Families with rising kindergartners are in shock. They are shocked their baby is old enough for school, may be riding a bus, and will be spending a long day away. These amazing families are wondering who their little one will sit by, have lunch with, and play with on the playground. We want to make this milestone a smooth one on Sunday morning especially if their kindergartner will be transitioning from the nursery into Children’s Ministry.

In the local church where I serve, I’m responsible for kindergarten through fifth grade. Moving from the nursery into a more formal Sunday school setting involves many more children and movement among spaces. The best way for this transition to be smooth for parents and children is to offer the Faith Milestone: I Can Go To Sunday School. This Faith Milestone takes place the week before Promotion Sunday, immediately after all Sunday services. It’s calm, quiet, and everything is still set up.

We meet in the Children’s Welcome Center since that is where they will begin and end their Sunday experience from this point on. We introduce the family to the self-check in kiosks and explain the security stickers/tags because Nursery has been manned-check in. Their amazing Sunday School teachers are present and introduce themselves.

We walk through a Sunday morning by moving first to their Sunday school room for small groups and the large group worship space. The children walk on the stage and touch things that are new. Parents and families are in-tow. We walk to the bathrooms and the water fountain, then return to the Sunday school room and sit at a chair and circle up to sing a song.

We return to the Children’s Welcome Center for the end of Sunday school, and then ring the bell which lets them know we are gathering to move to the Sanctuary for big church. We enter the Sanctuary just like we would if they stayed for Children’s Church and sit in the front pews. We look around us and talk about what we see and hear. We chat. We stand up for singing and we move to where we’d sit for the Children’s Moment, then walk as we would be dismissed on a Sunday morning returning to the Children’s Welcome Center for water and snack.

This precious time ends in prayer and with two gifts:
1. A 5×7 paper-framed picture of Jesus for each child (and any siblings who attend), and
2. A copy of “Little Steps Big Faith: How the Science of Early Childhood Development Can Help You Grow Your Child’s Faith” by Dawn Rundman for parents

How do you help families transition from the Nursery to Sunday school?

“When your child learns that church is a place where they are embraced by members of the whole body of Christ who love them dearly, they can make deeper associations with God’s tender love for them.” – Dawn Rundman from Little Steps Big Faith

The calendar is always too busy, the season is already too full, and systems for navigating spaces and communication have become my greatest current frustration. Deep sigh.

But we can not wait to…

Support new families
* New families are concerned a lot about what foods/snacks their kids are getting so organic apple sauce isn’t much more expensive and Made Good foods has fabulous snacks which are very appreciated by families today. Make water available with small paper cups. Stop treating, serving, or rewarding with candy, cupcakes, and fruit juice. Children’s ministry people are more creative than that.
* New families have no idea what our worship habits or routines are and we should be better teachers. When I can’t get traction for that, I print small teaching documents to add to the worship clipboards the children get at the beginning of services or post short teachings on our children’s ministry Facebook group. It’s old school, but I love Chuck Knows Church for all things about liturgical seasons, history, vocabulary, and more. One new teaching a week can make a world of difference for families to feel more connected and comfortable in a less-than-kid-centric environment.
* Give church folk access to you and make yourself accessible to them before and after services. Intentionally introduce and connect people face-to-face with a commonality to begin new friendships, then follow up with a phone call or hallway chat. Know the best one or two small groups where you can direct new people to if new groups are not an option.

