Children's Ministry on Three Campuses

Yesterday, we launched Children's Ministry programming (through 5K) at our new Downtown Campus in Greenville.  In the past three years at Grace Church, we have gone from 2 to 6 services, and from 1 to 3 campuses.  We are excited about the opportunities that God has given us, to be used by Him to spread the Gospel (you can see a video of the past 15 years on our Grace YouTube Channel). Because most people are familiar with only one campus, here is a brief summary about the current state of each of the three campuses, and our Children's Ministry programs:

• Pelham Road.  Our busiest campus, with three services -- 1 Saturday evening and 2 on Sunday morning.  We typically have 80-90 children on Saturday night, and each of our Sunday morning services has about 300 children on a weekend.  With so many children and adults on this campus, we have a number of opportunities for people to find a need that matches the talents and resources that God has given them.  Our biggest challenge on this campus is that with so many children and such a big building, it is easy for people to slip in and out, and not think that we need them to give back.  The truth is that we right now need over 50 volunteers to start serving in Children's Ministry.
• Powdersville.  This campus was began in February 2008, with 70 children (nursery through 4th grade).  One of the biggest joys when we launched it was that over 30 people started serving in Children's Ministry who had never before served in this area.  Our biggest upcoming challenge is with facilities needs, as our lease runs out at the end of the year.
• Downtown.  What a huge start in our new facility, and with the introduction of Children's Ministry programming to our Downtown Campus (which began in September 2008)!  In the adult worship service, it was standing room only.  There were nearly 80 children in our programming (nursery through kindergarten), but unfortunately we had to turn away about 15 children due to a lack of resources and volunteers.  We can solve the issue of resources, but we are in need of more volunteers in order to open a new preschool class. 

Though our goal is not to grow our attendance numbers, we are glad that we have been growing by about 15-20% per year, nearly doubling the number of children in our weekend programming over the past three years.  How many is that?  In January, we hit our peak with 895 (4th grade and under) children during one weekend (all services).  However, our average in April (about 820) was even higher than our average in January.

If you have questions about Grace Children's Ministry, or want to know what it takes to be a part of the team to help reach the hearts of the next generation, contact us at children@gracechurchsc.org.