We set up the Parent Orientation in the lobby to create a different look and feel outside of our main auditorium and for easy cleanup afterward. During the main presentation, we share our strategy, values, and ways we want to partner with families through each phase of their child’s life.
As a NextGen Pastor, one of my favorite events to organize and host is our Child Dedication experience at Eikon Church! I think it is such an important milestone moment for children, their families, and our faith community collectively! We don’t baptize babies or small children at our church. However, we do use Child Dedication as our primary way to publicly dedicate children to the Lord, and to rally everyone around the idea of ‘Widening The Circle’ and ‘Imagining The End’ for this growing generation. We accomplish this by providing families with an opportunity to not only present their children to church on a Sunday but also equip them with tools to create a more significant impact in their family through a Parent Orientation the day before. During the Parent Orientation, we introduce the concepts of ‘Widening The Circle’ and ‘Imagining The End’ to the parents/guardians of children being dedicated and include ways that we as their home church will partner with them through the phases to make these aspirations become a reality.
We set out 8-foot tables with table cloths purchased from Party City and use confetti cut from white tissue paper with a large circle puncher.
When we use the phrase ‘Widen The Circle,’ we are referring to surrounding individuals with a variety of faith-filled influencers who will walk through the many phases of a child’s life with them, not just for now, but for the future as well. At Eikon, we believe that parents have the most influence on their child’s life, but we also know that a parent isn’t the only influence a child needs in their life. It’s the reason we provide our kids, students, and young adults with consistent Small Group Leaders who dedicated to partnering with parents/guardians/mentors to help the next generation engage in growing an authentic faith. It’s also the reason we choose to use the Orange Curriculum for all of our Family Ministries. We know that the team at Orange is big on equipping and mobilizing parents to excel as faith leaders in their own homes. We see it through the overall strategy, weekly lesson plans and devotionals, monthly Parent Cues, and family experience resources provided through Orange. As an ‘Orange’ church, we are focused on combining the influence from the LOVE of the family (symbolized by the color red) and the LIGHT of the church (symbolized by the color yellow) to create a stronger, more impacting influence (symbolized by the color orange) in this growing generation and the next generation.
The keepsake/resource bag and bead jar is set in front of each child’s seat. Each child has age appropriate activities provided to help keep them occupied during the messaging piece of the Parent Orientation.
When we use the phrase “Imagine The End,” we are referring to the idea that we are intentionally thinking about what we can do today to positively impact the future of a child for the long haul. We equip and inspire parents to do this in a few ways through our Parent Orientation the day before Child Dedication Sunday. One of our ways to accomplish this happens as parents register their child to be dedicated. On the registration form, they are asked to provide us with 3-5 character traits that they want their child(ren) to embody the most by the time they graduate from High School. We then take those words and add them to the customized elements of our Parent Orientation presentation. We include the traits on the child’s bead jar label and their commemorative family photo frame.
An up-close look at the keepsake bags, bead jars and jar stickers.
When families arrive for the hour-long Parent Orientation, they are directed to their assigned place card. At their place setting is an array of snacks from Sams Club. We choose to serve kid snacks because we know that most parents snack on their child’s snacks more often than not. There is also a coloring page with crayons at each child’s seat, a few baby toys for babies that are attending, and a bag of keepsakes and resources for the families. In front of the bag is that particular child’s bead jar. This bead jar features one bead for each week left in that specific child’s life before they graduate. We use the Parent Cue App to calculate the weeks left for each child based on the birthdate provided by the parents at registration. The purpose of the visual aide is that when we see how much time we have left with a child, it challenges us to make the time we have matter more. Each parent is encouraged to take one bead out at the end of the week. We chose orange beads to serve as a reminder of our focus at Eikon to be an ‘Orange’ church. Once the beads are in the jar we seal them with a customized sticker featuring a key scripture verse, the child’s name, and the characteristics previously provided by parents. (We use these sweet jars from Hobby Lobby.)
Every child dedicated receives a personalized certificate in a glass frame. Parents receive a personalized letter for their child to read on their 18th Birthday.
In the Parent Orientation presentation, we provide a variety of helpful resources and keepsakes for families. Each child receives a framed certificate of dedication and a personalized blank letter. We encourage parents to take time out over the next few days to handwrite a message to their child to read when they turn 18. We suggest that they hide the letter behind the framed certificate and on the child’s 18th birthday to present it as a gift and let the child know that there’s a special letter for them behind the certificate. Included in the bag are some helpful handouts from GoWeekly.com. The group behind Orange/Rethink provides excellent discussion guides, family hang times, and more through GoWeekly. I HIGHLY recommend it to every Family Ministry leader—it’s a game-changer for sure!
On the actual Child Dedication Sunday, we invite families to join us onstage during their preferred service for the presentation to the church. We explain to the church attendees that we want to surround families with a supportive, compassionate faith community. The host of the service will then ask all of those attending to extend their hands towards the families as we pray a prayer of blessing over them. One helpful thing that we’ve worked into the Parent Orientation is practicing with the families how the service transitions will work, where to sit, and where to stand, so there is less confusion on Sunday morning. We don’t want such a special moment to be tarnished with confusion or extra stress if we can help it. After the community prayer is over during the Sunday service, families will head over to our special photo backdrop and have their family photo taken by our volunteer photographer. Those photos are then sent out to individual families digitally, as well as framed for pick-up that next Sunday at our eKids Check-In desk. Included on that commemorative photo frame is the name of the child, the meaning of their name (generated by a volunteer in our church who loves contributing this piece), and the characteristics that the parents have chosen for their child to most embody by graduation.
During the Child Dedication Sunday, we feature photos of each child being dedicated. Parents send these photos to us ahead of time. We also have parents introduce their own families on the microphone to eliminate mispronunciations from the stage host that Sunday.
It is our hope and prayer that these families know how much they are loved and supported in our faith community. I love helping to create these meaningful moments for the families in our church as we partner together to Widen The Circle and Imagine The End in a child’s life!
In order to manage the back-end data for this event, we use Planning Center Registrations. I also use a pre-formatted checklist reference guide in Pages. If you are a ministry leader/volunteer and would like to access the prep documents and/or editable graphic files from our Parent Orientation/Child Dedication celebration, please send me an EMAIL, and I would love to share what I can!
While I am in love with the way we handle Child Dedications, I’m also looking for fun ideas to celebrate such an important milestone for this growing generation. Please feel free to leave a comment about what you love that your church does for Child Dedications or what you would love for a local church to do for you in regards to Child Dedication!
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