After the children were in church...

This is the second of two weeks the children 1st through 5th grade will be in the second service.  Sermon notes like last week should be available here tomorrow afternoon.

Pastor Duke is going to be using the words grow and growth throughout the sermon. 

Make sure your children know this.

This past week the repeated word was glory.  So when we talked with our kids about the message one of the questions I asked was why do you think Pastor Duke used that word so much?

We spent some time talking about the purpose of the church.

     The church needs to be about God and his glory.  

     More about God and less about us.

Pressing on,

David Rodgers

Acts 20:24

Reaching out and Building Up with Kids

This past Sunday, the 1st through 5th kids were in the service with their parents.
I am hoping to share some ideas and feedback from parents.

Were there any specific blessings from having your kids with you during the service?
Were there anything specific challenges with having them there?

You can post comments on this pages OR email me at children@emmanuelbaptist.com

On Thursday, I will post again!

Christian Parenting reminders

Read the entire blog (http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2013/01/02/christian-parenting-101/) for more information about each of the following:

1. Affection and love
2. Have the right goal in view
3. focus on MY responsibility
4. Keep your eyes forward
5. Don't get too high nor too low
6. Tomorrrow has enough worries of its own
7. Run the right direction
8. Parent on your knees
9. Show and tell
10. Christianity not morality
11. lastly and most importantly, count the blessing

Review week

For entire winter guide click here.

Date:  01.06

Title:  REVIEW

Memory verse:  

2 year olds through kindergarten:  James 4:10

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

1^st through 5^th grade:  Review

Missionary:  The Kimmel family in Romania

Ministry:  Jamaica Mission Trip

Activity: Look up information about Jamaica.  Begin to specifically pray for those going on the mission trip.

Next Week: Genesis 21:1–14

Children's sermon notes

Children's sermon notes form for this week:
http://www.emmanuelbaptist.com/children/sermon.notes.01.06.13.pdf

Check here Sunday afternoon and throughout next week for family worship helps.

On January 6th and 13th, Pastor Duke will be preaching sermons 

what is the purpose/mission of Emmanuel Baptist Church and 

what is spiritual growth.  

THERE WILL BE NO CHILDREN’S MINISTRY FOR 1st THROUGH 5th GRADERS DURING THE SECOND SERVICE.  Parents with kindergarteners will have the option of picking up their children OR having them stay in their first service classroom.

I want to give you a couple of things to help prepare yourself and your child for the next two weeks:

· WEBSITE:  Check out the “Kids in Church” helps and resources at ekidzministry.blogspot.com.

· SERMON NOTE SHEET:  The link above is to the sermon note sheet for this week.  THIS note sheet is based on today’s sermon.  If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this sheet please email children@emmanuelbaptist.com.  

· PRAY:  Throughout this week pray for Pastor Duke and the Sunday message, which is good to do all the time.

· FAMILY WORSHIP:  1st service classes will continue with our Old Testament study so you can still use the family ministry guide.  You can also use the sermon to have discussions about what the church is.

On January 20th we will go back to our regular schedule.

And don’t forget to check out ekidzministry.blogspot.com

Pressing on,

David Rodgers

Are children getting anything out of a worship service?

Taken from an article by Jason Parker.

While I don't totally agree with everything the article contains, his response to the question  "Do you really think that they are getting anything out of it?" contains some good insights...

Yes, we do. This question is motivated by two erroneous tendencies. The first tendency is to forget that corporate worship is first and foremost about what God gets out of it, not what we get. God has clearly said in his Word that he is pleased by the praise of children (Ps 8:2 and Matt 21:15-16; Matt 19:13-14). In fact, he has ordained it as an evidence of his glory to his enemies. Having said this, we do not intend to imply that worshiping God and personal edification are mutually exclusive categories. They are, in fact, profoundly complementary. But the point here is that when we decide whether or not to keep our children with us as we engage with God corporately, we should take seriously the fact that God delights in the presence of “infants and nursing babes.”

The second erroneous tendency is to think of “getting something” out of the church service in purely rationalistic categories. In other words, usually behind this question is the question of whether children can intellectually understand a 45 minute Scriptural exposition. If we realize that this is actually an issue for every person present, of whatever age, depending upon their background, previous exposure, personal interest, etc, then we will be less likely to improperly label this as a “problem” with having children in a church service. 

Actually, we believe that every child who is brought to worship God with his family is getting something out of the church service, even at an age when he is apparently unable to follow what is going on. This is so because of the incredible ability that God has put in human beings to learn.[2] For example, would it make any sense to say that adults should never speak English to their newborn babies or converse in English around their babies because babies don’t understand it? After all, language is incredibly complex, and even experts can’t explain it all. Yet we would contend that that is absurd, because we all know that the way babies come to learn English is by interacting with those who speak English. Similarly, the way that children learn about engaging with God is by being with those who are truly engaging with God. 

Furthermore, we would contend that children do get more cognitive content than they are often given credit for, especially if the parents are working with them at home. For example, memorizing a simple catechism gives young children a conceptual framework to which they can attach what they hear when they listen to a sermon. They might only get one point from the sermon, but that one point is a point well taken. 

In addition to the cognitive content that children receive in the service, they also receive affective content. They will begin to learn the proper posture of the heart in relationship to God - things like reverence and true joy rather than triviality and flippancy. When children are surrounded by adults who are pouring out their hearts to God in song and prayer and who are attentively listening to God’s revealed Word, they will be deeply impacted.

"The Family: Together in God's Presence"

John & Noel Piper wrote this article entitled "The Family: Together in God's Presence.
Here is the purpose in writing the article:

In this article, we hope to do two things: 1) demonstrate that parents (or some responsible adult) should bring little children to the Sunday morning worship service rather than send them to a "children's church"; 2) give some practical advice about how to do it.

The article can be read at  http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/articles/the-family-together-in-gods-presence

HERE ARE THE SUGGESTIONS FOR THE SERVICE TIME:

What Happens During Service?

First, I let a child who wants a worship folder have one—it helps a child feel like a participant in the service. And quietly, before service begins, I may point to the different parts of the service listed in the folder.

During service, we all sit or stand along with rest of the congregation. I share my Bible or hymnal or worship folder with my little one, because use of these is an important part of the service.

The beginning of the sermon is the signal for "notetaking" to begin. (I want a child's activities to be related to the service. So we don't bring library books to read. I do let a very young child look at pictures in his Bible, if he can do it quietly.) Notetaking doesn't mean just scribbling, but "taking notes" on a special pad used just for service.

"Taking notes" grows up as the child does. At first he draws pictures of what he hears in the sermon. Individual words or names trigger individual pictures. You might pick out a word that will be used frequently in the sermon; have the child listen carefully and make a check mark in his "notes" each time he hears the word.

Later he may want to copy letters or words from the Scripture passage for the morning. When spelling comes easier, he will write words and then phrases he hears in the sermon. Before you might expect it, he will probably be outlining the sermon and noting whole concepts.