Hope United Methodist Church

Children are always welcome in our services, but it is important to us to offer age appropriate opportunities for our children to worship, learn, and form their own relationship with God. To do this we have classes for those in preschool-8th grade that start at the same time as our worship services. After their class time, they will brought into the service to participate in Communion, worship, and the benediction with their families.

For Preschool-2nd Grade students, we have Godly Play . We believe Godly Play is the best spiritual formation option for this age group giving them space to explore, learn, and respond to God in their own way. Each week they see and hear a story told by one of our Storytellers using materials the children can play with during their work time. After the story we invite them to wonder and share what God may be teaching them this week. Work time follows where they have the opportunity to respond to the story creatively with our art and story materials, or sit quietly to think and pray (yes, some do choose this option). 

Our second class is for 3rd-6th Grade students that is modeled after the Godly Play format, but for an older audience. In this class they travel through the epic narrative of the Bible in chronological order, hearing a story, discussing their thoughts, asking tough questions, and learning from each other. They also have the opportunity to creatively respond to the story, and get time to have fun together ending each week with a game of Crazy-ball!

We also have a class for those in 7th and 8th grade during our second service which you can learn more about here .