Is Children’s Worship too expensive? If wooden figures could talk...

Recently a new member in our congregation marveled at the expense of the Children’s Worship program. She wondered if the wooden figures were worth the expense. She suggested that we could just use clothespins or paper figures.

As I thought about this I picked up one of the wooden figures. It has been used in our church for almost 20 years. The wood has changed color from age and finger oils. I wondered how many children and how many worship leaders had used that figure to tell a Bible story. Some of the first children to use this figure are graduating from college this year. Some of them went on to be helpers in our program, then leaders. Now they are moving on to other churches and bringing what they learned with them.

Many years ago our church made a financial investment -- shelving, figures, fabric, larger classrooms, etc. If this was just a one year program then the money probably wouldn’t be worth it. But this program has been here for an entire generation. These figures have given many leaders, helpers and children an opportunity to gather around and experience the stories of God together. It is in a richer worship experience for the whole church because we are thinking about and involved in worship. The figures were a bargain.

Adult Education

At a recent gathering of church educators, one educator was commenting about the lack of commitment by the adults to church education. How do we get parents to stop dropping off their children for church education and get the parents to attend? Parents are teaching their children that church education is only for the children. How do help adults value church education? How do we get parents to include church education for themselves in their busy schedule?

Girl’s Club

Our church’s Girl’s Club (we call it Joy Club) consists of 20 girls in 3^rd to 8^th grade from a core city environment. We have a hard time finding materials that speaks to all the girls. We’ve looked at several curricula and still haven’t found one to use. We haven’t been able to find one that really fits the girls who we have attending our girls club. For example, one curriculum focused on talking at home about faith with their mothers and fathers. A number of our girls come from families that do not have a church home and some don’t live with their parents. One of our girls was taken away from her mother for neglect. She lives with her grandparents. We need to be sensitive to her and the other girls in our group as we chose curriculum. Another curriculum talks about playing with American girl dolls. First of all, these dolls aren’t inexpensive. They’re out of the league of more than a few of the girls we serve. Also, though, some of our girls are taking care of real babies. At least two of our girls talks about taking care of their older sister’s baby. We have a pretty wide range of experience in a pretty small group and this makes finding a curriculum a real issue for us.

I’m sure we are not unique in this setting. I wonder how other educators are meeting these challenges. Any suggestions about curriculum for a group like this are appreciated