Encounter kids (0-5th grade)
Encounter youth (6-12th)
We encourage families to worship together. At Mountain Bible our families worship the Lord together approximately for the first 30 minutes of our Wednesday night and Sunday morning service and then our kids and youth are dismissed to attend an age appropriate Bible lesson with their peers.
Sunday 10:00 A.M.
Wednesday 6:00 P.M.
In his book A New Kind of Leader, Reggie Joiner gives volunteers who work in kids ministry 7 truths to believe that will maximize their impact in the hearts and lives of children. Here are the 7 truths that a new kind of leader believes:
1. Kids Matter. The best time to make an investment is early. Investments gain more value over time. The longer we wait to invest, the less we earn. Making deposits in someone’s life while they are young will earn more interest. Having a good program for our kids, birth through graduation, is vitally important to the spiritual health of our kids, and the health of MBC. A church that welcomes kids welcomes Jesus.
2. A Strategy Matters. Reggie Joiner says this, “A strategy links whatever you have to wherever you are going. Without a strategy, all of your assets lose their potential to have a collective influence. They are kind of like individual football players who all play independently. Can you imagine saying to a college football coach, “Don’t worry about a strategy. Just send your best 11 players out on the field, give them the ball and tell them to score. It would be a sad game!” Our mission at MBC is to hold forth the word of life. Sadly, many churches fail not because they don’t have a mission, but because they don’t have a strategy.
3. Your Church Matters. Imagine someone corners you at the grocery store and asks you, “Tell me really, why does your church matter?” What would you say? Hopefully, part of our answer would be, “It’s a place I belong.” MBC may be the best chance many children have in Tehachapi to find a place where they belong.
4. Every Family Matters. Only 20% of families are made up a Father and Mother and children. Most of our children that will attend MBC will not fit into this model. Every kid is made in the image of God, and matters to God and to MBC, even if they don’t measure up to someone else’s ideal standard. Every child is made in the image of God and has the capacity to know God and to love and be loved. We will maximize our ministry when every family matters.
5. The Truth Matters…When Love Matters. There is a difference between teaching the Bible to kids, and teaching kids the Bible. Let that sink in. The second emphasizes the audience. Many Sundays children will forget what we say but they will never forget the way we made them feel. People do not hear our truth until they feel our love. Jesus was the only one who was a perfect mixture of truth and love. He is our model to follow. Churches who are growing old instead of growing young do not lose their influence because they don’t preach truth, they lose their influence because they lose their love.
6. Doing Good Matters…If You’re Human. If we want our kid’s faith to grow significantly, we need to give them something significant to do. In the near future MBC will have a well-organized program for youth to serve in all our ministries. Having youth serve our kids ministry is important to our kids and volunteers. They need to see teenagers serving alongside of adults, and adults need teenagers serving alongside of them.
7. This Week Matters…When It’s Repeated. There are approximately 936 weeks from the time a baby is born until they become an adult. What if we put 936 marbles in a jar and gave that to a new parent and told them to take one marble out each week. That parent would live with a sense of TIME. 936 weeks doesn’t seem like a lot, but it goes by fast. This is a biblical idea “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Ps. 90:12).
Thank you to everyone who serves in our kids ministry. You may never know the depth of your impact on a kids life, but I want you to know that you matter to the Lord and you matter to MBC.