Matt Miofsky, founding and lead pastor of The Gathering, a multisite United Methodist congregation in St. Louis, Missouri, came to North Georgia last week to present an education opportunity for church leaders. I was unable to go, but dear friends called me immediately afterwards to chat about what they heard and one gifted me with the books discussed. As a student of church culture and a satisfied customer of the local church, I began reading Eight Virtues of Rapidly Growing Churches as soon as I got home because, in the words of the author, “We are all church planters now.” (p xviii)

In elementary science class we learned how healthy things grow, but not all growth is healthy. Same goes for the local church. The anecdotes shared by the authors are not intended as a blueprint for church growth, but hearing the stories of successful church planters of today these common virtues can’t be denied nor ignored. As Methodists, we are known as a revivalist movement. We are accustomed to breaking barriers, engaging in holy habits, disagreeing in love, gathering in community, and serving the marginalized. With all that in mind, the testimonies of the various United Methodist planters quoted in the book speak loud and clear for today. I’ll cover two here and two each week as it relates to children’s ministry.

Can I put out the challenge that if it’s good for children, it’s good for everybody? Just sayin’.

Virtue #1 – Rapidly Growing Churches believe in miracles and act accordingly

God is indeed working miracles in our midst. We have no idea what the children will do with their love for Jesus, but I know of the miracles that it has taken for some of their parents to be here.  “Acting as if the Spirit is moving changes everything.” (p 3). Praying fervently, specifically, and boldly can get us moving in the right direction. I am one of those miracles. I know the stories of some of my parents and they are those miracles. I need to remind them they are and call how they are claiming their kid’s lives for Jesus as a priority and call it the miracle it is.  “Rapidly growing churches have figured out how to not only take risks but also deal with failure in a way that does not thwart future bold decisions.” (pg 11) My home church where I received excellent ministry training from amazing clergy and lay folk was never afraid of taking risks. We’d try something, set the goals, debrief afterward with a clear look at what worked, wipe off the table what didn’t, and share how to edit to move forward. It wasn’t personal, but it had to be fruitful. We did ministry in love and with only one fear: the fear we would disappoint the Holy Spirit which led us to do ministry in the first place.

Virtue #2 – Rapidly Growing Churches integrate new people quickly

Deep in our Methodist DNA is an order, a method, to organize discipleship with Christian education alongside service. We must be great at assimilation, helping a guest to know the path for growing as a deeply committed follower of Jesus. We do this in relationships in small groups, around tables not rows, and in community. People need an organized plan. Children need an organized discipleship plan. Children go through multiple developmental stages from 0-5^th grade. We can’t depend on them ‘catching’ their faith.  We need a plan for developmentally appropriate faith formation experiences in Christian education and the systems in place to move everyone through their next steps. We are in partnership with parents and grandparents. When a child is baptized, we vow to ‘so order our lives in the example of Christ….’  We are not event planners, but rather disciple-makers and we can provide families with the next steps to ‘so order their families’ to love their kids to Jesus. “The question in Methodism is not ‘When were you saved?;’ it’s ‘How are you growing in grace just now?”  (p 20) “Assimilating people as disciples has to be our primary focus.” (p 22) The local church can do many things, but our marching orders are to ‘make disciples of Jesus Christ.’

More to come next week!

“Rapidly growing churches are like ducks. They look placid on the water. But underneath they’re paddling like crazy!” (p 17)

Last Friday evening I watched with wonder how my amazing colleagues served our Lord by serving one another and people they’d just met with such compassion and humility that the visual images will stick with me for the rest of my days. Many of these folks have been in professional ministry for more than twenty years using their gifts and graces, not their position, to be fully present for whomever God set before us. We registered early for the event. We attended the required training. We loved our colleague who led the charge so much that she didn’t have to worry about when or where we’d be. We’d be right there to do whatever was needed to provide an exceptional and unforgettable experience for our honored guests and their families. We arrived early. We set up. We stayed late. We mopped. We took instruction. We served. I’d never been so excited to be dressed all in black in all my life!

The weekend prior to Valentine’s Day is Night to Shine. Night to Shine honors teens and adults with special needs by giving them their own special night of games, dancing, food, fellowship, where every boy and girl, man and woman is crowned prom king or prom queen. The Tim Tebow Foundation started Night to Shine six years ago with 44 churches in 2014, now more than 700 churches around the world host the prom. My local church, in partnership with two other United Methodist Churches in our district, provided this special event for 125 honored guests.

