The Second Sunday in each month is one of my favorites. The “game day” atmosphere of Sunday worship, Sunday School (we call it GPS), and Children’s Church gets my blood pumping every week. But on the Second Sunday, we also offer CLUB345 for our 3rd-5th graders from 5-7pm AND we offer a Second Sunday Training Event from 2-4pm.
The purpose of the Second Sunday Training is to offer a regular learning opportunity to the congregation that builds relationships and offers information that can be used on Monday. The focus audience may differ from month to month, but it does give folks a chance to interact and build relationships around a skill.
Attendance has ranged from 2 to 25, and I’m good with that. We have grown to be able to offer free childcare which now allows couples to attend.
In the last 18 months we have offered the following trainings:
CPR and First Aid Certification (offered each September) for ages 14 through adult led by First Response Certified Trainer…this is the only one we charge for, but it is the fee assessed the Trainer and she/he is paid directly by the participant at the event.
Special Season (Advent) curriculum trainings for senior youth and adult leaders led by KidMin Director.
Introduce New Student Curriculum for adult KidMin leaders led by KidMin Director
Mr. Potato Head Teaches about the Body of Christ for youth and adult leaders of Children led by a guest KidMin Director
Journaling for ages 14 through adult led by a guest UMC pastor
Volunteer Appreciation Event for youth and adult leaders led by KidMin Director
Helping Your Child Transition to Youth Group for parents co-led by Directors of KidMin and Youth
How to Share the Gospel with a Child for adults led by Director of KidMin
Safe Sanctuary for ages 16 and above led by North Georgia UMC Conference Safe Sanctuary Trainer
Credit Unions: Setting and Keeping Financial Goals for 4th grade through adults led by a representative of the Georgia/Florida UMC Credit Union…this was also free, but our guy likes coffee, so a Starbucks giftcard is an appreciated thank-you gesture.
How to Share Your Faith for Youth led by Youth Director
What other ideas can you come up with to offer training for parents, families, students, students?
June & July are truly Kingdom-Building months as vacation bible schools or similar programming reaches out into the community of little people to offer a snack, a craft, a new song, and a fresh word all for the cause of Christ. All this and you don’t have to wear a tie.
Tips:
SHARE – one of the first things we teach little people in weekday preschool is that Jesus likes it when we share. If you are a smaller church, call a larger church and ask what you can do to help. If you are a larger church, call a smaller church and ask what you can do to help. The children’s director at my home church does this exceptionally well. She invites smaller churches to coffee/tea gatherings in March (immediately after confirmation retreat) to begin encouraging smaller church directors with all the tips she has learned over the years. She also invites these folks to take a small part in the decorating at her church (100 paper lanterns) only to be blessed beyond measure with sets and props and extra resources to be picked up on the last day of her VBS. “Blessed to be a blessing.”
SERVE – another one of those things we encourage of our own congregations. Ever consider serving in someone else’s VBS? It is a guarantee of getting fresh ideas and learning more about how to provide an excellent VBS in your own house when you serve in someone else’s. AND it blesses the socks off of a Director to have a section leader or crew leader who comes with experience and an enthusiasm he/she doesn’t have to provide herself. AND it let’s a director “PLAY,” which few get to do anymore.
VISIT – This year I have the pleasure of sharing our multi-vbs-at-other-church experience with a family friend who has chosen to spend her summer following graduation serving the LORD through vacation bible school. On the 3rd day of VBS, at the church we are helping this week, the church invited her to serve at their church on Sundays. They had no idea she came all the way from Massachusetts to serve in vbs’s and didn’t even attend that church. Made us both smile.
NETWORK – Use facebook/social media to find out when and where other churches are having their Vacation Bible Schools (we used Children’s Ministry of North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church). Then begin making phone calls to find out what you can share, where you can visit, even where to go when you are blessed with 10 more kids than you had planned for and need memory buddies or tshirts or whatever. Then, be willing to make the drive to make it easier.
