It is no secret that I absolutely love spending time with the children of First Baptist Church, however some aspects of our time together have grown stale. During worship the kids leave with me to go to "Kids Zone," which is a more age appropriate time of teaching for the children. While I think this time has a ton of potential, we weren't reaching it. Over the past few months with much prayer and consideration we are recreating this time. Kids Zone will become Kids at Worship on August 24th! Not only is the name changing but so is the location!!!!! Kids at Worship will meet in the Craft Room during both the 8:30 and 11:00 service.
One of the biggest changes will be the format. Previously this time was used to recap the Sunday school lesson and make sure the kids really had a good understanding of it. Sometimes we would sing songs, do a craft, or play outside. We would always discuss prayer requests and pray. While this is not a terrible format, it not as interactive or engaging as it could be. Time to change things up! In my frustration and dissatisfaction I turned to pinterest and started searching for things related to children and worship. (Isn't this what all Children's Ministers do?) Through these searches I stumbled across Worship Response Stations and immediately thought Jackpot! This is exactly what I was looking for!!!!! I started reading and looking at blogs and created a list of stations I wanted to create. Elizabeth and I have already created 4! By now you have to be wondering what in the world is a Worship Response Station? It is an area set up for a specific activity that helps a child connect with God. It may be about praying, or encouraging others, or reading Scripture, but it is a hand on way of interacting with God.
I have never been that person who is cutting edge, I am always learning about things after everyone else already knows about them (Texting, Facebook, Blogging, Instagram, etc.). Imagine my surprise when my Children's Ministry Magazine arrived in my box today and on the cover was an article about Worship Response Stations! What?! Now I get to add even more stations to my list of stations I am creating! Stay tuned to find out when you can experience Worship Response Stations and see what all the buzz is about!
**True confession time** Before I started working here I had never even attended anything similar to Kids Zone, or Children's Church or anything like that!
