Being IN on the secret

Recently, I began a group for children called WAM, which stands fo Worship And Music. This group meets between services during adult bible studies and fellowship. When posed with what to offer for children, we chose to combine a variety of requests from families. As the initial leader of this group I also had to consider the gifts I could offer and areas of knowledge that I could use in leading the children, so I came up with the idea of focusing on Worship and how we can use music to worship God.

Each week looks a little different, but always includes:

• singing (a variety of songs)
• different types of prayer
• reading, hearing and memorizing scripture

Beyond these foundational elements I choose seasonal concepts (Advent, Lent...) or questions and interests of the children.

A few weeks ago we browsed a bulletin from each worship service and identified familiar words. Next we went back through and circled things that we recognized, but didn't understand. We ended up walking through the bulletin line by line and discussing why we do certain things each week.

We then looked back at what we learned about the prayer technique known as ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication). They discovered that each week's service is a variation on these same ideas! It was so fun to see their faces as they began to uncover the mystery of sunday morning worship! I encouraged them to share their new knowledge and to listen for key words during the following service. One parents on their child eagerness to share their understanding during worship that morning. Being in on the secret is a blessing! I am excited to continue this process and further explore the sacraments and traditions of our faith with the WAM group!

Have you ever wondered why we do some of the things we do on Sundays? Have you ever stopped to read each line of the order of worship? Do you have memories from being a child in church and wondering how everyone knew to say the same words at certain times? Share a question or memory below in the comments!

Books of the Bible

Sometimes when I tell the kids to open their bibles I wonder what they really hear. Almost immediately, from various corners of the room, comes the all too familiar phrase, "What page?!?!?" I imagine that when I say the book, chapter and verse of a passage it hits them like a jumble of foreign terms, perhaps something like the above image, or maybe a "Wua, wua, wua," ala teachers in Peanuts cartoons.

This year my goal is to help students build a road map of the bible. As we explore the stories in God's word I hope that they will also be able to develop at least a small understanding of how to navigate the bible. As we begin this tremendous task, we will start with the books of the New Testament. A resource I hope to use is the song "New Testament" by Phil Joel. Not only does it list the books in order to a catchy tune and rhythm, but phrases like "this is good stuff to know, it helps us find out where to go... when we are reading the bible," make it a more meaningful task than simple memorization.

I think it is important that we are intentional with this type of teaching and for students to know that even adults don't always have this stuff down perfect and that we can teach each other and learn alongside one another.

Do you know know the books of the new testament? How did you learn them? Do you have a great resource to suggest? Let us know and we'll keep you posted on this Fall 2011 goal!

Shrove Tuesday and Lent

As we journey through this season of Lent I can't help but be amazed by how the time flies by. It seems like only yesterday we were having pancake races at our Shrove Tuesday event and learning about the season of Lent. Now we are approaching the halfway point! I am trying to encourage our families to talk to their kids about Lent and Easter because it is one of the most fundamental events defines us as Christians. God calls us to a life of truth, grace and love and Jesus' sacrifice is the ultimate modeling of that lifestyle. So as we continue in this season, remembering and reflecting on his life, death and resurrection I am challenging myself and others. How do we see God's daily reminders for us to live this way? Is he providing you are your family with opportunities so share his love with others? Lent provides us with a chance to intentionally seek God and prepare an opening within our busy lives. Start by reading through the Easter story with your family. When your children ask questions, it's okay to not know the answer. Look it up together and if you can't find it, pray that God might help you understand. These types of opportunities are meaningful ways to connect as a family and with God. Blessing on your Lenten season. May you feel the magnitude of God's love for you.

 

 

 

In preparation for our upcoming Wednesday night program, WOW (the Word of Wednesdays), I came across this article on spiritual gifts in children. I think the article provides a good refresher on the general concept of spiritual gifts and provides some helpful guidance. The following is a direct quote from "Recognizing Spiritual Gifts in Your Kids" by Mimi Bullock

6 Practical Steps to Recognize the Spiritual Gifts in Kids

1. Study: Dig into God’s word to refresh your understanding of spiritual gifts.

**edit: read about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians chapter 12

2. Pray: Ask God to give you wisdom and discernment while undertaking this endeavor.

3. Talk: Share with your Senior Pastor and support staff what’s on your heart. Ask for advice and talk about any concerns either of you may have.

