We’re leveraging the time change and encouraging families to come to church early. I was a band mom and we learned, ‘If you’re on time, you’re late.”  Several of our families were arriving late and we wanted to make it worth their while to arrive early so the children had time to play with their church friends before our regular programming.

There are lots of reasons why folks can’t get to church on time, or early. It’s Saturday down South, so there are late college football games. Some folks are just tired. I get it. We also have an enemy who wishes to keep us from growing in our faith in Jesus and spiritual warfare is real. When mine were little I intentionally made Sunday morning different and special. We started these Sunday habits even before I was on church staff. I’d get up way before everyone else, make ‘add water’ muffins, and serve everyone breakfast in bed with a muffin and a favorite morning tasty beverage. The smell of fresh-baked muffins and a smoother start to the day made all the difference in the world for our family. Church on Sunday started on Saturday by gathering clothes, shoes, Bibles, tithe envelopes, quarters for the littles, gas in the car, etc. all before dinner on Saturday. A much easier way to start a sacred day set apart for sacred things. 

As families are trying their best to make Sunday mornings happen, we pulled from our season of Special Summer Sundays to roll out the red carpet of hospitality for the thirty minutes before Sunday school in the Children’s Welcome Center.

Legos & Eggos – Invited a fabulous mom to wear a chef’s costume and serve up various flavors of Eggos with syrup and whipped cream (the best topping ever!) hot from the toaster as we had buckets and bowls of Lego bricks all over all the tables. I borrowed toasters from my Bible study group.

B.A.R.F. – Living into our vow of membership to support the church with our witness, kids Bring A Real Friend to Sunday school. Placed fake barf on all the tables. Made a bowl of BARF in a cereal dump of Fruity Pebbles and a bunch of little boxes of various cereals, then added milk. We served with spoons in small cups. Kids invited friends and parents picked up kids all along the way to church to come early and enjoy some BARF. They LOVED it and we met some new friends!

PopTarts & Pickles – Of course they don’t go together, but the phrase easily rolls off the tongue. The previous week we started talking it up for kids to be adventurous to eat pickles on their PopTarts. A sticky and hilarious memory for sure.

Pumpkin Day – We’re playing Bible Bingo with all the prizes pumpkin related. I like watching the kids carrying their big winnings around campus and chatting with the many who ask about it. Now to find the largest boxes of pumpkin cereal, pumpkin pies, and all the pumpkin stuff I can find. Y’all….I found Pumpkin Spice Ramen Noodles. Yep, that’s making the prize table!