Children's

When the church first began in 1974, we were actually three different congregations and there really was no children's ministry-we were all college students or fresh out of college and children were only a distant thought.

A year or two later, the babies began arriving. By that time, two of the congregations had merged into one and were meeting in the Republican Glee Club on Weber Road in Clintonville. Children's ministry remained in "mom's lap" until the late 70's. Sunday school classes began behind the bar in the basement of the Glee Club. When the remaining congregation joined the others we became Christ Community Church and we met in a small church building on Indianola Ave. with children's classes in two rooms adjacent to the sanctuary. From there we moved to Brookhaven High School and the children occupied some of the classrooms while the congregation met first in the gym and then in the school auditorium. We stored toys in big cardboard boxes in the school's storage room and when we would drop the boxes in the room where the children were meeting, we were greeted by the cockroaches quickly exiting the box. The "nursery" was located in the school library-make-shift areas were set apart with blankets. I remember a story of a two year old that was busy chewing something-it was discovered that he had found some gum sticking under one of the desks! Needless to say, this was not the best moments in the history of children's ministry at VCC, but we had some very faithful members who volunteered to serve our children-Mike Trudeau (now a member of VLI board and a leader at the Delaware Vineyard) and Tom Pipic were two who led the "ministry", ordering curriculum and organizing the team working with the children.

Soon after we moved into our first church building on Lehner Ave., Beth Crawford (currently writing Bible studies) became the first children's ministry coordinator, and at that point, it really became a "ministry". We had our own building and our own classrooms. No more storing toys and their "companions" in a school storage closet. We had real classrooms! Beth faithfully led the ministry until her second child was born and she went home to be a full-time mom in 1989.

On July 1, 1989 a very unlikely character (me) began leading the children's ministry. My office was located in a basement closet that also served as the "teacher's workroom" and was situated directly under the baptismal. On baptism weekends, I had to place a bucket on my desk to collect the water overflow that traveled through the duct work and onto my desk from the bottom of the steps as people exited the baptismal. We were averaging 115 children each weekend and we were quickly outgrowing our children's ministry space (I learned this would be a recurring opportunity!). I remember one Sunday morning opening the door to the kindergarten class which met in a room approximately 10 ft. x 10 ft. (very hot, no windows). I was greeted by more than a dozen kindergarten children who were running around the two leaders who were sitting in the middle of the room on the floor speaking indiscernibly. I wasn't certain if they were speaking in tongues or had just lost their minds! I quickly moved everyone out into the cooler air of the "fellowship hall", but this was marked my first experience of that wonderful recurring "opportunity" to minister to children by creatively using limited space! Never-the-less, we loved every moment and we were so grateful that God had provided us with our own building!

In August 1992, we moved into our building here on Cooper Road. Coming from the basement, I had asked for the "window offices" for our children's ministry and I was given just that-rooms that surrounded the auditorium (now the old gym where our third and fourth graders meet)! We moved from three services to one service for the first 6 months, but Rich Nathan and Dan Foster (our worship leader at the time) held a special early morning service for all of us who were working with the children.

Wes Russell joined the staff as our first Children's Pastor in 1993. I became a pastor in 1995-prior to that, my title was children's ministry coordinator. Wes and I jointly led VineyardKids. We had lots of space and it was beautiful-but it wasn't long before we were outgrowing even that space! One Sunday morning, I opened the door to the first grade classroom where the Holland family (still leading VineyardKids today) was leading 30+ children. I made the comment that they sure had a lot of children that week. Karen responded, "If everyone came who was here at least once during the last month, we would have more than 70!" Once again, space issues were becoming an "opportunity"!

In August 1998, Wes left on a church planting effort and Pam White joined me. One weekend that fall we moved our services to the Convention Center downtown to celebrate the culmination of the building campaign to build our current auditorium (and additional classrooms). Once again, only this time for just one week, we moved into a space that was not our own. It was crazy and a bit scary, but God was faithful and we didn't lose any children! In March 1999, Mike Szlapak joined us and soon Kidz Quest came into being for our grade-school children.

We now have a team of 12 people (mostly part-time) plus two interns on staff along with a team of more than 500 volunteer leaders a year who minister to approximately 1200-1300 VineyardKids each weekend. Faces have come and gone, our VineyardKids ministry continues to "grow-up" and grow in number. In a ministry that typically experiences leadership changes every two years (average tenure regionally), the Lord has been extremely gracious to VCC. He has given us a team (paid and volunteer) who has consistently worked with our VineyardKids-some for more than 20 years! We have a rich heritage and are looking forward to more as the next generation is built in the faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ!