What's the church to do? with the 1st - 3rd graders

Today the 1st - 3rd graders reviewed the first couple of chapters of Matthew during the 9:00 am class.

For our 10:30 class time we participated in the singing and first 15 minutes of the sermon in the children's chapels.

Here are pictures of some of the kids and Everett Ferradino in the children's chapel singing with the worship team.

After listening to the first 15 minutes of sermon, 

we asked the kids some questions like

• What are some words you didn't understand?
• What should the church do?  We talked about evangelize the lost & teach the counsel of God.
• What does the word evangelize mean?
• What does the phrase counsel of God mean?
• What did Paul value and what should we value?

Then we broke into two groups

Everett Ferradino's group learned this week's memory verse, 1 Corinthians 16:13 with Matt Parmelee.

Emily Blackford's group talked with Pastor Dave about the sermon and what to do when sitting in the service with their family during the sermon.

Some of the things we talked about were

• when it was o.k. to use your voice in the auditorium (before/after the service to greet people, to sing praises to the Lord, to very quietly and quickly ask your parents questions about the passage or verse)
• how to help yourself listen.  We talked about taking notes using the sermon note link on the right side of this page.
• what to do before the service starts.  I asked the kids what they needed to do before the service.  None of them gave an answer but after I said "go to the bathroom" several kids said they thought that but didn't think that was the answer.   I think they wanted to give the Sunday school answers of Jesus or the Bible.

Last week during the 10:30 hour we talked about the mission of our church.

Glorify God by Making Disciples who 

Love God (the kid explanation of Submitted to His Lordship)

Live out the Word of God  (the kid explanation of Grounded in His Word)

Love Other (the kid explanation of Sincere in His Love)

We have a Kid's in Church day scheduled for November 16th.

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD

Here is a great opportunity to help kids around the world know the love of Jesus this Christmas.

SHOE BOX DROP OFF:  All shoe boxes need to be dropped off to the church by the morning of November 11th.

INSTRUCTIONS:  Instructions & Labels can be picked up at the welcome desk.

QUESTIONS:  Talk to Mandy Cummerow

HOW TO PACK A BOX:   

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/pack-a-shoe-box/

Halloween: What should you do?

It is October!  

The leaves are changing and falling.

It is getting colder.   

Football season is in full swing.

And it is Halloween. 

Among Christians there are different thoughts and convictions regarding this holiday. 

Even among staff at EBC there are differing opinions.

What you do at Halloween is an issue of conscience.  “Each person, and in particular, I believe, each father, must examine the Bible and his conscience to see where that leads him.”  (quote from Tim Challies article)

Here are three things every Christian needs to remember at Halloween and throughout the year:

1.  Establish guidelines for your family and be prepared to teach the reasons to your family.  "Because I said so" is not a reason.  I specifically used the word "guideline" because these may change and you can explain why your thoughts have changed.

2.  Celebrate the victory we have over sin and death in Jesus Christ not the fear of death, zombies and witches.

3.  Build relationships with your neighbors.  This will look different for each family.

Here are three balanced resources on the topic of Halloween. 

If you have any questions or other helpful resources please email children@emmanuelbaptist.com

Grace To You post:  http://www.gty.org/resources/articles/A123/Christians-and-Halloween

Challies.com post:  http://www.challies.com/articles/halloween-trick-or-retreat

John Piper video:  http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-are-your-thoughts-on-halloween 

Remember, at EBC and in our EKIDZ ministry, we want to help parents understand how to be the main disciple maker in their children’s lives

Pressing on,

David Rodgers

Acts 20:24

Amy Carmichael video & last night's IMPACT service

We are going to be using our once a month Sunday night service to promote missions with the Kindergarten through 5th graders.

Here is the trailer for the Amy Carmichael Story video we watched last night.



HERE are some resources to talk with your kids about the Amy Carmichael story.
Below is one of the coloring pages on this page.

After the video, we talked about Romans 8:37,
In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
and here is the "conclusion" of this verse (Romans 8:38, 39)..

Books of the Bible Songs

We have been learning the books of the Bible these past 6 weeks.

 

How Are We Assisting Families?

I want to let you know about a couple of things we have been doing with the EKIDZ ministry that have been set up to help parents disciple their children.  I have posted about most of these over the last couple of months but thought it would be a good idea to put them in one post to help clarify.

BABIES:
With our Teaching Babies ministry we want to shift the Bible teaching emphasis to 9:00 am.  We have been calling Sunday morning from  9:00 to 10:00 am our Bible Teaching Hour and we want that same emphasis to happen in the nursery.  You can read more about this HERE.

2 YRS - KINDERGARTEN:
Recently we have changed the Bible memory verse schedule for these kids.  They have the same verse for the month.  This provides teachers with the opportunity to teach the verse and some applications of it.

1ST - 3RD GRADERS:
We have been dividing these students into 4 groups and doing the stories, Bible memory and Books of the Bible activities in small group settings.  The adults have enjoyed talking with the kids in the smaller groups.  During the 10:30 am service time, we have really been working on helping the kids know the memory verses and the books of the Bible.  You can read more about how we are using the take home papers to help parents and kids.  Click HERE
At least once a quarter we have the kids attend the service with their parents.  When these weeks are coming up, there are Kids In Church resources posted on this blog.  Click HERE.

Why do we take the 1st through 3rd kids into the beginning of the service?  Click HERE

4TH - 5TH GRADERS:
Over the last year we have had the 4th and 5th graders attending the service with their families.  Once again we have Kids in Church resources that we post.  Click HERE.  There are blank sermon notes specific designed for kids on a larger paper.
When we have had specific sermons that dealt with sensitive topics, like this Sunday, we have offered a class for the 4th and 5th graders.  HERE is what we did last time they were out of the service
As it relates to sermons about sex and talking to our kids about it.  We have been providing resources for parents.  Click HERE for some of these resources.

If you have questions, please email children @ emmanuelbaptist.com.
Thanks!

Family Guide for October 5th.