The Nursery is available from 9:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Sundays for newborns through 3-year-olds. It is staffed by trained and background-checked volunteers. If you are visiting GPC, please see someone at the Welcome Desk (just outside the Sanctuary in the Gathering Space), who will be glad to direct you to the Nursery, which is located nearby on the same level.
Nursery
Sunday School Sunday School Sunday
Sunday School
Recognizing that families have varied circumstances and schedules, we offer Sunday School in person and through two different recorded versions—Godly Play and the Follow Me curriculum—both of which are available in the Sunday online bulletin along with a children’s bulletin that accompanies the Follow Me recording.
We welcome families of all ages. Each Sunday, families begin the worship hour together in the Sanctuary. Although we have a staffed nursery for the very youngest children, they are welcome to stay with their parents. In fact, there is a special area in the front of the Sanctuary called “the prayground.”
The first Sunday of each month everyone stays together in the Sanctuary for the whole service. As experiential learners, children need to spend time in worship soaking up the sights, sounds, and patterns of the church service and the church year. The other Sundays, the children and youth are excused from the 11:00 service before the sermon begins to attend Sunday School or Youth Group. Both finish at noon. The children must be picked up and signed out by their parents or other responsible person in Room 14 for Godly Play (ages 4+) and Room 32/33 for Follow Me (ages 6+).
Sunday School
Godly Play is an introduction to worship for young children where they can both hear and see scripture with the help of a storyteller and a box of story-related objects laid out before them to illustrate the story. Over the course of the program year, the children are introduced to the foundational stories of our faith in both the Old and New Testaments and also receive some liturgical education.
ages 4 & up
Room 14
Follow Me is a churchwide curriculum that includes sermons as well as intergenerational church events. Rather than focusing on a book study or survey course of foundational biblical stories, Follow Me explores biblical practices essential to our faith, illustrating them with stories from both the Old and New Testaments. The curriculum provides practical applications for those practices in our daily lives as well as wonderful opportunities for intergenerational events throughout the year.
Ages 6 & Up
Room 32/33
Held near Halloween, this is a fun party with games, silly activities, and pumpkin painting. Registration is not required but is requested so that we know how many pumpkins and donuts to buy.
Fall Festival
On the first Friday of Advent, join us for ornament making and pizza eating. Sometimes we have a “snowball” fight too!
Ornament Making
During the winter, families of our children and youth team up to enjoy an evening of skating at the Rockville Town Center outdoor ice rink.
Ice Skating
in Rockville
Sometimes this activity is held at Sky Zone and sometimes we go bowling, but who knows what else we might come up with? It’s always a fun evening and a great opportunity to get to know some of the other families.
Spring Family
Fun Night
Held inside the church throughout the summer, classic GP-rated films are selected for all ages to enjoy viewing together.