Yes, our honored guests were celebrated and their families offered respite and an amazing dinner. But let me tell you what else I saw…

The event-leader was a part-time staff member who is a full-time Jesus gal who led a multi-church team which led hundreds of volunteers to be the hands and feet of Jesus. This didn’t even fall under her role on staff, but organized, encouraging, super-prepared, and all-in, her colleagues joined her in the charge because we love her deeply and whatever she leads, we know will honor the Lord. Her husband guided and directed all things transportation with an awesome team, loaded, carted, escorted, and ….

The Recreation Ministry Lead was assigned the most personal interaction as a buddy. I watched that man laugh, talk with, enjoy the company of, cut the food and hand feed his honored guest, then stayed for hours afterward to mop the floor.

The Youth Ministry Lead took photos and took down decorations. The Nursery Ministry Lead and her husband took professional photos for guest take-aways.

The Financial Department Lead greeted guests with energy and excitement and was the event lead’s gopher for the night, never leaving her post. The Head of the Finance Committee directed traffic in 30 degree weather.

The Worship Minister ran for the medical team when needed, ran messages for food allergies, danced with guests, announced the prom kings, and worked the room of buddies and guests making sure everyone was comfortable while her Choir and music ministry team provided a red carpet experience like no other.

An Admin served in the Sensory Room while another placed crowns on the heads of God’s precious.

One of my Super McEachern Kids Dads took bathroom duty. One new Sergeant and a new Dad took on security like the City Police Officer bosses they are. Another Super Dad shined shoes. A Super Mom cheered along with the Choir and Joyful Singers along the red carpet with her own Mom. Two Super Moms led a team to turn a gym into a Tiffany Blue Ballroom. Almost my entire team of McEachern Kids Sunday Morning Leaders were buddies, served food, played corn hole, ran the karaoke room, or danced all night long.

I didn’t see all the other 200 servant-leader volunteers, but what I did see reminded me how good the leaders of God’s church can be. I serve the local church with die-hard, hard-working, servant leaders who are the 6am workers Jesus talks about in Matthew 20 and the faith-builders in Nehemiah 6. I love these people so much as they live out 1 Corinthians 13 every single day.

In the words of our special musical guest Elvis, “Thank you. Thank you very much.”

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5

Each fall every church I’ve ever served has presented a teaching campaign for stewardship for the congregation. The campaign would have a theme, a date of commitment, mailings, emails, sometimes a book to read, perhaps testimonies to encourage folks to consider their obedience of regular giving to the local church according to the scriptures. I’ve learned that if we can teach the holy habit of generosity to children as part of their discipleship it follows the scripture, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) Teaching our children God’s way of handling money is a life skill taught best by the family, so let’s give our families the promptings and tools to do so.

This year the children K5-5th grade received an offering folder with the following teaching attached:
“For God so loved the world that HE GAVE…” John 3:16
GOD GAVE his son Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. JESUS GAVE his life so that when we believe and choose to follow him so closely we become more like him, we are better at life. It is wise to teach our children to be wise and generous. Teaching is best learned when practiced and shared with our families.
As the McEachern Memorial UMC family is asked to make a commitment (promise) financially to support the church each year, children are included. In its most simple form, stewardship is taking care of the world and the church on behalf of God.
Invite your kids to serve the family and their neighbors to earn dollar bills toward a $20 goal and return the folders by Sunday, November 10 or when your family is able.
Generosity Conversation Starters:
• How do you think God wants us to take care of the church?
• How are we ministers to others for Jesus?
• What are some ways the church can help take care of the world?
• What are some things you can do to help the church in its ministry?
• What can you do to help take care of God’s world?
• How can I be generous with my family?

The sense of belonging to a community is an important aspect of faith development for children (and all ages). This can be an asset in exploring how we use what God has given us to include creation, abilities & talents and resources (financial and relational).

Children need approval of family, friends and teachers and hands-on exploration of concepts, being able to relate Bible stories to their lives and the issues of today. It is important that we encourage questioning and exploration, while sharing our own faith and understanding of stewardship in an honest, open way.