Support new small groups
* Don’t be afraid to start a new adult group under children’s ministry. New people need new groups to lessen the awkwardness of walking into a group with history, assigned seats, and set routines. Parents and grandparents need a place to grow in their faith, too, and you can set the table for that with ‘Small Group is sponsored by Children’s Ministry’. Rather than wait for the adult education dept. to start a group and ask for ‘childcare’, take the point to offer an adult Christian education class WHILE you are already leading littles in ministry at the same time. Not sure who to invite to lead/facilitate that? Pray for one and when they arrive with a YES, invite them to choose a partner (this is where THEY do the 2nd invite, not you) for TWO people to lead the group together in a 4-week, 6-week, 9-week season/study. Under children’s ministry, you get to choose the options. Right Now Media and Amplify Media have fantastic small group studies to choose from. People grow in their faith best in circles and at tables. How can you circle up and set the table for the bigs while you lead the littles?
* New families have been reaching out to me BEFORE an event or Sunday because I’ve given them space and opportunity for that with a ‘more info’ button on your website’s children’s ministry page and have a ready email – a kind of form email to edit to make personal in response. Invite your new folks to come 15-30 minute early to make for a smooth and less chaotic start. Plan for a hospitality greeter who knows check-in processes and systems with a resting happy face to make the beginning of their arrival experience a lovely one. It should be a different person from your church’s regular greeter team. This is more than holding a door and pointing. It’s the first trustworthy relationship parents will make to leave their child with you or join their children in your programming.
* New families are concerned about security and if you are trustworthy. Your systems for volunteers, Safe Sanctuary, spaces, hospitality, follow-up, and building relationships must be gracious, accommodating, visible, consistent and trustworthy.

Support existing small groups & classes
* Communication is an issue in every church, but we must be able to do it better no matter the inconvenience. Communicate on paper, email, social media, bulletin boards, posters, fliers about what is happening in the  ministry you lead. Leave notes in committee meeting spaces like trustees, finance, and staff-parish relations with a 6-pack of water and a basket of snacks. You don’t need to be there, just leave a little generosity and a note of appreciation for their work signed by you on behalf of the ministry you lead.
* Thank your small group leaders and encourage each one to raise up a ‘wingman’ to take on the administration or hospitality or in case you ‘get hit by a bus’. That is my mantra for pulling someone aside and inviting him/her to see what I’m doing/modeling just in case I get hit by a bus. Jesus never sent His disciples out one at a time, but rather two, three, or seventy. Yes, it’s easier to ‘just do it yourself’ or ‘he’s always led that class’, but we are called to be fruitful and multiply. Keep pushing your one-man-show to recruit a wingman, then love on them both. This raises your leader to be a disciple-maker and your wingman to be raised up to the next level of leadership.
* As a volunteer leader we DID the work of ministry. As a leader of volunteers we equip the saints to learn and practice the work of ministry. We are called to invest in others to use their talents and skills to love people to Jesus. Just as you had to learn, you now get to do the teaching and partnering with others to share the journey. Yes, I could have washed those 10 blankets from Campfire Christmas, but asking on the Facebook page ‘who can help’, we had more help than blankets. Yes, I could have decorated those bulletin boards, but asking others made the boards WAY more inviting. Yes, we could’ve cleaned out the moldy refrigerator, but asking a youth to do it for $20 cash with a box of Clorox wipes made for a much better story and the job got done while he listened to a zoom call for school.

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever.” Deuteronomy 29:29 …pass it on!

Faith Milestones are those teaching workshops offering developmentally appropriate faith formation experiences for kids shared with someone they love and who loves them. Children’s Ministry offers multiple faith milestones each year specific to holy habits such as prayer for 1^st and 2^nd graders and their families.

Promotion: FB event (2 months out), bulletin (1 month out), posters (1 month), personal mail (3 weeks), fliers home from Sunday school (1 week), large group announcement (2 weeks), talk about it everywhere (3 weeks), email (2 weeks)

Set up a quiet room with two chairs at each station

• Photo station with Jesus
• Names of all registrants on a jumbo post-it note where I can see it (prompts me to use all kid’s names in attendance; know who’s not yet arrived)
• Start on time; end 5 minutes early
• Starter activity: kids pick up an empty bag; squishy Jesus; handout; ink pen

Schedule

5:45-6pm             Welcome; write-in the blank handout (big fills out the blanks while littles watch/listen and hold squishy Jesus); act out 2 prayer stations; surround room with pictures of kids praying artwork
6-6:15pm             Self-directed remaining stations
6:15-6:30pm       Review 4 steps of prayer (Greet God, Thank God, Ask God, Close in Jesus’ name); invite each child forward to receive their certificate (read one aloud so they know what the certificate says; students receive their certificate AFTER they tell me aloud their favorite station – as they speak aloud I tell them “I LOVE hearing your voice! God wants to hear your voice EVEN MORE!”; close in repeat-after-me prayer and group photo

Handout: How To Pray

Prayer is t_____________________ and l__________________________ to God. (talking; listening)
Prayer can be shared

1. In your m_________________ (mind)
2. Out l__________________ (loud)

For meaningful prayers, it is best to pray

1. By yourself and in a q___________ place. (quiet)
2. With someone you t__________ and love. (trust)

When we pray we speak to our Lord God, three in one:

God the Father Creator.

