My kids missed the Elf on the Shelf movement. Our family tradition was moving Mary & Joseph from the plastic nativity all throughout the house during the season of Advent until Christmas Eve when they finally arrived at the wooden/straw stable. Each year we would discover all the animals with chewed on legs and an angel sitting precariously on a small peg above the stable. How we have kept all the pieces for the last 30 years, I do not know. Last April, we found the angel under the sofa because we have grandchildren now who ‘work’ with the pieces just as their parents did. Sorry…’squirrel’ moment.

I was tagged by a great mom in early November about a wandering shepherd plush-doll with a Baby Jesus and a book: The Shepherd’s Treasure. This little darlin’ could translate into random acts of compassion and activities of service on the campus of our local church for the kiddos to find whenever they came to church throughout Advent and my brain started clicking.  I picked up two (one for church and one for the grands) and I am beside myself with the ideas of fun and adventure for all my little people.

We named him Charlie last Sunday in Sunday school and read the book while everyone got a chance to handle him.  Beginning on Monday, he will be where the kids are when they come to visit or participate in activities.  He sat with a can of crayons during the annual Chili Cookoff. He’ll be at a station at our CLUB345 Merry Grinch-mas party with note cards, stickers, and pens for little people to write notes to our shut-ins. He’ll be around the sanctuary, at the front door, in the children’s hallway, at the Christmas Eve services, the Christmas Family breakfast potluck, and at Fantastic Friday.

Then on Christmas Day, he’ll be set with the plush-doll Baby Jesus that came in the box which is just darlin’-with-a-side-of-precious. A baby’s coming and this little shepherd is looking for the newborn King.

Happy searching for the new born King, my friends!

“After the shepherds had seen him, they told everyone.” Luke 2:17

Loving the idea of families sharing in traditions and activities that honor the Lord, the season of Advent is the perfect time to gather some goodies for kids to do each day from Dec 1st through Christmas Eve and beyond. Many Children’s Ministry champions are putting together Advent bags and Advent boxes and this is what ours looks like this year:

• Magnetic Advent Wreath with magnetic candles – perfect for the car or refrigerator. Place one candle to start, then another each Sunday of Advent.
• Glow Stick as a reminder to let your light shine!
• Post-it Notes to share “God loves you” messages with family and friends.
• Glory in the Highest magnetic list – place it on the refrigerator to make lists to help you and your family make the Christmas card list, make the grocery list, make the donation list, make the errand list, even the packing list if you are heading out of town to visit family.
• 2016 Advent Calendar from Discipleship Ministries’ United Methodist Ministry with Children to share with your family a thought or activity for each day of the Advent season.
• God Bless You tissues – perfect for keeping close to stay well this Advent season and offer to help someone else clean up. Be a blessing this Advent!
• Advent Prayer Cube – place near where you share meals or brush your teeth to offer a prayer each day in preparation for Christmas Day outloud.
• A Pop-Up Window Calendar for Advent – Set the calendar on a table or on your mantel and each day of December, lift up a numbered window to reveal a surprising message and an image of something or someone who was present to see God’s gift with their own eyes.
• A Happy Birthday Jesus sticker to place on your family calendar on December 25 to remind you to sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus on His birthday.
• Nativity Sticker Sheet – Using your own art paper, draw a stable/barn and using the stickers, make your own stable scene to display.
• 24 Random Acts of Christmas Kindness

Added to the preschooler’s bags is the book Manger on the Mantel; to the upper elementary bags is a Nativity activity book.

Be sure to put the dates and times for the Drive Through Nativity, Fantastic Friday (parent’s night out), and Christmas Eve services along the bottom.

We also are ready for the season of Epiphany to give out countdowns on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

What’s in your bag?

“Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt His name together.” Psalm 34:3

We began last year to intentionally provide training along age lines as rights of passage for students called Faith Milestones.  I Can Serve offers an invitation and an expectation to include and engage children in worship for students in 3rd-5th grades. This year, we kicked it up a notch.

