2010 Is Going To Be A Great Year For Families! February 8, 2010

Parents, we are looking forward to a great 2010 with your kids. Here are some things that we would like to see happen this year in the lives of families, and we commit to partner with you to see them happen.

Here are five key things we want to work on with you this year.

1.      We want to challenge you to imagine who you want your child to become. Not what you want them to do, but what you want them to become. God has a plan!

2.      We want to help you fight for the heart of your child. Strong relationships are key – rules are needed, but relationships are what touch the heart. We want to help you build relationships with your children.

3.      Make your faith personal. If you are not living your faith, it is hard to fake it for your kids. Live your faith, make it important to you. They will know your values by the way you are living them out. Take time to invest in your personal walk with God.

4.      Create a rhythm of spiritual conversation. How do we make spiritual conversation a normal part of life at home? Mealtime, bedtime, at home or on the road how do you make spiritual conversation natural? We will email or send home a piece each week with talking points and suggestions that will help you as parents to create a natural rhythm in your home.

5.      Widen the circle of influence around your kids. Parents need an ally. They need someone else speaking truths into their child’s life. We want to provide consistent, loving volunteers to build relationships with your kids, teach them God’s word and reinforce what you are teaching at home. 

I pray this is the best year yet for you and your family!

Blessings,

Amy

Snow Day Devotion for Families January 31, 2010

This week in Kid Connect our topic is: talking about who God is with our friends.

 

 

Read Matthew 16:13-16 with your family.
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:16

 

 

Peter was proclaiming who Jesus is! God wants us to do the same. Proclaim who He is, talk about Him with our friends and family, share how amazing He is in our lives.

 

 

Kids, what do you know about Jesus that you could tell a friend? Talk about this with your parents. You might even find a favorite family Scripture that talks about Jesus.

 

 

Parents, take a moment to share with your kids: Who was the first person to tell you about Jesus? Ask your kids if they know friends who need to know about Him. Encourage them to talk about Jesus and show His love to others. Take a moment to pray that God will give you time as a family to share Jesus with others.

Sharing the good the good news of Jesus is just one of the faith skills we have learned about this month as we talked about Discipline. We have talked about Reading His Book, Remembering His Words, Talking to Him and Talking about Him. Review this with your children, and let me encourage you, if you have not looked at our weekly emails, please start. They include God Time Cards that are daily devotions for your kids to use to begin to read God’s Word daily and Fridge Door Cards that you put on – yes, you guessed it - your refrigerator. It gives a recap of our weekly lesson and some good talking points for your family.

I have included a copy of the God Time Card and Fridge Door Card. Enjoy!

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Why Not? April 7, 2009

Why Not?
I was a church kid. I grew up in church. My dad was a pastor. I always loved being at church. When I was only 13, I told people, “When I grow up I want to be a Children’s Pastor.” I knew that is what God had called me to do, and I was focusing on the goal ahead – how to get there. I was even allowed to serve here at The People’s Church when I was only 15 as a volunteer intern. I worked my tail off that summer and loved every minute of it. I didn’t know how great it was going to be working with kids. I did VBS, went to camp, helped with Sunday School. You name it, and I was willing to help. I had a great enthusiasm for my calling. I was raised and still believe to this day, that everyone who comes into a church has a gift to use. God promises that. 1 Corinthians 12 talks about spiritual gifts and how we each have been given different gifts to use as one body. 1 Corinthians 12:27 says, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” So, if God has given you a gift that he intends for you to use to serve him as a part of the body, why wouldn’t you? Why not?
I love working with kids because when I asked them this question, they said, “there is no reason not to.” Plain and simple. Why not? The kids and I couldn’t think of a good reason. I love how the Bible even compares it to our physical bodies. The foot would not say to the hand, “I am not a foot, so I am not a part”. The eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” and the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” It all works together! Wow! Who thought of that? It has to be a God thing.
Whenever I go to a Children’s Ministry conference, the big joke is that heaven for us will be having too many volunteers. Everyone laughs, and then we go sit in conferences on how to lure people in, ask people to serve, what to do if you don’t have volunteers; there are even ministries now based on not having enough volunteers and how to function without them. How sad is that? We have come to expect the worst. But wait, God’s Word says he has provided everyone in the body with a gift to use to adequately meet our needs. Should that be such a hard thing to believe? Where did our faith go? Has our belief in people’s lack of commitment grown larger that our belief in God’s Word? I just can’t let my mind go there. God has promised me. He has the people that I need. I don’t have to wait to get to heaven to see what “enough” volunteers look like. He promises to give me enough right here on earth. I am a very literal thinker. So, to me that means that if there are over 1,000 kids coming to our church now in birth–6th grade, and that means we need 389 volunteers to make that happen, God has 389 people here who are gifted to serve in these ways. I may find out someday that I was way off base, or that I really misunderstood what God was trying to say to me through that passage of Scripture. But for today, I choose to believe. Why not? God can do anything – even prompt the hearts of comfortable people who don’t want to do anything but be spectators to become participators.
I asked some of our new volunteers in Kid Connect to share with me what held them back from serving and to let me know what God has done in their life since that time. One that really struck me was from Rick Burns. Rick is an amazing guy! He has the zest and zeal for life that you just want to bottle up and take in each morning. He loves people and has fallen in love with the kids that he serves each week. Here is a little bit of his story:
I had long thought about how I could contribute to the local church and remained on the sidelines wondering if I could make a difference. With my service to the Kid Connect Team, which is a true source of joy, I am able to honor our Lord, who has given so very much to my life. What a great way to add significance and meaning in life by giving my time, my enthusiasm and my passion for the Lord. It is so great to see the kids thirst to know about God and to help make an impact in their spiritual growth.
During these tough times, stepping outside of our concerns and giving to others, is truly what greaterlove is all about.<br /> Serve. You will be blessed. It is an amazing privilege. Share the gifts God has given you with His body. Why not?