                Jesus, God’s only son, our Savior and friend.

                                The Holy Spirit, our helper and comforter.

G______ the Lord. (Greet) – who are talking to?

T______ the Lord. (Thank) – grateful for God the giver of all good things

A______ the Lord. (Ask) – after thanking God we can ask for help

Close in Jesus’ n_______. (name) – We do this because Jesus is our Savior, our mediator and go-between between death (physical and spiritual) and eternal life. We also close with saying AMEN because it means we accept or agree with what’s been said.

Pray for f___________ (forgiveness)

Pray in a g__________ (group)

God will answer prayers with a Y____, N_____, and a N______ Y_______. (Yes, No, Not Yet)

Prayer Stations (stations prepared from ‘What’s in my closet? What’s already in my hands?’)
Prepare signs for each station AND prepare a take home paper with same info/images to their take-home bags so they can implement clearly at home.
Journals – composition books; trace hands of those you love (as you pray, place your hand on the traced hand)
Glory celebration bells – celebrations of ‘glory!’ to praise the Lord (place in a room where everyone meets)
Berenstain Bears book on prayer to take home (read aloud book is super kid-friendly)
Prayer cubes leftover from last Easter (hardy, hand-held item with prayer language)
Fidget spinners – thankful prayers while it spins until it stops; waiting prayers for in line or waiting on appointments (encourages longer, unrushed times of listening and talking with God)
Mini scented playdoh (aka prayer-doh) – when hands are busy, minds are calm (God’s favorite smell = our prayers! Psalm 141:2)

What’s already on your shelf or in your supply closet? Make it simple, limited text, add an image of what you’re doing and kids can take it from there with someone they love sharing the teaching and practice.

“I call to you, Lord, come quickly to me; hear me when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense, may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.” Psalm 141:1-2

Our local church offered a ministry fair for the congregation to learn more about the opportunities to serve within the local church. Each ministry and small group was invited to set up a table with visuals and be ready for conversation to invite the local Body of Christ to serve or at the very least, get more information about the ins and outs of serving within the various departments, small groups, and age-level ministries in addition to choir, technical teams, and hospitality. The congregation would make actual commitments the following week in worship.

A Ministry Fair may seem old school, but I’ve gotten the most traction for energy-filled ministry by going old-school in fresh ways especially over the last two years. As the lead for children’s ministry, we decided to post the many new opportunities to serve. New opportunities to help defy four myths of serving in family ministry in the local church.

Myth #1 – Serving in ministry with families is only on Sunday morning.
Most church folk steer clear of anything that will take them away from their Sunday school class or will alter their Sunday morning routines. What we know today is that fruitful, life-giving ministry will take place on other days of the week and much is done behind the scenes. Offering life-giving ministry to families outside of Sunday morning is going to be our bread and butter and fits the rhythms of today’s families.
Our response? Tuesday night kid’s Bible study team, summer Thursday night drive-in team, drive-thru live nativity team, Campfire Christmas team, bus drivers, bulletin boards (I have 4 located on campus), social media friend team, small group hosts.

Myth #2 – Serving in ministry with families is only for adults.
It requires some thought, but every single ministry in the church should have developmentally appropriate ways for children and youth to serve alongside adults. Children and youth can serve in meaningful ways. We offered a sign-up card which listed new areas for children and youth to begin serving and learning skills to help them share the love of Jesus at home, at school, and at church.
Our response? Family small groups, McEachern Kids monthly missions team, playdates K5-2nd, card writing, special projects (one-and-dones that come up), food (bake, cook, host), table cloth care, first-time guest hospitality, special needs friend team.