We have a Sno Cone machine, a Popcorn machine, and a Spin Art machine to add that little something special to events, hot summer after-church-times of fellowship, and great fun to ministry with children. Including training and practice with these items invite the students to share in hospitality to other students.

Teaching one machine at a time included set-up, safety features, possible dangers, how to speak to others we serve, and the all important clean-up. A job done is only done well with training and practice. To everyone’s delight we taste-tested everything and spoke about partnering with one another to serve well as Jesus never sent out his disciples one at a time, but two and three at a time.

We started the event at 3:20pm and finished out at 5pm just in time for CLUB345. The closing bingo game gave us a chance to elaborate on logistics of serving communion; personal hygiene; arriving 30 minutes ahead of time to set up and get any final instructions before serving; to always be on the lookout to be safe and provide a safe environment for those we are serving (where the electrical plugs go, which way to face the machine, setting up a floor mat, etc.); appropriate dress code when serving; serving like Jesus in extending over-the-top hospitality in our words and face; we begin serving as a 3rd grader because our hands are strong enough to hold the full challis and tall enough to light the candles on the communion table; by 6th grade they have practiced and followed directions well enough to serve as a student leader in VBS; and vocabulary=an acolyte is a ‘helper in church.’ We took the pledge…’raise your right hand’…and they are chomping at the bit to know when they can begin, as Ashton said, their ‘duty.’

By the end of the day, students have been trained and practiced lighting the candles on the communion table, serving the juice at communion, speaking into a microphone, running the sno cone machine, spin art machine, and serving from the popcorn machine. How are you training up the current and future leaders in your church in service and hospitality?

“Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people.” Ephesians 6:7

When folks asked me last January, “How was your Christmas?”, I was stumped for a good answer because the upcoming holiday season starts with last Sunday’s Trunk or Treat. I love this time of year, but the church calendar can have a staff member, volunteer, and family reeling.

Planning freak that I am, the calendar has basically been set since last November. My heart’s desire is to fulfill church traditions, yet not stretch our WC families to the point of where I was last year. Yes, we baked the turkey, made the gumbo, prepped for pies, decorated the tree, and opened presents, but I didn’t watch not one Christmas movie, didn’t linger on the back porch with hot chocolate, and felt pressed to meet lots of expectations until MLK Monday in January.

Our gracious pastor closes the church office the week between Christmas and New Year’s, yet bulletins still need a-printing and bills still need a-paying. Rather than sitting on the sofa in my new flannels, I also take this window of time to serve on a Chrysalis Flight, the youth version of The Walk To Emmaus. It’s kingdom-building! Yeah, I get that it’s my own fault, but I love it all!

Working in the church office has me hitting the ground running January 2nd to close out the year, print the W-2s, set budgets, and prepare the files for the new year. Frankly, I was praying for a snow day last year…I know….in Atlanta…just to have a day to breathe. I did see Christmas lights each night as I drove home in the dark (oh yeah, the time change happens this weekend!), but it’s not the same as piling in the car with the littles or my honey to stroll through the neighborhoods. My strolling takes place in the aisles of Michael’s as I gather the last remaining silver bell and green pompom or on Amazon.com.

I don’t have the answer except that my awareness is so much greater this year heading into the season(s). This is when the people-pleaser in me rears its ugly head and I stare at the ceiling each night wondering if I left something undone. An awesome, sold-out-to-raising-her-kids-in-Christian-community Mom sat across my desk yesterday and we laughed about this very thing because the struggle is real. I would like to think I’d guard the white space better on my calendar, go to bed at a decent hour so I can get up earlier to linger in His presence, and not feel I have to be at everything because I don’t want to miss anything (more like arrive early and be the one who takes out the trash and turns out the lights).

I want to do it all, because I love it all! But I want a better answer this year when someone asks me “How was your Christmas?”

“A person finds joy in giving an apt reply-and how good is a timely word!” Proverbs 15:23