How do you get parents more involved in children's ministry?
How do you respond to a person who drops their child off in the nursery and then goes HOME, not to worship but HOME????
How do you get parents to volunteer in SS when adult SS is going on at the same time, even if they only need to volunteer once or twice a semester?
How do you get parents to stay occasionally on Wednesday nights to help out at a Midweek program instead of saying, "yeah, but this is the only time I can get things done"?
How do we show well meaning people that CM is important for more reasons than just because they raise adult numbers in worship and because they are the "future" (nevermind the present)?
Maybe I'm too idealistic. Maybe it's because my parents were children's ministers and PTA members and youth group helpers and roomparents and choir parents and..." I dunno.
I'm blessed with a load of great volunteers who come every week and who juggle hundreds of volunteer responsibilities from teaching, leading childrens' choirs, handbells, shepherding, decorating and even baking cookies! But those people are the parents of a handful of kids. Where are the other 85%?
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
ADVENTures
Big discussion at our church:
Advent wreath litany--hope, peace, joy, love or prophets, shepherds, magi, angels?
Which do you use?
Ivy Beckwith talks about the importance of traditions in building community. What Advent traditions do you cherish, both with family and in ministry?
Advent wreath litany--hope, peace, joy, love or prophets, shepherds, magi, angels?
Which do you use?
Ivy Beckwith talks about the importance of traditions in building community. What Advent traditions do you cherish, both with family and in ministry?
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
A little downtime--thinking "outloud"
Last week was pretty crazy. KidsInCers worked on their service project, the mugs for the visitors during the holiday season. I got the idea from a back issue of CM magazine, but I couldn't remember which one. Seriously, it was from several years ago. The kids enjoyed it, though, and we ended the session with a devotion about serving others. It always amazes me: the kids were a little rowdy during the actual project (always are right before a holiday from school), but when we sat down for the devotion, they were silent and attentive.
I'm going off on a tangent here, surprise, but I was once a public high school teacher, and I remember that when I would actually sit in front of the class and read from a book, they immediately focused. They LOVE being read to, and I wonder if, in this busy world of bussing kids to soccer, dance, and band practice, if we ever take the time to read to our kids. Hmmm...just a thought.
Anyway, KidsInC is off for 2 weeks, so in December we'll make Advent calendars and trim the tree. We'll also make the gifts for the teachers as I said, although I think that I'm going to switch from cookie fixings to making hot chocolate mix to allow for more time.
The Santa movie went...well, it went. It was just one of the organizers and me. I think that with all the hubub and changing the date, it just went kaplooey. Oh well. In other news, the Thanksgiving Feast for the Day School was precious, and consequently, I learned about a new cookie craft: a shortbread cookie (keebler) turned chocolate side up, a marshmallow coated in chocolate and stuck to the cookie and then yellow icing piped to look like a buckle. It makes a pilgrim's hat. Plus it was yummy.
Now I've got a 1/2 week and have a little downtime. We're decorating for Xmas this week and wrapping up the Thanksgiving unit.
Next week, though, starts the Advent rush. Here we go...
I'm going off on a tangent here, surprise, but I was once a public high school teacher, and I remember that when I would actually sit in front of the class and read from a book, they immediately focused. They LOVE being read to, and I wonder if, in this busy world of bussing kids to soccer, dance, and band practice, if we ever take the time to read to our kids. Hmmm...just a thought.
Anyway, KidsInC is off for 2 weeks, so in December we'll make Advent calendars and trim the tree. We'll also make the gifts for the teachers as I said, although I think that I'm going to switch from cookie fixings to making hot chocolate mix to allow for more time.
The Santa movie went...well, it went. It was just one of the organizers and me. I think that with all the hubub and changing the date, it just went kaplooey. Oh well. In other news, the Thanksgiving Feast for the Day School was precious, and consequently, I learned about a new cookie craft: a shortbread cookie (keebler) turned chocolate side up, a marshmallow coated in chocolate and stuck to the cookie and then yellow icing piped to look like a buckle. It makes a pilgrim's hat. Plus it was yummy.
Now I've got a 1/2 week and have a little downtime. We're decorating for Xmas this week and wrapping up the Thanksgiving unit.
Next week, though, starts the Advent rush. Here we go...
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
On the Evils of Santa and PG movies
Ok folks, here's another time when you get to hear Kim (that's me) say: "COME ON!!! GET A LIFE!"
Once a month we have a Church Family Play Date, an intergenerational fellowship event. I've tried to keep it pretty low key so that our department has at least one event that doesn't involve months of planning. So far we've gone bowling and have carved pumpkins together (some controversy there). The event for November is a movie--seems simple enough, but it has been the toughest thing we've planned yet.
