It was in a conversation among the leaders of our denominational conference that the first Clergy Family Day Away with the Bishop came to be. Camp Glisson was booked, invitations were sent, and a precious band of children’s ministry champions brainstormed what could be offered the children while the clergy and their spouses gathered for a bit of chapel life and face time with the Bishop.

Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson was appointed the Bishop of the North Georgia Conference just over a year ago. She is known for her accessibility and her comfort in participating in small group. Oh, she shines in the large group, too, because she’s a fabulous communicator. But it’s in these small groups where you walk way feeling you’ve been heard, you’ve been encouraged, and you have a new friend and champion for what matters most: making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. She shared in our district Meet & Greet that when she retires, she’ll go back to teaching children’s Sunday school. Yes!

The plans for the day included small group time, a large group photo, lunch, a sharing by the Bishop with the children with a children’s Q&A, then the families could stay on campus to hike, swim in the huge pool with a cooler filled with freeze pops, play in the falls, family choice. With all this planned, the real action happened on the ball field.

While the clergy and their spouses enjoyed small group time with the Bishop at the beginning of the day, Ministry With Children colleagues led children in ‘get to know you’ games for preschoolers, early elementary, and upper elementary. There was a nursery provided for the little-littles led by a local church’s nursery staff in an adjacent building.

I had the preschoolers. The brainstorming team were geniuses to include games with balloons, pool noodles, foam sticker picture frames, hula hoops and laundry baskets.  One KidMin champion and her husband brought most of the supplies after arriving home from a week’s vacation at 1am that very morning. The other KidMin champion traveled more than two hours, with the first hour before dawn to extend extravagant hospitality to these families. I had a helper in a first-born 4-year-old and brought small, white bags to go on a nature hike for treasures. We each gathered a rock, a stick, a leaf, and a nut. If we found more than one of each, we shared with those who didn’t have any. We called each other by our names, we made new friends, and none of the games were done as originally intended, because playing with preschoolers has no rules except to laugh, to succeed, to be kind, to be together. We did it all!

It was a precious gift to serve these families in play with their littles. It was a precious gift to hear the Bishop share with them that they, too, are in the family business of sharing the love of Jesus. It was a precious gift to join the team to provide an environment where clergy families can be encouraged, be heard, be served, and make personal family connections beyond professional connections.

We closed our preschooler’s play time with a hula hoop and pool noodle dance party because dancing is what preschoolers do best. Sharing the love of Christ Jesus through play is what WE do best. I’m sure all these clergy families had a billion (probably not a billion, but this is how kidmin people talk) other things to do, but they chose to connect with the families of their peers professionally AND personally. And I am so glad I was invited to play in the sandbox….with their kids…watching squirrels…gathering treasures…laughing…in the sun…on a beautiful Saturday morning…in North Georgia.

“For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, ‘Peace be within you.'” Psalm 122:8

Serving at a local church with multiple buildings on the same campus, I can see first hand that parents can get easily frustrated if it takes 15 minutes to drop off all the littles all over campus before Mom and Dad can get where they need to be on Sunday mornings, especially if they are serving. This is why we opened a Kid’s Welcome Center for K5-5th grade. Every event, even Sunday school, will give parents a one-stop location to sign in their children and see their children immediately engaged in games and ‘friendship stations’ to begin the day/event. It also helps our church greeters to direct guest families to one location. And the benefits continue.

Adults engage in fellowship and community over coffee. Little people do the same over a shared game. If their hands are busy, their minds are calm. At the end of each week, the Welcome Center is set up with various ‘friendship stations’ so little people can play together. Playing together builds a sense of belonging. Learning to play together well builds connection to our peers and other members of the family of faith. Only a game can encourage even the shyest kids to talk and participate.

We add something new each month and even make a snack station with a water dispenser for those who are hungry and didn’t have time to eat. The first stop is a table at the entrance where students write their own name tags and this gives me the perfect opportunity to introduce myself, engage them in some chitchat with students and parents/grandparents, AND learn their names.

The bonus is for our parents who so faithfully lead a Sunday school class as a small group leader. They can register and drop off their littles, then head to their classroom to review the upcoming lesson or adjust the supplies that are provided…in peace. When Sunday school is scheduled to begin, the small group leader returns to the Welcome Center to gather their students to escort to their classroom. When Sunday school is over, the students are returned to the Welcome Center so the small group leader can tidy their spaces (we all share space with other ministries with children) and return unused supplies to their class carts. All I need to do is look down the hallway to see if their class roller carts are outside their doors to know if all the classes are finished.

If you look closely, there is usually a parent or even a Sunday school teacher in the mix…chatting and building with Lego bricks, setting up the Giant Jenga game again, or just touching base with a student who offered up a prayer request last week. The Welcome Center system has worked well and serves as an opportunity to extend extravagant hospitality and a sense of belonging. What other systems are you using to make for a smoother Sunday morning for your families?

“Welcome is the beginning of worship, for in welcoming one another, we welcome the divine ‘shekinah’, the holy presence of God that is in each person.” (Bath Church, Hospitality Team Letter)

The annual Children’s Ministry fall retreat for 3rd-6th graders for the North Georgia Annual Conference takes over two weekends at the beautiful Camp Glisson in Dahlonega, Georgia. Accepting a new position so soon before the scheduled weekends made it impossible for me to meet, greet, promote, and secure all the details to bring students from my new local church, yet I was invited by Rev. Debby Fox, the generous colleague who coordinates this fabulous event, to come and help. I jumped at the invitation with a resounding YES!

