I confess, I think I had become desensitized to the life stressors kids and families face today.  Divorce, death, depression, health diagnoses, adoption, foster care, bullying…the list could go on. They have become so common place that we don’t think twice about it.  However, those things are anything but common place to those experiencing it.  Especially children and youth, who because of their developmental level, process stress very differently than adults.  Not only that, but kids, even within the same family, can process and react to stress very differently from each other.  My concern is that our kids today are developing a “world view” of despair, isolation and “waiting for the other shoe to drop” rather than a “world view” of hope, love and connectedness that Jesus offers. 

We at Northgate don’t think it needs to be that way.  For a few years now, we have been praying, asking God how we can support hurting kids/kids with various “special needs” and their families.  As a result, beginning on Mondays in the fall, Northgate Church is launching a new program called Confident Kids.

Below is from ConfidentKids.com

Growing up in America today is not easy. Simply surviving can be complicated for children growing up with fractured families, drugs and alcohol in their homes and communities, family and neighborhood violence, foster care – and so much more! Yet few places within our society, and even fewer within our churches, are reaching out to help children deal with the complexities of these high-stress life situations.

Confident Kids is a Bible based support group program offering a life skills curriculum that helps families deal with the stresses of living in today's world. Through games, skits and small group discussions, children learn important life skills while experiencing a safe place to talk about their life experiences. In a concurrent group, parents/caregivers learn to apply these same skills at home, while experiencing a safe place to share their stories, as well. In both groups, participants grow as they discover they are not alone. 

Confident Kids is designed to bring hope, healing and the message of God’s love to hurting kids and struggling parents within our community by providing a safe, supportive Christ centered community.  

Northgate’s Confident Kids program will have a place for everyone in the family, from childcare for infants and toddlers to support groups for kids and youth ages 4 to 18 as well as a group for parents/caregivers.   No one needs to be left home on Monday nights this fall.  A meal will be provided as well.  

Even more important than providing strategies for dealing with life’s stressors, we hope that Northgate’s Confident Kids program will connect kids and families…to each other, to others going through something similar, to loving, well trained volunteers who are cheering them on and to Jesus who came so that we could live differently.   

Registration for participation in Confident Kids will open in August.  For more information on opportunities to serve on the Confident Kids team visit http://ngatechurch.org/kids-1/  

From Northgate’s Vision

Compassion-loving
We envision a Christ-centered, radically-loving, excessively-compassionate church who serves rather than be served, who gives rather than takes, and who blesses rather than curses.

Wendy Walton

Kids’ Ministry Director