Play Date is usually on the first Friday of the month, but that was my bday weekend, and others were out of town, so we changed it to the following Friday; however, I made the decision to change it to that Friday on the cell phone AT MY BIRTHDAY DINNER with no calendar in front of me and thus forgot that it was on the same day as a smaller event at the church. This prompted hurt feelings that needed to be smoothed over.
So we had to change it again to this weekend, which means that the original movie that we wanted to see is not playing anymore. Now, I figure that there are a lot of great movies out now (and keep in mind that this is intergenerational), but parents were complaining about my pick of PG movies, so we picked the only G movie around: Santa Clause 3.
Now I didn't like SC 1 and certainly didn't see 2, mainly because that sort of Tim the Toolman humor just doesn't appeal to me, but it's a harmless movie, it's holiday related, and it's rated G is my thinking. OH THE BACKLASH! It's Santa! Santa is evil. They start going after Santa like illiterate villagers after Frankenstein's monster. So I say, Ok, there are the PG movies I offered: Flicka, Flushed Away, Open Season, blah blah blah... The response: "Oh no, I can't have my child watch a PG movie! That's worse than Santa."
K, now here's my take on this. Um...PG means what? Parental Guidance, which means...gasp...you are supposed to watch the movie with your child and hopefully have a dialogue with them about anything you find objectionable. Point 2, again why is Santa evil, and why are we teaching kids that Santa is evil??? Good lord, if they tell their friends (who love Santa) that Santa's evil, can you imagine what that would be like?
You know what I hate about Santa? Nothing, but I hate the devisiveness his image brings about--from Christians! More and more I feel that Christians are turning into this frightening caricature from a Bradbury novel, damning imagination and promoting the Thought Police. It's really starting to freak me out. What was supposed to be a calm, fun activity, has turned into a nightmare.
Ok, ok, I'm done. Tonight is KidsInC, which is my favorite part of the week (I count the days until Wednesday), so I'll have a wonderful report to post about after tonight.
But for now...HUMBUG!
Once a month we have a Church Family Play Date, an intergenerational fellowship event. I've tried to keep it pretty low key so that our department has at least one event that doesn't involve months of planning. So far we've gone bowling and have carved pumpkins together (some controversy there). The event for November is a movie--seems simple enough, but it has been the toughest thing we've planned yet.
Play Date is usually on the first Friday of the month, but that was my bday weekend, and others were out of town, so we changed it to the following Friday; however, I made the decision to change it to that Friday on the cell phone AT MY BIRTHDAY DINNER with no calendar in front of me and thus forgot that it was on the same day as a smaller event at the church. This prompted hurt feelings that needed to be smoothed over.
So we had to change it again to this weekend, which means that the original movie that we wanted to see is not playing anymore. Now, I figure that there are a lot of great movies out now (and keep in mind that this is intergenerational), but parents were complaining about my pick of PG movies, so we picked the only G movie around: Santa Clause 3.
Now I didn't like SC 1 and certainly didn't see 2, mainly because that sort of Tim the Toolman humor just doesn't appeal to me, but it's a harmless movie, it's holiday related, and it's rated G is my thinking. OH THE BACKLASH! It's Santa! Santa is evil. They start going after Santa like illiterate villagers after Frankenstein's monster. So I say, Ok, there are the PG movies I offered: Flicka, Flushed Away, Open Season, blah blah blah... The response: "Oh no, I can't have my child watch a PG movie! That's worse than Santa."
K, now here's my take on this. Um...PG means what? Parental Guidance, which means...gasp...you are supposed to watch the movie with your child and hopefully have a dialogue with them about anything you find objectionable. Point 2, again why is Santa evil, and why are we teaching kids that Santa is evil??? Good lord, if they tell their friends (who love Santa) that Santa's evil, can you imagine what that would be like?
You know what I hate about Santa? Nothing, but I hate the devisiveness his image brings about--from Christians! More and more I feel that Christians are turning into this frightening caricature from a Bradbury novel, damning imagination and promoting the Thought Police. It's really starting to freak me out. What was supposed to be a calm, fun activity, has turned into a nightmare.
Ok, ok, I'm done. Tonight is KidsInC, which is my favorite part of the week (I count the days until Wednesday), so I'll have a wonderful report to post about after tonight.
But for now...HUMBUG!
Thursday, November 09, 2006
I'm back
Wow. I haven't posted in awhile, so I guess I should catch up on things.
