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.

3. What is the most successful thing or program that you have done in family ministry? Faith Field Trips and annual Promotion Sundays

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

Collin Kartchner is a social media activist, TEDx talk presenter, husband and dad who travels around the country speaking to parents and kids through the organization Save The Kids. This generation of parents are dealing with a resource which no other generation has dealt with. The boundaries, the communication, the cell phone companies, the urgency to empower parents to be parents while dealing with social media is new, necessary, and frightening all at the same time. I remember having to purchase our daughter’s first cellphone when her high school removed all the pay phones on campus, but it was different. It was just a phone, not the world at her fingertips. How does the local church help parents navigate this entity that makes them the first parents to ever…..

The week our community struggled through another teen suicide, Collin came to speak at a local church youth group on Wednesday night, a local high school on Thursday morning, and with parents at a community event on Thursday evening. I discovered Collin’s TED talk in January and was thrilled he’d planned to come to our community. Several of the moms who serve in our children’s ministry joined me as well as two middle schoolers attended the parent event on Thursday evening. Another mom attended the youth group gathering on Wednesday evening and offered these notes as her take-aways. With her permission, these are her notes:

TAKE A BREAK FROM FAKE event by Collin Kartchner, notes by Cheryl Kischuk

The number of cases of teen suicide, self-harm, depression & anxiety has gone up in multiples since 2010… the same year social media was invented.

There are businesses that make money from making technology as addictive as possible. There are other companies that build secret apps into programs like YouTube to draw a user (child or adult) to other websites with adult content. We MUST be vigilant.

Collin’s THREE Goals For Tweens & Teens:

• Bring back all the self-love you might be giving away to a tiny machine in your pocket.
• Stop letting Satan use your phone to steal your happiness
• Get off screens. Get off social media a bit. Go be a kid and be free.

The “Collin Challenge” for the children with social media:

• 8 Hugs Every Day For 8 Seconds. Minimum.
• Start sharing more authenticity & positivity. Show others it’s okay to be real.
• Guess What? Earth already hit it’s quota of mean people. We don’t need anymore. Be cool to each other.
• Do something awesome, and DON’T SHARE IT.
• Fail at something, and SHARE IT. Proudly.
• ALL SOCIAL MEDIA – unfollow EVERY person or account that doesn’t make you happy. Cut the joy thieves out.

Challenge to the Parents:

• Absolutely no phones in the bedrooms at night. Children need unhindered sleep.
• Buy a central “command” charging station and ALL electronics get charged there at night.
• Predators LOVE apps like SnapChat, Fortnite, Instagram, TikTok, etc. They build in secret accounts to pull your child or adult into more explicit content sites (like Kik, Omegle, Yubo, and Live.Me).
• Make sure your kids get 8 hugs every day for 8 seconds. Minimum.
• Evaluate your own digital behaviors and make necessary changes. Grandparents – you too.
• Create a Family Tech Contract, signed and posted on the fridge by the end of the month. (Ask Google for a family tech contract. Sit together as a family to discuss it and sign it together.)
• No more phones out when you are dropping off or picking up kids from school.
• One night a week, commit to no phones out from 5pm – 9pm.
• Children who do play video games off the internet can play up to an hour a day.

What to say when your child comes and tells you they have seen or done something inappropriate…

• Say, “I am so sorry.” and give an 8 second hug.
• Say, “What can I do to help you?”
• Say “Tell me more.” and then BE QUIET and listen to them.

Your phone won’t feel bad if you don’t pay attention to it. It won’t care if you haven’t played with it in a while. It won’t mind if you don’t hold it.

Your cell phone will be small forever. Your children will not.

We have scheduled a Parenting With a Purpose dessert event entitled Parenting Technology & Cell Phone Safety next month. The goal is to facilitate conversations while building relationships among our parents as we lead families to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, strength AND love our neighbors as ourselves. How are you resourcing your families?

