Bringing children and teenagers to church in Kissimmee

Parents visiting a church for the first time tend to have a specific and practical set of worries, and they are rarely about theology. Who will be with my child. How do I get them back. What happens if the baby cries. Will my teenager be bored into never coming again.

Check-in, and getting your child back

Children's ministries at most churches this size run a check-in at the door. A child is signed in and matched to whoever is collecting them, so they are only released to that person. Solid Rock has a Digital Check-In team whose whole job is that process on a Sunday morning, and a first-time family is exactly who they are looking out for.

What children do during the service

Children's Ministry runs alongside the main service. The church describes its aim as nurturing young minds and shaping future leaders while establishing a foundation of faith, in an environment built to be fun and interactive rather than a smaller copy of the adult service. In practice that means teaching pitched at their age, activities, music and a lot of noise.

Children are also welcome to stay in the main service, and plenty do. A restless toddler in a church service is a normal Sunday rather than a problem, and anyone who has raised children in a congregation knows the sound of one and thinks nothing of it.

Teenagers

Youth Ministry is a separate team with its own gatherings, and it tends to be the part of church life a teenager either connects with or does not, largely on the strength of whether they know somebody there. Coming with a friend is the single thing that most reliably makes a first visit work, which is worth knowing before pushing a reluctant fourteen year old through the door alone.

There is also a Worship Arts side to church life that a lot of teenagers find their way in through. The church describes it as more than music and singing: a platform for creative expression and community involvement covering choir, dance and drama, along with the band and the AV Media team. For a young person who would rather run a camera or a sound desk than sit in a row, that is often the way in.

Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

Matthew 19:14

It is a short verse that has shaped how a lot of churches think about the noise level on a Sunday morning.

The school on the same site

Solid Rock is home to Still We Rise Excellence Academy, a K to 5 Montessori school that shares the church site. It is a separate institution with its own admissions, and it is worth knowing about for families weighing up more than Sundays.

Visiting with children

Arriving ten or fifteen minutes early is the one thing that makes a first Sunday with children easier, because check-in takes a few minutes and a rushed start is what makes the whole thing feel stressful. The visit page has directions and parking, and a companion piece covers the five things first-time visitors most often ask.

For the rest of the week, there is a separate list of free and low-cost things families do around Kissimmee and Orlando, which is worth having on hand once the summer holidays arrive.

Plan your visit