GJ - Note the resource used for Patterson's church:
http://www.grouppublishing.com/
Breathe new life into your women's ministry (same bunch) with
Girlfriends Unlimited!
That sounds like the Mission Counselors' training camp.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Ad Fontes: Craig Groeschel Piped Into WELS Mission...":
WELS Commissions on Youth Discipleship and Parish Schools are now training the young to love "Woopie Worship." In the Winter 2009 issue of "Sowers & Seeds" Holy Word in Austin, TX is highlighted on how it has established "Kids InC" to get the 3-7 year-olds out of the divine service so they can watch videos and have "popcorn prayers." Note in the article how the kids wanted what they used to have in the regular service (i.e. Lord's Prayer, offering, blessing). By the time "Kids InC" had been tweeked to be what the children asked for, it ended being much like what they had been pulled out of. The church had trouble finding volunteers to sit with the kids during "Kids InC." How about having the parents do it in the regular divine service? And then the kicker regarding "Group" resources: "This is not a WELS or NPH product, so be discerning."
Find the article here: http://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?2601&collectionID=710
Kids InC: Engaging the Youngest Through Worship
by Patty Starke — Holy Word Lutheran Church, Austin, TX
Challenges and opportunities come hand in hand with the who choose to attend Kids InC are dismissed following the development and implementation of a new ministry. Con-children’s message every Sunday. In addition, knowing the gregations must equip themselves to seize opportunities children are practicing worship at their age level and not do-and overcome challenges to allow for a successful minis-ing crafts and playing games has also helped ease concerns.
try. Starting a children’s church ministry at Holy Word came with its own challenges and opportunities. Concerns and suggestions from Kids InC workers, parents, fellow parishioners and even the children themselves have
The board of elders at Holy Word met and discussed the idea been addressed throughout our first year of this ministry. A
of implementing a children’s church. They felt such a minis-few examples: A staff member felt we needed to add saying
try would offer many opportunities to its members and also the Lord’s Prayer instead of only singing it with a DVD. A
potential members, as well as children ages 3 - 7 years. member observing the service noticed we didn’t close with
the blessing and suggested it was good for the children to be
What are some specific opportunities our children’s church, exposed to it. A parent noticed that her child missed giving
Kids in Christ (Kids InC), offers? It allows parents to wor-his offering in church so we added that element to the sership
without the stress of disciplining fidgety children, in-vice. A child mentioned she wanted Kids InC to have Bibles
creases our outreach opportunities to families with young like the ‘adult’ service. All of these suggestions were taken
children, and gives children a chance to worship and hear and added to our Kids InC service during the past year.
the Word of God at an age-appropriate level.
Content: Once the elders decided to go forward with this
Worshipping at an age-appropriate level makes worship unique children’s ministry, we faced the challenge of find-
meaningful to the children. Our Kids InC format combines ing a suitable curriculum. We needed one aimed at ages 3-7,
most of the elements of a traditional worship service (prayer, flexible enough for our time allotment and, of course, true to
music, scripture, lesson, offering), but presents them on a Scripture. After doing some research on available curricuchild’s
level. The “worship service” floor-plan is also simi-lums we settled on resources from Group Publishing.
lar to our worship service with rows of chairs in a pew-like
formation. The service is interactive with responsive prayer Developing the Kids InC schedule held the challenge of fit-
and Q&A during the lesson. ting the elements of traditional worship into a small amount
of time. We decided to do the following (it has been tweaked
Challenges we have faced during the past year include: ad-during the year):
dressing congregational concerns, developing a curriculum,
dealing with logistical limitations, and staffing the program. • Leave church after children’s talk
We will explore each of the mentioned challenges in more • Welcome kids (1-2 min)
detail below. • Praise & Worship (5-8 min)
• Learning Point (20-25 min)
Congregational concerns: Before Kids InC began, Holy • Offering (5 min)
Word had some members express concern that the children • Praise & Worship ( 10-12 min)
wouldn’t be sitting in the service with their parents, learn-• Popcorn prayer & Lord’s prayer
ing to sit quietly and worship. We decided to have the chil-• Blessing (5 min)
dren begin worshipping with their families in church. Those • Return during last hymn
Continued on page 6
5
“Kids InC” . . . continued from page 5
Logistics: Finding an appropriate space to hold Kids InC was one logistical
challenge we faced. We settled on our fellowship hall as it has ample space,
is in the same building as the church, and has electrical outlets for the audio/
visual equipment.