“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children.” Ephesians 5:1

Without a vocal nap or recovery time, my voice only lasts so long. This last weekend was the perfectly awesome and glorious storm: 3rd-5th grade SPARK retreat at Camp Glisson shared with 350 of our North Georgia best friends laughing, singing, talking, and more; CLUB345 gathering two hours after our return from retreat; Acolyte Training class for the fabulous 3rd graders who want to serve in worship. Our leaders are amazing and they do most of the talking, driving, small-grouping, game-coaching, retrieving flashlights and all. I just can’t be quiet and I LOVE their company. So I woke up on Monday with absolutely no voice. Nothing. Nada. With only a whisper, I spent the day online and texting. I missed my small group as well as our monthly children’s ministry networking lunch on Monday because I didn’t have the self-control to stay quiet.

So the day was filled with random thoughts and sweet memories like these:

Borrowing two catapults and a 10-foot-tall cardboard Goliath, both girls and boys are all-in to try new things. We are better together to share ministry tools and hearts partnering with other churches. The catapults and slingshots shooting dog food in the parking lot are sticky memories when teaching the life of David and how God can and will use a kid if that kid is willing and all-in. So grateful we tell kids, “Your home church wants to help you GROW in your all-in-faith.”

Acolyte training has been led by this amazing couple for more than 15 years and they are still at it. Giving fire to little people to carry in and fire to little people to carry out of worship takes huge levels of trust. It tells our kids, “Your church trusts you. Your church believes in you. Your church invites you to be an active part of the Body of Christ here in your home church.” So grateful we tell kids, “Your home church invites you to SERVE.”

Watching our students carry yellow fabric up to the stage area on the first night of worship at retreat (provided by our Tucker First UMC friends’ church closet), they walked and worked together to accomplish a task with no other direction than, “Take this upfront together and set it as an offering to the space.” I also saw them dance, sign language, pray, cheer, motions, sing, jump, “AMEN” the speaker, all in full-participation-worship. So grateful we let our kids WORSHIP the God of all creation in developmentally appropriate ways.

On the ride home from retreat, the children wrote down on paper and role-played how they would answer their parents when asked, “How was the retreat?” I got a glimpse of what they were thinking and what they took away from their experiences. Their response to share with their parents should include (1) Who did you meet and what did you learn about them? (2) What did you do that you’ve never done before? (3) What did you learn? So grateful we let our kids TELL their stories.

Walks through the creek, scones and devotions at the falls (provided by our Acworth UMC friends), platform jumps into the lake, flashlight-sharing, star-gazing, hikes to the cabin, stories read at night (girls cabin), talks through the first-night-home-sickness (boys cabin), seat mates, bunk mates, family style meals, and cheering one another on and overcoming our fears at the big swing make for deeper friendships, shared sacred memories, and tons of stories. So grateful these friendships impress on the hearts of our kids, “We are family and we are in this life together, fearfully and wonderfully made. This is where you BELONG.”

Lord, let me always look for ways to intentionally invite your kids to grow, serve, worship, tell, and belong. Thank you for the memories filled with YOUR voice and not my own. Thank you, Lord!

Last summer I attended a parenting class offered by a church down the street. The free class was led by one of my favorite youtube-kidmin-leaders and he did not disappoint. At the intermission, I was approached by the Children’s Ministry lead. We chatted for a bit in small talk, then she asked me who I was and what I did. She was a delight! Before we returned to the program, we made plans to meet for lunch at a nearby restaurant in the next couple of weeks.

When we met at the restaurant we chatted how we came to be at our local churches, how we came to be on staff, and how we can partner in the community. I brought my calendar and she checked her calendar so we wouldn’t have VBS on the same week nor plan our fall festivals at the same time. We planned to share a cemetery tour in October with our 3rd-5th graders. I invited her 3rd-5th graders to come to the Winter Ball Invitational in January and I will wait for her to invite us to something they are doing.

