Sharing the Gift

Some of you have your presents bought and even wrapped and are ready to sit back and enjoy the holidays. Well, not me! I walked from one end of the mall to other several times and thought my feet would surely give out on me and then I thought of the three kings. They traveled for two long and hard years to bring gifts to Jesus. We should remember while we are running around to find the perfect gift for the ones we love that God has already given us the perfect gift of His Son, Jesus

This week, challenge your kids to share some things they can do to remind people that God loves them this Christmas? (Tell people about Jesus’ birth, give gifts to people we love, donate food or money to people who need it, help our parents prepare for Christmas)

Don’t forget to enjoy your holiday Season! Take the time to enjoy the gift God has given you and to share the gift of Jesus with others: spend time with family and time with Jesus!

Read a Good Story

Read through the book of Luke during the month December and spend some time on the magnificent story of Jesus’ birth found in Luke 2:1-20.

Bad Christmas Humor

Why does Santa have 3 gardens?
So he can ho-ho-ho.

Why was Santa's little helper depressed?
Because he had low elf esteem.

What do you get when you cross an archer with a gift-wrapper?
Ribbon hood.

What do you call a cat on the beach at Christmastime?
Sandy Claus!

If Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus had a child, what would he be called?
A subordinate claus.

Why did Santa spell Christmas N-O-E?
Because the angel had said,"No L!"

What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus?
Claustrophobic.

What do snowmen eat for breakfast?
Snowflakes.

Did you hear that one of Santa's reindeer now works for Proctor and Gamble?
Its true....Comet cleans sinks!

What do you call a bunch of grandmasters of chess bragging about their games in a hotel lobby?Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer!

When you stop believing in Santa Claus is when you start getting clothes for Christmas.

There once was a czar in Russia whose name was Rudolph the Great. He was standing in his house one day with his wife. He looked out the window and saw something happening. He says to his wife, "Look honey. Its raining." She, being the obstinate type, responded, "I don't think so, dear. I think its snowing." But Rudolph knew better. So he says to his wife, "Let's step outside and we'll find out." Lo and behold, they step outside and discover it was, in fact, rain. And Rudolph turns to his wife and replies," I knew it was raining. Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear!"

I did say bad Christmas Humor. Hope you enjoyed.

Just One More Thing

I had an interesting conversation with my eight year daughter tonight regarding the Golden Compass. She came home from school with the latest edition of the Scholastic Book Club brochure and was eager to start circling her picks for books for Christmas. I noticed her circling the Golden Compass and I decided to let her know that she was not going to get that book and that we would not be seeing the movie together. I got the puzzeled look and the 'why' that I expected from her so I dived in with answers. My daughter is a very concrete and logical thinker so that is how I tackled her question. My saying that the author was unfriendly toward Christians and that by the third book the characters had killed God was not enough for her. We went to Snopes.com and read through, together, what information that site had on the author and the books. She was sad to realize that someone would intentionally write a book to make kids, as the author says, decide against God and Heaven. I explained to her that kids who see this movie or read these books and don't grow up in a good church or Christian home may have a hard time later on believing in God. My daughter summed it best when she said, "So if I tell my friend about Jesus and God and they think that God is what this book and movie say he is they might not believe me?" Don't miss an opportunity to talk with your kids.

Don't See the Movie!

Okay, now I have your attention and I know you are curious. By now, most of you have heard about or received emails urging you not to see The Golden Compass. I don't know about you but when I was a kid if I was told not to see something it made it all the more appealing to me and I would find a way to see it. Don't worry, I am not telling you not to see the movie or read the series of books it is based on rather I am asking you get to know more about the movie and the author, Phillip Pullman.
The children's story is a dark tale of science fiction and fantasy in which the ultimate goal is to destroy God. Sounds like something I think my young kids would have a hard time understanding but that is who the movie is geared for and if you have the seen the commercials they have done a good job of reaching those kids.
Do I agree with the books, the author and the movies, no. But what I am looking forward to is some great conversations with friends who don't have a strong belief in God. Use this movie as a discussion point with your older kids and friends. Ask yourself and others what would life be like if God wasn't present anymore?