One’s understanding of personal stewardship is a continuing journey that should begin in childhood. Most children already have a sense of wonder of how to respond with thanksgiving to God who created them and the world in which they live.

Generosity, charity, sharing, Thanksgiving and abundance are reinforced in many of the themes found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Be encouraged to think about how to use your gifts and how to be more generous as an example to our children. Because we serve a generous God, we should grow in our generosity.

How are the children involved in your local church’s stewardship campaign?

“Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:7

By the time this is published, I’ll be attending a national Children’s Ministry conference with a bus load of other kidmin champions. We’ll attend workshops, overhear conversations, spend WAY too much time in a resource center and come home with a slew of new ideas and excitement for what is to come.  The tension comes when I’ve already set my calendar for the year. As stated last week, that document is always a working calendar because we desire to be relevant, helpful to our families, and offer freshness. How do we work out the tension?

Each programming year, the goal is to offer 20% of our programming as ‘new’ items, meaning that 20% of our old programming will take a sabbatical, be fully handed off to laity, or updated to be included in the 20% of ‘new’. This keeps ministry fresh and relative to changing culture and family needs. For example: The Tour of the Nativities has grown into such a huge event set two hours before the annual Christmas Choir event, that it’s bigger than me. Little people handling the treasures of so many has me shaking in my boots, so I’ve already contacted one of the Women’s Ministry groups to take it on in the future, thus opening a spot for something new in that season of church life.

The additional challenge comes when everything you offer is great, or we like to think it is.  But let’s face it.  We all have limited resources in volunteers, champions, funding, and time. So let’s be intentional about offering what is best: be in prayer, talk with your parents, chat it up among your students, run it by your pastor and church leadership in the casual conversations of life. For example, while Christmas Caroling, I was able to ask the children in attendance if they had enough time to make all the stations at Messy Family Christmas to see if I needed to adjust the next year’s timing of Messy McEachern on the Fifth Sundays. I do. Sharing a bus seat with our Princess Class Bible Study leader which took us from home to home while caroling, we were able to discuss a change in 3rd-5th grade programming for the NEXT school year which will suit her schedule and passions as well as meet the prayerful needs of the large group of students coming up into the 3rd grade. Two major programming items for 2019-2020? Done! Now I have a whole year to talk it up.

To aid my focus of adding only what is best, I set aside a dinner with my leadership team two weeks before attending the conference. Away from church. At a local restaurant. These ten servants in the trenches of children’s ministry shared laughter, food, ideas, what they love, and what they dream for us in the years to come.  We talked and laughed about everything from Sunday school to the Christmas Eve children’s play. Very informally they shared their kid’s favorite things about their church and even why. This amazing team of leaders are of all ages, have kids of all ages, been at the church forever or just joined our church this year. These are the champions, the connectors, the voices with seats at leadership tables in other areas of the church, the workers, and the partners who will fuel the new and will be all-in for what we keep and update in our programming. We talked about our shared vision for relationships between our kids and families and agreed that Sunday school is the primary offering of Christian Education developmentally appropriate for our littles. We even renamed a few things that will take on an update in the new year. Collaboration at it’s best before I head off to a conference that will blow my mind without this focus.

Jim Collins wrote in Good to Great, that “Great leaders shoot bullets before shooting cannonballs. Bullets are miniature cannonballs. They’re inexpensive, easy to make, and easy to shoot. Outcomes invite us to face assumptions as we test, evaluate, and adapt on a smaller scale.” We did that with Messy Family Christmas (a take on the Messy Church model during Advent). We did that with McPeachern (luncheon with peach food at the height of Georgia peach season). We will do that with Wonderfully Made and a Middle School panel dessert event we’ll have in late April for what we desire to offer as a series in 2019-2020.

How do you add something to your calendar with intentionality?

“Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:5-8

In preparing for a Children’s Ministry Stakeholder’s Meeting, I asked a 2nd grader what were her favorite parts of church over the last year. Her response surprised me. She replied, “When we read aloud books.” There are many more flashy things we do, but she shared immediately how we end our time in Children’s Church most Sundays. So when I heard Glenys Nellist had written two new rhyming books focused on mommies and daddies, I picked up several copies right away and she didn’t disappoint.