Fear Not Festival went really well. We actually had enough time to let the parents rotate through the storytelling stations, and that was a big hit. Parents were glad to have experienced exactly what their kids experienced, and it made for great family conversation that evening--exactly what you want out of a church festival.
Halloween night, I was able to be home passing out candy to the kids. The numbers were low this year on trick or treating. I think they were all out at YMCA festivals and such. It kind of makes me sad, but in this crazy world, I can see why parents would want to take their kids somewhere safe. Still, what a sad tradition to lose.
After Halloween was my birthday. I took some much needed vacation time and went to Austin to meet up with some friends for a 5 day excursion. I wish I could say I rested, but when you haven't seen your friends in 2 years, not much sleep is going to happen! I came back to find that some little birthday fairies had decorated my office with signs, streamers, and much much much confetti. Brought such a smile to my face that when I was sitting in a very serious staff meeting, the interim pastor called me out for smiling: "Well, it looks like you are sitting over there with a post birthday smile. Why don't you tell us what you think about this serious issue we are discussing." It was like I was back in school again, and I just smiled and said, "Yep, looks like we've got a tough situation on our hands," and went back to my smiling. He wasn't happy.
Now, it's back to the grind again, planning for advent. I would've planned advent months ago, but for some reason, it hasn't been a high priority at the church. In fact, we still haven't had a full meeting about what we're doing.
This reminds me, does anyone have a cool preteen activity for advent? The church family is making wreaths together and having a "What is advent" night. In SS we've got thousands of things going on for advent, including a birthday party for Jesus where we're collecting diapers and formula, etc, for a local pregnancy center. The kids are also doing a Tree of Lights, where they can dedicate a light on a tree in honor or memory of someone. Each color costs a certain amount (1 penny, 1 nickel, 1 dime, 1 quarter and then an angel ornament is a dollar). The money goes to a charity that they vote upon.
But for the KidsInC program, I'm trying to think of something cool to do. We're having a tree trimming party and are making welcome mugs with hot chocolate and candy for visitors during the Christmas season at church. We're also making cookie jars for teachers and shepherds in SS--the cookie mix is layered in the mason jar so that the recipient only has to add eggs and oil.
But I want them to make a nativity scene for their own rooms or an advent calendar of their own--something that is theirs and connects them personally to Christ's birth. Any ideas?
Fear Not Festival went really well. We actually had enough time to let the parents rotate through the storytelling stations, and that was a big hit. Parents were glad to have experienced exactly what their kids experienced, and it made for great family conversation that evening--exactly what you want out of a church festival.
Halloween night, I was able to be home passing out candy to the kids. The numbers were low this year on trick or treating. I think they were all out at YMCA festivals and such. It kind of makes me sad, but in this crazy world, I can see why parents would want to take their kids somewhere safe. Still, what a sad tradition to lose.
After Halloween was my birthday. I took some much needed vacation time and went to Austin to meet up with some friends for a 5 day excursion. I wish I could say I rested, but when you haven't seen your friends in 2 years, not much sleep is going to happen! I came back to find that some little birthday fairies had decorated my office with signs, streamers, and much much much confetti. Brought such a smile to my face that when I was sitting in a very serious staff meeting, the interim pastor called me out for smiling: "Well, it looks like you are sitting over there with a post birthday smile. Why don't you tell us what you think about this serious issue we are discussing." It was like I was back in school again, and I just smiled and said, "Yep, looks like we've got a tough situation on our hands," and went back to my smiling. He wasn't happy.
Now, it's back to the grind again, planning for advent. I would've planned advent months ago, but for some reason, it hasn't been a high priority at the church. In fact, we still haven't had a full meeting about what we're doing.
This reminds me, does anyone have a cool preteen activity for advent? The church family is making wreaths together and having a "What is advent" night. In SS we've got thousands of things going on for advent, including a birthday party for Jesus where we're collecting diapers and formula, etc, for a local pregnancy center. The kids are also doing a Tree of Lights, where they can dedicate a light on a tree in honor or memory of someone. Each color costs a certain amount (1 penny, 1 nickel, 1 dime, 1 quarter and then an angel ornament is a dollar). The money goes to a charity that they vote upon.
But for the KidsInC program, I'm trying to think of something cool to do. We're having a tree trimming party and are making welcome mugs with hot chocolate and candy for visitors during the Christmas season at church. We're also making cookie jars for teachers and shepherds in SS--the cookie mix is layered in the mason jar so that the recipient only has to add eggs and oil.
But I want them to make a nativity scene for their own rooms or an advent calendar of their own--something that is theirs and connects them personally to Christ's birth. Any ideas?
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