The Dover Church serves the community of Dover, which is a community primarily of families with school age children and senior citizens. As such, we welcome families with children to our town and to our church and arrange our faith and fellowship around them.
The first 15-20 minutes of worship is designed for kids, with special children’s sermon, youthful music, and opportunities for children to participate in worship leadership. Every Sunday morning we have Sunday School for grades K-7, as well as nursery care for younger ones, to which the children leave worship following their time with the pastor. While modesty is a Christian virtue, our Sunday School ministry is our pride and joy.
In addition to Sunday school, we serve the youth of Dover through our High School and Middle School youth groups. We recognize that youth group is more fun when your friends participate with you. We welcome all youth, grades 6 to 12 to join us.
Explore our Children and Youth Ministries
Sunday School
Sunday School meets during our 10:00 AM worship service on Sundays during the school year, excepting holiday weekends. Each week we’ll dive into a new lesson and related craft together. Kids of all ages are most welcome!
Wonder Wednesday Half Day Program
The Dover Church is excited to announce a new youth program called Wonder Wednesdays – an after school program for elementary students on Chickering & Pine Hill half days. Wonder Wednesdays, which will run from 11:45 to 2:15, will be a fun faith formation experience focused on the goodness of creation, the call to serve our neighbors, and the never ending love God has for each of us. Each day we’ll share lunch and snack, explore Bible stories, make music, play games, get crafty and creative, and run around outside.
Being Baptized at The Dover Church
We rejoice with you as you consider being baptized and seeking baptism for your child. We love baptisms at the Dover Church. Baptism is one of the two sacraments we celebrate at The Dover Church as a member of the United Church of Christ (the other being Communion). A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of God’s grace, meaning that we can all see the water and the people and we believe that God is blessing and welcoming the person.
Confirmation
If you are thinking about confirmation and wondering what it is all about in our congregation, here is a brief description: The confirmation program at The Dover Church may not be what you think of when you picture a typical “confirmation class.” Our confirmands are not expected to memorize a bunch of ideas or list off points of theological doctrine. They aren’t told what they can or cannot believe, and they aren’t expected to have everything figured out.
Middle School Youth Group (MSYG)
We recognize the great gifts, as well as needs, that the youth of Dover (and surrounding towns) bring into our midst and we welcome them—regardless of whether their families are active in our church. Our Middle School youth group provides safe space, trust, community, challenge, and guidance for young people as they share, play, reflect, serve and grow.
High School Youth Group
We recognize the great gifts, as well as needs, that the youth of Dover and surrounding towns bring into our midst and we welcome them—regardless of whether their families are active in our church.
Our High School youth group provides safe space, trust, community, challenge, and guidance for young people as they share, play, reflect, serve and grow. We strive to be wide in our welcome, generous in our support and love, serious in our inclusion, and open-minded in our service toward others!
Summer Youth Pilgrimage
Our 2025 Summer Youth Pilgrimage will take us to France! We’ll spend three days hiking in the alps before arriving at the ecumenical monastic community Taizé, where we will join thousands of other teens and young adults from around the world for a week of fellowship and growth. It’s part French countryside escape, part music festival, part international summer camp with 6,000 of your new best friends. It’s a faith community that is all about fostering reconciliation, connection, and peace in a fractured world, and that provides the space for each of us to discern what role we have to play in this work. We need that now more than ever!
