Sloppypalooza

Wow! We had 47 kids on Wednesday night (from 33 the week before). This is amazing since many of our CLPC kids go to camp during the summer, so our numbers are significantly down. About half of the kids present were neighborhood kids who saw us having fun. We're planning for 50 tomorrow!

I live for Wednesdays!

Grief for Children

Hey churches: do any of you do ongoing or sporadic grief counseling for children? We're thinking of setting something up, and we wanted to look at some ways churches are already ministering to children in this way.

Speaking of which, in January of last year, I went to a wonderful conference about children and grief. Just FYI.

Super Sloppy Summers

Pull out those ratty t-shirts because the kids (well, and adult helpers) are getting slimed again. We’ve got a whole group of incoming 3rd graders who can’t wait to participate. Truly, they’ve been asking me about it since September.

Wikiworld

Hang on to the lap bar and strap yourself in because Children’s Worship has an amusement park theme this summer. The curriculum focuses on choices we make as Christians and the kids are going to have a blast. We’re combining all ages again this summer and will meet in room C112-113 for all services. If you don’t know which room that is, look for the twinkling lights and roller coaster murals. The CW schedule will remain the same with the kids staying in the service on the first Sunday.

CLPC Zoo

We’re bringing out the animals again in SS this summer to teach aspects of Christian character development. Once again, this curriculum will only be used for elementary kids, but this year, we're moving the Kindergarteners upstairs!

Hangin' Out

One of the things that keeps coming up in CFM Meetings is about wanting more time to just hang out together as a church. With 3 services and busy schedules, it seems that people just aren’t connecting the way they want to. Families, too, are hard pressed to find activities that allow them to spend time together AND with other members of the congregation. Enter: Hangin’ Out. Two times a month, we’ll head out to the beach or the movies or wherever we have planned to just chill with CLPC. These outings will be low-key and simple, virtually running themselves and requiring little volunteer power. Plus, it will be a great chance to invite friends and neighbors to just hang out with us.

Summer of Change

This summer we're trying something a little different.

The CFM team has really looked hard at VBS these past few months and at what we wanted to get out of it. What we found is that while we’ve got great goals in mind for VBS, our current program is not achieving them. From the outside, VBS is polished and pretty, but the reality is that we’re exhausting our resources. It takes 3 people other than the DCFM to spearhead VBS, and all 3 of those people resigned last year due to burnout. Additionally, every time CFM committee members approach people to volunteer for Sunday mornings or for events, we hear the same excuse repeatedly: “I did my time at VBS.” It’s a one stop shot for people, and that’s not what VBS is meant to be.

One of the things we looked at in our meetings was that VBS should be an outreach, but in reality, we haven’t gotten ANY new people from VBS. We cap our numbers at 200, and most of those kids are already CLPC members or have churches of their own. Every January, the Clear Lake DCFMs call each other to schedule out the summer, so that our VBS weeks don’t coincide. What happens, then, is that kids travel from VBS to VBS, and sadly, we become babysitting services.

So what are our goals, then, and how are we meeting them this summer?
· We want to reach out to friends and neighbors (Hangin’ Out will reach out to all ages, not just kids, and Super Sloppy Summers brings in new kids who DO return in the fall).
· We want to have multi-generational events (Hangin’ Out will focus on babies through older adults).
· We want more family involvement (Many dads and working parents who have heard about Hangin’ Out have approached me about how excited they are for the family time it will provide).
· We want our kids to be spiritually nurtured (all of our programs are Biblically strong).
· We want our kids to have a smoother transition into youth group (Summer Safari)
· We want more mission activities for kids (Summer Safari and CLPC zoo).
· We want our kids to have good music (Passport to Adventure and Summer Safari will have great music, and we hope to have CDs for kids to take home).
· We want Tshirts (almost all the programs will have tshirts, I promise)
· We want to give our burned out volunteers a chance to recharge (simplify) and other volunteers a chance to do something new for a summer, so that we can enter Fall with a full team.
· We want to bring different program areas together to function as a church body and not in silos (Summer Safari and Hangin’ Out both meet this goal)

There’s our plan, and we will re-evaluate at the end of the summer to see if we meet our goals. I’m excited about collaborating with other ministry areas and about the needs that will be met within and without. More posts to come about what all the hype is about!

Yeah, I'm a slacker

...blogwise, anyway.