We share a common goal that every single child in our community has a growing and personal relationship with Jesus and belongs to a family of faith. My local church teaches children to love Jesus. Her local church teaches children to love Jesus. Together we can share our resources, our passions, and our Jesus in community with one another.  We are indeed better together!

Have you met your ministry counterparts at the local church down the street? How can you partner with other local churches in your community to more effectively make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world? Who will you call this week to share some chips & salsa, have a cup of coffee/tea, make an invitation?

“As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.'” 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 NIV

Each of my children’s birthdays involves the typical cake, gift, and balloons. I also story tell recalling the day each was born. Their birth is such a part of my life story, my faith story, and my family story that I’m thrilled to stroll down those memory lanes. Even our grandchildren love hearing the stories of the day they were born because their mothers are warriors, their dads are super heroes, and one was born on the side of the road during rush hour traffic making international news.

My friend Glenys Nellist has actually published a children’s book celebrating the birth of her eldest child entitled The Wonder That Is You, illustrated by Aurelie Blanz. This book is beautiful and a wonderful gift for any new mom or grandmother. The rhyme is tender and the images are delightfully soft, diverse, and colorful.

One of my favorite things to do with the grands is to read aloud. Thankfully, Glenys has also just published Snuggle Time Fall Blessings. Her rhyming is simple and oh so playful for little ones. I read aloud to our Children’s Church students at the end of each Sunday and her prayer books are some of our favorites. Glenys has written five board books of rhyming Snuggle Time Blessings.

Fall Fun!
On a windy, crisp fall day,
Leaves race down the street.
Orange, red, and yellow,
Falling at my feet.
We stomp and crunch and kick them
And swish them as we run.
Thank you, God, for autumn.
It’s really so much fun!

Reading children’s books in church is a favorite time of each Sunday with our students. Thank you, Glenys, for continuing to pen some delightful ones.

What are you reading?

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

Horst Schulze is the co-founder of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. I’ve been a student of his teachings about hospitality, service, and organizational science from the beginning of my call into professional ministry. Drawn to the hotel industry as a young teenager, he has practiced and consulted with organizations for improvement his entire career. He’s practical and shares how to lead rather than manage. His new book, Excellence Wins: A No-Nonsense Guide to Becoming the Best in a World of Compromise, puts this wisdom in one place.

With stories of successes and failures, Schulze shares the art of constant improvement by asking questions, trusting staff to be excellent, responding to the comments of many rather than one, and measurements that matter. His pursuit of excellence in the hospitality industry is based on his mantra of ‘training ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.’ We in the local church are equipping followers of Jesus in service to equip new followers of Jesus. I can relate.

On page 202, he asks, “Well, do you want to stay alive, or not?” Of course, we do. I don’t want to only survive from Sunday to Sunday, but rather thrive in the details that can make ministry with children a place of excellence.  I know what I FEEL like, but I can’t trust my feelings. I think every Sunday is fabulous! Yet further down the page, he makes the statement, “You won’t accomplish what you don’t measure.”

“Measurement is how we determine the gap between where we think we are and where we actually are.” (pg 188) Here are just a few metrics to consider:
• Attendance (comparing year to year, season to season, girls/boys, etc.)
• Volunteer retention from year to year (VBS, Sunday morning team, special events, etc.)
• Attendance of volunteer leaders at continuing education opportunities
• Percentage of children attending compared to congregation worship numbers
• First connection + 1; Second connection +1 (when a family/child comes in by one area then gets connected to another over a specific period of time)
• If t-shirts are part of the promoting of the ministry, how often am I seeing those t-shirts being worn? (I was thrilled to see tshirt worn in a collage of family pictures on their Christmas card. Every time I see anyone wearing one, I make a positive comment.)
• Percentage of children who have aged out coming back to serve on a consistent basis (taking on places of leadership to learn to lead and build relationships with the littles coming up behind them)
• Percentage of guests returning
• Children engaging in sacred conversations as well as moving away from responding in a critical and/or contrary way
• Individual growth as expressed through anecdotal examples from parents and children

