Children and Youth
From the nursery through twelfth grade, there is a place here for your child and someone expecting them.
Where to go
Come to the Family Ministry Center, the building to the right of the church. You cannot easily miss it, and someone will be at the door.
What happens
We will sign your child in, show you the room, and tell you exactly where they will be and when you will have them back.
If you would rather ask first
Email Lindsay Tonge and she will tell you anything you would like to know before you arrive.
Birth through fifth grade
Children
Children are not the future of this parish. They are part of it now. They are baptized at the same font, they come to the same altar rail, and on a Sunday morning you will usually hear them before you see them. We would far rather a child made noise in the nave than never came at all, so please do not spend the service worrying about that.
What we want for them is simple to say and not at all simple to achieve: that the story of God becomes their own story, told in a way a child can receive at five and still recognise at fifty. Our formation opens one story through many doors, through art and play and memory and conversation, on the conviction that a child meets God wherever that child most comes alive.
Field Life Nursery
Sunday mornings · birth to age 3
A safe, clean and loving room with trained staff, in the children and youth building to the right of the church. Children are signed in and out by a parent, and we will find you if we need you.
Field Life Kids
Sunday mornings · age 4 to 5th grade
Children begin in the nave with their families, then process out behind a children's cross to their own worship space, and return at the Peace to receive communion or a blessing.
Wednesday Nights
6:30 p.m. · K to 5th grade
Dinner from half past five, then Field Life Kids at half past six, working through the same story the adults are exploring down the corridor. Come for the whole evening or the part that fits.
Vacation Bible School
One week each summer
Games, craft, music and Bible stories, in which children meet the love of God in a way they remember long afterwards. Open to every child in the neighbourhood, church or no church.
Sixth through twelfth grade
Youth
The teenage years are when a faith either becomes a young person's own or quietly remains their parents'. Our youth ministry exists for the first of those. Field Life Crew is a place where young people are known by name, where questions are treated as a form of prayer rather than as a threat to faith, and where nobody is asked to perform a certainty they do not have.
That happens through ordinary things: Bible study, worship, service, retreats, camps, mission and a very great deal of food. Mostly it happens because the same adults turn up every week for years, which is less impressive than a programme and considerably more effective.
Wednesday Nights
6:30PM-8PM middle school and high school ·
Meet in the Youth Building, through the school year, with drop-in dinner starting at 5:30PM. Middle school and high school gather together from 6:30PM-8PM, which means one room, one crew, and the older ones setting the tone for the younger.
Sunday Mornings
Acolytes, readers, greeters, ushers, music
Our young people are invited into the service rather than out of it, serving as acolytes and readers, as greeters and ushers, on the music team, or in any other ministry of worship. Most would rather have a part to play than a pew to sit in.
Confirmation
Prepared as a group over several months
The point at which a young person speaks for themselves the promises made at their baptism. We take their questions seriously, including the ones without tidy answers.
Beyond the Parish
Retreats, camps, mission, Youth Sunday
Weeks away that take our young people somewhere the Gospel looks different from the way it looks here. These are usually the ones they talk about years afterwards.
Also for our young people
Acolytes
Young people from third through twelfth grade serve at the altar. No experience is needed and training is given. Serving is often the moment a young person stops attending church and starts belonging to it. Please contact Lindsay Tonge.
Junior Daughters of the King
The Mother Teresa Chapter is open to girls aged seven through eighteen, meeting on the first Sunday of the month after the service for prayer, Bible study, fellowship and service. Please contact Paula Fowler.
Scouting
St. Francis is the chartered organization for Cub Scout Pack 700 and Scouts BSA Troop 23, and both units call this place home. New families are welcome whether or not they belong to any church. More about scouting here.
A word about safety
Every adult who works with children or youth at St. Francis completes Safeguarding training and background screening before they begin. Two unrelated adults are present at all times. Children are signed in and out by a parent or guardian, and we will not release a child to anyone who is not named on that form.
If you would like to read our policies in full, please ask and we will send them to you.
Questions
Lindsay Tonge
Director of Family Ministry
Nursery, Field Life Kids, Vacation Bible School and acolytes
lindsay@stfrancispvb.org