Myth #3 – The goal of the ministry fair is to toss the net for volunteers to fill spots.
The ministry fair is a great place to take a relationship with a fellow disciple to the next level. I want to invite someone on fire for the Lord to spend time with others on fire for the Lord. I pray the Lord will not let me nor my team be satisfied with mediocre discipleship. Energy draws energy and builds life-giving energy. I’m trusting the Holy Spirit is working in the minds and hearts of His people to do something for Him. Family ministry could be the answer to THEIR prayers.
Our response? Home improvement classes, family summer local mission trip, small group hosts, skills classes, sanctuary kid’s host for clipboard team, summer special events, spring special events, winter special events.

Myth #4 – Only the ministry lead should talk about the ministry.
The children’s ministry theme was “There’s a SPOT for you in McEachern Kids”. All of our team members wore polka-dot clothing on Ministry Fair Sunday. People knew (I mentioned it for two weeks prior in the children’s moments) that whoever the congregation saw wearing spots would be the best people to talk with about serving on the McEachern Kids team. The one gentleman on our team who did not wear polka-dots (he’s a general contractor so there’s not much beyond flannel and plaid in his closet) instead dedicated his entire morning (both services and in-between services) recruiting and chatting with two specific men and would not let them go until they returned a completed sign-up card to me.

How could a ministry fair help you minister to families and encourage the Body of Christ you serve to love littles and their bigs to Jesus in new ways and beyond Sunday mornings?

One of the best ways to reach the community we serve is to offer families what they can not do on their own or may be way more complicated to make happen on their own like…

CPR/Basic First Aid Training – Contact the local American Red Cross and get on their schedule for a Sunday afternoon or Saturday morning. Local scouts, parents, and local businesses need CPR and basic first aid training. Roll out the hospitality red carpet, get registration information to build your community database, and make your space bright, clean, and warm. Contact the local daycares and local businesses to let them know you will be offering it with a face-to-face invite.

A Last Gift of Love – Organize a basic informational meeting or four separate mini 45-minute- to 1-hour gatherings with an attorney about the laws on wills and powers-of-attorney; a financial planner about beneficiaries; a funeral director about what to do when a loved-one dies; local senior services; life, health, long-term-care insurance instruction. Promote this to young families by letter or postcard to help begin the conversations of taking care of their parents as well as their children. So many of my local church’s young parents are dealing with these issues right now and they don’t even know where to begin. When my mother-in-law passed away suddenly several years back, I was so grateful for prior general conversations with a congregant who was an estate attorney to help us know where to begin. I am forever grateful.

Driving Practice – Put out a dozen orange traffic cones and offer driving and parking practice or a space/time for families in the evening in your large parking lot. Offer water bottles and lawn chairs for chatting. Be sure to offer a prayer over the learner’s permit and the driver’s license when it’s earned. What a milestone to share with a local family! Promote with yard signs.

Playground playdates – offer a regular, intentional time for preschool children to come to play with their parents/grandparents when you can be there to let the kids play and make space for conversations about what every preschool parent deals with such as nighttime routines, picky eaters, pediatricians, where shoes are on sale, etc. Set the time for 1 hour – 1.5 hours and offer a prayer time to close out your time together. Over time, regular routines, growing trust relationships, enjoying some laughter. Not a drop off, but rather a drop in. If you have a preschool or daycare, you’ll have easy promotional avenues.

College/Job Application skills – enlist the help of a college professor who might be in your church for their partnership.

Home Improvement Classes – enlist the help of a general contractor in your church to teach basic home improvement skills for kids WITH their parents and grandparents for measuring, leveling, hanging drywall or spackling, painting, trimming bushes, community container gardening.

Each one of these can neighborly extend the love when you….

• Purchase honorarium gift cards for your instructors at local businesses and tell the business why you are purchasing the gift cards. Shop local and let the local business know you will be sending someone their way with the gift card. 
• Shop local. Find a mom & pop or local family business to support. These are the folks who are feeding their families directly from your business. Come from a place of generosity rather than ‘what can you give me?’