The equipment we use for Kids InC includes a laptop, LCD projector, large
screen and sometimes a TV/DVD player. We use these in conjunction with
the CD’s and DVD’s that come with our curriculum. The children love to sing
along, especially while imitating motions specific to the songs.
Staff: One of the biggest challenges was finding volunteers to staff our new
ministry. We put together the following description for the positions Kids InC
would need.
• Leader/ Music
This person prepares the lesson and songs from the provided materials
and teaches the learning point (ie: God is kind). S/he also leads the
children in the songs, possibly demonstrating motions. It’s good to
reserve five minutes to learn/review the words and motions of a song.
Prep is minimal and materials needed are typically something one
would have at home.
• Helper
Younger children aren’t used to sitting and listening for extended times
so the helper sits near those children and encourages them to sit and
listen. Transitioning between sitting and singing is another time the
helper is needed, especially with younger children or visitors.
• AV
This person doesn’t need to be a computer genius. S/he sets up either
the projector and laptop or TV and DVD player. S/he is given a lesson
plan which shows when to play musical and video selections. Basically
this person pushes some buttons and changes CD’s and DVD’s.
We began the program asking for people to commit for a month to six weeks at
a time. We thought the consistency would be good for the children attending.
Finding volunteers for such a long time commitment was difficult, therefore
we put together 6 teams. Now our volunteers work once every six weeks. This
rotation seems to be working much better and the children are fine with it.
As expected, we have found our Kids InC ministry to have an ongoing learning
curve. We are continually making the most of new opportunities and attending
to the latest challenges as they arise. We have found the blessings of our
children’s church ministry to far outweigh the challenges. We thank God for
these blessings and the opportunity to bring his saving Word to our children.
Make playtime learning time with
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This is not a WELS or NPH product
so be discerning.
Let’s Play!
Group Games for Preschoolers
By Group Publishing
Item Number: 9781559456135
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www.grouppublishing.com
All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy BiBle, New International Version © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
Sowers & Seeds is published four times a year by the WELS Commissions on Youth Discipleship & Parish Schools.
Comments about this Sowers & Seeds and ideas for future issues can be directed to Dr. Joel A. Nelson, Administrator, <==He opposes closing Perish Services! WELS Commission on Youth Discipleship.
WELS Commission on Youth Discipleship
2929 North Mayfair Road
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53222-4398
Phone: 414-256-3274
E-mail: cyd@sab.wels.net
Web site: www.wels.net/youthdiscipleship
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "You Have To Teach the Children:Patterson's Program...":
Is Sunday School offered to this same age group? If so, it seems that it could be used to teach and reinforce some of the things that Kids InC is trying to address, and in a way that doesn't take the kids out of the worship service. Also, was there something that wasn't working about having kids in the worship service that caused Kids InC to be started? The article has an ambivalent tone - as if even the writer is not sure this was such a good idea.
+Martinus
***
GJ - Does someone have a copy of the Anthony Newley song, "Teach the Children"? I think that song fits this program--all of Church and Chicanery. Send me a copy if you have it or memorized it. Newley managed to create ear-worms with his grating voice and eye-worms with his affected stage style, but he was entertaining nevertheless.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "You Have To Teach the Children:Patterson's Program...":
Wolves with originality wear bunny costumes. The kids love it.
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "You Have To Teach the Children:Patterson's Program...":
"And then the kicker regarding "Group" resources: "This is not a WELS or NPH product, so be discerning.""
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Translation: Let us do the thinking for you.