Thanks to Emerging Kids for still reading. You've prompted me to write a post today. :-)

Well, lots is going on here at CLPC. Sunday mornings are trucking along as always. We added a new prayer tent to our children's worship room. The kids are psyched about it, and it's been well received by adults who use the room for prayer, as well. Basically, it's just fabric clipped to the ceiling with binder clips, but inside the tent is a pillow, a long scarflike piece of material and 2 Glade flickering un-candles. I actually don't know the name of them, but they are an air freshener designed to look like a candle. I just took out the air freshener, and voila, we've got candles that won't break fire codes.

For Palm Sunday, we rolled out the red carpet for Jesus (literally a long piece of red butcher paper) and the kids wrote out what they would give Jesus if he came walking/riding into CLPC. My favorite response was a map of Houston, but other touching responses were a place to stay, clean clothes, and fireworks.

KidsInC has been really hitting the books hard this year, so we took March off to just have fun. We had a rodeo party (a big thing in Texas), an ice cream seder, and are prepping for a Spring Fling which translates to a pool party next week. KidsInCers are also planning a party for the preschoolers on March 30. They'll wear their pjs to church and play games, etc. The tweeners are having so much fun planning it, and the preschool SS classes can't wait to wear their pjs to church! Actually, I think the teachers are the most excited about wearing their pjs, surprisingly.

The other buzz around here is that we've decided to do some things in place of a weeklong VBS this year. You all remember my previous posts about VBS, I'm sure, but I actually sat down with my team, and we all decided that this new format would meet our goals much better. I'll post about it as soon as I get the word out to the congregation. It's pretty hush hush right now (aside from the circulating rumors). We're meeting next week to finalize things, and I'm very excited.

More soon.

Propaganda or promise?

I saw this postcard entry on Post Secret. It reminded me to examine my own ministry for empty propaganda. I generally try to avoid Cheeseville, but this postcard made me think about how much propaganda I see in kids' ministry materials/supplies and how it creeps into our classrooms innocuously.

Thoughts?

Baptism brainstorming

We're finishing up a rotation about Jesus' baptism this week, and on the last Sunday of the month, I try to have a special reflection lesson for all the elementary kids together. I had wanted to do an intergenerational baptism lesson, but our education system here is divided. Adult Ed has different elders and committee members, so they have their own thing going on that weekend.

Anyone have any ideas for refecting upon baptism itself or Jesus' baptism? Keep in mind that the kids have talked about symbolism and have done some tactile lessons with water during the rotation lessons. One of our pastors is willing to come talk to the kids, and we're hoping to view baptism from a different perspective. Another thing to keep in mind is that while we are a Presbyterian church and baptize babies, there is a strong Baptist undercurrent here in the South, so many of the families have chosen to wait until their kids feel ready to be baptized. Therefore, we want to be cognizant and respectful of that decision.

So any ideas?

Table talk

For almost a year now, our kids have had more leadership opportunities in worship. In fact, the 4pm Christmas Eve service was solely children led--no pageants, no showmanship, just worship. Because we teach about worship in Children's Worship, the kids have become not only comfortable leading worship but enthusiastic about helping lead it(The first Sunday of the month, kids help lead in the main worship service).

Our pastors have been strong supporters of this new vision for children in worship, giving them instruction, encouragement, and strong leadership roles. One such role was to say the prayer before and after communiion. The child leading (usually a 4th or 5th grader) stands directly next to the pastor, and while he/she doesn't actually pass out or even touch the elements, he/she is a part of the ritual. We've discussed communion at length, and these kids understand what and whom they are praying for.

Like I said, we've been doing this for a year now, and we've received much positive feedback from the congregants and parents; however, this past week, we received an email from an elder expressing her concern for the kids standing at the table. She said that it was "distasteful" for an unconfirmed child to be speaking at the table. Keep in mind that the pastor was presiding over the sacrament; the child's role was to say the prayer. Elders passed out the elements.

So what do you think? Where do we draw the line at what is ok and not ok for kids to do in worship? Is there a line? Is the line distinctly different between kids and adults? Who draws that line?

Emerging from silence

I've been away from blogging for awhile, not necessarily because of writer's block, but more because the web is an intimidating thing. Everything that I've wanted to write about has been silenced by the fact that blogging lacks anonymity. In a previous post, I asked the question: Do you feel that you can be completely honest on your blog, or do you find yourself holding back? I got a lot of feedback on that one, and truthfully, it scared me a little.

I'm not really good at holding back. I'm one of those "out there" free spirited types, who finds herself struggling with ministry. It's not ministry as a whole that I struggle with. I grew up as the kid of children's ministers, so I've been involved since birth. It's moreso that I struggle with how my personality fits in with "The Church." I'm direct, honest, a feminist, and I don't have any problem questioning things. Plus, I'm a mama lion when it comes to the kids I serve, so I'll confront anyone who treats them as unvalued. In some way, I'm always stirring up controversy, and while I'm well loved at the church, I also find myself well challenged. That said, I spend a significant amount of time listening for guidance from the Holy Spirit and collaborating with pastors, so the decisions I make are not random. Still they're often challenged.

