Involving Kids in 'Normal' Church Services part 2

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During the All-in service today, there was another small win.  There's a little fellow, about five years old,  who has taken a shine to me, and each Sunday he sits with me at the front of the church, while mum minds baby sister.  He has a bit of a reputation for being wild, and he loves to talk, not very quietly.  Usually he's off to Sunday school before the Bible readings, but today he was sitting there with me, chatting about a toy umbrella he had with him.

An idea came to me, that I must have read somewhere - I know it's not one of mine!  He can't read very well yet, but he's confident with counting.  So I scanned the psalm we were about to read together, and noticed that it mentioned 'children' a few times;   I asked him to listen and tell me how many times we said children.  That worked well, so I looked for words that occurred a few times in the next passage - 'brothers and sisters', and 'love'.

My young friend also came up the front with me when I stood up to preach, and stayed there for almost the whole sermon (his mum took him away for a few minutes, but he returned with a bounce).  And I was delighted, on two counts: he made little comments on the way through the sermon, and every one showed that he was listening;  and afterwards people told me that the others kids took extra notice too, because he was there.

Involving Kids in 'Normal' Church Services

I believe that we have a responsibility to include children fully in the life of the church, and to teach them how to use their gifts and knowledge to contribute to the growth and encouragement of others, just as we expect adult Christians to do.  Today I think we had a bit of a win.

This Sunday we had an All-In service to give the leaders a rest.  I didn't want to shoo the children into a back corner to colour pictures while the real business of meeting together with God was going on.

So two weeks ago we did some preparation:  the Sunday school kids were asked to contribute prayer requests for today's service; they all gave ideas, and the oldest group, Grades 5 and 6, created a powerpoint presentation of their suggestions, complete with animated words and pictures.

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While the older kids were working on the (borrowed) laptop, the rest - 4 years and up - worked on illustrating today's Bible passage, the parable of the ten virgins.  Each week the Bible passage is shown on the data projector screen (which the older members like because it means they don't need to remember to bring their reading glasses).  I read the parable to the kids a verse at a time, and asked them to strike poses to illustrate what was happening, while one of the leaders took photos.  Later I added the kids' photos to the powerpoint slides of the passage.  (Credit for this idea goes to  Phil Day, who works for SU Victoria).

I think it went pretty well.  There was a gratifying silence while Matthew 25:1-13 was being read, with a few quiet chuckles.  Most pleasing, the kids were listening;  one little boy near me watched entranced, and even repeated a few of his poses as the slides flicked up.

At prayer time, the leader read out the children's prayer requests while the slides were played, and I could hear little murmurs as children or parents recognised topics.

Feedback afterwards was positive - someone even sent me an email with an appreciative comment about the Bible illustrations, and a mum said her son was excited to come to church today because he had contributed.

I've two hopes for today:
- That kids realised they helped other people to understand the Bible better, and helped them to pray
- That they realised that what happens in 'big church' is just as much for them as it is for the adults

There's further to go - I'd love the kids to feel comfortable and confident to walk up to the microphone and lead us all in prayer themselves.  Still - baby steps.