• Find out when the local community will be offering a farmer’s market (spring/summer) and holiday parade (summer/Christmas) and go through the paperwork to walk in the parade or offer a ‘station’ in the kid’s area. Find the community calendar online for your town and invest in a plastic A-frame sign or table cloth with your church or children’s ministry logo to set up then prepare to chat with folks about their lives wearing a church t-shirt. Use a local vendor for your t-shirts.
• Discover the ‘walking’ schedule of the local neighborhood nearest your church, then invite a couple of church members (Jesus never sent out His disciples one at a time, but rather two, three, and up to seventy) to join you for a walk. Load up a rolling cooler with iced down freezer pops, safety scissors to clip the tops, and a side trash bag to collect the empties. Stroll as you roll and start some conversations fully intending to make some new friends of your new neighbors as being a frequent walker in the neighborhood. You can’t walk every neighborhood, but you could certainly dedicate March & April to one and learn it deeply.  Pray for each home you walk pass and consider writing a blessing on the sidewalk (not their driveway UNLESS you know them, then by all means!).

Gentle Reminder: Registration will probably be last minute and may be small. Do it anyway to build trust with your neighbors that your yes will be yes and your no will be no. If you promote it, do it. Promote it at least 60-days out with the understanding that it may take families a while to budget their time to build in the margin to make the registration. 

We all need new friends. We all need a good walk. We all should be learning new things. We all learn better together.

What other ideas do you have to be a good neighbor?

Serving local churches adjacent to cemeteries offer a great opportunity to take a walking field trip and learn the history of the church and the community. I’ve served at two local churches with cemeteries and oh the stories.

Every other year, on a Sunday afternoon before the time changes, we enlist the presence of a saint to meet our 3rd-5th graders at the cemetery ready to tell the stories of the people who have gone on to Glory. These folks gave money, prayed, and served on committees to make the decisions to provide the spaces the kids now call ‘my church.’ 

Most cemeteries have a caretaker who grew up in the community the cemetery and church serves. This saint knows the families and the history of the community more personally than anyone else. They know the founding families, what used to be where the drug store is now, why their school and roads are named after these folks, and how these folks made church-life part of their holy habits in following Jesus.

We invite parents/grandparents and the church-at-large so we never know who will meet us there.

Program
Supplies: 2 bunches of yellow carnations; hot apple cider (for our return to debrief)
Arrival: a short time of teaching at the beginning makes space for late arrivals (we taught on Baptism last week continuing our teaching curriculum for CLUB345) .
One of our leaders wears a bright-yellow vest so motorists see us as we walk to the cemetery.
Teaching: What can we learn about the person from the limited info and symbols provided on the grave marker/stone?
Response: a single yellow carnation is left on each grave if we stop to learn.
Allow time for wandering, chatting, and storytelling.

• Two brothers are buried head to head, yet their names are different by one letter. There was a family feud and they refused to be associated with one another in life, yet are buried head to head.
• The first youth leader was a new burial site when we visited. She sat in the front youth pew at 11am worship with her special-needs, adult, son up until the Sunday she passed away in her nineties.
• The wife moved to the area with her new husband as part of a Cobb County land grab, crossing the Chattahoochee River on the ferry. She desperately missed her family and told her new husband that when she died, we would not be buried in the field where their animals relieved themselves. Her daddy purchased the adjacent land for her to set up a family cemetery and a church for her to start for the community. Her husband is buried in the field. She is buried in the cemetery.
• The church I currently serve is named after a man who started an insurance company. His family trust now funds with the interest only the local high school (which was a 1st-12th grade school originally), facilities and missions for our church, and Young Harris college. But the history goes all the way back to the 1830s with the community’s priority of the local church and education. We heard of the unwed teacher’s home (dormitory) and the principal’s ‘parsonage’ of the A & M school. 
• One of our buildings is named to honor his incredible wife. She was an educator, business woman, and built the church on her husband’s donated land. She was elected president of the National Council of Federated Church Women and was a member of the World Council of Christian Education. 
• We learned about the only place to get gas, the hardware store which is no longer there, and so many young educators which came to the area for teaching jobs until they married.
• One of our students in attendance last Sunday had his own stories to share he’d heard from his mom, who joined us, and his grandmother. His family is part of the community’s history. He shared who were teachers, a dog story, a first mayor story, and was filled with delight to be sharing HIS family stories with us, too.

Learning the stories of real people who followed the Lord and have gone on to Glory is a gift only the local church can share and share well. How do your kids learn of the people who made your church the place it is today in your community? Enlisting the service of the saints of your local church is always a win-win!

