Monday, September 29, 2008
My response for what it is worth. Leticia who is "almost" 4 loves singing with the praise team, loves when people come and shake her hand but still has difficulties with the 20 min message and being "quiet". We pick up a coloring page at the front, but maybe if we had young (4th or 5th graders) greaters to hand out the coloring packets and "encourage" the little ones to "LISTEN" when pastor Jeff is talking, they might hear better than Mom saying SHHHHH. Also, we can always do a 1 min prayer with young ones and send them out for the last 25 min? As back in the day. :) Have a wonderful week all. Linda
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3 comments:
I agree with Linda, I do miss having the children spend time with Jeff for a short devotional and then out with the childrens ministry group. Being a part of Kidmo, as a 1st grade teacher, I would like to comment on the length of time we spend with the program. I feel as if we need to wrap it up to about 1035-1040, so that parents aren't waiting too long. Kids are distracted seeing their parents waiting and I feel most parents are ready to go at that point after their service and message. If we are going to sing let's try to keep it to one song and a quick prayer and dismiss. Sorry my opinion for what it's worth, several parents have commented on this in the past. Michelle
I also agree with Michelle and Linda. I think the kids enjoy a short message and connection time with Pastor Jeff. It is a great way for them to spend some time directly with him while he makes a personal connection in their lives. I grew up in a Methodist church back in Illinois and our pastor brought the kids up for 5 minutes at every service and then we went away to Sunday school. I still remember doing that to this day. I don't remember all the Sunday school classes!
I couldn't agree more with what Michelle has said about the length of the 930 am service. I, also have had numerous parents (and friends) make comment about the lenghth of time for the service. Parents have even told us that they want to keep the their children in the main sanctuary so they can leave when they want. I know the third graders are jumping around, looking at their parents and they aren't listening to a 2-3 minutes closing prayer!
So Linda, do you picture these ideas happening at 8:00 and 11:00, or do you include 9:30.
I discontinued the 8:00 children's worship for a number of reasons (no or too few kids, to focus time/energy on starting up Kidmo, and to have an option for Kids to be with Parents in Worship) but I'd love more discussion about these ideas.
If I had the older kids attending at the 8:00 or 11:00 hour I'd love to see them helping out with younger ones. Unfortunatly/fortunatly (by the way both the 4th and 5th grade class attendance numbers are way up from where those particular classes were last year!) those kids are coming at 9:30 not 8:00 or 11:00.
If I had more kids at 8:00 I'd totaly be open to starting back up with a children's message and maybe 10-15 minutes into the service, and then after the children's message kids left for the CWC to do a shorter Bible study/Worship time. Part of me still is really keen on the option that there is one hour where kids stay and worship with thier parents.
What if at 8:00 we have a children's message, and kids go back and stay with thier parents for the rest of the service, 9:30 kids go to Kidmo or Lil'k, 11:00 Kids go with thier parent to worship and then after the children's message they go with me and an amazing, wonderful, talented, fun-loving (should I go on or do I sound like Eddie Haskel?)adult volunteer to do a kids Bible study for the last part of the hour.
What do you think?
Dana
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