Tag Archives: Children

Five Interactive Advent Living Rooms for Families @ Home

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What shall we do while we wait?

Advent is all about preparing for the coming of Jesus; preparing by doing things that help us get ready, and preparing in ways that are great fun! There are so many amazing stories to hear and fun things to do over these four special weeks.

I want to share with you a exciting collection of Advent activities you and your church can easily connect with over this Advent season; a collection of five cozily decorated living rooms that open up to wonderful world of videoed stories and music, family friendly devotions and outdoor adventures, tasty recipes and fun Christmas crafts.

These living rooms have been created for churches to request and then upload to their church website each week of Advent and on Christmas Eve.

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How Will We Tell the Christmas Story? A Hybrid Service of Lessons and Carols for a Children’s Pageant or Christmas Eve Service

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photograph by Mick Haupt, unsplash.com

I’ve been getting lots of questions about how we will celebrate Christmas in our churches this year.

“Will our children be able to present their annual Christmas pageant, with their much-loved costumes and wonder-filled way of telling us the story?” 

and, 

“We will be able to gather on Christmas Eve, in candlelight, and lift our voices in praise as we light the Christ candle and welcome the Jesus into our world?”

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Three Hybrid Models for Faith Formation This Fall

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Last week Robynne Howard, Director of the Cairn Family of Camps, and I hosted a Zoom training session to introduce three hybrid faith formation models your church may wish to consider for the fall as we continue to stay out of our physical church classrooms. If you missed joining us last week, or want to review what was said, I want to share with you the video from that training session along with some handouts and resources that might help your church as you determine how you will be connecting with children and young people this year.

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September’s Coming!

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Have you figured out how you will be doing Sunday school and/or youth ministry with the children and youth of your church yet? 

If you are looking for a hybrid model for faith formation with the younger members of your church family that will work outside of an in-person classroom setting, join us on Tuesday, September 1 at 10:30 ET for a one hour Zoom gathering and hear about some great possibilities for at-home and online education.

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New Updates on Curriculum Resources for Hybrid Sunday Schools this Fall

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A few weeks ago I wrote an article that outlined how Sunday school curriculum publishers were striving to support our churches through the production of resources to help us shift to hybrid models for teaching Sunday school this fall. Each have been busy writing new curricula and/or providing supplements to their existing offerings to assist us in making the transition to teaching outside of a classroom setting smoother and better for our teachers, participants and parents.

You can find that original article here: https://www.cnob.org/?p=1719#more-1719.

Please revisit it for an overview of the materials each will be providing this fall, especially if the curriculum your church uses is not mentioned in the following article. Your church’s curriculum may only be highlighted in the previous article because nothing has changed since July 22, 2020.

This article has been written to provide new or additional information that has been released since I last wrote on the topic.

So, let’s see what’s new.

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Some Thoughts on the Inclusion of Children and Youth in Online Worship

By Blog, Christian Education Archive, Congregational Development Archive, , ,

As our churches have made the transition to new ways of doing worship through online platforms, I wondered how our families with children were doing. Knowing that all of our churches are working hard to keep everyone engaged in worship and the life of the congregation, I thought I would ask some parents how it was going and what they would say are the best practices they have experienced that assist their children and teens in feeling connected in worship, and what they might recommend to their worship leaders to consider as they plan for worship services that are more inclusive of all ages.

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Pinwheels for Pentecost

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As we move through Eastertide, we begin to anticipate Pentecost as the amazing conclusion to this season. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit was breathed into the disciples and they launched themselves out of the room they were closed up in and into the streets of Jerusalem, filled with energy and a story to tell. On fire (not literally), they spoke to those crowded in the marketplaces of Jerusalem in every language of the world, and all the people understood them. And what they heard from the disciples was the story of Jesus; his life, his death and his resurrection. And the Spirit didn’t stop with the disciples, the breath of God blew through all of those who listened and believed that day, just as the Holy Spirit has continued to blow through the church in every age and in every place since then. Pentecost is a great day in the church: it’s our birthday – so let’s celebrate!

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Cairn Connects – Week Five of Great Activities for Campers (and wanna-be campers) at Home

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Thank you Robynne (Mapes) Howard for another great week of camp activities for kids to connect with this week as we continue to social distance at home. Check out the Camp Cairn website (http://ilovecamp.org/cairn-connects.cfm) for all the details that tell you how to get online with the camp staff for your Cairn Connects activities of choice.

Enjoy your week everyone, and sing ‘Our God is an Awesome God’ one day this week for me.

As an aside, when JP (Cheshire) and I (Rumples) walked the Camino de Santiago a few years ago, we would sing every camp song we ever knew at the top of our lungs late in the day to keep us going to the end of our day’s journey. When we made it to our evening’s lodging we’d always get asked, “Were you guys singing out there?” Yup – we were, and loved every minute of it. Thanks to Glen Mhor and Iona for keeping us company on our journey.

Great (and free) Resources for Faith Formation @ Home

By Blog, Christian Education Archive, WMS Archive, , , ,
famliy-750.jpg

Many curriculum publishers are graciously offering free curricula and resources for churches and families to take advantage of during this time when we’re all learning from home. Some are even developing special resources that shift teaching from a classroom leader to everyone in the family exploring and learning together. What follows is a curated list of some wonderful offerings that are theologically Presbyterian and Reformed and place the educational emphasis on family conversation and wondering together. Enjoy exploring some of these great offerings for your church and family.

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