We “recalibrate” our hearts through worship and remembering God’s promises
  3. BIBLE: It is imperative to us at Northside that all believers rely ultimately on the Word of God and feed on it daily. In NSK we regularly have the children pick up a physical copy of the Bible and open it to our passage of study to allow them to become familiar and comfortable with it. The primary learning is always biblically centered- not just broad positive ideas. For our Pre+K kids we use the simple phrase “The Bible is God talking to Us!”
  4. FELLOWSHIP/CONNECTION: The fourth spiritual discipline is community centered on the commonality of Christ. We want our kids to experience as many spiritually healthy relationships with adults as possible. We encourage our volunteers to get to know each child and their family as they are able. Further, we emphasize Christian community and corporate gathering as an expectation that is a necessity to life.

6th-8th Grade (Middle School): Faith Ownership
  • For our newest members of our youth ministry (Northside Youth/NSY) we add to all of the previous layers faith ownership. We challenge our students directly with expecting them to own their faith by asking them, “Would you do this if your parents didn’t make you do it?” Faith ownership is the result of taking personal responsibility for their walk with and growth in Jesus Christ. We still have a lot of fun but the fun is not the priority.

9th-12th Grade (High School): Faith Leadership
  • The final layer we add to the philosophy is Faith Leadership. Not only do we expect students to take ownership of their walk with Christ but we are intentional about giving them opportunities to learn and grow in their ability to leader not only themselves but others. This include access to our NSY: LEAD program, opportunity to be leaders in the student ministry itself where they are called to not authority in power but leadership through service and integrity.