Next Generation

What is Next Generation?

Our Next Generation ministry exists to support parents as they raise their children in a Godly way. Our prayer for each child and student at The Austin Stone is that they would become the next generation of faithful Christ followers and that in following Him that they would become people who give life to their local communities and influence the world at large.

We believe that for children and students, knowing and following Jesus involves the same day-to-day pursuits that knowing and following Him as an adult require: worshiping Christ, living in community, getting trained to minister, and making disciples. However, we have intentionally structured our ministry with a different objective for each age level to reflect the different developmental levels of children and students. Our goal is that the children within our church will be fully integrated into the body of Christ at The Austin Stone by the time that they graduate high school and will be well prepared for their next stage in life.

Next Gen Objectives

Pray
The objective for our nursery ministry is for our leaders to pray. These littlest family members are important to Christ, and they are important to our church family as well. While they are not yet at a cognitive level to understand much about God and Christ, we want to lay a solid foundation of prayer over their lives.
 
Embrace
Our main objective for our preschool ministry is to embrace. We desire for these children to embrace the basic truths of God: that He made them, He loves them, and that Jesus wants to be their friend forever. We also want to embrace them as a church family, by letting them know that church is a safe, loving and enjoyable place to be.
 
Trust
Our grade school ministry objective is trust. We desire for grade schoolers at The Austin Stone to take the truths they have learned and begin to truly trust them. We want them to see the bible as a true and helpful source of life and godliness and hope that they will at some point trust in Christ as their Savior. We are also intentional to build trusting mentor relationships between volunteer leaders and the children.
 
Serve
The objective for our student ministry, TeenRock, is for our students to get out and serve. We want our students to take the things they have learned and trusted in and start getting some “hands on” experience at being the body of Christ. As they serve the body and the city, our hope is that these students will gain a passion for serving the Lord and others.

Where is Next Generation?

Our nursery, preschool, and grade school ministries are a part of KidStuff, which takes place during the 9:30am, 11:15am, and 5:00pm services. Childcare is available during the 7:00pm service.
 
Our student ministry, TeenRock, meets at 9:30am each Sunday at the AHS Performing Arts Center, and has small groups that meet throughout the week.