Other prompts for thoughts and worthy of discussion from the book include…
• “Tell me what ‘being the best’ means to you.” (pg 113)
• “The more a staff interacts, talking to each other and supporting one another, the more smoothly the operation goes.” (pg 133)
• “The organization you want is the one with energy and initiative, even joy.” (Pg 170)
• “Actually to be the ‘best’ of anything is not the same as being ‘excellent.’ You can be better than all your competitors and still have a gap to deal with when it comes to achieving excellence. Excellence is what secures your future.” (pg 208)
• “Whether I’m interacting with an employee, a customer, an investor, or even a competitor, I am aware that this person is one of the ‘others’ Jesus had in mind when He gave the Golden Rule about treating them as I would want to be treated.” (pg 218)

“Finally, brothers and sisters…if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

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

It’s Preschool Staff training season and these are my roots. I started my career in professional Christian Education in weekday ministry as a preschool teacher, then a preschool director. When I’m invited to present it’s usually for the cause of encouraging preschool staff to love their kids to Jesus as they teach colors, fine motor skills, pre-math skills and play well.

An easy way to share the love of Jesus and the power of His word with children and their families is to add scripture to artwork. As a preschool teacher every single piece of paper or communication included scripture. Nothing left my classroom without scripture. I learned to use a concordance well because this is the stuff that makes the refrigerator, the magnet board, and becomes the framed art hung on the walls of children’s homes.

This is a list of bible verses I used to add a little ‘something’ to artwork and other communication from my preschool classroom:

