{"id":13677,"date":"2020-06-06T14:59:44","date_gmt":"2020-06-06T18:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fccej.org\/v5\/?page_id=13677"},"modified":"2026-03-20T06:07:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T10:07:52","slug":"children-youth","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.fccej.org\/v5\/grow-in-faith\/children-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"Children & Youth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children &<\/span> Youth<\/h3>
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Here at First Church, we delight in our children & youth. We welcome and encourage them to participate in all of our faith formation programs which provide a nurturing place to learn, grow in their faith, ask questions and feel closer to God. We hope all who attend First Church see and feel the love of God and the Holy Spirit moving through the children and youth each and every week.<\/p>\n

Participate in worship by being an acolyte (lighting and extinguishing the candles – symbolizes that God and Jesus go with us out into the world), read scripture, ring the church bell before worship, be a greeter or an usher along with your family or with a peer group.<\/p>\n

We offer many programs for children and youth to be actively involved in developing their faith at First Church. For more information on any of the following, please reach out to welcome@fccej.org:<\/p>\n

Nursery<\/a><\/p>\n

Faith Formation Sunday School<\/a><\/p>\n

J.A.M. (Jesus and Me)<\/a><\/p>\n

Junior Youth<\/a><\/p>\n

High School Youth<\/a><\/p>\n

Confirmation<\/a><\/p>\n

Vacation Bible Camp<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/p><\/div>

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Nursery<\/h5>\n<\/div><\/section>
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We strive to keep our Nursery staffed each Sunday with two high school youth who have an adult support person as to comply with our Safe Conduct Guidelines. Parents are welcome to stay in the Nursery or are given a pager. Our Nursery is equipped with a speaker to hear the worship service, and services are streamed to the adjacent Fellowship Hall. During our 8:30 am service the Nursery is currently ‘self-serve’ while we wait for little ones to start coming to that service.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/p><\/div>\n

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Faith Formation Sunday School<\/h5>\n<\/div><\/section>
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Our Sunday morning program is for preschool aged children, beginning at age 3, up through 8th grade and takes place during our 10:15 am worship service. Children and youth begin in worship with their families and then move to our programs following the Children’s Message (check the calendar at the top of this page).<\/p>\n

Here at First Church, we spend time, like Jesus did, getting to know each other while we learn about God and hear and talk about many stories from the Bible. All are encouraged to ask questions as we build relationships with our peers as well as with other ages.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/p><\/div>\n

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J.A.M. (Jesus and Me)<\/h5>\n<\/div><\/section>
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Our J.A.M. program is open to all 3rd<\/sup>\u00a0\u2013 5th<\/sup> graders and a parent or grandparent.\u00a0 We meet to grow our faith, fellowship and a mission project once a quarter on a Sunday afternoon for an hour.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/p><\/div>\n

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Junior Youth<\/h5>\n<\/div><\/section>
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All youth in 6th – 8th grade are encouraged to come join in the fun as we gather twice a month from September – May. We’ll build relationships, grow in faith with our conversations, mission projects and games. All are welcome to bring a friend.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/p><\/div>\n

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High School Youth<\/h5>\n<\/div><\/section>
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This program for 9th<\/sup>\u00a0\u2013 12th<\/sup> graders is a safe place to come grow, laugh and serve as we build community, disconnect from our phones and spend some time re-connecting with God.\u00a0 We are currently gathering once a month and exploring what it means for each of us to live and share in God\u2019s awesome playground. All are welcome! Feel free to bring a friend.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/p><\/div>\n

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Confirmation<\/h5>\n<\/div><\/section>
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Confirmation is a year-long path to membership for 8th\/9th graders and older youth. It is the culmination of baptism and Faith Formation Sunday School. First Church offers a Confirmation Class every 1-2 years, providing weekly classes, field trips to learn about other religious traditions, and service projects. Rev. Mark is the lead teacher.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":13661,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13677","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fccej.org\/v5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fccej.org\/v5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fccej.org\/v5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fccej.org\/v5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fccej.org\/v5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13677"}],"version-history":[{"count":55,"href":"https:\/\/www.fccej.org\/v5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18237,"href":"https:\/\/www.fccej.org\/v5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13677\/revisions\/18237"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fccej.org\/v5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fccej.org\/v5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}