Opening Dialog

Four times a year our teaching teams have the opportunity to present to our second through fifth graders the message of salvation. Today was one of those days. We use these opportunities to open dialogs between the kids and their parents. At the end of their small group time we have the students fill out a card and check one of three boxes; I have been baptized, I want to be baptized or I want to think about it some more. These cards help us to do two things, the first is to learn were they are spiritually and the second as a discussion starter for parents.

I was amazed as I received feedback from our small group leaders to learn how many kids had genuine questions. For me, there is nothing more real than sitting with a kid who wants to know more about what Jesus means in their life. Not just the eternal I want to go heaven part but the everyday stuff like dealing with tough choices with friends and rough family stuff.

We will take these cards and call the parents of the kids who checked the box to be baptized. The parents have all received a letter after service letting them know what our message was about in the classroom. The letter also included a list of verses for them to reference with their kids. We let the parents know their child checked the decision box and we encourage them to use this time to talk to their kids about Jesus.

In a couple of years, some these kids will make the choice to follow Jesus and to be baptized. For now we are just opening the dialog.

Switch

What's your Switch story? Tell us how God has changed you!

Click on the image to share your story.

Adult Series

We are beginning a new series in our adult church in several weeks entitled Our Rotten Sex Life. There is already quite a buzz about this series in the area with step stake signs, a twenty foot banner on our building and, yesterday, an article on the front page of the local paper. The teaching team and service design team for our adult church have been working hard to put together this provocative three week series. We are looking forward to many new faces that will be coming for the first time to check us out. The same Sunday we are kicking off this new sermon series is also our annual Fall Festival. We are excited to have so many things happening at once that will welcome new people into our church.
What does this have to do with children's ministry? Everything! We have the opportunity during this three week series to capture the attention and create enthusiasm among the elementary crowd. Not only will we be welcoming new first time kids into our classrooms but we will be seeing kids who may have stopped coming to class and started attending adult worship. I don't see many parents allowing their kids to sit with them through the first sermon entitled 'The Best Sex You'll Ever Have'. These next several weeks we need to ramp up our programming from the minute they walk in all the way through until their parents pick them up. Games, crafts, music, tech, teaching and small groups all need to be taken to the next level.


Don't miss out on the opportunities that your adult church provides you to reach kids!

Caught Up

Have you ever been been so involved in getting Sunday morning running smoothly that you got caught up in the running of the stuff that goes into it? Did you ever stop to realize that not everyone around you is concerned with props, crayons and the music you may need for the classroom? Who else cares if you wanted green Jello for the funny skit you had planned and instead only had red Jello? Well, I had just had one of those mornings.

While making sure all the teachers had what they needed, including the Jello, and checking the classrooms I noticed we had a little dead tree frog outside of our K-1 classroom near the playground. I made a mental note to make sure it was removed before the kids spotted it. As happens with most mental notes I did not remember until we were in between our first and second services. Luckily, no kids had spotted the poor deceased frog who was still in rigor mortise. I informed Kathy, the head of our logistics team on Sunday morning, of the need for someone to make the frog disappear and in her quick thinking she called her husband over to do the deed.

Let me pause here in the story to give you some background into how our classrooms are set-up on Sunday mornings. Each of our eight classrooms are divided into age groups from birth through fifth grade and are given animal names. On Sunday mornings my primary responsibility is for the Chipmunks (kindergarten-first grades), Foxes (second-third grades) and the Frogs (fourth and fifth grades).

Now we can continue with our tale. Kathy immediately informed her husband that I had a dead frog and he needed to get rid of it, she even suggested he toss it in the woods. Her husband turned and with a perplexed and somewhat stunned look asked, "Shouldn't you be calling 911?". It was at that moment that I realized he thought I was, at first, referring to one of our Frogs, a fourth or fifth grader. After the shock it made for quite a good laugh!

