Wee Praise lesson for 12/28

OVERVIEW: 12/28/08 TELL OTHER ABOUT JESUS Luke 2: 8-20

Remember the month’s theme (Jesus’ birth), and this week is about the good news of Jesus’ birth being announced to the world, shepherds in the fields specifically!

APPLICATION: Jesus’ birth is just as much good news as it was 2000 years ago, and we should also be out telling the world about him!

SHARE & PRAYER “Children Around the World”

Ask kids what they received for Christmas. Mention how blessed we are and how much we have to be thankful for (Jesus first of course, then moms and dads, brothers/sisters, food / houses , etc.), and that today we’re going to think about other kids around the world and pray for them.

Engage kids in thinking about other kids and what we can pray for. As always, reinforce anything that you can, and redirect inappropriate comments kindly and gently. Look to identify some of the following:
à Manyozo, of course
à kids that don’t have parents/homes, such as the other
orphans in Malawi, Zimbabwe, elsewhere
à kids who don’t know about the great new of Jesus,
such as children in Tanzania or Turkey who have
never even heard of Jesus
à children who don’t have houses, or clothes, or enough
food like we do

As always, try to get the kids to join in your prayer of asking God to bless the other children of the world in the ways that you’ve talked about.

ACTIVITY: "A gift for Jesus"


Remind the children about our story and how the wise men brought presents to baby Jesus. Then explain to the children that we’re going to play a game about giving a present to Jesus. Let one of the children “be Jesus” by putting the crown on his/her head, and have a chair/seat for him/her to sit on like a throne. Then let the other children take turns “giving the present to Jesus”. The point of the exercise is to ask them to think about what they would like to “give” to Jesus when they come before His throne in heaven some day. Try to get them to thinking about what kind of a present He would want us to give Him. Without just supplying an exact idea, you may want to suggest that the present that Jesus would want on that day is for us to have done something for Him, or in His name, while we’re still here on earth. You get the idea . . . get them

Lesson for 12/14

Here's what we are studying on December 14:

LISTEN CAREFULLY & OBEY Matt. 1:18-25
Remember the month’s theme (Jesus’ birth), and this week is about the angel visiting Joseph to tell him of God’s plan, and to obey God. APPLICATION: God had a plan, and invited first Mary and then Joseph to participate in His plan! God wants us to join Him in reaching out to the world, and never ceases inviting us to join Him in His plans

The last two weeks have been the stories of angels first visiting Mary, and this week Joseph, to tell them about God’s plan for the and the world. Today we want to just prompt the kids to think a bit more about HOW WE LISTEN TO GOD, another part of what it means to “talk to God” in prayer.

Gather the kids around and ask/remind them of how it was that God spoke to first Mary, and then Joseph (through an angel). Then ask them how God talks to us today. Allow time for them to suggest some things . . . reinforce anything that is appropriate (or can be reworded or reconfigured to be correct), but also be careful to say “no” (kindly, of course) to things which they say that are not correct. What we’re looking for in the ways God speaks to us include:
--the Bible
--parents
--Mr. Buddy, Uncle Al, Sun. Schl. teachers, other Godly people
--our own conscience

After reinforcing the concept that prayer is not only our speaking to God, but also Him speaking to us even today, ask the children what specific things they want to pray about today and then encourage them to participate in talking to God.

December Wee Praise Topics

Terry was reading my mind, I suppose, because she has put out the list of topics for December's Wee Praise.

Here they are... I'll give more details on each as the time approaches.


Neal

MONTH'S THEME: “God Sent His Son, Jesus” emphasizing the realty of Jesus coming from heaven to live on earth . . . not a fairytale but a true story revealing how much God loves us.