I have a lot of friends who consider themselves to be Atheist, though many of them grew up in the church. They are consistently surprised that I am a Christian, stating that I embody the opposite of what Christianity preaches. To them, Christians are judgmental, fake, pushy, closed minded bullies who, I suspect, have hurt them deeply. It saddens me to have to defend my faith in this way, to defend myself and my fellow believers. I find myself saying, "No, we aren't all like that. No, really, give us a chance," but I found that these disclaimers only made things worse. Now I just listen. I listen and reflect. Are we this way? Am I this way? Who have I hurt? Am I teaching the kids to be this way, unknowingly? Do I speak Christianese, forming an exclsive little club?

And then I go to blog and find that I only want to post the good things for fear of appearing negative or fearing what people might think. And so I just quit. I silenced myself, my voice. But doesn't this just perpetuate that horrible view of Christianity? That we are fake? If I never post about the negatives, the struggles, the challenges, doubts and pains of ministry, am I being real? And more importantly, am I missing out on hearing other real voices out there? Sadly, I'm more real with my Atheist friends than I am with the Christian ones because I, too, feel I'll be judged.

One person made an excellent comment to my original question. He/she said find a real life person to share these things with. But to me, my felllow bloggers are real life people, and connecting with them online is the same to me. And truthfully, I don't think that people I talk to in person are any more real with me than they would be online. There's still a holding back pattern.

Aren't we called to be real? Yes, we are accountable for what we say online, but aren't we accountable also for what we say aloud or hold in our hearts? Ultimately, we're accountable for all to God, the one who knows us for who we really are and loves us anyway. So why can't we share that humility, that imperfection, the real person saved only through grace with everyone?

The real question is: Will I do that? I'm still struggling with it. For now, at least I broke my silence.

Fear Not Festival

Ok, I've been a terrible blogger, but a lot has happened since August. We officially kicked off the new children's worship format, so kids are learning all about what worship is and are having the kids put together their own worship service using the main worship services (and sermon themes) as a guideline. Plus, the first Sunday of the month, the kids are in the main service and are helping lead it. They were timid at first but are now scrambling to sign up for spots.

Also the KidsInCers (preteens) have been learning about spiritual gifts and have been putting their gifts into practice throughout the church. Most recently, we learned about serving, and we trick or treated for canned goods for the local food pantry. That was a blast.

Fifth graders have been busy helping teach Sunday School once a month to the little kids. And they served lemonade to the adults after SS.

Personally, I have now officially run a marathon and am thinking about training for another one.

And that brings me to the title of my post--the Fear Not Festival. We're having a carnival type of atmosphere downstairs with crafts and games, etc, but upstairs is the main attraction. Each room upstairs is a different interactive Bible story. Kids will sit in a huge boat as it rocks and shakes with thunder and lightning in the background and then will watch the sunrise as the disciple tells them about how Jesus calmed the storm. Kids will crawl into a giant pit while they hear about Joseph being abandoned by his brothers. They will also hear the story of the resurrection firsthand from Mary in our version of a cemetery and will wind through the wheat fields to hear about Ruth's journey into a new land.

We're very excited, and I will post pictures soon.

Ach! Sorry!

I've been a terrible blogger recently, but life has actually kept me very busy. I'm in the process of moving, training for a marathon, helping my grandma transition into assisted living, attending reunions with friends, and finally spending a week on planning leave.

The good news, though, is that I have a good vision for the CLPC kids this fall. As I mentioned in a previous post, the theme of our Back to School Weekend is CLPC's Amazing Race (Hebrews 12). For the first time, we've all sort of embraced that theme in our different areas, and I can finally see silos start to come down as we work toward a common goal together. Praise God!

It's been pretty easy for me to grasp this theme since I'm training for a race myself (a coincidence, actually). And as I've learned in my training, I need to focus as much on the miles I've run already as I do on the ones ahead. The same thing goes in ministry this fall. I sent a letter out to volunteers reminding them of the great strides we made at CLPC this last year together, and just writing the letter made me excited about what's to come.

I've got to pace myself, though, as I have a tendency to rush toward the future in everything I do (including running 26.2 miles). And God has really been showing me that I've still got to slow down and focus on training this semester--training of volunteers, parents and kids.