PASS IT ON – We are helping one church (new church start, just moved into a permanent building, presenting their first vbs to their community), who were blessed with leftover resources from a larger church, who will be passing their leftover resources (and those they didn’t use from the larger church) onto to us. After our week of VBS at the end of June, another church will pick up our goodies (and the leftover goodies from the other 2 churches) from our house to bring to their house to present their vbs 2 weeks later. Blessed to be a blessing.
INVITE – Invite the community to get involved. If you go to Stevi B’s, they’ll give you certificates for your vbs attendees AND your helpers/leaders/teachers. Our local Steve B’s actually came to the church we are helping this week and asked if they could drop off some certificates. If you fill out a “donation request form” at your local Chik-Fil-A 2 weeks before your VBS, they will graciously give you these huge paper “VBS Graduation Certificates” for a free 6-piece nugget for your students. When we were talking with the manager, he told us that he was helping at his church’s vbs this week during the day and working at night: “I offered to serve in the snack area since I work in the food business.”
Then when you go to pick up these precious donations, be sure to treat yourself to a small Banana Pudding milkshake because that’s how we roll for VBS in the south.
We offer faith milestones for littles with a big-who-loves-them to make for a sticky faith memory with some accountability as a platform to teach the holy habits of growing our faith in Jesus. Most are 45 minutes long. Most include a teaching, a practicable interactive element, takeaways, a certificate, and a class photo. Most, especially the Communion and Baptism milestones, will include a collaborating clergy. If offered as a workshop, we begin by lighting an LED pillar candle and repeating, “We light this candle….as a symbol…of God’s presence with us…and around us.”
The schedule looks like this:
K5 –I Can Go To Sunday School (August) … A meet and greet with tour into McEachern Kids (K5-5th grade) the Sunday prior to Promotion Sunday especially for rising kindergartners led by the Ambassadors
1st & 2nd – I Can Pray (February) … Prayer stations with takeaway tools to use at home
2nd & 3rd – I Can Love My Church (Nov) … Group treasure hunt to locations throughout campus and learning vocabulary like narthex, pew, along with local church history
4th & 5th – I Can Lead: Ambassadors (August) … Leadership Training 5-7pm w/dinner
4th & 5th – Road Trip Retreat (March) … Fri-Sun shared event with other local churches retreat at local state park (alternate Ambassadors Road Trip and Disciples Road Trip)
K5-5th – I Can Worship With My Family – various worship services with intentional teaching of worship elements specific to our denomination and honoring of our local church
K5-5th – I Can Go On A Mission Trip: Family Mission Trip (July) NEW
I started these years ago to make special for families a time/place for intentional teaching and practice what I considered the most important practices of our faith in Jesus. I chose these elements since they were practices of Jesus. Each year we edit to excellence with shared language and interactive elements. I started with three in the first year.
As a great number of new families are moving into our state and into our community, offering these faith milestones help us… 1. Find common language with those new to the faith and new to our part of the country/world with shared experiences with new friends-in-the-Lord. Moving from other parts of the country/world, these experiences practice our commonalities and give space for sacred conversations. 2. Give the littles and their bigs access to the spiritual leaders in our church Teaching for a little and a big-who-loves-them, the big learns alongside their little, removing the anxiety which could be part of joining a new faith community. Young parents today are looking for integrity and truth in their spiritual leaders. Faith milestones give space to begin and grow those relationships. 3. Remove the expectation that a robust faith in Jesus will be ‘caught’. Faith milestones give intentional space for developmentally appropriate faith formation family experiences. This generation of bigs of our littles want to learn alongside their children. Faith milestones sets the table for bigs to be the spiritual heroes in their little’s lives.
Want to take it a step further? Blessing of a driver’s license, Confirmation, Bible Ninja Warrior, first job, biblical finance, etc. You get the idea. I’m responsible for K5-5th grades, but so much more could be accomplished if shared throughout for 0-26yo.
How could you set a table for faith milestones in your church family?