MEMORY VERSE: Luke 2:10b “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”

December 7th An Angel Told Mary about God’s Plan
Luke 1:26-33
CRAFT: Nativity Scene #1

December 14th Listen Carefully and Obey
Matthew 1:18-25
CRAFT: Nativity Scene #2

December 21st We Welcome Jesus
Luke 2: 1-7
CRAFT: Nativity Scene #3
MEMORY VERSE: just review from the last 2 weeks

December 28th Tell Others about Jesus
Luke 2: 8-20
CRAFT: Nativity Scene #4

Neal's letter to Wee Praise parents

This is the letter I sent to Wee Praise parents welcoming them to the new year and asking those who are not currently involved to consider working with us! (This is the one I would have sent to myself.)


Neal

Dear Neal & Jennifer,
The new school year is here, with our Landmark Promotion Sunday coming on September 7. All of the children’s ministry is gearing up for the event, with the teachers preparing their classrooms. The Wee Praise ministry is working too, and I’ve gotten the class rosters from Allison Phillips to see what class size to expect on Sundays. God has truly blessed us both as a church and within our families with many children!
After comparing the numbers of students to the number of Wee Praise helpers currently on our lists, I became concerned that we would better serve our children with a greater number of helpers. While we have a sufficient number of people to keep the children safe while in the classrooms, my dream is to do much more than that: I hope to give each child the best chance for remembering the lessons and Christian principles heard during the Wee Praise story time by their interaction with that helper as they both put together a simple craft. My ultimate dream is that Hope, even at 3 years old, would be able to tell you on the way home from church what basic Christian principle was taught that day.
So, beyond welcoming you to a new school year, this letter invites you to participate in our Wee Praise ministry as a helper. We need more people to assist us as we reach each other’s children for Christ.
Finally, there are several other deacons who are responsible for the various aspects of the Children’s Ministry. I work with Joel Sikes, who directs the security aspects of the children’s programs; with Don Gilliam, who works with big events such as VBS, game nights, etc.; and with Craig Hopson, who is outlining outreach programs for our community and city. And Jeff Langham is working with the entire education ministry. When you see us around the building, feel free to give us your comments concerning any aspect of the program. Also, I would like to let you know of a “blog” we’ve started to let you see our vision as well as give you a chance to comment on what you see, and make suggestions about ways to improve the program. Check it out at http://landmarkchildren.blogspot.com/ . You will see more of our dreams for the Children’s Ministry written there.

Question 11: Other ministries as partners

A good fit to my thoughts would be a connection to the Public Relations Ministry, so we can better inform the city and the church about our activities and our goals.

Question 10: What will we need?

I’ll repeat this as the second half of question #1’s answer.
-Equipped teachers
-Sufficient numbers of motivated teachers
-Space to hold the children in our care
-Accountability from those who have committed to help us

Question 9: Who are our partners in the ministry?

There are several sets of partners.
Deacons: Don Gilliam, Craig Hopson, Jeff Langham, Neal McDevitt, Joel Sikes
Staff: Terry Dees, Al Millergren, and Allison Phillips
Others: Jimmy Dobbs and Teresa Messick

Also, the helpers who have volunteered through Faithworks, and the parents who respond to the call for assistance.

Question 8: Where is God calling us to be in 6 months

This is an interesting question. If the call is for numbers, should we aim for a percentage of possible students in Wee Praise or Sunday School. Or, if the call is for spiritual development of the children, how can we measure that?

I do plan to begin an informal list of children attending Wee Praise if for no other reason than to give me some averages that I can use for planning the numbers of classes we need over time.

If there is one call for the ministry I am pretty sure of, it is that we increase the numbers of helpers on Sunday for Wee Praise so that we can better interact with the children.

Question 7: Which core purpose does the ministry support?

I'd say that we support Discipling Others in Wee Praise, with a strong dose of Adore Him too.

Question 6: What scriptures guide and inspire you in the ministry?

This is the one I'd like the most comments on!

For me, two immediately come to mind as of August 27, 2008:
From Jesus: Matthew 19: 13-14
13 Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

From Solomon:
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.

Question 5: The principles and beliefs central to our work

Well, working with children I'd say patience would be one of our guiding principles! Also (of course) love and friendliness.

