The nursery ministry is open to all children from newborns up through age 3, and is available during all worship services at Bethlehem. It is our desire to come alongside parents in nurturing the faith of their children. Our responsibility is to model and to teach truth in an attitude of frequent prayer.
Significant ministry to children begins in our youngest nurseries. Here a foundation of prayer begins for your child, as the godly men and women working in the nurseries are encouraged to "pray without ceasing" for the Lord's work in the hearts of these little ones while they are in our care.
As your child's language skills develop, and they move up into our middle nurseries, our prayers for them continue, as we also begin introducing biblical truths to them through frequent use and illustration. We trust that the Holy Spirit will bring understanding and produce faith in their hearts.
This pattern of prayer and instruction continues to develop in our oldest nurseries, by building a biblical vocabulary and helping your child see a great God through Bible stories they can understand! May the legacy we leave for our children give them eternal joy and glorify our Father in Heaven!
We are always seeking additional volunteers to love our little ones. Out of love and concern for the nursery children and youth in our care, all of our volunteers go through an application process which includes a background check. Learn how you can get involved as a volunteer.
The Bible, the Word of God, is the ground and guide for educating our children at Bethlehem. We prayerfully work to:
Our programming on Sundays and Wednesdays points students to Christ through teaching, worship and small group interactions. Students in 5th-8th grade are in the "transition years", going from being a child to becoming a young adult. This age group has special events throughout the year such as retreats and camps that are planned to help guide them through these transition years.
We desire that every part of our programming relates to our vision for Young Adults (9th-12th grade students). Through these "apprentice years" we pray that students would:
We aim to be both a caring community and a motivated mission. In broad strokes, we employ a twofold strategy by seeking to be both a communal home and a missional platoon. As an extension of Elm Grove Baptist Church, we desire both to care for and shepherd Christian students during these critical, trajectory-setting college years (home), as well as bring Christ and his gospel into new lives and people groups on the campus (platoon).
Essential to the evangelistic and discipleship ministry of Elm Grove is the bus ministry. Each Sunday a dedicated crew of men, women and teenagers go to nearby cities to pick up boys, girls, teenagers and families that would not be able to come to church otherwise. It is true that the bus ministry provides transportation, but we are more than just transportation. The bus pastors work very hard to bring people to Christ. They visit their regular riders every week and also look for new riders. The bus pastors are in charge of an exciting program on the bus each Sunday which includes a Bible lesson, singing, memorizing Bible verses, games, treats and much more. Our conscientious bus workers go to each home’s door to safely escort your children to and from the bus and back to your door at the end of the day. Our bus drivers are very professional and are required to meet strict standards for safety and training.
The bus ministry is a great way for church members to “flex their spiritual muscles” and to practice serving others. It is unique in its ability to provide entire families a way to serve Christ together. The bus ministry is an especially valuable training tool for our teens. One of the benefits of having a Bus Ministry history is that we currently have families who are actively serving in the church who at one time started attending EGBC through the bus ministry.