It's Time to head back to School!
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Sunday morning "children's time" during worship at 10 AM is followed by a one-room Sunday School class for preschool through fifth grade students. A professionally staffed nursery is also open on Sunday morning for infants and toddlers.
Children and youth are invited to serve and become an integral part of the faith community in many ways: as an acolyte, reading Scripture on the first Sunday of the month, serving through our Food Pantry, as a Greeter with their families. You will soon discover that at Community of Faith, we believe that children and youth are as much a part of our present as they are our future.
Throughout the year, the next gen ministry offers a variety of opportunities for children and youth to have fun with one another and build relationships with other children. Some examples from previous years -- Christmas Pageant, Rise Against Hunger, Futbol Fridays, Easter Egg Hunt, Field Day, Blessing of the Back Packs, Community Garden Days, Global Young People's Convocation (GYPC).
The children started the community garden as a Serve Sunday project in April 2025 as a way to demonstrate that serving others can be made of small actions that build into a big impact.
In the fall of 2025, the gardening club donated a rain barrel. This allowed the children to water the garden independently.
In the summer of 2026, the gardening club donated some moveable raised beds. This doubled our growing areas!
We filled them with our eggplant sprouts with the hope that they would do better away from the bigger squash plants.
We connected with the local branch of the Hands On Harvest and participated in their Grow A Row Program which donates the produce to local food pantries. We of course donated to our very own food pantry: Grains of Hope!
James Huang, an Eagle Scout in Troop 158, saw the drive of the kids to provide for others and the waste produced from unsalvageable produce. In May 2026, he designed, built, and donated a compost bin to turn food waste into soil for use in the garden!
The children learned about how we store food so that it will last. They dried flower petals and learned how to cure onions.
Over the course of the growing season, April to October, the children (with the assistance of the gardening club) planted, weeded, watered, harvested, labeled, and packaged a garden full of basil, chives, tomatoes, squash, radishes, and carrots. Donating 10 lbs. of produce; putting their love for the earth and others in to action to help address food insecurity.
In 2026, the children expanded their operation to include more herbs and flowers that could be dried into tea. They wanted to not only to nourish their neighbors with good food but with a nice hot cup of tea when winter comes!
Next Gen ministry takes many forms. Sunday morning children's moment and small group learning, family service events, the Christmas pageant, and outings throughout the year are just some of the opportunities to build a deep foundation of faith to last a lifetime.