A Acorn They will be called oaks of righteousness. Isaiah 61:3
Apple A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. Proverbs 25:11
Keep me as the apple of the eye. Psalm 17:8a
B Bear Bear witness to God’s love.
Bear the image of the heavenly. 1 Corinthians 15:49
Bird A bird of the air may carry your words. Ecclesiastes 10:20
Body I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14
C Cloud He makes the clouds His chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. Psalm 104:3
The cloud of the Lord was upon them by day. Numbers 10:34
He spread a cloud for a covering. Psalm 105:39
D Delight thyself also in the Lord. Psalm 37:4
Door The Lord has opened a door. 2 Corinthians 2:12
Behold I stand at the door and knock. Revelation 3:20
Dino Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you. Job 40:15-19
His back has rows of shields…His snorting throws out flashes of light. Job 41:15-33
Nothing on earth is his equal – a creature without fear. Job 41:34
E Egg Is there any taste in the white of an egg? Job 6:6b
As one gathered eggs that are let, have I gathered all the earth. Isaiah 10:14
Excellent How excellent is thy lovingkindness. Psalm 36:7a
F Fish “Come follow me,” Jesus said, ‘And I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19
Flower Like a flower of the field. Psalm 103:15
Feet How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. Romans 10:15
G Good Good news gives health. Proverbs 15:30
The Lord is good to all. Psalm 145:9
Gifts We have different gifts. Romans 12:6
Garden The Lord God planted a garden in Eden. Genesis 2:8
H Heart God is the strength of my heart. Psalm 73:26
Hair Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Matthew 10:30
Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Luke 12:7
Honey Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. Proverbs 16:24
I I I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13
I will be with you always. Matthew 28:20
J Joy Always pray with joy. Philippians 1:4
Jesus You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Luke 2:12
K Kings Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him. Psalm 72:11
All kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth. Psalm 138:4
L Little Let the little children come to me. Matthew 19:14
Light God is light. In Him there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5
Lips The lips of the wise spread knowledge. Proverbs 15:7
Lemon Their drink is sour. Hosea 4:18a
M Mirror Look to the Lord. Psalm 105:4
Music The Lord is my strength and my song. Isaiah 12:2
Me How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! Psalm 139:17
N Noodle soup I am warm. Isaiah 44:16
Nest That thou should make thy nest as high as the eagle. Jeremiah 49:16
Night God called the night day, and the darkness He called night. Genesis 1:5
O Ocean I stood upon the sand of the sea. Revelation 13:1
The sand is upon the seashore. Genesis 22:17
P Peace The Lord blesses His people with peace. Psalm 29:11
Be at peace with each other. Mark 9:50
Pray Pray to the Lord. Jeremiah 29:7
Pumpkin Offer unto God thanksgiving. Psalm 50:14a
For in the days of old, there were songs of praise and thanksgiving. Nehemiah 12:46
Q Quiet Study to be quiet and to work with you own hands. 1 Thessalonians 4:11
He will quiet you with His love. Zephaniah 3:17
In quietness and trust is your strength. Isaiah 30:15
R Rock The Lord is my rock, my fortress. 2 Samuel 22:2
He is my rock. Psalm 92:15
Right The Lord is right and true. Psalm 33:4
S Salt You are the salt of the earth. Matthew 5:13
Sun The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another. 1 Corinthians 15:41
Spider The spider taketh hold with her hands. Proverbs 30:28
T Trust Trust in the Lord forever. Isaiah 26:4
Tree The pine, the fir, and the cypress together. Isaiah 60:13
Then all of the trees of the forest will sing. Psalm 96:12
Birds of every kind will net in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches. Ezekiel 17:23
U Upper He will show you a large upper room. Mark 14:15
Umbrella The rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. Genesis 7:12
I will give you rain in due season. Leviticus 26:4
The Lord send rain upon the earth. 1 Kings 17:14
V Valentines A cheerful heart is good medicine. Proverbs 17:22
Blessed are the pure in heart. Matthew 5:8
The Lord searches every heart. 1 Chronicles 28:9
W Worm God prepared a worm. Jonah 4:7
X Excellent How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! Psalm 36:7
Let them praise the name of the Lord; for His name alone is excellent. Psalm 148:13
O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. Psalm 8:9
Y Yellow The yellow gold of the land is good. Genesis 2:12
The streets of Heaven are pure yellow gold. Revelation 21:21
Z Zoo And all the wild animals play nearby. Job 40:20
Shapes:
Circle It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth. Isaiah 40:22
Square All the doors and posts were square. 1 Kings 7:5
Rectangle They went upon their four sides. Ezekiel 1:17
Triangle The great city was divided into three parts. Revelation 16:19
Oval Walk and go round about her. Psalm 48:12
Lift up thine eyes round about and see. Isaiah 60:4
Heart My heart is steadfast O God. Psalm 108:1
Star Celebrate and be glad. Luke 15:32
Star differs from star in splendor. 1 Corinthians 15:41

How else can you share scripture with your families?

“My word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11

We serve a God of celebration. One of the first things God did when he led His people out of Egyptian slavery and into the Promised Land was give them days and times of celebration. Times to stop the ‘every day’ or UR (usual routine) to celebrate God’s goodness, to launch into a new season, get a do-over, and even refresh for the next season.

Promotion Sunday is a great way to celebrate the end of the summer and acknowledge the natural rhythm of your community when school starts. It builds energy as you invite your families to gather at church. We celebrate Promotion Sunday on the Sunday after the local school system begins. On Promotion Sunday our team of servant leaders prepare themselves to teach and lead, and our children move up to the next age-level with fanfare. It’s a big deal! A theme helps that. We are inviting families to STEP UP TO THE PLATE on Promotion Sunday 2019.

Marketing information:
• McEachern Kids is ready to STEP UP TO THE PLATE. Come on by The Treehouse as we are ready to help you and your family start the school year and knock it out of the park!
• Promotion Sunday will be on Sunday, August 4 when McEachern Kids will move up to their new classes and meet their new teachers. Wear your Braves gear as we all STEP UP TO THE PLATE to follow Jesus! Come to the Pep-Rally in The Treehouse to meet your new teachers and be escorted to your new classrooms.

