This September 2025, Bethesda is partnering with the Lutheran Center at St. Olaf College in their Nourishing Vocation with Children project called Wonders of Worship (WOW). We are blessed to have been asked to participate in this second year of the pilot program!

Every Sunday during the school year, there will be a portion of the worship service called WOW! Our children (and really, the whole congregation) will engage with beautiful art, the parts of the liturgy, scripture, song, prayer, and active learning together. It's truly "cross+generational faith formation," which we are all about.

Sunday worship is our time to gather, be fed and nourished by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Holy Sacraments, to engage in intentional relationships with one another, and to ultimately be sent out to live out the baptismal promises by trusting God, proclaiming Christ through word and deed, caring for others and the world God made, and working for justice and peace.

We’re on this journey together, and we need parents, guardians, friends, our church family, and other loved ones as companions along the way.

Sunday School
So no, we don’t offer a traditional “Sunday School experience,” but we’re pretty sure you’re going to love this, too.

As a bonus! After worship when a Sunday School time usually happens in many communities, we often have an activity that our whole congregation is invited to participate in - for example, putting together donation bags for Lutheran World Relief, creating Valentine cards to share, helping serve food, or hearing from a local speaker about another organization in town. (All while enjoying sweet treats, of course.)

Kids are also welcome to play together in the nursery at any time. We value our children feeling comfortable and independent within the church walls, and take a "village approach" to guiding and nurturing them. We have many congregation members of all ages who truly love and participate in the care of all of our children.

Additional kid-focused activities include summer Vacation Bible School (held in the evenings for one week in August), celebrating First Communion with those children and their families that participate in age-appropriate instruction (no required age - all children are welcome to receive Holy Communion at all times), and an annual children's Christmas program.