So here's the plan in a nutshell:

• Like the adults, our preteen group will be doing a unit on Spiritual Gifts this fall. I've been writing the curriculum all week, and I'm soooo ready to implement it. The best part is that once the kids sort of find the gifts they enjoy and are comfortable with (I like this way of looking at giftings rather than labeling kids and putting them into a box), we're going to give them an opportunity to use them. I plan to pull out kids from Sunday School classes occasionally and help them learn to PLAN what we're doing in CM. For example, I'll pull out the hospitality/encouragement group and work with them on how to make kids feel loved and welcomed in SS and worship. They'll help come up with ideas and then carry them out with help from adults who have the same giftings.
  
• I've scheduled 3 different types of trainings for volunteers: email, face to face, and teacher talks (get together at a kid friendly restaurant and, with a guided table topic, discuss ways to help each other in ministry).
  
• I've also scheduled a parent appreciation Sunday where the kids will put together some sort of video and there will be refreshments, etc. I'm sneaky, though, and I plan to use this event to encourage parents to sign up to volunteer.
• Coupling with adult ed to have some panel discussions on ADHD, Asperger's, etc. We have several child psychologists in the congregation and families whose lives are touched with these learning differences, and it's time we tap into those resources.
• I've divided my team up into 2 groups: CFM discipleship and CFM special events, in order to utilize their gifts more effectively.

So there it is on paper and in cyberspace, and I'm praying it works in reality. It needs to happen though, so now is as good a time as any.

Ok back to my planning (and another cup of coffee).

BTSW 2007

I can't believe it's almost Fall and time for planning the big Back to School Weekend. Last year, we had a safari theme, but this year, it's the Amazing Race type of thing, and we are giving ministry areas different countries. BTSW is an all church event, kind of like a volunteer fair/outreach event. Each ministry sets up a booth with a game or something and uses that opportunity to give people the chance to know more about what we have to offer and/or to sign up to volunteer. During the worship services, we spend time praying for teachers/administrators/cm teachers and professionals/homeschoolers/students. It's a pretty big deal. Here's my CFM team blog post about it. We do our meetings virtually for the most part because of crazy schedules. To my readers from around the world--please let me know of any ideas you have to make your country's representation more authentic. Our area is only doing 4, but most of the major countries of the world will be assigned (and some smaller ones, as well). Keep in mind that it's for all ages (I just post about elementary and under) and that some of the ministry areas do something more solemn like a prayer wall or a missions project.

For some reason, blogger won't let me put a title on this one. This is why I need to switch to wordpress. Sigh, perhaps by fall. I'm such a slacker.

Anyway, I'll make my own title: SUPER SLOPPY SUMMERS REVEALED

I guess I never really explained SSS to anyone, so here goes. SSS was the spawn of a brainstorming session between a friend (youth director at a previous church) and me. I was the CE director, and we were trying to come up with a way for the kids to have fun and a way to connect the jr highers with the preteens (3rd-5th grade). I already had KidsInC going at that church (same preteen group you read about on this blog, only different church), and we had a big sib/little sib program going. The jr highers would pick a tweener, send them secret pal type notes, and then there was a big reveal at a campout type of retreat. The big sibs then would take the role of mentoring the little sibs, teaching them all about youth group and then finally mentoring them as the 5th graders graduated into 6th grade. This way, the kids already had a friend in the group, and the transition was smoother.

Well, we were planning the campout, and as campouts do, things got sloppy in our planning (sloppy in a good way), and then we thought, what if we did an entire summer of this? So we put our heads together, I came up with the name (I think) and then we went crazy planning, and we invited jr highers in for their input bc everyone knows that jr highers love to get little kids messy. The first SSS had a theme: Peer Pressure, and we let the jr highers take the role of counselors.

Counselors would have colored bandanas, and the kids would be placed in color groups. Each group did an ice breaker to start and also had to make up a cheer for their team, and then they rotated from mess to mess, with each mess reinforcing the theme for that day. We even had a movie station outside for clips to emphasize the theme (yes, we had a license).

SSS day came, and we had TONS of kids. I can't emphasize the amount of kids well--TONS! Think megachurch kids on a little church budget. We had strategically set it outside in view from the street so that neighboring kids would come, and they did. It became way too much for our little church to handle with only 2 staff and a sprinkling of youth volunteers and with the fact that I left shortly thereafter, so we didn't do a second one, but the memory lingered, and I think that after I left the current CE director did a smaller version of it.

Older and wiser, I've tweaked this one, and I also work at a much larger church with more volunteers. Sadly, the youth are very busy with their own activities and a bit removed, so I haven't gotten to get the involvement that I wanted. It's such an integral part of it. So what I did this summer was make the 5th graders (upcoming 6th graders) counselors with an adult leader, and that has worked pretty well.