“My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside.” Job 23:11
A Children’s Ministry colleague working on her masters in ministry contacted me last week inviting me to answer several questions for her Family Ministry class. I was honored. She was patient to give me a couple of days so I thought I’d share my responses here:
1. How do you/your church support families today?
• We use a closed Facebook group to offer daily interaction for encouragement, resource, and information such as #mondaymantra (related to christian life) #tuesdaytruth (scripture) #wednesdaywisdom (Godly parenting) #thursdaythoughts (family blog about challenges & Sunday school lesson from previous week) #familyfriday (positive message/practical ideas of spending time together as a family to start the weekend) #saturdaysmiles (encouragement to gather together for church) #welovesundays (list of what’s happening all day and when at church).
• Parenting With A Purpose initiative – 1.5 hour dessert events for parents or parents & kids with the goal of providing practical tools as well as building tribes among our families to travel through life
* Sharing Your Faith With Your Family – practical ideas to live out Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (I facilitate) with book takeaway
* Parenting Technology & Cell Phone Safety – invited outside facilitator with book takeaway ‘Screens and Teens’ by Kathy Koch, PhD
* Parenting Relationships & Friendships – invite pastoral and counseling staff to facilitate practical communication tools and actions for critical and crucial conversations within the family using Holy Listening Stones, Counseling Center-led conversational role-play, and book takeaway Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian
• Faith Milestones for students and parents
*Kindergarten I Can Go To Sunday school on Sunday 7/28
*K5 & 1st Grade Bread & Juice Class 5:45-6:30pm on Wednesday 11/6
*1st & 2nd Grades I Can Pray on Wednesday 5:45-6:30pm on Wednesday 2/12
*2nd & 3rd Grades I Love My Church 5:45-6:30pm on Wednesday 3/18
*4th-5th Grades Camp Glisson Fall Retreat 9/6-8
*Ambassadors 5:45-6:30pm on Wednesday 10/9
*5th Grade Rock Solid Retreat 1/25-26, 2020
*5th & 6th Grades Wonderfully Made 2/27-29, 2020
• Weekly devotion emailed to all families involved in our Recreation Ministry. When kids tell the ‘Bible point of the week’ to the concession stand, kids receive a small treat or discount on concessions like popcorn or beverages
2. Families are busier than ever these days and find less time to come to church? Are you able to bring church outside the walls of the physical building?
• Closed Facebook Groups lets us reach out to families online daily (notes above) for Kids and Recreation Ministries
• Lead chapel assemblies to local home school co-ops.
• Backpack blessings of food for weekends with local Elementary School and Middle School with printed material through out Missions Team.
• Tutoring ministries with local Elementary School and Middle School.
• Postcards and note writing each week
• Ministry of presence to show up at their game, play, performance, concert, goes to the movies, activities in the community, etc.
4. Have you tried anything that was not successful? Oh yeah…movie nights. I’ve learned that if families can do things at home, they typically don’t want to go through the trouble of coming to church to do it.
5. Any insights or advice?
• Ask a lot of questions before trying things of the connectors in your church and those who are just as involved in the community as they are at church. Many years ago, I offered an Angel Breakfast on the first Saturday in Advent promoting it for two months ahead of time among our families and no one thought to tell me the local elementary school was doing the same thing on the same day at the same time. Ugh!
• Have lots of side conversations with parents all the time at events, meals (never plan to eat…work the room!), even Christmas Caroling: When do your kids have to get up in the morning to get on the bus? What time do your kids have to go to bed during the school year? What do y’all do in the summer? When do you have nothing going on in your calendar? How far do you live from the church? What do your family traditions looks like for Christmas? Easter? Thanksgiving? Mother’s Day? Father’s Day?
• Write 5 notes each week: 3 kids, 2 volunteers…and make 3 phone calls each week: 2 volunteers, 1 family or 2 families & 1 volunteer to check in and see how they’re doing in life. Build relationships and share life.