Our creative team has prepared a photo space and we’ve ordered foam fingers and pompoms for the children to help with the visual aspect of the festivities for the pep rally. We’ll have huge bowls of Cracker Jacks and mini Tootsie Pops to hand out for take-aways. The youth department is selling tickets to the Atlanta Braves game at 1:20pm that day after church. The adult Christian education department will be setting up displays of ‘next step’ opportunities in discipleship as they, too, STEP UP TO THE PLATE.

Every child will get an information packet which will include a family survey, registration form to update information, a new school-year ParentCalendar (2019-20) with all the dates of anything outside of Sunday morning, and a layout for what is the next step in discipleship for each age level. We want to keep our families informed of what is offered for their child at each stage of their development. It shows our intentionality and gives them a heads-up on what their church has chosen to be the priority and investment in our partnership to love their kids to Jesus.

Rising 1st Graders

Rising 2^nd Graders

Rising 3^rd Graders

Rising 4^th Graders

Rising 5^th Graders

How do you celebrate this milestone of a new school year?

“If God is clear about one thing, it’s this: What is good, true, right, and just will last. Everything else won’t.” Maria Goff from Love Lives Here: Finding What You Need in a World Telling You What You Want, pg 166

Summer is the perfect time to offer something special to families to have fun, to make new friends, and to have some sticky church memories. We invited every little girl who had completed kindergarten through completed 5th grade to bring their mother, grandmother, significant woman in their lives for some paint and praise. Here’s what we did.

Promotion in bulletin and through social media: All little girls (completed K5-5th grade) are invited to bring their Mom to share in some paint and praise.
Thursday, July 18, 7-8:30pm
This is not a drop-off event, but a shared big girl/little girl event in Oaks Hall. Register today at ….

A fabulous elementary school art teacher of 40+ years prepared the space with an amazing team of teachers and dear youth. We prepared trail mix and fruit water of lemon and oranges. Mrs. Glover guided our gals to use brushes and paints like professionals. We prayed, we hummed, we followed along, and some decided to do something a little different.

Mrs. Glover shared testimony of her relationship with her mother who is now in Heaven and her daughter who is serving in the mission field in Asia having just graduated from college. She spoke of her teaching past students who were in the room as well as how much she enjoys teaching worship art to our 4th & 5th graders in Sunday school every other month (awesome plug to come back for Sunday school!)

The supplies were an investment as we will indeed do this again. I thought of doing the pizza-box-converted-into-an-easel trick, but I had four other special happenings that week and I knew my limitations.  Here is our supply list beyond the light refreshments, wet-wipes, paper towels, cups of water, and such:
Easels
Brushes
Canvases  (11X14)
Paints

We listened to praise music in the background thanks to a long-play YouTube channel coming through the room speakers. We charged $5 per person and registered everyone online.  This gives me data to use in promoting other events during the school year like encouraging parents to ‘step up to the plate’ on Promotion Sunday to make Christian education a family priority. One mom asked if we could do this around the holidays. Another posted about it on her well-known weekly blog. Many a little girl spent time with her mom away from laundry, away from other distractions, and we didn’t really see any cell phones until the end to take pictures of their masterpieces together.

Last month we offered a Big Guy-Little Guy Nerf Games with a total of 22 big guys and 23 little guys. Close to 50% were boys who had only attended Vacation Bible School and/or Recreation Ministry. The Paint & Praise Party had 25 little girls and 24 moms. Close to 30% were little girls who had only attended Vacation Bible School and/or Recreation Ministry. We could have made this a church-wide endeavor, but the little girls would have been lost. The goal was to let the girls spend some time with their moms while meeting and growing in relationship with other mom-girl teams. That’s how tribes are built. Summer is the perfect time.

“Whatever your goal is for the summer, be intentional with it.” Becky Kiser, from Sacred Holidays: Less Chaos, More Jesus, pg. 88