“Let this be written for a future generation that a people not yet created may praise the Lord.” Psalm 102:18

The gold-framed Guardian Angel picture followed my maternal grandparents to every home they lived in. They moved from the coal mines of West Virginia to Virginia to Florida then back to Virginia. They also kept a huge, white family Bible on the coffee table. These are the images I recall from my childhood related to their faith.

In Family Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes To Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk With God,  Voddie Baucham, Jr. speaks of marking the home as God’s territory. He shares the memory of his Buddhist mother. Her regular practice of that belief system involved all five senses: a black lacquer box in the corner of their dining room, a statue of Buddha, a scroll of strange writing, incense, fruit, beads, and a small gong or bell. Those images remain with him to this day even though she became a Christian within six months of his conversion.

“Imagine the impact that Moses’ teaching had on the children of Israel in the Promised Land.” God’s people were entering a new land with new smells, sights, sounds, tastes, yet were expected to retain their distinction as followers of the one true God. How?  Marking their doorposts, celebrating annual feasts with bitter herbs, unleavened bread, and the stories. Oh, the stories, the stones, the Sabbath practices, the music, and so much more.

My BFF-in-the-Lord just set up her new office space with bright yellow chairs and throw rugs to cover floor stains. She has stuffed animals (you know, the holy stuffed animals like sheep, donkey, lamb, plush Jesus which are staples for family faith experiences) on shelves and filled a wall with pictures of remarkable moments with the people of God she has served alongside. Visual reminders of creative, innovative, hard, hilarious moments in time where she served her families in ministry with great zeal and joy. She has marked her space as the Lord’s.

How can we regularly and intentionally mark our spaces and places for the Lord? At home? At church? At work? Sticky faith formation experiences engaging all five senses.

Engaging Eyes
“There was a period in history when anyone who wanted to be considered a serious painter, a grand master, painted biblical themes.”
At this week’s Faith Milestone: Bread & Juice Class, we’ll pull out the jumbo framed picture of Da Vinci’s Last Supper for our kindergarten and first grade students to stand behind for their class photo.

Engaging Ears
“Music is an incredible medium. With a few notes we can be transported to another time and place.”
Preparing for this week’s S’more Jesus Late Night with our 3rd-5th graders, we prepared a Spotify playlist with camp songs. Sent it out ahead of time to the leaders and the children.
Dr. Richard Hunter offered a sermon based on his daughter’s favorite song, at the time, Tim McGraw’s Live Like You Were Dying at my home church. There are some messages super sticky because of a song.

Engaging Taste
“There is no such thing as Christian food.” Well, I beg to differ.
I recall a young pastor at my home church who prepared a summer sermon series based on breakfast cereals. I’ll never be able to look at a box of Frosted Flakes the same again.
Goldfish? Cheerios? S’mores prayers? Bread and juice? 

Engaging Smells
“I could almost smell the Sunday dinner as he described in great detail his vivid memory of every aspect…”
Dr. Doug Thrasher gave a sermon at my home church about Sunday dinner with biscuits and gravy on a communion Sunday. I’ll never forget the intentionality of a mama setting the Sunday table for her family and the planning involved.

Engaging Touch
“Have you ever walked into a home with one of those enormous family Bibles? I mean the kind you have to open with two hands.”
When a local UMC church was closing in our district, one of my moms went to the garage sale the church was having. It was her home church. She asked about the Chrismons which were a sticky faith formation experience of her now art-teacher-of-the-year faith journey. They pulled them out and gave them to her! Even before this, she had led our 3rd graders in October and November for the last four years in a rite of passage to make and learn about Chrismons. She leads those students to decorate the children’s large group space each year for Advent: Hanging of the Greens. Lots of gold beads, lots of white styrofoam, lots of conversation, LOTS of stick pins. The Chrismons of her home church are now enjoyed and shared with her students at her son’s home church. The Chrismons of both churches hang together in our children’s spaces.

In my weekday preschool days, we displayed an apple when we studied apples. We ate apple stuff, counted apples, played with apples, used apple-scented shampoo in the water table, read apple books, painted with apples, and did everything we could possibly think of with apples.

“It all comes down to a simple question: Why are we here?” If our local church, and our family, exists to know Jesus and make Him known, how are we intentionally marking our lives for Him in the stickiest ways possible, through our five senses? At home. At church. At work.

