For any questions about the St. Barnabas Family Ministry please contact Tina Clark at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ARTS CAMP 2013 Dates are set for June 17-21 and 23!!             For information or to preregister your child email Tina at the above address.

Children on the first legs of their life journey are of utmost concern within our St. Barnabas family.  The care and cultivation of kids' character and potential – most critically their spiritual and moral formation – is pursued passionately and constantly being refined.  Here's a "mind map" of our program as a whole: be assured there's even more going on!

Sunday School Programs:

At St. Barnabas, Sunday School meets during the 9:30 service, allowing parents to worship without distraction. Every 5th Sunday is an intergenerational service where children join the main worship service: this is is a typical and solidly liturgical service using a variety of sources that create accessible language, using children and youth as readers, and often including the Sunday School Rock Band and the Children’s Choir.

Nursery: ages 0-3
The most important thing about the nursery is that parents of our youngest children can worship with total confidence that their little ones are safe and cherished. This means our workers are background checked, have childcare experience – most are college-level education students, and work closely with and under the direct supervision of the Family Minister.

Godly Play: ages 3-6
This is our first classroom, a Montessori-based bible curriculum that uses beautifully made figures to tell the stories of the bible.  The children are then encouraged to share their ‘wonder’ about what they’ve heard and seen, share a ‘feast’ (a snack), and then work with the story-telling and art materials in the classroom.

Primary Grades: grades 1-3
This classroom follows the lectionary to learn more about the Bible, its authors, and its stories.  We also spend time exploring the details of the Episcopal liturgy and tradition, so children will feel more included and able to participate in the worship service.  High quality story bibles, arts and crafts, and dramatic play all reinforce the learning each week.

Tweens: grades 4-6
Every fall St. Barnabas kids entering 4th grade are given a quality youth bible, which they use in class to read and discuss the week’s readings from the lectionary. The focus in this class is applying the lessons of the bible and teachings of our church community to the daily life of a tween in the 21st century. We take break from this study at times to explore a young adult novel or to delve into a service project.

All children in these classrooms take part in the annual Christmas Pageant.

Youth Group:
Our curriculum for Youth Group is called Journey to Adulthood and embraces 6 years of spiritual formation for kids in middle and high school. We start a new Rite 13 group every 2 years with the current 6th and 7th grade youth.

Rite 13...

...is the program used for 6th – 8th graders, and is named for the liturgy we celebrate once or twice during these 2 years to honor young people as they turn 13. Rite 13 explores the implications of being a Christian teenager, of relating to the wide variety of people teens meet in their everyday lives, of how and why to turn to God in times of trouble, of faith and sexuality in adolescence and much more. Leaders start with the curriculum and then let the youth guide the conversation, thereby making sure time spent in youth group meets the kids’ needs as individuals and as a group.

J2A

...is the middle 2-year segment of the program (confusingly named with the acronym for the overall program Journey to Adulthood).  At St. B’s this is the time when youth move more fully out of the classroom and into the service, coming together for class and activities at other times. The most exciting aspect of this segment of the program is the pilgrimage, which takes place towards the end of the 2-year phase.

YAC...

...the last phase, typically when youth are in their junior and senior years, is called Young Adults in Church. The youths' major accomplishment during this segment is to become more intentionally involved in their community – both at church and in the larger community. This includes identifying an issue about which an individual youth feels strongly and then commiting to use personal strengths in a specific ministry that addresses that need. Youth leaders continue close relationships during this time by supervising and guiding the youth in their indivdual projects.

Bible Study: In addition to regular meetings with their leaders, the youth group spends time once a month with parent Dr. Joe Bednarek, who develops amazing and meaningful bible study sessions with them.

Acolytes:  All Youth are encouraged – strongly – to act as acolytes on a rotating basis at the 9:30 service and at both Christmas Eve services. They also serve as helpers in the Godly Play and Primary classrooms.

All Youth Group participants have opportunities to connect with each other socially throughout the year. We have pizza parties, movies, lock-ins, weekend ski trips, summer camping trips and more.

Youth are also encouraged to participate in service projects both for St. Barnabas and the larger community.  YJ2A youth in 2012 spent a winter weekend exploring homelessness in Denver and a week in June working on rebuilding projects in New Orleans.  Rite 13 youth travelled to Leadville to work in a variety of settings providing meaningful service to the community.  All youth are also encouraged to volunteer with the church’s Sharing Table ministry.

Other Children and Family Programming Includes...

Family Retreat

Traveling to beautiful Cathedral Ridge, the new Diocesan center in Woodland Park, we focus our time on fellowship and community. Parents are offered classes and studies (Love and Logic Parenting, for example) and lots of downtime, while kids spend time doing art and music, hiking and exploring, making s’mores around a campfire, and lots of sledding; always supervised in a communal approach. Parent-only and family yoga are offered as well.

The goal of the weekend is to balance family time with “me” time so that all of us walk away feeling refreshed and renewed.

Parents’ Pause:
1 or 2 times a year, we gather kids at one location with exceptional childcare, and send parents to another location (generally parishioners’ homes) to chat, laugh, catch up, and find the time to carry a conversation all the way through to its natural conclusion! A refreshing evening out to connect, with free childcare.

Parents’ Night Out:
A service of the Family Ministry to the parents it serves, this evening is low-cost childcare at the church while parents are on their own to go out for the evening. Think Date Night!

Advent Workshop
This evening is held in conjunction with the Lessons and Carols service. We gather as a community for dinner, then parents can attend the service while children spend the evening exploring Advent through crafts and storytelling. It’s a cozy winter’s evening, perfect for the reflective season.

Arts Camp
A weeklong summer day camp for children in kindergarten through 5th grade, this camp is gently faith-based. We use art, music, and drama to explore a theme for the week (recent themes have been “Peace,” “Praise,” and “Eco-Justice), culminating in an offering to the congregation at the 9:30 Sunday Service.