We take the responsibility God has given us to care for “the least of these” seriously (Matthew 19:14). Just as Jesus welcomed children and valued them, we at King’s Cross Church do as well.
Our heart is that King’s Cross is a safe and secure place for children to learn and flourish in Jesus and we work diligently to ensure this with our training and safety policies.
As a church that welcomes a wide variety of people within a community that is heavily affected by trauma and abuse, it’s impossible for us to know what life circumstances and traumatic events each child who comes into our services has been through. So, it’s important that we know the signs of abuse and trauma in order to provide the support and care that is needed.
One of the most important ways we make an effort to care well for the young people in our church is by offering trauma-informed training to all members. In order for any person to work with the children or youth of King’s Cross, we require that they be members in good standing, complete and review a background check with a leader, and receive trauma-informed training.
Here are three key ways we support all our children and youth workers:
- We require awareness training before serving utilizing training videos provided by Churchcares.com as well as the book Becoming a Church that Cares Well for the Abused.
- Our Deacon of Crisis Care provides knowledgeable support and resources for both areas of ministry and comes alongside to support specific circumstances as needed.
- We periodically offer a variety of additional training resources, such as training workshops through the YWCA and Know & Tell.
Children’s Ministry
We offer a children’s class during our Sunday morning sermon for ages 1 through 2nd grade. Additionally, we have coloring sheets available at the Welcome Center for any children who stay in the service.
To help keep our Children’s Ministry class a safe space, we have put in place many policies including:
- A hall monitor who prevents unauthorized people from going down the hallway to the Children’s Ministry area. All other means of entrance are locked to prevent entrance from the outside, but accessible for egress in case of emergency.
- Adults and teens must have a background check completed before serving.
- Minimum of 2 unrelated adults in the class.
- Check-in & Check-out System:
- Check-In: Children & parents receive a tag
- Check-Out: 2 checkpoints to verify the child is leaving with the right adult (before leaving the classroom and by the hall monitor).
We currently use a curriculum from the Gospel Project, which works through the Bible chronologically. For more information on the curriculum, click here.
Note: When there is a 5th Sunday in a month (approx. 1x per quarter), we have a family service. We provide activity kits at the Welcome Center to help engage children during this service.
Family Care Room
In addition to our Children’s class, we have a room for parents to take young children during the service as needed. The service is live streamed to this room.
If you are interested in serving or have any questions about Children’s Ministry, you can reach out to Davide McCurdy at Davide@kingscrossmanchester.com.
Youth Ministry
The Youth Group of King’s Cross Church is for youth grades 6th-12th and meets in the same format as our missional community groups. We connect on what is going on in each others’ lives twice a month and engage with the sermon or the text from the sermon from the previous week.
We do this to expound on the Church’s mission of “loving Jesus together” while exploring how that looks in the context of being a teen. We make every effort to make this a safe environment for teens to explore their faith.
As with our Children’s Ministry, we prioritize the safety and care of the teens who attend. All meetings are led by a minimum of 2 members of the church who have completed background checks and training.
The youth missional community meets on the first and third Tuesdays from September through May from 6:30pm to 8:00pm.
If you are interested in attending or have any questions about the group, you can reach out to Dave Hamilton, at Dave@kingscrossmanchester.com
Note: In the state of New Hampshire, per the Child Protection Act, Chapter 169c – Section 29, all adults are mandated reporters. We take this seriously. As such, we equip our members with the appropriate policies and procedures to make a report.