“You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:9

A decision was made by our church leadership to pause gathering in-person, on-campus for a period of time to allow the spike in COVID positives to subside. It was also the very week almost a dozen new Bible studies and small groups were to begin. I had made the decision early on to partner with a young mom to lead a small group in-person on Thursday mornings specifically focused on our preschool families. I had also made the commitment to co-lead the same study by ZOOM on Wednesday evenings so not to be away from home another night of the week. Sunday morning took a pause and these small groups did not begin, so I had some new-found margin.

I do not want our families to grow accustomed to doing life without the local church, so I asked, “What’s in my hand?” and “How can we love on our families?” easily, regularly, and energetically? Our county schools are not meeting in-person, nor online on Wednesdays mornings. We have a bus with our name on it. We have a great story: Jesus. We have popcorn, rocks, a wireless speaker, and Spotify.

We invited families to host a Pop In by registering online on Wednesdays 1:30pm (give our preschool families time to get home), or at 3pm (give our other-county students time to get home). Hosts promote the Pop In in their neighborhood and among their kid’s friends (kids have been playing with other kids in their own neighborhoods since forever), collect registration forms (you never know who doesn’t have a church home), and a snack (freeze pops). We take care of the rest!

We arrive 30 minutes early and start the music – McEachern Kids Pop In Spotify playlist which we share before and after to the emails shared on the registration forms/social media.
Hula Hoops – offers safe social distancing and arrival physical fun.
Welcome – Intro me ( name and “I love Jesus), the driver (name and “He loves Jesus), and sometimes a guest (name and “She loves Jesus.”) Then ask, “Do you know our Jesus?” leaving room for answers.
Intro the Bible – ask, “Who has a Bible?” “This is my Bible and in it…..”
Read 1 Corinthians 14:1 “Go after a life of love.” Ask, “What do you GO AFTER?” (Mom, spaghetti, video games, fishing) “A life of love is when we help other people know they are loved.”
Activity – Decorate a rock (pencil first, then paint markers, on a paper mat/work space) to “leave for someone to know they are loved, as they go wherever they go.” Enlist the help of the adults in attendance to hand out stuff so each child hears multiple voices of helpfulness from their own neighborhood peeps and my church bus driver.
Closing – Read “Wherever You Go, I Want You To Know” by Melissa Kruger, illustrated by Isobel Lundie.
We bless their painted rock (lay hands on) with a repeat-after-me prayer teaching that when we bless something we are setting it apart for a sacred and Godly purpose. I tell the story of my grands leaving painted rocks all over their new town in Oregon to share the love of Jesus. Their parents moved there to help start a church and in this way even the children could serve their new community in ministry.
Take-aways – Students get a folder with multiple at-home family SHARE THE LOVE activities related to their own hometown (we have three hometowns we focus on); a bag of popcorn with “Thanks for poppin’ in!” with our social media contact info.
Holy habits taught and caught: Bible reading, generosity, prayer, service, play.

We learned:
• Going out is easier than staying in; and the Lord gave us the best weather every. single. Wednesday. we went out.
• We used the church bus because it’s a big statement, but I could’ve used my car and ordered a big magnet for the doors. A church bus is ‘what was in my hand.’
• Kids and parents need a break, even if just for 20 minutes.
• Families stay to chat, so we have to honor the time commitment of our host and leave no later than 10 minutes after we finish. Our meet & greet time is as they arrive. Our hosts take care of the back-end hospitality.
• The host gets face-to-face time with everyone in their neighborhood when they collect the registration form info.
• ALL KIDS like to paint, hear a story read to them, eat popcorn/freeze pops, even 4th grade boys.
• We extended Pop Ins through all of February since some families wanted to host more than once (equipping the saints).
• Three different bus drivers who have three different seats at leadership tables now share how they were able to love kids to Jesus when the church took a Sunday pause (equipping the saints.)

What’s in your hand? How can you invite your families to offer the spaces to tell the greatest story ever told?

“The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.” Psalm 29:11

We started teaching the Christmas story last Sunday…in November…in the Sunday school discipleship hour….with power tools, a virus kit, six boxes of Legos, slime, stickers, gold beads, and money.