It is moments like that when I realize that I can get so caught up in my own efforts to get things done. Even without the green Jello, Sunday morning will happen and not by own efforts.

Starting a K-1 Class

This past Sunday we opened a new classroom in our elementary division for kindergartners and first graders. I have to admit I was very unsure what to expect for that first service, will it be fun enough, will the lesson be engaging, will the new volunteers want to come back? Well, I will be coming back for more because I had a blast teaching in that room!



It was certainly a leap of faith to open this classroom not knowing what to expect with new curriculum, new volunteers, and a new age level of kids. All summer we had just the second through fifth graders so the thought of switching gears and teaching to kindergartners who have yet to learn how to read was intimidating. I mean how were they going to follow along with the power point lyrics? They were a little unsure at first with the singing and then as they began to do the motions their faces lit up. By the time we started the drama teaching time they were hooked.



The most exciting part of the whole morning was knowing that we are getting these kids ready for what they will experience when they move into the older classrooms. They will know the classroom routines the expectations of large group time and small group time. They will understand that small group leaders are there each week because they care about them and want show them the love of Jesus in a very real way. We are getting these kids ready to develop lasting relationships with their peers as they grow in their faith.

I'd love some cool ideas you may have for arrival games and activites for this age group.

Can't wait to teach next week!

Have They Learned?!

Okay, it comes time for the end of your curriculum unit and you are ready to evaluate what your kids have learned. How do you go about that task without giving the kids a pop quiz? Nobody wants to be the teacher remembered for pop quizzes!

For the past two units we have made it a game day for the kids. We have taken questions from the curriculum series and used them to create a Jeopardy game on power point. Well, we played Jeopardy this past Sunday and I was excited to see how much the kids had learned. I was confident that they would remember Bible verses, key points and wow us with their knowledge. My confidence soon began to fail after the first service and by the fourth I was deflated. I was so sure that they were going to fly through the questions with out any hints at all and even with the hints it was sometimes painful. Oh sure, we had a few kids each service that knew most of the answers but I was still feeling low.

About that time God stepped in and gave me a smack for feeling sorry for myself. We had some extra time after the game during fourth service so we did a song with the kids. As the music started for Hallelujah, I looked out at the group of kids and couldn't help but smile as I saw them with smiles on their faces, voices raised and doing the motion. It didn't matter to them that they didn't do so great at Jeopardy. What mattered to them was that they where there with people and friends who care about them. Sometimes it takes a moment like that to remember it is not always about the lesson but about the connections they make with small group leaders and friends.

Visit Often!

This blog is here for all those looking to share ideas, borrow ideas or find themselves out of ideas. I will be posting thoughts evaluating our children's services, curriculum, scheduling and all the stuff that goes into Sunday mornings at our church. I am looking forward to hearing comments and feedback from everyone and would love to hear some of the other stuff going on in other children's ministries.

We will also be including postings from our volunteers for us to all get the fresh perspective on Sunday mornings.

So visit often and give us your thoughts!

Reinvent VBS

We have changed the traditional thinking about VBS in our area. We do a huge three day production we call Kids’ Camp that takes a minimum of five months planning to pull off. Do we do it to reach more families in our area? You bet we do, but that is not the first reason. Do we do it to grow our church and children’s ministry? Absolutely, but still not the big reason? These are both great reasons to tackle any huge outreach projects you may have planned but we have another reason. Volunteers, volunteers, volunteers! This year we had over three hundred volunteers from our church (a church of 1500) come out for three mornings in July to serve at our Kids’ Camp Adventure Island.

Our camp volunteers are asked to serve for three mornings from 8 to 12, no experience and no long term commitments required. We make sure the energy and enthusiasm starts the minute the volunteers show up for training and carries straight through until our camp wraps up on what we call camp Sunday. Our camp volunteers are immersed in all the excitement and fun that the kids are having. Once camp is over and they have had the best three days of their summer they can't wait to sign-up to be a part of our Sunday morning children's ministry. Can you think of a better way to build excitement and recruit volunteers?
Check out the camp video below!