This was a good exercise to get my thoughts together on paper, and do some evaluating. What would your answers look like?
“Without a good question, a good answer has no place to go.” Clayton Christensen
Faith Milestones are those moments in time when we can stop to say, “This skill is important for me to learn and understand to continue to grow in my faith in Jesus Christ.” Celebrating these specific faith milestones helps bring an awareness of God’s presence into our homes and highlights the rituals of daily faith formation experiences shared by the family of faith. Just as learning to tie shoe laces, learning to pump your legs on the swing, riding a bike without training wheels, and learning to drive, milestones give us the confidence to say, “This is important and I can do this!”
For 2018, this is the schedule:
January – I Can Pray (1st grade) 1/17 5-6:30pm
Engaging children and families to grow in relationship with Jesus through various prayer practices. Establishing prayer as a normal part of a family’s daily routine and tradition for passing on and experiencing the Christian faith.
February – 5th Grade Rock Solid Retreat (5th grade) 2/3-4
Outdoor ministry is a memorable, formative, and vital part of a child’s faith journey. The experience of going away to camp can renew and enhance spiritual growth.
February – I Love My Church (2nd grade) 2/28 5-6:30pm
Families are invited to come for this special event where they tour the church, learn more about things like baptismal fonts, Bibles, Sunday School rooms, and choir. Memories are created reminding your child of this special place where they hear God’s promises and learn to live and love like Jesus.
March – Bible Ninja Warrior (3rd-5th grade) 3/18 3-5pm
Learn how to use your Bible with the skills of a Ninja, both physically and mentally. At each station resembling the TV show American Ninja Warrior, students will learn the basics of studying the Bible as part of every day, thus building their spiritual muscles as a follower of Jesus.
Princesses of the King 3rd-5th grade Friday 3/23 7-9:30pm Secret Keeper Girl Mother & Daughter Conference @ FBC Woodstock
May – I Can Serve (graduating 5th graders & middle school youth) 5/16 5-6:30pm
Graduating 5th graders, as well as middle school youth) can serve as co-leaders in VBS after learning how to lead and serve our smallest disciples. Students will learn Safe Sanctuary guidelines and appropriate child care-giver systems.
July – Day of Service Retreat With Ms. DeDe (rising 5th & 6th) 7/17 10am-5pm Ambassadors will prepare spaces and supplies for fall children’s ministry programming and last week of summer kid’s camp happening the following week along with fun, fellowship, and learning what the Bible says about being a true blue friend.
July – I Can Go To Sunday School (K4) 7/29 12:15pm-1pm
A special time to welcome preschoolers and their families to Sunday school. This meet and greet event includes hearing a Bible story in The TreeHouse, singing songs, and meeting Sunday school teachers.
August – Blessing of the Backpacks (all K5-5th grade)
Wear your backpack to the Children’s Message at any of the worship services and receive a special blessing as the new school year begins.
September – Fall Camp Glisson Retreat (3rd-5th grade)
Outdoor ministry is a memorable, formative, and vital part of a child’s faith journey. The experience of going away to camp can renew and enhance spiritual growth. Students will attend overnight camp from Friday pm through Sunday midday with other students from North Georgia Conference local churches.
October – Bread & Juice Class (K5 & 1st grade) 10/10 5-6:30pm
Learn the how and why we say, “Yes!” to Jesus as He invites us to the table as his friends for Holy Communion.
November – Ambassadors (4th-5th grade) 11/7 5-6:30pm
Students are offered an opportunity to take on various leadership roles in the year to come. Expectations and learning to serve using their gifts and graces in their home church and in the world.
What else would you add?
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2
My local Chick-Fil-A Operator’s team is super creative. They just offered a pajama party event at their restaurant, but not for kids. The event was a sleepover for a kid’s stuffed animal. As I watched the night play out on their Instagram, more like stalked, I saw pics of kids with the CFA cow in its jammies, with their stuffed animal friend, security bracelets matching a kid with their animal, and fun pics of the animals in fun poses all over the restaurant. Some pics included sleep masks on the stuffed animals and others posed at tables enjoying some CFA snacks and dinner.