The research from Lifeway, The Barna Group, and in my own personal experiences continue to report that one of the most impactful and equipping opportunities offered by the local church community for students who never left their faith as teens or young adults was to give young people experiences in vocational discipleship….robust conversation with Titus 2 men and women who love Jesus and are living out their calling in the world.

“Vocational discipleship involves being aware of the career aspirations of teens and young adults in our communities, and helping them to connect those goals with how God designed work.” (Faith For Exiles by Kinnaman and Matlock, pg. 156)

This is how we will teach the Christmas story this season through these experiences.

Families registered their students for their top two preferences of small groups for the seven weeks of November and December. They will remain in these small groups, in these specific spaces, with this leader for all of November and December.

K5-2^nd grade – Knowing God through Sticker Art, Science, Lego building, and Games led by a musician, a scout leader, a dentist, and an evangelist. All are living out their calling to love the Lord and their neighbor in their chosen, skilled vocation.

3^rd grade – We have a rite of passage/ tradition of this age level learning and making Chrismons in November then will become part of a class of K5-5^th graders for Nativity worship art in December, as well as any students who begin attending after the November 8^th  led by an art teacher of the year who loves the Lord and her neighbor.

4^th & 5^th grade – Knowing God through Nursing Science, Power Tools, Money Matters, and Worship Art led by a nurse, a general contractor, an accountant, and another art teacher of the year. All who are living out the great commandment and great commission in their daily line of work.

Each week they’ll lead their small group in learning about the major players in the Christmas story: Zechariah, Elizabeth, Gabriel, Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, the posse of animals and angels, Jesus, and the Wisemen.

The weekly online classroom will be set up each week to learn more about each major player which will also serve as the background for each of the leaders and our families with curated online content. The leads will teach the who (basic facts of the major player), the where (find it in the Bible), and the WOW! (why it matters) along with a discussion question. Then they are off to learn the focused skill for the remaining time.

With the goals of vocational discipleship, dedicated time spent with Titus 2 men and women (the best way for kids to learn to love Jesus is to spend time with people who love Jesus), and a call to families to “come on home,” I can’t wait to see how God will continue to grow kids’ hearts and minds, hands and feet, to the One and Only who loves them best: Jesus!

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.” Colossians 3:23

Being from south Louisiana I’m wired for celebration. Serving in weekday preschool ministry for more than 15 years gave me many opportunities to set aside time and space for celebration: Red Day, Wacky Wednesday, Donuts with Dad, etc. Today is Farmer’s Day in my grandson’s preschool class. #flannelup 

Families run smoothly in routine and ritual, so any time I can equip or add a sacred holiday into the memory bank, I’m ready to order confetti cannons in bulk.

Halloween and All Saints’ Day are connected. Celebrating Halloween is a personal, family preference. Becky Kiser in Sacred Holidays: Less Chaos, More Jesus reminds us that for many families, the season of Halloween is their jam. “The day is already set aside; it’s up to us to make it sacred – holy and set apart.” (p. 103). I’m not going to get into a quarrel to celebrate Halloween or not, but I will take advantage of the church’s celebration for All Saints Sunday.

Rev.  Leanne Hadley offers a ritual of writing names on white hearts of those who now live in Heaven. I will extend that this All Saints Sunday with kids and families writing names on paper hearts.

1. Remembering those we love who now live with Jesus (names on white hearts of people, pets, whomever)

Convo starter: Who in our family is in Heaven? Share how he/she/they lived out their faith that resembles how mom/dad/grandparents model their own faith?

2. Remembering and being thankful for those who have taught us about Jesus when we were little kids (names on red hearts)

Convo starter: Tell about the people who have loved dad/mom/grandparents to Jesus before the kids were born and now.

3. Expressions of thankfulness for those who are teaching us about Jesus and helping us grow in our faith right now (names on green hearts)

Convo starter: Tell about who is teaching and loving your child to Jesus NOW.

RESPOND: Write a thank you note to someone mentioned in the conversations 2 and 3.

All Saints Day is a day we can celebrate those who have loved us and are loving us to Jesus well. Who are the saints in your life? Let’s respond with gratitude and tell some stories!

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