Published by Zonderkidz, these two irresistible padded-covered board books are a MUST for any child’s and children’s ministry library. In celebration of Father’s Day, I’ll focus this review of God Made Daddy Special. With a lilting rhythm, children will hear of the precious characteristics of a polar bear, skunk (my personal favorite because it is laugh-out-loud funny), giraffe, octopus, lion, flamingo, bat, and elephant. The last pages elaborate on human Daddies. I LOVE books that share the laughter, playfulness, joy, strength, and humor of daddies with their kids. Even a pre-teen enjoys hearing the reminders that their dads are amazing creations of God and ‘a precious gift to me.’

Both books are illustrated by Estelle Corke, who uses traditional paints and watercolors making every parent-animal an absolute visual delight. The images and even the print was intentional: The heart-shaped ‘O’ on the cover of God Made Mommy Special is the publisher’s response to Glenys being from England. In England, they don’t call Moms ‘Mom’, but rather ‘Mum’ making the marketing on both sides of the ocean relative.

Glenys is indeed an accomplished author of children’s books pointing families to the Lord. Might there be something on the horizon about Grandmothers and Grandfathers? This Mimi would be thrilled. Stay tuned!

Want to get BOTH books for your library for free? Comment below with what you’ve planned to do for your Dads and their kids in your ministry with children. We’ll be enjoying donuts with Dad in the Children’s Welcome Center. This pair of books are perfect for a preschool classroom, too. You must be over 18 years old and have a US street address. The giveaway ends on Tuesday, June 12. I’ll announce the winner on that day. Thanks, Glenys! Thanks, Zonderkidz!

To connect with Author Glenys Nellist, find her across various social media @GlenysNellist and visit her website. To connect with Illustrator Estelle Corke, check out her Facebook page.

“Every good and perfect gift is from God.” James 1:17

Glenys Nellist has partnered again with illustrator Sophie Allsopp to provide a beautiful book for children and the young at heart in Easter Love Letters From God: Bible Stories. Glenys has authored two popular book series: Love Letters from God and Snuggle Time. She serves ministry with children in Michigan and comes from northern England. Sophie Allsopp is an award-winning illustrator of many children’s books and lives in England. These ladies have come together to present an interactive Easter journey that is delightful!

Seven sections take the reader through seven events of Holy Week: Triumphant Entry, Washing Feet, Last Supper, Gethsemane, Crucifixion, Burial, and Resurrection. Each page has a 3-D look to it with the appearance of multiple items placed together to further visualize the setting of each event. The artwork is lovely, simple, and delicately fills each page to add to the story. Even the detail of the stamp on the lift-the-flap share an image that compliments each of the seven events of Holy Week.

In the writing of the story, Glenys does well in speaking of the humanness of Jesus.

“And even though he felt all alone, he knew that God was with him.” (pg 16)

The lift-the-flap love letters from God were a reminder on each page, in each scene, that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Even the darkest events were written tenderly, yet truthfully. Sin is not mentioned, but forgiveness is.

Dear _______,  Do you like surprises? Inside that quiet cave I was working on a surprise that no one could imagine. It would be the greatest surprise the world had ever known. Something was happening to Jesus. My son was going to have a brand-new life. But for three whole days the world had to wait.  Love, God (pg 27)

In just a couple of weeks there will be a free, downloadable activity and resource pack available to accompany the book designed for families and those who serve in ministry with children.  The first look of that resource will be made available at http://www.glenysnellist.com.

Though the events of Holy Week are the saddest in the whole Bible culminating in a way I have a hard time wrapping my head and heart around, this is the basis of our faith: the death and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ, God’s own perfect son who came to seek and to save the lost. We must share this with our little people. They need to know. We need to know. If we already know, we need to be reminded. This hardy book shares the stories and does an amazing job of sharing images that are kid-friendly. It’s perfect for family devotion and to accompany the teachings of Holy Week in the local church.

You can win your own copy! Just comment on the blog THIS WEEK with an idea of how you share, celebrate, or remember an event of Holy Week. It can be in your classroom (for all my preschool champions), your church (for all my Sunday school and small group servant-leaders), or your home (for all our Mamas & Daddies & Grands sharing their faith in our fabulous Jesus with their little people.) Zonderkidz will be sure you get your copy early in Lent.

How will you share, celebrate, or remember our best friend Jesus this Lenten season?

