The simple answer that changed me forever

A week ago I was working on a presentation titled, “Best Practices on How we Connect Church and Home.”  Sounds really exciting, I know.    I started this task like I do so many others with a simple outline:

Then I began some research to help back up what I though would be helpful to others.

I started putting together my 10 minute talk.  I had the typical research in it; some ideas about how social media can help.  I had slides full of wonderful typical information.

Then I started rehearsing.  My talk was fine.   It was totally boring.  I did not want to listen to myself.  I was frustrated, is there really a best practice?  Is there something that will help every church no matter how large or small?  Why is this so BORING?!?!?!  

Then an image of a child appeared in my mind.  A child. 

That is the key, that is the answer.  No matter what curriculum you are using, what size your church is, if you are connecting with the children of the church in ways that makes them so excited about God, about sharing, about praying, about church.  The children will wake up their parents.  The children will bring friends.  

The children…….The children……….  The children. 

This is the start to my journey of looking at a simple answer in a deeper way.

Perspective:  Sometimes we make things much more difficult that they are.  Today look for the simple answers.  

Let’s Tell the Easter Story

Our Christian Faith is one that reminds us we need to spread the good news!  Yet when it comes to Easter and children we get very nervous.  The Easter story has some pretty sad and scary stuff in it!  How do we share it with our kids in a way that will help their faith life grow?

First, you know your kids best, so always start with your intuition. 

Second, remember they see and hear about scary stories all the time on the news, with friends, and don’t forget, every Disney story has a scene or two that make us question why we brought our kids to this movie in the first place.  (Or is that just me? I might get scared right along with them!)

Third, this is our story.  Don’t be silent about it! 

How do you tell this story? The Bible is always a good starting point:

Mark 14: The Last Supper, Jesus Prays in Gethsemane,Jesus is Betrayed and Arrested: 

Mark 15: Jesus is Crucified and the Death and Burial of Jesus

Mark 16: The Resurrection

 

Early Childhood-Preschoolers:  If talking about death and killing is a bit much for your children, frame the Easter story that people wanted to take away our love (Jesus).  The people did succeed in taking the love and Jesus died. (Pause) But, this is NOT the end of the story.  Jesus came back from death to save us all.  Some good books to read together:  

What is Easter? by Michelle Medlock Adams

The Easter Story, by Tracy Harrast

The Parable of the Lily by Liz Curtis Higgs

 

 

Early Elementary:  This is when you can add some details of how people were so mean to Jesus.  We have to remember that our kids deal with people every day, and they see kindness and they seen people being unkind.  This story reminds us what can happen when a group is VERY unkind.

Late Elementary:  It is my honest opinion that you need to tell the full story.  This is an age where they are in a questioning phase of faith development and this story is VITAL to whom we are as Christians.  

Here are some resources that I use for Easter:

• United Methodist Discipleship Info- Easter with your Family

• ResurrectionEggs with Booklet and Stickers -Tells Full Story of Easter- available on Amazon

• Resurrection Rolls family baking activity.

• Blogs with good articles about Easter and Family: 

Leanne Hadley: http://www.leanne-hadley.com/#!blog/c1lkj

UMC Ministry with Children: http://ministrywithchildren.com/category/liturgical-year/

Please reach out to me this week if you have any questions about how to walk Holy Week as a family.  We have created a Holy Week Coloring Book to help you tell the story.  I also invite you to all of our Holy Week services and activities (listed below).  The pot lunch dinner is an addition to our Maundy Thursday celebration I am excited about.   I would love to see your family telling our Christian story through worship this Holy Week. 

CLICK HERE to visit St. Andrew Holy Week and Easter Services: 

2016- Planning 101

I love color coding events in my life. Excel spreadsheets make me happy. My different calendars on my iPhone in different colors make me smile.  Why?  I don’t know.  I think it might be the perspective of order in my life.  I do understand that just because I have everything all nice and neat on paper it does not mean that life will turn out perfectly timed in reality.  But, for a moment when I look at my computer screen with all its color coding life is perfectly ordered. 

We all have a lot to balance as a church family.  I get it.  We have so many things on our calendars how can you make sure it all gets done?  This time of the year with holidays, parties, and events every other week, the calendar can be crushing.

As a family we gather together and take a look at what is most important on the calendar.  What have we committed to be at? What can be missed? What is going to transform our lives?  Then I notice that church is not on our calendar.  Somehow in all my color coding Sunday morning small groups and church services did not receive a color on the calendar.  I have my Sunday morning staff meetings marked and I have the scheduled baptisms noted, but church is not on the family calendar.  This really bothered me when I discovered it.  Then I realized why.  It does not need to be on the calendar.  It is a given.  

As a mother I want a lot for my boys and our family.  I want them to be happy. I want them to play sports and find some success in that. I want them to enjoy band and learn the music. Those events are things that we schedule and plan for.  My greatest goal for our boys is to have joy in their life.  True joy…  the type of joy that can only come from the love of having Jesus Christ at the center of their lives.  So, why is prayer and Sunday morning small groups and worship not on our calendar?  Well, I realized that not being in church is not an option; it is a part of who our family is.  Church is a stable of who we are.  The church family supports us in all that we do.  I could not imagine going through life without a church family to support our marriage, our parenting, and our children.  So, I am thinking that I might just create a new color calendar that is all things church.  Church is what is going to form my children into the men I desire them to be.  Church is what is going to support me when my family needs it the most.  Church is not a building, church is the people.  

So, in an effort to help you balance your family scheduling here is the 2016 St. Andrew Children’s Calendar.  Sit down and pencil us in…no use pen!  Make church a priority, because of all the things we as parents want our children to know as they grow up, is the story of God, and realize they are a part of His amazing story. 

One body many members

Our church family always humbles me when we come together to create something awesome… such as our Fall Festival every year.

• More than 1,500 enthusiastic people attended the festival. 
• We raised $1,100 for Missions and for the Children’s Ministry. 
• Our generous participants donated 115 bags of Thanksgiving food.
• We served over 110 lbs. of chili and cooked about 650 hot dogs.

Why do we do all this?  

This is why.  As I looked out over the crowd I realized this was not a St. Andrew exclusive event.  This was a time where the community looks to the church to provide some good ol’ family fun.  And we did just that.

It’s my prayer that some families used this event to see what this thing called “church” is all about.  That these families felt the excitement of being on the church campus and thought, “This place is fun.  I could see myself as a part of this.” 

We don’t do a Fall Festival just to be fun and have an event.  We create this event to open our doors to all of our neighbors.

So, thank you to all who made it a wonderful success:

• The CWP room parents and church Small Groups who made the trunk-or-treat AMAZING!
• Various Small Groups within the church who worked the booths with joy and offered smiles to each family.
• David Keene and his Small Group who made the Chili Dinner something to talk about.
• The Confirmation Class youth who worked diligently during the festival, and most importantly helped get it cleaned up!
• The Children’s Ministry Council and team who helped set up the festival throughout the day on Sunday.
• Our church family who offered prayers leading up to the event proved invaluable for us.  We couldn’t have received that great weather without prayers.

Thank you all.  You showed what a church can do when we come together.  It reminds me of the passage in 1 Corinthians 12:

One Body with Many Members

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

***Check out what the Dallas Morning News had to say about our festival.