[Gospelchristianity] gospel christianity children's ministry

[Courtney Robinson]

Susan and I just had a meeting to follow up on our discussion at the  
retreat about how to proceed with our kids at small group.  All of the  
following things are open to discussion.  This has been an area that  
we just can't seem to "get right".  I know that the solutions we've  
come up with aren't all perfect, but I hope they are a good starting  
place and will allow us to institute something that is low maintenance  
enough to become a regular and non burdensome routine.  If you do have  
any alternate suggestions, all I ask is that you be ready to jump in  
and institute your idea!

Firstly, we will have no formal, paid childcare.  The schedule for the  
evening will be as follows:
6:30 -7:00 Arrival and visiting
7:00- 7:30 Sing hymns as a group (including the kids) and possibly  
present/sing the catechism question for the week (more on that later)
7:30 -8:00/8:10 Someone will sit down with the kids and read to them a  
few pages from a book that Susan has on biblical character traits that  
are exhibited by animals (it weaves together interesting facts about  
the animals with a lesson about the trait) while the kids sit at the  
round table and color/do crossword puzzles.  Then the kids will  
participate in a bible drill and/or possibly quiz them on the  
catechism questions.  The little ones can play quietly during this  
time.  This will have to start out slowly, as many of the kids have  
never done bible drill before.  It would start with learning the books  
of the bible and then move on to drills where you are just finding a  
book in the first half of the new testament, then in the whole new  
testament, and on up to finding a specific verse in the bible.  We  
figured good old fashioned bible drill would be fun, challenging,  
beneficical, and require no adult preparation.  Heath also had the  
idea of having the kids give prayer requests and pray together during  
this time, so that it would actually be like being part of a small  
group for them.  I thought that was a great idea, and again, easily  
facilitated.
8:10 The adult would then rejoin the study and the kids would be free  
to play or watch a movie until 9:30.  During the summer months, they  
can play outside more, but movies will probably be more of a regular  
thing in the winter time.  It might help to have some different people  
bringing movies, so the kids have more variety and so that its not a  
burden to the MacLaughlins.

The questions for the group are:
Do you want to continue learning catechism questions together?   If  
so, in order for it to be beneficial, everyone probably needs to get  
the cd's (Westminster Shorter Catechism songs by Holly Dutton  
available from VeritasPress.com) and commit to reviewing the question  
of the week together as a family.  The men in the group can present  
the question of the week on a rotating basis, and instead of doing the  
longer lesson, just read the question, with perhaps a few brief words  
of explanation.  Let's just put this one to a vote.  If we get more  
yes votes than no votes before next Friday, we'll move forward with  
continuing this and assume everyone wants to invest in learning these  
together.  If not, no big deal, we'll just skip it.

The other question is: would other adults in the group be willing to  
spend the 30-40 minutes with the kids reading to them from the book  
and facilitating the bible drill?  I don't really think it will  
require any preparation.  We tried something like this before and it  
didn't work out so well, but that was for the entirety of small group  
and required prep, so maybe this will be more practical since its only  
30-40 minutes and does't require the preparation.  Susan volunteered  
to do this next Friday and I would be willing to do it the following  
Friday.  Are there any other people (women or men) who would be  
willing to be in the rotation with us to do this?  Hopefully after the  
first two weeks, we'll have a system that can remain the same each  
week so that the kids know what to expect and will easily fall into  
the routine.  We would need to make a point each week to ask for a  
volunteer to do it the following week and that person would then be  
responsible to find a replacement for themselves if something came up.

Thank you, Susan, for your help today, and please let me know if I  
forgot  or goofed something!  All, I look forward to hearing your  
feedback on these things.  Sorry for such a long e-mail!

Courtney