4. Listen: In order to recognize the spiritual gifts in your children you’ll have to spend time with them. That will more than likely longer than an hour on Sundays. Be an active listener when interacting with kids. Listen to their hopes and dreams. God is in there somewhere!

5. Ask: Besides prayer, ask the Spirit pointed questions about each child. Be like Samuel when searching for a new king and ask, “What about this one?”

6. Teach: Kids don’t know there are gifts to be had if you aren’t telling them. Teach about spiritual gifts on a regular basis. Challenge kids to ask God personally about their own gifts.

_______________

As I think of each child in our ministry, I can't help but wonder how God plans to use them and what gift(s) the Spirit has placed within them.

Tell Me a Story

Over the last few months I have been taking short online course through Ausburg Press. So far, one of my favorite has been one on Building Biblical literacy. The last 10 or 15 minutes of the course the instructor gave us tangible ways to encourage and promote Biblical Literacy. Some of the tasks can be done at church both during the worship service and during Sunday School. Others activities are intended to be modeled in out everyday lives, such as reading the bible in public, which I mentioned last week. But one that I think is really important is encouraging children to retell bible stories in their own words. In order to retell a story, we must truly know the story, we must internalize the meaning and the important elements. The Christmas Story is one of the best known Bible stories, so I encourage you to ask your child to tell you the story. There are so many ways for them to retell this story! They could:

• draw pictures of different scenes to hold up while they tell you the story
• make a book with their own written text of what happened
• act out the story
• record themselves telling the story and then listen back to it
• write a song that tells the story
• create a dance that highlights the important pieces of the story
• simply tell the story, before they go to bed, after dinner or in the car

The options are endless! So I encourage you to ask your child to tell you a story. Start with the Christmas Story, since they likely have internalized it already. Then next month ask them to tell you a story. If they don't remember all of the details, get the bible out and read through it so they can have another interaction with the text. This simple act can make a huge impact on how your child understands the way God works through stories. And don't forget, it's OK if they use their own vocabulary. This is a sure sign that they get it. Think of it as your child's personal translation of the bible :)

Modeling

As a teacher, I know that one of the most important things I can do for my students is to model what I want them to do. However, even if I model the activity perfectly, it doesn't mean that they will be able to complete the task without questions or gentle reminders. This advent season, I have been thinking about how Jesus was sent to earth, not only to save us from our sins, but also to model for us what it means to serve God, what it means to love God and what it means to be share God's love with the world. So I have decided that during Christmas, I am going to model for others by reading my bible. I am going to bring my bible to church, take it with me on the bus and I will use my bible as I read through the daily advent devotional our church has compiled. It is so easy for me to look up a verse on the computer or on my smart phone, but when I do that, I'm not modeling for others what it look like to read the bible and be in God's Word.

I especially look forward to modeling for our children. Simple tasks, such as how to look up a passage or where to go if we don't know the exact page number of a verse. These are skills that we acquire over time and we can help our children and friends by being a model for them and answering their questions.

Are there other ways you are hoping to model what being a Christian looks like? Leave a comment and let us know!

Blessings,

Jessica

"...as children grow, so does faith."

One of my goals as Director of Children's Ministry is to use my experience in education to explore age appropriate activities and curricula for our children. In my research I came across this article on the Children's Ministry site (link located on the right of the blog). What caught my eye is the connection between educational theories on child development and the author, Rick Chromey's comments on children's spiritual development. Here are a few key ideas that I pulled from the article but feel free to check out the entire article!

• Birth-3 yrs Faith is feeling


• 3-6yrs Faith is "fitting in" or belonging
  


• 7-9yrs Faith is mythic/literal, separating fact from fiction (and more!)


• 10-12yrs As decision-makers, these children can and need to see that faith is every second of every day as they strive to make life applications

There is SO MUCH MORE in this article than I can put into bullet point so i hope that you will check out the article and at least read about what Rick Chromey says about the age range of your children.