“Can you believe that my son, Jesus, came back to life? Only the King of the whole world could do that. Jesus is the King of Love, the King of Hope, and the King of Heaven. And he wants to be the King of your life, too. Will you let him?” Glenys Nellist, Easter Love Letters From God, pg. 31

We are discovering a variety of skills are appealing to both parents and kids with the Wesley Chapel Academy. Even though some of the boys who signed up for sewing basics were concerned there wouldn’t be other boys, we found there were an equal number of boys to girls at the third Wesley Chapel Academy class.

Ordering Sewing School: 21 Sewing Projects Kids Will Love To Make with kid-friendly graphics from Amazon, we chose two projects we thought the kids could accomplish in the time frame of 6-7:30 with tutor introductions at the beginning, a small break mid-way for a story about the sick woman healed by the power of even the touch of the fabric of Jesus’ cloak, and certificates with summer fun registration information attached.

Supplies included: 2 needles per student, scrap fabric for the pillow, batting for stuffing the pillow, 2 small sewing kits with small spools of thread, crayons/chalk for outlining patterns, large 2-hole buttons, dark colored felt (the darker colors make for a stiffer fabric), scissors, paper bags for carrying finished projects or storing unfinished projects, ice water in the large dispenser with small cups for the water-story break.

6:05-6:15 Introductions and housekeeping

6:15-6:45 Station #1

6:45-6:55 Water and story break

6:55-7:25 Station #2

7:25-7:30 Certificates earned and class photo

Two seamstresses in the church (Titus 2 women!) and two young people who could take instruction AND keep the littles on task along with keeping their needles threaded/knotted (we did have some 1st & 2nd graders) were wonderful tutors. They spoke, they displayed, then encouraged the students to keep trying to do it themselves.

One brother and sister team drove over an hour to attend the class. They heard about the class through our registration tool Eventbrite. Twenty registered, fifteen attended, three students were new faces!

The next Wesley Chapel Academy is next month and we’re breaking out the power tools!

“When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”” Mark 5:27-28

Since January our families have been picking up Praying On The Go Bags each month to build their faith muscles in prayer with simple directions and a prayer prompter to take home.  I wanted to do something different for July following Vacation Bible School and came across a great facebook post of a blog offering  Take Out Church.  Thankfully, everything they used with photos and pdfs are at the link.  Gotta love it when colleagues share their goodies!

With a spin specific to us and our Children’s Ministry tagline, I prepared a pizza box (purchased at a local pizza shop @ $1 each) for each family, ordered the prayer cubes, and filled it with some goodies to clean out my own shelves along with the following instructions:

Summer Church On the Go Instructions

Summer Church On The Go is a way for your family to bring church with you as you vacation and enjoy wonderful family time this summer.  Building memories around faith practices. In this box are ways you and your family can

GROW (App List, Coloring Scroll with memory verses),

TELL (Flat Jesus, Conversation questions),

SERVE (Serve Your Neighbor Game),

WORSHIP (VBS CD, Prayer Cube, Skittle Prayers), and

BELONG (give the Wesley Chapel Welcome Postcard to a friend and invite them to church, Write a note of encouragement on the funny postcards and mail them to whomever you want – grandparents LOVE this stuff!)

Through it all we want you to remember to take Jesus with you. He is the most important thing in this box, but especially in our family life. Color FLAT JESUS and then take it with you everywhere you go. Take a picture and post it on facebook or email it to the church office at church.office@wesleychapelumc.com.

Have fun, be safe, and enjoy church on the go this Summer!

We introduced the boxes at the children’s moment the Sunday following VBS as a way to continue growing in our faith during the next month when most of us might hear, “Mom, I’m bored.”  It was quite dramatic to see a stack of pizza boxes near the church office and the kids headed straight for them after services were over.

What is your follow up to VBS?

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” – Colossians 4:2 NIV

This post was originally published November of 2014. Since the pandemic it has been viewed more than 15 times each day.  I began serving a new church family in 2017 and prayerfully waited for the opportunity to implement practices which would engage children in the worship service and set aside Children’s Church here, too. When we opened for in-person worship the summer of 2020, we got our chance. The children do receive age-specific, developmentally appropriate Christian education during the Sunday school hour, which doesn’t look like your typical Sunday school. The fruitfulness has affirmed our decision to say, “No more children’s church for us.”  

