We ask Ashley Sheare, children’s ministry leader, how our goals in A Legacy of Worship can impact the future of our children’s ministry. Here’s what she has to say

Why do you feel called to lead this ministry?

After lots of prayer and consideration, I felt God calling me to lead the Children’s Ministry. I feel that with my home situation as a stay at home mom with a new baby and a seven year old in school, and with how the leadership of the children’s ministry was being shared, I would be able to commit the time needed to fulfill this role.

With having worked in Sparkz as a teacher and being involved with a good chunk of the event planning, I felt I had a solid base of experience with how things worked. I felt that my organization skills, my love for the children and for Fellowship Church coupled with the desire to reach our community would allow me to lead the Children’s Ministry in a way that was pleasing to God, with continued prayers to do so.

God has provided with an amazing leadership team in the Children’s Ministry, which made me confident in taking on this role

How do you see the expansion of our facilities impacting your ministry?

I see the expansion of our facilities impacting the Children’s Ministry in tremendous ways. To start off with, having a separate Children and Youth wing on the second floor of the Education Building for Equipping Hour and Children’s Church will be wonderful for security purposes. It will be great for having all resources easily accessible for the classes, not to mention having a bathroom close by all classrooms. It will make for a smoother parent pick-up as those classes will be separated from the nursery pick-up. Having a separate chapel space and easy access to the Activity rRom for them will be great for times when we gather all the kids together for things like Children’s Choir, or mini lessons prior to class (This is something we are doing now during this campaign, as we teach the children about handling money God’s way).

For our Sparkz Ministry, this expansion will be such an exciting thing. Having a full gym for the games class for Sparkz will allow for a bigger list of game options, it will allow for less concern of damaging other equipment or decorations that are currently in the gym for Sunday Services. Having a full gym will also allow for growth in the class sizes. I think of when Sparkz hosts the Lighthouse kids and how many children and volunteers gather that night. This expansion will be great for such occasions. I think about Sparkz closing night and how in the past we have rented out the gym at Camp Orchard Hill. Having a full gym of our own will allow us to use our facilities more which saves us time and ministry money, and keeps things consistent for parents.

I also get very excited about the thought of this expansion in terms of our Children’s Ministry outreach events like the Easter Celebration, VBS, and the Fall Festival. The impact this expansion will have on those events will be amazing. Having more space to host people from our church and community will make the events run smoother and allow for better organization within those events. Activities that were squeezed into our current gym will be able to be spread out to allow more movement and accommodate the yearly growth in these events. Having the separate sanctuary will open up possibilities of concerts, shows and speakers that might not have been able to happen in the past because of space and set up. I look forward to the expansion coming to fulfillment. I also look forward to getting the children and parents excited about and having them play a part in the Capital Campaign.

In what ways will this be able to better fulfill its purpose upon completion of the master plan?

This expansion will help us as a church fulfill our Children’s Ministry Mission. That Mission is to intentionally lead children to see God as He has revealed Himself in scripture, the only true God, infinitely glorious and worthy of our worship; and to equip children through the scriptures to become like Christ, to encourage them to live joyful lives pleasing to God, and to support parents to be the primary disciple-makers of their children.

We will do this by loving our children with a Christ-like love, by creating a God-centered and child friendly atmosphere and by intentionally supporting parents in making sure that we, our children, and their children may live to glorify God. (Deut 6:1-2)