Even with atrocious traffic issues due to heavy hurricane evacuations from neighboring states, every driver approached the registration stop on campus with a smile and anxious anticipation of what the weekend would hold. The energy was contagious and carried into the first worship service after claiming bunks and cabins.

The ALIVE Retreat was planned to teach the liturgical worship calendar, introduce students to worship vocabulary, visual elements, various audio elements, and entirely developmentally appropriate. The incredibly gifted Chuck Bell prepared four worship experiences with 3rd-6th graders in mind and invites his very talented daughters to serve in leadership roles. It is impossible to explain the impact of their roles in the eyes and hearts of their peers. Overhearing a student say, “Hey! I could do that, too,” starts dreams and hopes early.

“If Sunday School was the place where people were built up in the faith, then camp was where they made their decisions about following the Lord.” Henrietta Mears

A District Superintendent was the teaching pastor for the first ALIVE weekend who took puppetry to a whole new level with this age group. The District Superintendent of the Atlanta-Marietta District has liturgical puppets and he had the students and adults riveted to the antics of his puppet friends. He was SO good! His teaching was SO good! He was SO funny! Overhearing a student share, “I saw His lips move, but he let that puppet roast him,” means this creative DS hit the mark.

• The students did not linger in the back, but were in the front ready to experience the teaching and worship completely.
• The food was fabulous and this year’s participants ate all of it. They probably didn’t need the gallon-sized Ziploc bags that were handed out to ‘save the chicken strips’ for later.
• The artwork and camper guide was beautiful and personally engaging. The drawstring backpack was perfect to carry essentials all over camp.
• The cooler weather did not make it too cold to swim.
• Some adults realized jumping from the platform would have gotten them further than trying to zip line into the water. Age is a crazy thing!
• The students learned to communicate with our great God with breath prayers…and were all-in every time I saw them pass the prayer nets.
• The students sang the songs, rang the bells, and participated fully.
• The Children’s Leaders were gracious to one another and loved on each other’s kids.
• The young adult leaders, ELI and RELI (Experiential Leadership Institute) student leaders rallied the students to play well, to play with, and to enjoy a sense of belonging that only ‘play’ can offer.

Something special takes place within us that firms up our understanding of how we are a connected body of believers when we participate in a fall retreat at a location that is part of and equips us to pass on our heritage of faith. Sharing sacred moments in sacred spaces makes for a faith that is deeply memorable and incredibly sticky. You can read about the previous retreats here and here.

“Camping programs are high yield. Taking people away from their regular life for a few days, and offering them a season of activity, intense focus without distractions, peer-to-peer interaction and Bible influence is perhaps one of the greatest investments in people’s lives.” Henrietta Mears

I did get to love on students of years’ past who remembered me and students from my previous local church. I about squeezed and hugged them until their eyes popped out of their heads. One young man was experiencing an away retreat for the first time after hearing his brother come home the last two years with stories. His fabulous Dad was a chaperone. Oh to be a fly on the wall when the younger brother and Dad returned home to share their stories with the older brother. Oh the stories…the testimonies…the memories.

“Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story.” Psalm 107:2

A dear friend gifted to me a new book on prayer. This book is not for a quick sit-down, but rather a guide for some lingering before the Lord. This dear friend so knows my heart’s desire. The Book of Everyday Prayer: Liturgies for Personal Devotion, written by Jeremy Steele, is a delight for this prayer-vocabulary-challenged gal.

Jeremy Steele is a husband, father of four, and the teaching pastor at Christ United Methodist Church in Mobile, Alabama. He confesses on his blog that sometimes he doesn’t always know what to pray. A fellow sojourner, indeed. Like me, he is fascinated with the ancient prayer texts and song lyrics that help us come before a gracious God with a heart unsure of what to say, when to say, and how long to listen. From his own words, “The book… is for everyone who, like me, needs more than what comes off the top of their head.  It’s for the teen, young adult and adult who are ready to claim old hymns, beautiful Bible verses and a new word or two as their own prayers.”

The seven-day read-along guides offer prayers at different times of the day: dawn, morning, midday, afternoon, evening, and midnight. Each prayer opens with a Call to Prayer followed by a Confession, Invitation, Refrain, Scripture passage reading, the repeated Refrain, a Psalm/Song Lyric, the repeated Refrain, The Lord’s Prayer, a Prayer for Today, ending with a Concluding Prayer covering about three printed pages. I particularly like the text of Confession and Invitation. I know I don’t spend enough time inviting the Lord into the conversation and I sure don’t spend enough time in confessing before the Lord. The words bring me to pause, to breathe, to listen, to linger before the Lord.

At this point in my life, I find myself waking up a bit earlier and really enjoying the lingering in my prayer chair in the morning. I also find myself aware of a need to come before the Lord at other times of the day and this has proven to be the perfect tool.

Various prayer practices are also outlined in the book, but a special section is dedicated to prayers for occasions such as ‘cleaning a room’, ‘when a friend moves away’, ‘getting a new thing’, and even ‘coffee’ (I will insert ‘tea’ here). I’m not kidding! The prayers for situations of gain and loss as well as relationships are authentic and some may put a smile on your face. I think the Lord likes it when we come to Him with a smile…in prayer…for ‘working’, for ‘friendships’, even ‘video games’. Really, I’m not kidding…there is a prayer for video games and it’s fabulous!

The book is published by The Youth Cartel and is available here.

“Almighty and all-loving God. I thank you for the new friendships that are emerging in my life right now, and I thank you for the gift of all the friends that you have blessed me with in the past. I thank you for how growing closer to people helps me grow closer to you, and I thank you for the opportunities that friendship give to be a support and be supported by others.” ~ Jeremy Steele, The Book of Everyday Prayer, (page 183)