River Bluff Fellowship

river bluff kids

In our children's ministry, we work to help children gain an understanding of the following 4 Truths:

We can go to God with anything at any time in PRAYER.
There is something that is unchanging, true, and applicable to our everyday lives and that is THE BIBLE.
God is at work all around the world and invites us to join Him in it through MISSIONS and OUTREACH.
God created us for RELATIONSHIP with Him and others.

Sunday Mornings

Classrooms are open to children, birth through 6th grade during our 9:30 am service. Our incredible team of Kids Crew Volunteers are dedicated to facilitating Biblically-based, engaging, and developmentally appropriate experiences for River Bluff Kids!

River Bluff Kids are invited to experience the good news of Jesus Christ through The Gospel Project Curriculum from Lifeway Ministries. All kids from toddlers through 6th grade hear the same Bible story on Sunday mornings, and then “dig in and unpack it” through games, activities, and conversation. This streamlined curriculum allows families to easily continue the conversation at home throughout the week!

Wednesday Nights

Our Fall MidWeek session ended on November 8th, and was followed by our annual Operation Christmas Child Packing Party on November 15th!
Our Winter MidWeek session will begin toward the end of January 2024. Stay tuned for details!

Please contact Megan Cardwell at Megan@RiverBluffFellowship.com if you have any questions.

meet our team

Meet Megan and Dana, our Children’s Ministry staff! They serve alongside more than 70 incredible volunteers (called the Kids Crew) to care for our families at River Bluff. Their top priorities are to make sure our children know Jesus loves them and that they have a wonderful community of Believers at our church who love them. Our team looks forward to meeting and serving your family!

meet our kids crew

There is no way to truly measure the value of our Kids Crew volunteers, other than by experiencing the amount of love & dedication they pour into our children and families! We couldn't be more blessed by our team of servant-hearted volunteers, and are thankful for them EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Their constant support allows us the opportunity to do the wonderful things God has called us to do in our children's ministry at River Bluff!

They are our heroes. Thank you, Kids Crew!!

Kids Crew Volunteers: please SAVE THE DATE for our annual training breakfast on 1/14 at 8:15am!

Ministry Highlights

Our River Bluff Kids ministry is active throughout the year with many options for

your child & family to get involved!

Here are just a few possibilities to check out.

Please contact MEGAN CARDWELL for additional information!

Family worship sunday

Each 5-Sunday-month will have one Sunday designated as Family Worship Sunday! We invite our 1st-6th grade kiddos to worship with their family in the sanctuary on this day. We believe one of the best ways to "train them up", is to model this time of worship for our kids. It is a blessing for our church to get to worship alongside our kids in "big church" as well!

On these special Sundays, we incorporate kid-friendly things, such as: helping lead worship with our worship team, kids and students sharing announcements & the life passage from the stage, fun clipboards with children's sermon notes and activity sheets that go along with the sermon, and of course, a special snack!

Our next Family Worship Sunday is on December 24th!
MidWeek Christmas Party

We had an awesome night of "festive fun and fellowship" with our 4 yr old-6th graders on 12/6! We wore our jammies, played Christmas-themed games, made ornaments, did some cookie decorating, had a Christmas-themed sing-along, and more! Thank you to everyone who joined us for a night of great fun!
Operation Christmas child Packing party

This one isn't just for the kids!! OCC has held a special place in River Bluff's heart for many years. We have a "Christmas in July" drive, when we collect "WOW items". We collect all other items (as well as monetary donations) throughout the Fall MidWeek semester, in order to gather everything we need for our big churchwide packing party we do each year!

This year's event was on 11/15/23 & was amazing! Our church family donated items to fill 264 Christmas boxes for kids around the world! We are already thinking through and planning ways to make collection and packing in 2024 even smoother!

Click on the link below for detailed suggestions of what to bring: https://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/what-goes-in-my-shoebox-suggestions/
Midweek

We finished our Fall semester of MidWeek on November 15th! During our MidWeek sessions, we have something for everyone on Wednesday nights, including groups for kiddos 4 yrs-6th grade, and childcare for even our youngest kiddos. Our Winter Midweek session will kick off at the end of January. Stay tuned for details!
blocktober

This is a wonderful, family-friendly outreach event we have each October. We partner with The Springs Church, and take turns hosting on our campus. This year, we hosted at River Bluff & it was a wonderful night, full of old and new friends!

You can look forward to an awesome trunk-or-treat with TONS of candy, a hayride, campfire with s'mores, inflatables, hot cocoa & coffee, and dinner available for purchase from food vendors!
Kids camp

Our kids who have completed 3rd-6th grade at the end of the school year are invited to attend Spark Kids Camp with us! Camp will be held at Baptist Hill in Mount Vernon, MO on June 3-6, 2024. We had an incredible experience at Spark Kids Camp last year, and can't wait to return! Stay tuned for updates...
family-style vbs

This one keeps growing, and has become a "fan favorite" in our children's ministry! We invite our families to join together for a picnic dinner, fellowship, skits, crafts, large group games, snacks, a Bible teaching, worship...and a TON OF FUN!! We'd love for your family to join us next Summer for a memorable, and one-of-a-kind VBS experience! Stay tuned for updates...
Back-to-school ice cream party

Our annual ice cream party is another amazing opportunity for families to fellowship and connect on the front lawn of the kids wing before we head back to school in August. If you have a child in school, are a student/teacher/administrator/support staff/school resource officer/coach, or want to celebrate those who are, we'd LOVE to have you join us for this awesome event! We circle up as a church family and pray specifically for each of those groups listed above. Then we have the biggest ice cream sundaes & smiles around! Stay tuned for updates...
gumballs for missions

Our BIG yellow gumball machine in the Kids Lobby gets a weekly visit from most of our kiddos! At the end of each year, we take all of the proceeds, and choose a mission or ministry to bless. Last year, our kiddos raised $378 and voted to split the proceeds in half. They chose to bless 3 children in the Springfield area with brand new bicycles. They spent the other half of the proceeds on items to fill our Operation Christmas Child boxes. These kids are incredible and have the BIGGEST hearts...what a blessing to us all!

Connect with us

Email Megan if you'd like to be added to our parent emails!