Celebrations

Celebrations are those moments throughout your child’s faith journey when we want to pause and celebrate what God is doing in the life of our kiddos. Celebrations include things like baby dedications, baptisms, high school graduation, etc. We often blow right past these major moments in our children's faith journey, so we want to be intentional about recognizing them and celebrating them. We want to make these moments memorable and communicate how important they are to our kids.


Some celebrations (like baby dedications) are specific to a particular season. However, many of these celebrations can be celebrated in various seasons, depending on your child’s faith journey. For example, your child may accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior (Faith Commitment) in the elementary school season or the high school season. They may get baptized in the elementary school season or the adulthood season. The point is, we want to recognize and celebrate these monumental moments in their life!

CHILD DEDICATION

Here at CLCC, we love and cherish the family aspect of our congregation. When a family feels at home, they might want to take a “next step” to committing their child’s life and their parenting journey to one that honors the faith and seeks to glorify God.

This is a time when parents commit themselves to nurture and disciple their child and invite the church to encourage and support them in raising their child in the faith. 


Whether your child is a baby or a teen, this celebration is for any age range. It’s never too late to commit your parenting to a time of discipleship. This might be a first step, but the follow up to this would be intentionally seeking out biblical friendships and being open and willing to share how your parenting journey is going with other believers. In order for us to disciple our children well we must also be willing to be discipled. 


A Child Dedication is a celebration in itself! Below there are some fun and intentional ways you can celebrate this:


  • Invite some of your church family over for lunch after service. Spend some time praying together and speaking over your child’s life
  • Ask some of your church family to write your child a card or commit to praying a specific Bible verse over your child. These can be sweet keepsakes for when your child grows up. 
  • Write your child a special note about this day, a special prayer, that you will share with them when they are adults.

FAITH COMMITMENT and BAPTISM

Your child just prayed to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior! What could be more exciting and worth celebrating than this moment!? Whether your kid is young or old, this is a time to celebrate what God has done in their life. We want to make sure that we don’t just pass over this moment. Here are some ideas for how you can celebrate this beautiful moment in your child’s life:


  • Throw a special dinner or go out for a special dinner. Take the time for family members to speak encouragement and biblical wisdom into your kid’s life.
  •  Go out for ice cream or some other dessert and speak a blessing over your child, rejoicing with them and giving them advice for their faith journey moving forward.
  • Mark this day on your calendar and celebrate every year as your child’s spiritual birthday! (This would be for Faith Commitment only)
  • Throw a party and invite your kid’s friends and family over! Provide time and opportunity to speak over your child’s life and encourage them for the journey ahead.
  • Buy your child a Bible to mark this moment. Check out the Bible suggestions on the Resource page for your child's season of life.
  • Buy your kid a cross necklace or some kind of object as a reminder of their faith in Christ.


Example:

(Pastor Derek) I had a high school student in our youth group who got baptized, and I talked with his mom and dad about celebrating that day. We ended up having a pool party at their house following his baptism at church. A select group of his friends were invited along with some family. We hung out and had lunch together. After lunch I gathered everyone together for a time to encourage the student. I started by sharing some Scripture and encouragements with the student. Then we opened it up to his friends, and many of them shared how they had seen God at work in the student’s life. Then dad opened up Scripture and shared some encouragements and warnings to his son. We then prayed over the student. Later mom gave him a gift with a card where she wrote some encouraging words for her son. It ended up being such a powerful celebration, and something that this student will remember for the rest of their life!

FIRST COMMUNION

We believe that the sacrament of Holy Communion (also known as the Lord’s Supper) is reserved for those who have trusted in Christ as their Lord and Savior. As a church we partake of Holy Communion together on the first Sunday of every month. We take Communion in obedience to Jesus’ command in Matthew 26:26-29 as well as the Apostle Paul’s command in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. Once your child has made a faith commitment to Christ as their Lord and Savior, they can begin to take communion with the rest of the church body.


It's important that we help our kids understand what Communion is, and why we do it. 


Communion is something that Christians throughout history and all over the world do to remember what Jesus did for us. The bread, which represents Christ’s body, and the juice, which represents Christ’s blood, is a reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. Communion does not wash away our sins, just like baptism doesn’t wash away our sins either. Communion is a time that we as believers pause and reflect on what Jesus did for us. In other words, Communion is a physical and tangible reminder of the Gospel.


Talk with your kid(s) about what Communion is and make sure they understand this sacrament before they begin partaking of it.



Here are some ideas of what this could look like for your family:


  • If you have kids in elementary school who have made a faith commitment to Christ, you can go get them from their Sunday school class and bring them to the main sanctuary to take Communion with you.
  • If you have a middle schooler or high schooler, they will already be with you during the service since the youth group does not meet on the first Sunday of the month. Our encouragement is for families to be together on Communion Sundays and partake in this beautiful sacrament together.
  • Some families will huddle up and pray together and take Communion together, making it more of a family moment together.
  • If you have young kids, it might be a good idea to huddle up together and ask them: “Why do we take Communion?” as an opportunity for them to tell you it’s meaning and a reminder for everyone of what this sacrament represents in our lives.