Riverside is committed to not simply being a church made up of multiple generations, but to being a community where multiple generations grow closer to Jesus together. We want to create opportunities in our life together for the generations to learn and worship in community with one another. We believe this was God’s plan for the church and it is the most effective way to make disciples of Jesus whose faith “sticks.”
In the past we have separated our children and youth from our adult congregation on Sundays, but we would now like to give our kids the opportunity to occasionally (a few times a year) worship with their family and other adults instead of being in Promiseland. We remain very committed to age-appropriate Christian formation through Promiseland, but these occasional multigenerational worship opportunities will also give the kids of our congregation the opportunity to participate with us as we worship in song, prayer, scripture reading, and listening to the message. We believe it is not only important for our kids to see adults model these parts of Sunday morning worship but also for our children to learn to participate along side of adults. The hope is that our kids will gradually grow to want to celebrate and glorify God through worship, thus staying involved as they leave their homes to be on their own as adults. We also hope that adults will learn from the process of worshiping alongside kids and exploring what it means to “receive the kingdom of God like a child.”