Change! Change? Change. March 17, 2009

I have learned that this word evokes many emotions in people. Some people love change, some people question change and some just downright do not like change. I happen to be a person who enjoys change, but, not just change for its own sake. I enjoy change when it comes with a purpose.

I am a processer. I am one of those people that wait in line at a conference thinking, “if they just moved this registration table over there, and placed the name badges there and had this alphabetized, it would all run smoother.” It is a blessing and a curse. There are times when I drive myself crazy and more times that I drive my husband crazy. I have also learned over the years that as many times as I am right, I also have many times that I have to come back, tail tucked, begging for forgiveness because my “Great Idea” turned out to be a really bad one. Most importantly, I have learned that you don’t know until you try.

If you are involved at all in the Preschool Ministry of The People’s Church, you have seen our little room we call “Celebration Station.” It is where our three, four and five year olds go on Sunday morning for about 20 minutes to sing praises to God with their wiggly little worshipful bodies. The room they meet in used to be the “formal living room” of the church. It is funny to me that we used to think we needed to be so formal. We did though – until the students took over back in the 90s, broke all the fancy furniture and then passed it on to the preschoolers. We have spent lots of time and effort making that a really special space, but since 2004, we have grown from a ministry of around 240 preschoolers to a blooming ministry of around 500. So, all the kids that fit in 2004 do not fit in there today.

As I have looked, and looked and looked some more at that room and all the sweet kids crammed in there and our amazing Celebration Station team leading four worship sessions back-to-back in order to help everyone fit, my processor brain has been in motion. I had almost decided there was no hope unless the building burned down and we started all over from scratch, until one day this winter when some staff friends and I were looking at this giant open room next to Rick’s office. It was huge and, all of a sudden, visions of our stage and lights and sound in that room came flooding to our minds. How exciting! Change with a purpose!  Now, at the time I wasn’t thinking that there were Kindergarten classes that met in there. I was just seeing potential – dreaming big.

The very next week my sweet friend, Tara Bernard, who heads up our amazing Special Needs Ministry, came to me and said, “Amy, we really need a room on this first floor for our Special Needs families to bring their kids.” I was sure I had heard her wrong. But wait, Special Needs uses rooms in the preschool area on the second floor. I need rooms to move Kindergarten classes up to the second floor. If we move the Kindergarten rooms to the current Special Needs rooms, we could open up that big room to use as a new Celebration Station. If we move the Celebration Station to the big room, we could give Special Needs ministry the current Celebration Station room. My mind was spinning! How exciting! Could this be a big win for everyone?

As the weeks have progressed and we have talked to leaders, parents and kids about this potential, our team has grown more and more excited about the “c” word – change!

On Sunday, March 29, we will kick off three exciting new things:

1. Celebration Station will meet in the 160s rooms next to Rick’s office with bigger, better space!
2. Kindergarten will move to the second floor, on the hall with all of our other Kindergarten classes, putting all of preschool together again in one location.
3. Special Needs ministry will have a huge new room with its own special needs parking right at the door, a private and easy access wheel chair entrance, right next to the elevators and their own bathrooms and water fountains in the room.

We are in very exciting days! God is doing amazing things! I can’t wait to tell you more about all the lives being touched. Stay tuned! 

Amy

The People’s Church Kids Ministry! March 9, 2009

January 11, 2009 was a very exciting day in the life of The People’s Church. This was the day that we kicked off an exciting new ministry – Kid Connect – for our 1-5 grades. The funny thing is that we planned that day for around 250 kids, and at the end of the first session at 9:15, we realized we had run out of everything. We had no more copies, no more crafts, nothing! What were we thinking, or not thinking? God, who is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine, had rained down his blessings on us. It had come in the form of children. To date we have registered 524 kids and are still growing. Exciting days!


Our kids birth-kindergarten have averaged over 500 on a weekly basis since the first of the year. Because of this, we have outgrown our current large group space that we call Celebration Station. So, on March 29 we are moving! We are going to work, over the next few weeks to create new space in the 160s rooms. I will give more details in the days to come. Another adventure!


Thanks to the large number of kids coming, we’ve opened up some more volunteer positions! We need some people with gifts they want to share in order see little lives and their families changed for Christ. We need worship leaders, drama team members, baby rockers, people to love on our three-year-olds and even people who can sit with a small group of 4th or 5th graders and do life with them. I don’t make too many promises, but I can promise you that you will say, “I never knew I would get so much out of serving a group of kids.” We hear it time after time. If you are interested or would like more information,  Brenda Procter, our amazing volunteer coordinator, is ready to talk to you.

This month we are talking about hope – “believing that something good can come out of something bad because remember, whatever happens, God has a plan.” How timely are these lessons? I am amazed how they speak to my heart as much as to the kids’.


Hebrews 6:19 – “Our hope is certain. It is something for the soul to hold on to. It is strong and secure.”


Psalm 62:5 –  “I will find my rest in God alone. He is the One who gives me hope.”

I am excited to be in the blog world and will use this as a tool to communicate what is happening in our ministry. I finally had some time to get this up and running because I am spending my weekend at home with a little one with the flu. Pray for her quick healing. Pray for protection for the rest of our family.

Blessings,

Amy