When planning activities and the ministry's future, I think leadership, prayerfulness, and discernment are important.

And to paraphrase the mission statement for the Children's Ministry, my central principle is to assist our families as they teach their children to know Christ sufficiently to believe that He is the Son of God so that they will share that truth with others and live their life according to His teachings.

Question 3: What are we doing to meet those needs

Currently, we have involvement in these areas:

Nursery
Wee Praise
Kids Praise
Education
Kids in Action
Kids B.L.A.S.T Junior
Kids B.L.A.S.T Senior
Vacation Bible School
Trunk or Treat
Christmas Play
Bible Memory Challenge
Slip and Slide
Back to School Bash

We could add to or modify those as needed.

Question 2: Who are we wanting to reach?

Well, for the Children's Ministry that is fairly well defined.

We have Wee Praise for the 3 to 5 year group, Kids Praise for the first and second graders, our Sunday School program for all ages, with several special events during the year.

A second group we can reach is the parents of children who are perhaps not yet deeply involved in Landmark. If we can show these parents how much we care for their children, we might get them more involved too.

Question 4: How can the ministry improve?

Again I'll answer for the Wee Praise ministry.

We have a good nucleus of volunteer teachers, including those who are not necessarily signed up for the program but are willing to stay over after Sunday School and help. We also have many folks that we know are willing to help us if we need extra workers. The situation is better now than it was when I first started helping get volunteers because I have a list to work from in advance.

I believe we can improve further by expanding our teacher ranks, such that we increase the opportunity for one-on-one interactions with the students for teaching them more about the lesson for the day.

I also hope to improve further by perhaps giving some advance notice of the day's lesson to at least the teachers if not also the parents.

I want each parent to know that we are eternally serious about helping their child fall in love with Jesus, submit to God, and develop a spiritual walk even as a preschooler.

Question 12: Our action steps

I'm going to start out with the Wee Praise actions that I plan to start off with. Please feel free to comment on mine, and add yours too so that I can see your ideas and improve my efforts!

I've gotten the list of children that are going to be in the Wee Praise program from Allison, and I plan to send out a letter and otherwise contact these parents to let them know that we want to be there for them and help teach their children about the Lord. I also want to let them know about the scale of the enrollment and ask for their assistance, since the numbers of teachers we have are not sufficient to help teach all the children we are likely to have in our Wee Praise classes. See Question #4's answer for more background.

I also will direct those parents to this blog and invite them to add comments and suggestions that we might be able to implement to improve Wee Praise

Goals:
-Be ready to staff six Wee Praise Classes in each service if needed, such that if possible each class has a student:teacher ratio of around 6:1. Any higher than that makes the lesson more difficult to communicate to the students.
-Contact each parent and answer any of their questions about the program
-Get the Children's Ministry leaders together and discuss our collective thoughts and goals for the entire ministry.

Question 1b: The needs we have to meet our goals

This half of the answer is to set out our needs to meet our goals.

-Equipped teachers
-Sufficient numbers of motivated teachers
-Space to hold the children in our care

-It wasn't mentioned last night, but can we add "accountability from those who have committed to help us" ?

Question 1a: The needs we exist to address

The first part of this answer dealt with the needs we will meet as a ministry.

I had written these:

-Developing faithfulness to God in the children's life that stays with them into adulthood
-That the children feel the love of God when they are with us
-That we keep them safe while they are with us
-That we might affect parents through their children

Are there any others we want to add as our goals?

Getting our discussions started

Hello everyone!

I am new at this "targeted" blogging. I'm going to put down where we got to last night, and see how I can get all of us capable of adding comments. Hopefully I can figure it out!

The group I've invited to be authors here are ones that were at the "Summit" on 8/19 but is not restricted to them. If you know of others who have a serious heart for our various children's ministries I can add them easily.

I'll put the "going forward" questions down one by one so anyone who wants can comment on them individually.