Children Ministry is very important in the household of God. This ministry is meant to care for the spiritual, physical and moral growth of the young ones in the congregation. The ministry is purpose to teach, concel and visit the children, meet their parents occasionally to enhance all round development of such children to the glory of God.
OBJECTIVES:
1. To obey the Lord commandment that say we should train a child in the way of the Lord (Prov.22:6 Matt18:140.
2. To catch our children young for Christ so that when they grow up they will not depart from it (Prov.29:17).
3. To obey the Great commission. He said we should make disciples for him. These include the children (Matt20:19).
4. To be able to pass to them the legacy of Christian faith (Psalm78:1-7).
5. To make our children profitable to God, follow human-being, the church and the nation.
6. To disciple them and make them God’s children.
7. Children ministry is to prevent the problem of generation gap in the nearest futures.
8. To ensure continuity in our churches.
9. To make children sources of blessings to their family, the church, the society and the Nation as a whole.
10. To let them see themselves as sinners and seek God’s forgiveness. (Matt18:14).
BRIEF HISTORY:
The children ministry of the church is as old as the church itself. The children arm of the church was coordinated by some men women who were called of God into the ministry. Under the leadership of God through Dn. L.O. Ogunkola, the children ministry was further enhanced with the construction of a befitting auditorium for children’s worship services. To further promote the work of God in children ministry and to ensure that services and activities in the ministry are better coordinated, a full time pastor (Rev I.A. Ishola) was employed on Ist on June 1998 through the spirited effort of Rev. Dr. E.O. Kehinde. With the resumption of the children Pastor, the ministry witnessed tremendous growth and the following achievements were recorded to the glory of God:
a. One of the children (Master Niyi Aderibigbe) represented Osun Baptist Conference in the annual Children Bible Drill during the 2001
Nigerian Baptist Convention session in Ilorin Kwara State.
b. Gloria Alade represented Zion 1Baptist Association in the annual Sunbeam Bible Drill during Osun Baptist Conference session of 2004.
In order to promote godliness among the children and to enhance their understanding in the Word of God, the following programmes and activities were put in place:
1. Wednesday Bible study and prayer meeting between 5:30pm and 7:00pm.
2. Discipleship training with intensive monitoring in order to ensure the balanced growth of the children. Some of the materials used for discipleship training include:
1. Now that you are saved
2. Walking in the Road of Fait
3. Six Lessons
Some of the graduands of the discipleship training have been baptized while some are currently in baptismal class.
3. Restructuring of the Children Church Training Programme in order to make more enriching and rewarding.
1. English service for children whose parent attend English service.
2. Introduction of children’s department in the home church fellowship.
3. Children were encouraged to join their-grade organizations (i.e. sunbeam, G. A and R.A.)for meeting.
4. Sunday school classes according to their ages were encouraged.
Apart from the aforementioned, other programmes such as:
i. Annual holiday Bible school.
ii. Children Easter Cantata.
iii. Children Christmas Jamboree were equally promoted.
To ensure effective impartation of Bible Based Knowledge and right attitude in children workers and teachers are given regular training so as to enrich their knowledge.
To the glory of God, the children ministry of the Church is growing in leaps through the help of the Holy Spirit and effort of the former children’s pastor, Rev Yemi Ishola now relocated to pastor a daughter church called Christ’s Own Baptist Church. The work of the new children executive committee headed by Deaconess Sayo Afolabi is highly commendable.