Child Dedication

What is Child Dedication?

Child dedication is an opportunity for you to meet other parents and ask the church to stand with you in prayer as you seek to raise your children in the ways of Jesus.

We commit to doing what Deuteronomy 6:4-7 teaches…

Hear, O Israel: The Lᴏʀᴅ our God, the Lᴏʀᴅ is one. Love the Lᴏʀᴅ your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

We love God with everything in us, and we model that for our kids because we know that our example is far more powerful than our words. We teach our kids what it looks like to follow Jesus. And we talk about it and think about it often. Leading kids to become fully devoted followers of Christ isn’t a checkbox on a parenting to-do list. It’s an intentional, ongoing conversation that shapes who they are now and who they become later.

Here’s some answers to common questions about what it means to dedicate your child:

It’s not baptism, nor a sign of salvation.
Child dedication is a great step for your family, but it’s certainly not the same thing as salvation or baptism. Salvation is what happens when your child decides to start a relationship with God, and baptism is when they decide to go public with their faith. Child dedication is less about your child’s choice now and more about you setting them up for those choices later. When you dedicate your child, you’re committing to raise them in an environment where they hear about Jesus and have an opportunity to accept Him.

What’s the big deal about child dedication?

Child dedications are a spiritually significant milestone for your whole family. When you dedicate your child, you’re choosing to make some parenting decisions that honor God, like getting in community through a small group, modeling what it looks like to be planted in the church through serving, and showing your kids an example of what an irrationally generous life looks like.

When can you dedicate your child?

That’s your decision. You can dedicate your child whether they’re three days old or 13 years old. The age doesn’t matter as much as the principle. Child dedication is an important step in your family’s faith life because it’s setting a foundation that your family will be known for following Christ.

Parenting doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. Let’s parent together—trusting that with multiple voices and collective influence, our kids will be trained up in the right ways they should go.