Tag Archives: Family

Five Interactive Advent Living Rooms for Families @ Home

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

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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How to Make an Advent Wreath

As we think about Advent, we often think about waiting. We’re just hanging around. Waiting for something important that hasn’t quite happened yet. And, if we wait long enough, it will happen. And it will be great!

If we’re entirely honest with ourselves, we sometimes feel like Advent is season designed to fill time and space until we get to the real event – Christmas.

The Christian year begins four Sundays prior to Christmas Day. It’s seems a bit odd, why don’t we start with the main event? After all, Advent just sits there as a non-season kind of season, or at least a pre-season. It feels like the games that are played before the real season of baseball or hockey actually begins. They are nice enough, they just don’t count, so why have them at all?

Let me just say, “Advent counts!”

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On The Way to Bethlehem: An Advent Devotional Booklet to Download

I want to share with you this year’s Advent Devotional booklet entitled On the Way to Bethlehem.

Starting on Sunday, November 29, 2020 this simply laid out devotional guide will help you begin your journey to Bethlehem. Over the four weeks of Advent you will read wonder-filled stories from scripture that will have you walking with the prophet Isaiah, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the Magi, until you finally reach Bethlehem. There, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day you will hear the story of the birth of Jesus and gather with those you have been walking with to witness this special gift of God.

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Zoom ‘Teach and Talk’ – Three Simple Faith Formation Practices for Families This Summer

As our season shifts from a busy school year to quieter summer months, our families turn to the church for fresh ideas and enjoyable activities that will help them learn and practice their faith at home.

What will we say?

Find some helpful answers by joining this upcoming Zoom ‘Teach and Talk’ on June 17, 2020. 

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Pinwheels for Pentecost

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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Great (and free) Resources for Faith Formation @ Home

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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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A Communion Service for Home Use

Marjorie Thompson, in Family: The Forming Center, says that “rituals are embodied ways of celebrating God’s presence in the midst of ordinary life.” Life doesn’t feel very ordinary these days, and the idea of celebrating communion in our homes instead in our church home with our church family feels just little bit strange. We wonder if we should hold off celebrating communion until we can gather in our churches once again. I wonder if these unusual days invite us to come to the table now more than ever before. We need to remember that God is with us and will not abandon us. Through the ordinary stuff of bread and wine we need to taste and see that the Lord is good.

And so we offer to you a communion service for celebration in your homes. It comes out of a request that John-Peter and I film a short, intergenerational communion service for Morningside-High Park Presbyterian Church for Easter Sunday morning. We filmed it in our home with Alex Fensham and Holly Boyne, also members at MHP, who live in an apartment in our home. So please, feel free to use it at anytime throughout our time away from our church homes.

Easter blessings, John-Peter and Tori

A Palm Sunday Chapodcast for Families

Families with children, join Crash and Zucchini for a special Chapodcast celebrating the joyful parade of Palm Sunday. Gather together your coats, a green wavy thing, and some paper and a marker and then open the attached video link to hear the wonder-filled story, sing out your loud Hosannas, and offer your prayers to God with all of your worries and thanksgiving.

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