Our Values

The goal of our ministry is to equip every child and family to become complete in Christ and love Him for a lifetime. In order to make sure we stick to that goal in all that we do, we have four key values. Any time we are planning a lesson or event, we make sure it fits within those values. They are: 1. teaching the Bible creatively in a child-targeted manner, 2. developing relationships, 3. providing family learning tools, and 4. safety.
Teaching the Bible Creatively in a Child-Targeted Manner
We want children to leave Morning Star each week with a greater understanding of God’s Word and how it relates to their lives. In order to help them gain this understanding, we teach the Bible in such a way that they’ll really hold on to it. A few of the “tools” we use are drama, songs, games or activities. We also understand that each child learns uniquely, so we try to teach to the different learning styles.
Developing Relationships
Community and belonging are important to foster any form of growth. Infants, toddlers, and preschoolers receive large amounts of one-on-one attention, while elementary aged kids get to be in small groups. We want children to leave knowing someone cares about them, and to see a familiar face when they return each week. Our teachers and leaders are modeling what it means to love and serve God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.
Providing Family Learning Tools
We see church as a supplement to what parents are teaching at home. For the most part, we have about 40 hours a year with a child, while the family gets around 3000. Our goal is to make those 40 hours meaningful, and provide parents with tools for teaching their children the rest of the time. This includes weekly take-home sheets with discussion points, and availability on the teacher’s part to answer questions and refer parents to valuable resources.
Safety
An effective learning environment is a safe environment. In order to protect the children and our volunteers, no child is to be left alone with an adult and volunteers are required to complete a criminal background check. To ensure that children are not released to the wrong person, parents/guardians of kids first grade and younger must turn in their child’s duplicate nametag in order to pick them up.