Helping Children Appreciate Corporate Worship

We have come to recognize the importance of providing children with increasing opportunities to participate in and learn about corporate worship. We will be pursuing this goal in two different ways through this next year: bringing them into adult worship services once a month and implementing our own children's church program with them for the rest of the Sundays.

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Children (3rd-5th Grades) in Adult Worship Services

During the 2006-07 school year, PBC began to include children in our corporate worship once a month. We believe this decision:

• was led by the Spirit.

• is a visible and tangible way to demonstrate that children are full members of the church community.

• reflects our belief that adults can learn about the Kingdom of God from children, as Jesus taught, and therefore we honor the Lord by including our children in worship.

• encourages parents to be more directly involved in their children's Sunday morning experience by modeling and interpreting their faith for their children within a public worship context.

• gives children an occasion to put the interests of others ahead of their own and to make connections with the whole church community.

We will continue the practice of having a multigenerational worship service on the first Sunday of the month for the 2007-2008 school year. However, we realize that our children need to do more than physically attend a worship service to be able to fully appreciate the experience. We also realize that they need more than a verbal welcome from the worship host to feel like they are part of a congregation. It is our prayer that the Lord will continue to lead us in this endeavor and help us to answer this question:

How do we continue to help our children appreciate corporate worship and learn to more fully participate in a faith community?

Our first response to this question is to launch Children's Church at 8:30 and 11:15 in A-14 on June 17. By worshiping together with their teachers and staff, the children will develop appropriate language and etiquette that they can use in all worship experiences and locations. They will also be able to participate in the planning and implementation of an age-appropriate worship service, which will help them to engage more fully in their faith community.

We desire that our children genuinely engage in a Sunday morning children's program and not view the foundational elements of the program (Biblical instruction and Christian relationships) as mere activities to occupy them while their parents attend church. Therefore, we are developing Children's Church as a way

• to invite children to participate in age-appropriate worship.

• instruct children in the nature and practice of worship. incorporate children into the process of planning and leading a worship service for themselves and their peers.

• be one of the greatest gifts we can give our kids.

We pray that it will provide children with an experience that honors, nurtures, and challenges their personal faith.

Children's Church: Imagine the Possibilities...

1. Children will report directly to their classroom (A-14) at 8:30 and 11:15 except for the first Sunday of the month, when they join their parents for worship in the auditorium (please note the change for the 8:30 service).
2. After children are welcomed in small groups, the worship leader will call everyone together and begin the Children's worship service.
3. Children's Church will have a predictable order of worship because children learn from routine and experience.
4. Leaders will narrate the meaning and practice of corporate worship as children experience it in their classroom.
5. Children will participate in the service in meaningful ways each week. All children will have opportunities to participate according to a rotation of small groups.
6. At the conclusion of the worship service and for the remainder of the class time, children will participate in community building activities (games, small group activities).

Our regular classroom teachers need other adults to serve on a rotational basis in the following areas: leading worship songs, hosting, small group leaders (to facilitate student participation), scheduling, and room design and decorations.