Our chief goal at Riverside is that God would be glorified in everything we do as we proclaim and practice His Kingdom. At the center of that proclamation is Christ and the truth of the gospel – that He bore our sins on the Cross, suffering the punishment we deserved, and that freedom from sin and eternal life are received by grace, through faith in Him.

This vision translates into four primary missions for our children’s ministry:

- To serve children
- To serve parents
- To teach the Gospel
- To teach the full counsel of God’s Word

We want to keep that which is of primary importance – the Gospel! – at the center of what we teach and do. We consider it our primary mission to clearly and understandably teach the message of our need for a Savior and the solution found in Jesus Christ. Nothing is more important than doing our best to faithfully proclaim this truth, and to center and saturate our lessons in it.

We also want to teach all that God’s Word says. Our mission is to cover, as much as we are able, all that the Bible teaches us about God, His creation, His laws and His kingdom. This goal is a reflection of our high esteem for God’s Word – an esteem we hope is cultivated in our children as we teach them all that Scripture has to say.

We desire to serve children by lovingly teaching and training them. We want to humbly help kids in the same way we need to be helped: by a faithful hearing of the Gospel. Each week we want to serve children by presenting the truth of God’s Word and demonstrating/modeling that truth in our lives. We want to lovingly confront and train as necessary, and in so doing serve our children.

Assisting parents is another essential mission for us in our ministry to children. We want to serve parents by reinforcing the Gospel truths taught in the home. We want to equip and help parents to lead devotions in the home. Parents are also served when we let them know how their children are responding in the classroom and how they are interacting with the teachers and other students.

An essential tool in fulfilling our vision of communicating the Gospel is the curriculum we use in our children’s classes. We want our kids’ Sunday morning lessons to be full of Christ-centered, doctrinally sound teaching. We want to serve kids each week by clearly presenting the truth of our need for a Savior and the hope found in Jesus. And we want a lesson plan that will convey all of this in an engaging and impactful way.

With these goals in mind, we’ve been using God’s Story by Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, PA. The God’s Story curriculum explains the narrative of redemption, told throughout God’s Word. It helps children see that every passage is pointing them toward Christ and telling the story of how God has redeemed humanity. This centrality of the gospel is demonstrated each week through answering two questions: how do we see Jesus in the passage and where is the gospel.

God’s Story also helps us serve parents by presenting the same material in every class each Sunday. This means our preschool, kindergarten and elementary age classes are all covering the same passage each week, so that parents can facilitate family discussions outside of church. With all kids learning the same material each week, it is our hope that parents will find it easier to lead their families in devotions.

To that end, God’s Story also includes a family devotional for use Monday through Friday each week. Each day the devotional highlights an aspect of the lesson taught on Sunday, revisiting the crucial questions, “where is Jesus?” and “where is the gospel?”.

Links for parents: Devotions

A.R. Best serves as our Children’s Ministry Director. He has been a part of the Riverside Family for 7 years and has been a part of the Children’s ministry for 6 years. He also serves the Church by leading a Home Group. A.R. works for IBM as a Software Engineer and has also taken time to develop a children’s card game called “Heroes.”

Tony Bell has faithfully served our children for almost 30 years and currently oversees our Preschool and Kindergarten programs/classes! He and his wife, Gina, have been married for 12 years and have 3 Children of their own, Samuel (11), Daniel (8) and Anthony (6). Tony works as an Electrical Engineer for Ametek.

Rebecca Rizzuti serves as our Nursery Director. She and her husband, Mike Rizzuti who serves on the church leadership team as Administrator, have been married for over 30 years and have been a part of Riverside Christian Fellowship for almost 20 years. Mike and Rebecca have two grown children and are thoroughly enjoying being “Mima” and “Poppy” to their two grandchildren.

Links for teachers: Devotions | Preschool & Kindergarten lesson plans | Gradeschool lesson plans

From a spacious children’s auditorium to multiple classrooms, we are so thankful for the incredible facilities God has blessed us with for our children’s ministry.  In addition, when appropriate the children are able to enjoy a large playground.

All of our children’s areas are secure and accessible from the main facility.  The rooms themselves are well equipped.  Our desire is to honor God and bless our children as we create areas where the environment facilitates and enhances learning and growth.  To God alone be the glory!