At The Journey we are passionate about equipping and encouraging parents to help support their children as they grow in their faith. Child dedication provides parents with the opportunity to publicly commit to raising their child in a Christ centered home in the presence of their church community. 

What is child dedication?
Dedicating your child is an exciting milestone. Child dedication is an outward expression of your desire to follow God and raise your child to love Jesus.  By choosing to have your child dedicated, you are making a public declaration that your child belongs to God and you are committed to teaching biblical values to your family.  You are also inviting your church family to be a part of your child’s faith journey and spiritual development.  Child dedication makes no claim of salvation for the child but, instead, represents the parent’s commitment to provide a Christ-centered foundation. 

What can we expect from the church?
As your church family, we also commit to providing biblical instruction and loving care to nourish children in the ways of the Lord. We pray that each child, from an early age, will develop a personal faith in Jesus as their Savior and commit to following Him throughout his or her life.

What does the Bible say about child dedication?
The tradition of child dedication has ancient origins in the Bible.  The Israelites, on the 8th day of a child’s life, brought their children to the priest for a blessing.  Hannah brought Samuel to Eli, the priest, to dedicate him to the Lord (1 Samuel 1:21-28). Mary and Joseph brought baby Jesus to the temple for his dedication (Luke 2:21-40). 

What can we expect for the dedication service?

Typically, we host a child dedication service each spring on a Saturday morning. There is plenty of room to encourage families to invite friends and loved ones to come and be a witness to this special occasion. Parents and children are invited on stage to commit to raising their children to know and follow Jesus.

Child dedication is a simple and powerful way for parents to commit to raising their kids in a home that is centered on Jesus and his life-changing love. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me via email Kara@thejourneynova.org or you can register for our upcoming dedication service  on Saturday, May 11th by clicking here.