The children were given a drop-off window around dinner time 5-7pm and a pick-up time around breakfast 8-10am for more pics and fun staged with the cow reading a night-time story to the pack of animals, pics of the chaperones, at the drive-thru in a toy car (think Toy Story), and at other locations in the restaurant.
It got me thinking about offering a stuffed animal church lock-in over a Sunday night, when there isn’t school on Monday, all the places a stuffed animal friend could be posed throughout campus, doing stuff that kids do at church, scheduling hourly posts on social media throughout the evening and morning….
If we offered the friend’s lock-in the Sunday/Monday of Thanksgiving week, we could anticipate new families joining the closed kid’s Facebook group to check out the lock-in shenanigans right as we begin to promote and encourage families for the season of Advent. The algorithms could actually work for us to roll in their feeds during advent. It’s the perfect time to grow the online community for Advent.
It would also give us a way to communicate and practice our systems for security when the kids are the bigs of their little stuffed animals.
Rarely do I come up with an original idea, but inspiration can come from lots of places. Where do you get your inspiration to roll out new things with a purpose?
“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 1:3
Summer programming is dedicated to Sunday morning small groups, Special Sundays (National Ice Cream Day is July 17, so we have reserved an ice cream truck for after services), and onramp family events like the Tall Small Archery Party. With the weekly Thursday drive-ins in June, July extends an invitation to ‘come on in’ beyond a Sunday and here are a few reasons why: – New families want to experience life and faith together. – Current families want to bump elbows with new families. – Faith formation experiences outside Sundays says we honor your profession and family which calls one or more parents to work on Sundays (retail, medical, hospitality, law enforcement fields, etc.)
Coming from “What’s in my hand?”, our staff includes a great dad who is an archery coach for a private school, Shaun Nguyen. Coach Shaun began his interest in archery on a mission trip almost ten years ago. He applied for a grant to purchase all the equipment and his team now competes. I invited him to ‘set the table’ for smalls with their talls who love them as part of our Soul Food Summer campaign.
Promotional: Tall/Small Archery Party is for children kindergarten and older (small) with an adult who loves them (tall) on Thursday, July 7, 6-7:30pm in the Gym. Register online. Sponsored by McEachern Kids
We set out snacks which ended up ‘for the road’ because they didn’t want to stop.
We used a QR code on a stand-up sign for check-in rather than a paper sign-in and it was fantastic. For anyone who had not signed in at the June drive-ins, we now could capture their information all inputted by the tall. Smalls wrote name tags for themselves and their tall, which gave everyone something to do as we waited to enter the gym enmasse to begin the teaching piece.
Coach Shaun took 15-20 minutes to introduce himself, teach vocabulary, equipment, and safety. With mom/day/grand right there, each little had their own personal coach when it was time to hit the line with their equipment.
Littles AND bigs took turns learning together, using only fingertips to pull back the strings, chatting, and encouraging one another. With an element of danger, everyone was paying lots of attention and the frowns of “I can’t do it” soon transitioned to hearing the thud of hitting the target. They stayed and talked each other through it. Just like families do.
At 7:05pm, we stopped for a 10-minute break and I shared a younger version of the sin talk, we prayed, and hit the line again with Coach Shaun attaching balloons to the targets this time.
Next time we’ll go until 8pm since we went a little long. We sent them on their way with a blessing and two gifts: (1) a child’s book on The Lord’s Prayer, and (2) faith conversation cards to share at their tables as they continue to enjoy a Soul Food Summer wherever they are.
This was one of the best events and we hit the target on all goals, all levels of hospitality, and with 11 families, we had lots of elbow-bumping to make new friends. Follow-up is the roll-out of a new Sunday school curriculum which has a fantastic parenting piece families can access on their phones, National Ice Cream Sunday for a free ice cream truck after church, and a Tall Small Paint Party on the last Thursday of the July.