Since last summer, our staff team has been on the mission of improving the worship experience for our medium-sized church in the Atlanta suburbs. We’ve attended seminars, trainings, workshops, and even a week-long retreat with The Worship Design Studio team. We have been intentional to institute many details making the experience more personal, more inviting, relative to all learning and worship styles, giving multiple opportunities for congregational involvement throughout.

What has this got to do with little people? Everything.

It has always been our desire to connect as a family of faith…a family where our kids and their parents and grands pray, sing, praise, give, share and greet together.  Before this month, we dismissed the kids to a separate Children’s Church time immediately following the children’s moment and before the pastor’s “big sermon” which took place toward the end of the order of worship.  On Communion Sunday, we ushered the children back to their parents so to participate as a family.

When we changed the placement of the “big sermon” to be early mid-service, the giving, greeting, and praying were now at the end of the service in response to the Word proclaimed.  Our kids were going to miss some powerful times as a family of faith if we continued Children’s Church.  Oh I could do those things in Children’s Church, but not like it’s done with our whole family of faith.

I spoke with our pastor, a couple of ‘big names’ in KidMin, and some of our Children’s Church families sharing what we were doing and they were game for us to stay and continue to worship together. Families sitting side by side, arms around shoulders, standing in unison in call and response, enjoying time and space together.

We had already offered some interactive pew tools for our kids and now I could kick it up a notch, such as…

Sermon Bingo…our pastor puts out the sermon schedule, scripture, and title for the entire year in advance.  This helps me when I prepare the weekly Children’s Moment, so I set up a bingo card with words and phrases that are likely to be sung, spoken, or shared for the several week-long worship series.  The kids then mark or color the spaces when they hear the vocabulary.  These are placed on clipboards in the narthex.  The kids are invited to place their completed cards in my mailbox outside the worship space.

Etch-a-Sketches…for our littlest disciples.

Clipboards with blank paper…I invite the kids to take notes, draw pictures, write a note or draw a picture of encouragement to give to someone who sits in their row or one of the pastors.

A Challenge…when the sermon was titled “Salt and Light,” I challenged the kids in Sunday School to pick up a clipboard outside my office and tally the times they heard the words “salt” and “light” and tell me after the service which word was said most often.  I have a few tally sheets on the bulletin board behind my desk…”light” won out.

Pockets monthly magazines on clipboards…I attach a note about a few upcoming kid’s events like Fantastic Friday/Parents Night Out or the Jingle Bell Shoppe.  Even our middle schoolers enjoy these.

Cloth 3 ring binder zipper pouches from Dollar Tree (they are quiet)…with crayons, or colored pencils, or a handful of legos (for the pre readers).

And yes, all of them are out each week in a nice, shallow rubbermaid container set just outside our worship space.  Colored ribbons make for a colorful display.  I look forward to seeing what else we can come up with.

Attending the bi-annual CEF Conference (Christian’s Engaged in Faith Formation formerly known as Christian  Educator’s Fellowship) last month in Nashville, ‘kids in worship’ was the topic of almost every conversation.  Facebook has had multiple conversations and some very heated.  We have a Children’s Ministry networking luncheon coming up this week and it’ll be the topic, as well.  I’ll blog afterwards with what we came up with.

We are no longer offering Children’s Church.  We want to live and worship as a family of faith.  Our staff supports it, our parents support it, and our kids are thriving making connections with folks of all ages and stages.  Like family, some things are taught and some things are caught.  We want opportunities for both.

We offer a nursery for ages 0-4 years old.  This gives our parents a choice for our smallest disciples of staying in the service or be loved on in the nursery.  Our Mamas seem to like having the option.

There appears to be a great deal of research out there now that kids who worship with their families and connect inter-generationally in a family of faith are more likely to remain active in the local church as they get older.

This is the research my own family has lived:  We worshipped together in the early traditional service and served together and separately throughout Baby Girl’s and #1 Son’s preschool, elementary, middle school, and high school years at our home churches…in Baton Rouge, in New England, and in Woodstock.  They were invited to serve and lead on Sunday mornings and at other times as they grew in their faith and faithfulness.  They enjoyed a regular diet of adult investment into their lives.  When #1 Son didn’t want to go, the conversation went something like this, “Church and worship is what we do as Reillys.  It’s who we are.  God gets an ‘awards’ day once a week for all He has done for us and we go.  This is not a choice you get to make.  It’s right up there with you don’t get a choice to not brush your teeth or not take algebra.  It’s what we do.  When you get old enough to earn a degree, move out, and pay all of your own bills, then you can make a decision about church.  Until then, we leave in 10 minutes.”  If we were too busy or too tired for church life, we were too busy and something had to go.  It was never church.  The priority of worshipping together and serving in the local church was guarded and made for lots of conversations of who we were as Christians as they grew up.  A life lesson of filtering what is good for what is best.  Oh, and did I mention that I was not on church staff until they were in late high school?

