Fill out an application to serve HERE
Your child’s walk with God
At Mars Hill Church Federal Way, the Bible, the Word of God, is the ground and guide for educating our children. By the Spirit, we seek to impart the truth of the whole Bible and encourage children to develop a Biblical mindset and a Christian world view.
We want to encourage children to:
- Trust in the promises of God
- Recognize their sinful state
- Respond in repentance and faith in Jesus
- Finally, we seek to help children see the hand of God at work in the world, and to recognize and use their spiritual gifts for the good of the body and the world.
It is our desire to come alongside parents in nurturing the faith of their children. Our responsibility is to model and to teach truth in an attitude of frequent prayer.
Classrooms
Nursery: 6-month to 1-year – These babies are cared for close to the sanctuary so parents can easily check in on their young ones. Our volunteers sooth, play with and pray for the children in their care. Our campus provides a dedicated nursery for children aged 6 months to 1 year. Once a child can walk well, they can move up to the toddler room.
Toddler: 1 & 2-year-olds – The Toddler room is open to all children from 1 year(walking) through age 2, and is available during all worship services at Mars Hill Federal Way. These kids are encouraged to enjoy time with their peers while we care for them and pray over them. We spend some time having fun, while introducing Biblical truths to them through story time and illustration.
Preschool: 3 & 4-year-olds – Our pattern of prayer and instruction continues to develop in our Preschool room by building a Biblical vocabulary and helping your child see a great God through Bible stories they can understand. Mars Hill is currently developing a long term and core curriculum. While this is being worked on, we’ll be using a curriculum called Show Me Jesus by Great Commission Publications, starting fall 2009. The material moves through Genesis to Revelation in two years, showing Jesus and the story of salvation as the big idea of the entire Bible.
Primary: 5 to 10-year-olds – Our primary classroom is our most advanced classroom, where children are challenged to study the Word directly, to dig into the implications of the work of Jesus, and to consider how to practically apply all that the Bible teaches. Mars Hill is currently developing a long term and core curriculum. While this is being worked on, we’ll be using a curriculum called Show Me Jesus by Great Commission Publications, starting fall 2009. The material moves through Genesis to Revelation in two years, showing Jesus and the story of salvation as the big idea of the entire Bible.
Each week we’ll be giving children take-home materials. The goal of these materials is for you to spend time worshipping together as a family at home, while studying the scriptures with your children. These aren’t mandatory by any means, but we encourage parents to take advantage of them.
Checking in Your Child
The safety and protection of your child is of utmost importance to us. At the check in desk, you will be given one pager for all your children. Please escort them to their appropriate classroom. At each room, a teacher or room leader will welcome your child and check the pager number with their name tag. After the sermon, you can pick up your child, walk to the opposite stairway, go down and turn in the pager to the security guard.
A Safe and Secure Environment
One of our primary goals for Mars Hill Kids is to provide a safe and secure place for children to learn and play. We do that through several measures, all of which are meant to keep our ministry secure and provide peace of mind for parents.
We use a checklist/pager check-out system. Each child is signed in to a classroom, and is associated with a pager number (multiple children in the same family will have the same number). The parents are given one pager. When you check your children into their classes, the teacher will verify parent’s pager is associated with the child. When it is time to pick your children up after the service, you must show the pager to the check in security guard and the teacher. The parent and child then return to the gym to worship.
Security guards watch over the campus and our Mars Hill Kids’ rooms. No one without a volunteer or staff badge is allowed in the Mars Hill Kids area unless they have a pager. This includes parents or other family members. Parents who wish to pick up or visit their kids during service must have a pager.
We have a policy that any child or group of children will never be alone with a volunteer, under any circumstance. There will always be at least two volunteers with a child or classroom at all times – NO EXCEPTIONS.
Finally, all of our volunteers and teachers have gone through an application, interview, and training process. This includes a national background check to provide added security and safety for your children.
Sick Policy
We ask that if your children are sick that you not check them into Mars Hill Kids. This is for the health and safety of the other children in the ministry and our volunteers. If your child has had a fever over 100 degrees in the last 24 hours, any signs of chicken-pox or other contagious virus/bacteria, or diarrhea/vomiting in the last 24 hours, green/yellow nasal discharge, do not check them into Mars Hill Kids.
Volunteering
We are always seeking additional volunteers to love our little ones. Out of love and concern for the children and youth in our care, all of our volunteers go through an application process which includes a background check. Learn how you can get involved as a volunteer by emailing federalwaykids@marshill.com or fill out the application HERE
Nursing Mothers Room
The nursery has a partitioned wall with rocking chairs available for mothers and their nursing babies to have privacy while nursing. The sermon will be playing on a 30 second delay from the gym so you will not miss anything.
Questions?
For the latest information and more details about Mars Hill Kids, join the Federal Way CM Parents group on The City. You can also email your questions to Kevin Rich at Kevin.Rich@marshill.com