“For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, “Peace be within you.” Psalm 122:8
Amber O’Neal Johnston is an author, blogger, and world-school mom. A world-school mom is a mom who practices homeschooling with the world as her classroom, specifically the cultures and people of the world. I had the pleasure of meeting her at our Exploring Homeschool special event in April. She opened a brand new box filled with her brand new book that evening. I purchased two then and have purchased multiple copies for colleagues and friends since.
A Place To Belong: Celebrating Diversity and Kinship in the Home and Beyond offers amazing insight for those of us in ministry with children and families specifically to set the table of ‘belonging’ for today’s families in a family of faith. The five pillars of practice on which our ministry with children and families stands are Worship, Grow, Serve, Belong, and Tell.
“Every child longs for a place to belong. A place where cultural awareness, self-acceptance, celebration, and kinship are the norm. And this natural yearning for affiliation and attachment is best satisfied within the context of home and family life. Home is where lifelong attitudes are rooted and affirmed, where children learn the values that will inform how they move through the world.” p. xvi
Amber writes about curating a diverse library of books, exploring culturally-rich art and media, and significant, life-giving history. Reading her words through a children’s ministry lens, how can we ‘set the table’ for belonging for all children in the local church? Here are a few ideas I’ve implemented….
Speak and teach that our identity and worth comes from the God who created us as His image-bearers in the world. The first books of Genesis matter because it sets the tone for every child’s value no matter how they feel in the moment. God knew them before they were born and He sent His one and only son Jesus to invite every child into the family of God through faith and trust in Jesus. “I do hope that my children always feel magnificent in their skin. Not because they’re convinced that they are somehow more special than others, but because they embrace their differences while recognizing that we’re better together.” p.8
“Given the opportunity to be themselves in a safe space, people will gladly show you all of who they are.” p. 19 We are a Safe Sanctuary church. We annually evaluate and consider the best practices and systems possible in our local context to provide spaces safe from harm. We are beginning the evaluation process of teaching, training platforms, and considerations this fall to implement next spring which will be the 25th anniversary of what the United Methodist Church knows as Safe Sanctuary. When was the last time your church pulled out the Safe Sanctuary guidelines? Who will sit at that table to discuss best practices to reduce the risk of harm in your local church now?
I want to make resources and conversations easily accessible to parents so they become the ‘askable parent’ for their kids. “Our goal, as parents, should be to become our children’s number one go-to person when they aren’t sure how to process things or when they want to know more about something they’ve heard or noticed.” p. 27 We recognize that kids need a safe space for working through their private thoughts aloud. We’ve secured a new Sunday morning curriculum which includes a major parenting piece from a Biblical worldview to encourage all kinds of conversations for families wherever they are because we all know we typically can’t schedule those sacred, pivotal conversations.
“Children who spend all their time gazing at themselves in the mirror risk entering adulthood with an incomplete view of the world and an overdeveloped sense of self.” p. 73 One of the given standards for living as a Christian is to live as ‘I am no longer my own’. The apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” Paul’s audience had a reputation for claiming spiritual superiority over one another, suing one another in public courts, disrespecting the communal meal, and accepting all kinds of misbehavior unbecoming of one who follows Jesus. Each Sunday this summer, we’ve invited Titus 2 men and women in our local church (bigs who have been following Jesus longer than the littles) to tell their story of their dependence on God and their prayer habits. I also take time to frequently speak of biographies I’m reading of real people doing remarkable things for Jesus in weekly large group and the children’s moment.
Amber’s writing was easy to hear in most places, but difficult in others. I was ready for it and grateful for her tenderness. Want to learn what belonging could look like and what it doesn’t look like? Read the book or listen on Audible.
