Child Dedication

We offer the opportunity to families who are part of our community to dedicate their children. Parents/guardians acknowledge, “I realise this child is a gift from God and we want God to bless this child to know Him. We want our child to run to Jesus and follow Him all of their life”.

We’re also dedicating the parents to living godly lives. That through the blessing of God they have experienced themselves, their children are able to see and experience the fruit of worshipful parents, lived out in front of them, with the support of a local church.

We’re also, in a sense, calling our church to dedicate themselves to living worshipful and healthy lives to create a church and relationships that will foster the well-being of the children who are part of our community. For this reason we do not ordinarily encourage child dedications as private affairs, but publicly as a gathered body.

3 things dedication at Northcross is:

1. A child dedication is ultimately about receiving God’s precious gifts of children with a sense of love, celebration, joy, and responsibility. Parents publicly dedicate their children, and we are praying, pleading with God to bless them because we believe that the LORD delights to give the Kingdom of God to children (Mark 10:13).
2. A child dedication is an initial step in obeying God’s commands to raise children to know and follow Him. So in dedicating the child, parents are publicly declaring that to the best of their ability, they will raise their children in the faith (Ephesians 6:4; Deuteronomy 6:4-8).
3. We do child dedications as a way of signifying the importance of the local church in a child’s life and in the lives of the family. Dedicating our children is a memorial to them and us, that we can look back on, reminding us of our commitment to raise our children for the Lord, and our great need to be connected within a local spiritual family (Hebrews 10:25) – the church. Families who have made Northcross their church home are invited to participate.

For the reasons above, our practice is to have child dedication ceremonies for believing parents (#1 & #2) who are specifically committed Northcross Church members (#3).

3 things dedication at Northcross is not:

1. A child dedication service is not Biblically mandated.
2. A child dedication service is does not save. This service is more a service of hope, asking God to bless our children by bringing them into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as they grow up and flourish in following his ways.
3. A child dedication service is not the same as baptism. Baptism is the outward symbol of saving faith in Jesus Christ. Baptism is the public act of being immersed in water to symbolize an individual has already experienced faith, having died and risen in Christ.