Right now in Uptown we just finished up The Story for Children curriculum. Chyanne Higgins, our previous Children’s Director, started the transition with this curriculum taking the kids through the Bible learning about the scope of the narrative overall. Through this curriculum, your children have seen how God made the world, they have seen that when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit the relationship between God and man was broken. God knew that He would need to send a savior, and designed a history of man that points towards the person of Jesus. Abraham accepted the promise of God, he begat Isaac who begat Jacob, and the Israelites who descended moved to Egypt. With them they carried the promises of God. Israel eventually left the grasp of Egypt, and spent every generation from that time on struggling to remain faithful to God. We learned about good kings who tried to pull them back to God like David, Solomon, and Asa. We learned about the prophets who God spoke through to put them back like Haggai and Jeremiah. Through it all, they were promised a savior. When Jesus was born, he fulfilled everything. We wrapped up from there – showing the kids that Jesus is our king and he has something great for us.
As I was planning these lessons for our department it was refreshing to be reminded of how the whole story comes together to show the insane goodness and persistent love of God. I hope my children’s ministry staff benefited from these as I did. Most importantly, the kids had fun learning, too! They played games and did crafts that emphasized these lessons.
Last day to sign up is Sunday, April 2nd.We are now learning about the Fruits of the Spirit as a mini-series around Easter until we start something new later in the spring. The emphasis is being placed on God working on earth through His Spirit to make us more like Him. When we know him, he gives us these qualities in our lives. “But the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” This is found in Galatians 5, and we are combining them with stories of the apostles from Acts that exemplify these qualities.
Also, recently, children have been learning some songs in a gathered worship time. We have implemented this for the month of March to help them learn songs for Palm Sunday and
Easter kids choir performances. Parents do need to sign kids up for the stage performance, but they have had a ton of fun with Rachel Johnson learning these songs as part of their normal Sunday activity.
I am also planning fun times for our parents and kids to get together, providing that Christian community that we keep encouraging. We had an ornament decorating party at Christmas where kids and parents alike were given an avenue to be creative. This week, during spring break we will spend Thursday (March 30) in the gym playing kickball, tag, and parachute games around a break for lunch.
Our UpCamps from last summer will be surfacing again around the centerpiece of Vacation Bible School from July 10-14. We will meet in the mornings, getting out in time for lunch.
Mark your calendars! Our theme is “Galactic Starveyors.” I am excited to be able to lay out for you our daily themes:
- The Relationship Began – Genesis 1:1-2, 26-31; John 1:1, 14
- The Relationship Broken – Genesis 3
- The Relationship Promised – Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-24; Luke 2:22-39
- The Relationship Restored – Mark 12:22-16:7
- The Relationship Continues – John 21:1-19; Acts 1:4,8
We will have more information and more excitement as the week gets closer, but keep us in mind when you are planning your summer. This will be a great event for kids familiar with church to build some theology and continuity, as well as a great outreach and evangelism tool for anyone else you may want to invite. We will also need plenty of help in many different areas!
Before I sign off, I just want to share that my personal focus when it comes to children’s ministry is to build up our local community. I want to provide Biblical teaching for your kids in a safe environment, to provide resources for your family to grow to know God better, and to equip you to go and be a light in our dark world. I hope that what I have to share about our ministry encourages you, that it shines a light on the little ones in our midst and shows that they are important to us because we know that they are important to God.
If you are interested in having any information about our Children’s Ministry, think you might want to volunteer, or want to know what other sort of resources we have for families please e-mail [email protected]