Christian education for how to live as a family AND how to live as the set-apart family of faith in Jesus will have the most profound impact when practiced at tables, with art pads and pencils, among a variety of people and cultures as well as in the community of those where we can relax and not have to work so hard. Moms and dads, grandparents, and the local church are commissioned to go and make disciples of Jesus and we are better together, intentionally setting the table for belonging in an anxious, fearful, awkward world desperate for authentic connection.
“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” Revelation 7:9a
Liturgical = relating to public worship. Agility = ability to move quickly and easily.
The updated edition of Bishop Robert Schnase’sFive Practices of a Fruitful Congregation has been the book in two summer book clubs I’m part of. An in-person, brown bag, small group at my church on Tuesdays at noon following lead staff meeting (for the purposes of shared vocabulary), and an online small group through Zoom on Wednesday mornings at 8-9am (for the purposes of what this shared vocabulary looks like in other local churches). We discuss a chapter each week.
Last week was a discussion on the chapter entitled “Passionate Worship”. Coming from a kidmin perspective, I have no seat at the big church table. But when I read it from a kidmin perspective, I do sit in the seat to help ‘bridge the divide’ from The Treehouse (basement) or Food Truck Church (parking lot) to the Sanctuary (big church) for my families’ so that….
New families can find places and spaces of familiarity to decrease their anxiety level for entering a new space with its own rituals, and
Current families can explore multiple worship practices with their littles.
“Thank God for his (John Wesley) spiritual maturity and liturgical agility! Our rich Christian heritage of worship comes to us through many convolutions of style and practice. Outdoor camp meetings, frontier revivals, high-church liturgies, African American spirituals – these are but a few of many streams of practice that flow through our history.” Robert Schnase, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, pg 60
My first step was to watch a month or two’s services of my church’s ‘big church’ to find the pieces of ‘regularness’ in every single service. I took really good notes as if I was a first-timer each week. I compiled a list of those regular elements.
The second step was to evaluate the elements to determine one or two to intentionally teach at some other place and space in a participatory, developmentally appropriate way.
Worship experiences and practices are typically not taught, but caught. With the average attendance of faithful church attenders in my area of the state being 1 out of 5 Sundays which include Easter Sunday and Christmas Eve, we’re unreasonably expecting little people and new big people to ‘catch’ our rituals of weekly worship less often than twelve days out of 365.
One place we teach these regular elements is through Faith Milestones. Each year our children’s ministry offers developmentally appropriate faith milestone events at 45 minutes for a little with a big person who loves them specific to… (1) Bread & Juice Class – Holy Communion served in various ways and how we typically offer it at our church, ex: intinction, an open table and the logistics of before and after the actual practice. K5-1st graders (2) I Can Pray – Offering prayer stations for individual/family prayer as well as what corporate prayer looks like in Big Church, ex: The Lord’s Prayer, journaling, glory prayers. 1st & 2nd graders (3) I Love My Church – Spaces and places of worship on campus and the stories behind them, ex: Choir loft, who wears a robe and why, and vocabulary such as the difference between a pew and a bench. 2nd & 3rd graders (4) I Can Serve – Acolyte training and Ambassador Training, ex: timing, dress, lighters, hospitality. 3rd-5th graders (5) I Can Worship With My Family– the opportunity to learn ‘on the job’ about two or three elements of regular worship, ex: Signing the Apostles’ Creed and Gloria Patri; speaking into microphones, and other opportunities for physical participation like passing offering plates, instrumentalists, holding signs for the word-of-the-day, active visual elements, small-group/family prayers, processing in and out. K5-5th graders
Worship experiences and practices are typically not taught, but caught. I think that is why there are such deep, emotional attachments to how worship is presented and why most American worshippers think only the music is the worship part. American worship experiences today range from Vacation Bible School large group to Camp Meetings, from amateur musicians who passionately love the Lord to professionals in lighting and musicianship, from spaces of well polished wood furniture to a parking lot filled with cheeseballs.