This is what I know:  Baby Girl and #1 Son remain active in their spiritual disciplines and in their separate and distinct local churches now as young adults, along with their young spouses and little people.

“What’s good for kids in church is good for everybody.”  Mark Burrows, Children’s Pastor at First United Methodist Church of Ft. Worth

I love Vacation Bible School. I look forward to it every year. I’ve served in VBS where the kids totaled 400. I’ve served in VBS where the kids totaled 35. Each year takes on new space in my head and heart. This year is no different. These are a few of my favorite things about VBS 2014, and in no particular order:

1. Watching my rising 6th graders take on leadership roles they’ve been chomping at the bit to do since last year.  If I’ve done my job well over the last several years, they know where everything is in the storage closets because I’ve sent them there often enough to help gather supplies.

2. Listening to the storytellers, our most energetic teachers, share the intensity of each day’s ‘moments.’

3.  Watching our youth make sure that even the smallest of kids gets to hit the big ball in beach ball volleyball.

4.  Meeting a young Mama who is dropping off her preschooler while holding an infant on her hip…fearful of leaving her little man for the first time, but knowing he is safe with us.

5.  Watching two youth guys lead a group of ten 3rd grade boys with grace, kindness, and joy.

6.  The beach party at the end of the week with hot dogs (halved hot dogs for the kids so to avoid waste) and an inflatable, dual water slide AFTER the kids sang the VBS songs with motions and fun.  Bumping elbows with old friends and watching old friends meet new ones to welcome new families into the mix.

7.  Sharing resources with other area Atlanta churches.

8.  A gifted dad who built two, huge wooden lifeguard stands that were shared with another church.

9.  Lunch at the local Mexican restaurant with all our youth volunteers on Wednesday after VBS.

10.  Hearing the squeals of delight as Daddies played with their kids on the waterslide at the Friday night beach party.

11.  Four young boys who publicly decided to follow Jesus.  Sharing Jesus is why we offer Vacation Bible School….and it’s why our team does what it does every year.

12.  We chose a VBS that shared Jesus every single day of the week…Jesus came as a baby on day one and is coming back on day five.  You’d think this would be a given, yet it is not.  Sharing Jesus is why we offer VBS…he can’t be talked about only on decision day.  I look for a curriculum that will equip our volunteers to share Jesus.  If we can learn to do it at VBS, we’ll be more likely to do it in our daily lives.

13.  Watching the multiple sets of grandparents who not only volunteered in very visible areas, but they brought their grandkids every single day.  These were the Christian Soldiers of the week for me.  By the end of the week, I could tell they were exhausted, but their faithfulness to serving the Lord AND having their grandchildren see it, were legacies of faith that could only be accomplished with being sold out Jesus and what was being shared every single day.

14.  The donation fish cut outs that were put out and all taken on one Sunday tells me of the commitment my church makes to being sure we do our part well….I think it’s because almost everyone in my church can share that VBS is a part of their faith journey.  They get it!

A colleague’s husband used the phrase, “VBS is like revival for kids.”  I love that perspective.  Everyone needs a revival every now and then:  the kids and the volunteers.  Revival brings new messages and we do things differently for a short period of time than what we usually do on Sundays:  snack, the best storytelling, turn on the water hose, decorate like crazy, and dress the part.

Vacation Bible School is revival, and not just for kids…it’s revival for me and all the others, youth and adults.  We are reminded in song, experience, energy, and every learning style of how God loves us and how loving Him binds the body of Christ in energy, service, and gifts.

I will be getting together with my colleagues from other local churches at our monthly networking group to discuss what we will do next year in just a few short weeks.  It’s a time when we share celebrations and hilarious memories.  It’s revival and we’re better doing it together.

God is love.  1 John 4:8