Child Dedications @ TerraNova

Child dedication is a public "ceremony" in which parents dedicate their children (and themselves as parents) to God, and vow to raise their children to know and love and follow God. Child dedications happen during our weekend gatherings a few times a year, as the TerraNova community is gathered to worship God.

The roots for this practice are found in the concept of "stewardship" in the Bible. A core belief in scripture is that nothing is really "ours." Everything comes from God and belongs to God, and our role in life is really the role of the "steward" someone who takes care of someone else's stuff. And this principle applies even (maybe especially) to our core relationships!

So in dedicating our children to God:
(1) We're acknowledging that we believe our kids came to us from God and really belong to God.
(2) We're committing ourselves to "steward" this gift well — to raise God's kids the way He desires them to be raised.
And (3) we're expressing our desire that God would bless and guide the lives of our kids. (See Mark 10:13-16!)

SOME FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS …

Q: Do you baptize children?

Some church traditions baptize infants. We respect that. But as we read the scriptures, it seems to us that the natural progression in the Bible is that (1) a person believes and embraces a life of following Jesus; (2) that person is baptized.

This progression matches with our understanding that baptism is a “rite of passage” marking a person’s new life in Christ — the end (or death) of their old self, and the beginning (or resurrection) of a new life. For more on this, check out our baptism page. Q:

Q: Should my children get baptized? If so, when?

If your child is old enough to understand and make that decision to be a follower of Jesus, and mature enough to understand what baptism means, then we’d absolutely love to baptize your child! For us, that’s usually around 5th grade. If you’re interested, please talk to someone on our SuperNova Kids team. You can email us at kids@ourterranova.com.

Q: When are your next child dedications?

We do child dedications periodically in our weekend gatherings, and they’re scheduled based on interest and availability. If you’re interested in having your child(red) dedicated in a service coming up, please email us at email us at kids@ourterranova.com, and we’ll add you to the interest list!