“Multiplying the opportunities for worship is about allowing God to use us and our congregations to offer a more abundant life for all.” (pg 70)
Several years ago I was invited to participate in a week-long planning and teaching for interactive and innovative worship. I participated alongside the worship leader and senior pastor of the local church I was serving. The week-long event was led by Dr. Marcia McFee and Chuck Bell. My greatest takeaway from the whole week was to set the table for participation for and by all God’s people…which means planning far in advance and collaborating with the Christian educators who are trained in developmental practices with the new attender in mind. Bishop Schnase calls it liturgical agility.
I also regularly glean from the teachings of the fabulous worship artist Mark Burrows who I hear in my head say, “What’s good for kids is good for everybody,” when it comes to setting the table for participatory worship.
There are many of us in conversation about innovatively setting the table for worship with littles in children’s ministry, large group worship, as well as family worship. We’re going to get together to share ideas and experiences at a Children’s Worship Think Tank on Thursday, July 21st hosted by Alpharetta First UMC in Alpharetta, Georgia, 10am-12noon, sponsored by the North Georgia Conference Children’s Ministry Network. If you want to be inspired and can get there, you are invited to a seat at the table because we’re better together.
” Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise in the assembly of His faithful people.” Psalm 149:1
Sixty-two days. That’s how many days there are from today until the first day of school. That’s this ‘summer season’. There are nine Sundays before Promotion Sunday and the start of the fall season. Doesn’t seem like a lot, does it?
My 2022 summer bucket list will include the typical, time with family (everyone is here now, so I’ve prepared for what I’ve prayed for) and eating watermelon. But only with an intentional plan to grow in my discipleship and disciple-maker-ship, can I make this summer season a Soul Food Summer.
A Soul Food Summer is a season of tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. These are just a few things on my summer bucket list to intentionally feed my soul with God’s goodness:
Deep-dive into the life of a missionary/saint. Last summer I and our students read biographies of many followers of Jesus who were inventors, missionaries, and used their skills and talents to express their love of Jesus in times of trouble. This year I’ve chosen to read books, listen to podcasts, and deep-dive into the life of one: Elisabeth Elliot. She and her husband, Jim, served as missionaries in Ecuador in the 1950s. What does it take to raise up and become followers of Jesus that Jesus and Jesus alone is worth the loss and gain of everything?
Fresh tomatoes are my summer chocolate. Fresh tomatoes from my church family are like the ‘good’ chocolate. This year I am figuring out and learning to grow my own tomatoes alongside my daughter and granddaughter. It’s a miracle of our Creator God that people can plant a seed and stuff can grow from the dirt we can enjoy. A miracle! It’s a partnership between people and the Lord with water, sun, seed, and tending that make mater samwiches happen. Bring on the Duke’s light mayo and the sour dough. Pure goodness!
I’m part of a great team which will set the table for a food truck party for my church families. It’s our VBS. It just looks different. Every Thursday in June (all five of them) we’ll turn our parking lot into a drive-in VBS service for families of all sizes and shapes, numbers, and kinds. Music, Jesus, a weekly food truck, the generosity of our church, and families will make sticky, sacred memories of praising and serving and tasting to see that the Lord is good for and with our neighbors and community. No matter what is going on in the world, God is good. Want to bring your family or some of your students? Come on! The more the merrier. We’ve got the programming, you bring your kids (or just you!) and money for the food truck and we’ll dance and play before the Lord together.
A dream come true: a first family mission trip for parents/grandparents to attend with their little people is happening in July. A Sunday through Monday event at Camp Collinswood (search: Aldersgate at Collinswood) bumping elbows and serving alongside another local church on the other side of the state to do repairs and cleanup that is developmentally appropriate for littles with their bigs. It’s two hours from our church. The camp is a space specifically for children and adults with mobility issues. On Lake Oconee, my own adult children along with the grands will be part and I’m beside myself excited! These are the sacred memories my grands will talk about forever.
What is your plan for a Soul Food Summer…a summer filled with intentional opportunities to feed your soul and learn again that the Lord is good?
“However, I consider my life nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” Acts 20:24
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