At CLPC, we have SSS every Wednesday night, at the same time as KidsInC. Really, it IS KidsinC; we just change the name for summer. It's 1 1/2 hours divided as such: pizza time and table topics, small group icebreaker, small group challenge (groups compete against each other), large group activity (groups disband for a bit) and then small group discussion time and snack(leaders are given discussion questions based upon the theme) and finally hose down--their favorite.

I looked at Summer Camp curriculum by Standard Publishing for ideas. They didn't have this curriculum when we did SSS a few years ago, and I'm not used to following any curriculum, so I just use it as a base and springboard off. Some of the themes are good (some lacking), and if you need everything spelled out for you, it's a great resource. An incredibly detailed writer, she leaves nothing to the imagination, which is preferable for some people, especially if you've never done anything like this before. I prefer to pick and choose a few activities, tweak them to make them messier or to make a more solid connection to the theme or change the theme all together. Then I add some activities from other books, make them messier, and add some others from my head or pick the brains of the kids. Really, any CM "game" book works if you just add some whipped cream to the supply list or chocolate pudding. Take Duck Duck Splash from my last post--a tweak on an age old game. Let your imagination run wild.

The key is to make sure you have volunteers who don't mind getting kids dirty. I had a couple of volunteer moms who didn't want to put chocolate syrup on the kids so they just drizzled a few drops. This was because they pitied the poor parents who had to wash the clothes (and because they felt girls shouldn't get dirty--sigh, when will this antiquated thinking die?). I tell parents to dress the kids for a mess, and they actually sign medical release forms that have a little note at the bottom about understanding that clothes will get very dirty. So I just walked over, opened up the vat of syrup and poured it on kids with a soundtrack of mass giggles in the background. You also have the option of "no mess kids," outlined in Summer Camp. They wear stickers that say don't get me messed up and shower caps on their heads. I have never had a kid need one.

Another key: goggles. Cheap eye safety. And garbage bags with holes cut out of the top make great ponchos for sending kids home. Parents love them. Just splurge on decent sacks. I bought some from the dollar store, and they were all gathered at the bottom so that when I cut a hole in the top, it made 4 holes. It looked like Charlie Brown's ghost costume from Great Pumpkin.

I think that's about it.

SSS Summer Picnic

Tonight's Super Sloppy Summers was picnic themed. We ate outside and then had a whipped cream pie eating contest where you had to find the cherry sour in a pie tin of whipped cream without using eyes or hands. We also played blanket volleyball with water balloons, which actually ended up being a very nice lesson in unity and cooperation because it was much more difficult than I thought it would be. We covered the parking lot in sidewalk chalk paint [I love the stuff]. And we played duck duck splash, which is like duck duck goose but with a splash ball--oh, and the mush pot was actually a giant rubbermaid container filled with instant mashed potatoes. That was awesome, and I am sure that you can guess what happened after we were done--mashed potato fight! I just found mashed potatoes near my armpit, actually.

Small group time involved discussing the feeding of the 5,000 and also what Jesus meant by the term bread of life.

So much fun, and parents are telling me that the kids countdown the days until the next one. That's cool to me.

postsecret

I am a big fan of this site and am thinking of adapting it for use in children's ministry. I pray for each and every secret.

And in keeping with the theme of secrets and confessions, I have to admit that I would like to write on this blog a few more of my frustrations with ministry and even seek advice on what to do about situations at work, but I don't due to a fear of someone at work reading it or any other retribution of writing about them. I am a little more candid than most of my friends (I actually admitted that I hated VBS, and man, the negative feedback I got from that offline--seems you just can't be honest anymore, since being 'negative' is such a sin ). Still, there are things that come up that I just don't write about. Think, though, of the support and help we could give each other as ministry professionals if we could just be totally honest on a blog.

Am I the only one who holds back?

Random Shout Out

I just noticed that I have a lot of knitters who read my blog. Knitters, you have my utmost respect for the patience and artistry that comes with your talent. I sometimes just look at the pictures of the things you make, and it makes me smile.

Note to Self

When having a fundraising hot dog dinner, remember to put a gigantic sign out front that reminds people to only get 2 hot dogs apiece to start. Otherwise, people think it is an all you can eat buffet and will pile 6 hotdogs on their plates.

And another weird question...if you buy an equal number of hot dogs and an equal number of buns (and you know this because you are meticulous about such things), how do you run out of buns and still have hot dogs? Do people just eat buns plain? Are they carb loading or on some anti atkins kick? Is there a bun gremlin just like the sock gremlins? Does it go into another dimension? I wonder these things.